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Since the embargo has been lifted from Cuba, it is now easier for Americans to get there from the states. Here are some quick tips that I learned from my recent journey.
1-Visa. You will need a visa for entering and leaving the country. We took Jetblue and were able to buy the visas at the check in desk. I’m not sure how it works on all carriers that travel there so just make sure you're prepared. It’s $50US. 2-Offline Map. Download a map of Cuba so you have it offline. There is no wifi readily available unless you go to a hotel or wifi park. I recommend Cuba Travel Guide by Triposo. Very handy. 3-Money. Take out all the money you will need for the trip prior to leaving the country. You may have heard that no credit cards work over there. My friends Mia and Kim went to their banks and requested Euros. Canadian dollars and Euros are supposed to have a better exchange rate. I on the other hand am a slacker at life and didn’t make it to the bank. 4-Allow time to receive Euros. Don’t be a slacker at life like me and not go to the bank. Make sure you allow time to get the money. Mia said it took her bank 3 days to get the Euros. They opted for Euros instead of the Canadian dollar because if we had left over money we will be in Europe next month. 5-Toilet paper!!! Bring a roll. Heck bring several, because it is a rare site to see. Sometimes you may have to pay a peso for a few thin sheets. Don’t do it to yourself. 6-Hand sanitizer. Half the time there is not soap. If there is soap there is no paper towels. If there is soap you can always use your handy toilet paper to dry your hands. 7-Sunscreen. If you can check a bag I would highly recommend doing so just for sunscreen. We hardly saw any stores, let alone any selling sunscreen. That sun is no joke.
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Ah...Cuba. The mythical land that we were forbidden to go to for over 50 years. A time capsule from the fifties with cool old cars everywhere. The veil has been lifted and now we can enter. If something was forbidden and is now readily available….we must go see this forbidden fruit! I had built Cuba up so much in my head, but upon arrival, the glamour had faded. Day 1 Make sure you wear some flats or tennis shoes. You will be waiting for days to get through customs. The questions are easy enough so I’m not sure why it takes 20 years to get through. Once granted access your bags have to go through screening. Now this is not your normal TSA. These girls are wearing mini skirts with patterned/fish net stocking and high heels. Where are they going?! To the club or something? Nope just to work. I haven’t traveled the whole world, but this is definitely a first for me. As one of the first sites to see, it left us all a bit confused on what’s to come. The girls checked bags full of goodies for the locals. The locals that were inspecting the bags didn't quite understand. They had only brought things like diapers, toothbrushes, and deodorant. But, when you bring it in bulk you get questioned. After a few moments time the bags were released to us. I guess they saw reason, and that we couldn’t do too much harm with diapers. Next up exchanging of funds. Now we had heard for several people that $100 a day is what you should budget. I don't know about you, but that sounds ridiculous! Now what really sucks is there are not a lot of places to exchange US dollars once leaving the airport. I took $500 from the atm before leaving. I couldn’t bring myself to exchange all that money for a place that is supposed to be stuck in the 50s. So how much do exchange? Well you’ll have plenty of time to ponder because here comes another long line. Everyone and their mom has to exchange money so be prepared to wait over an hour! This is also why you need those comfortable shoes. I decided to exchange $300. That would have to do. I would just eat rice everyday if I had to. The US dollar received the least pay out. I received about $260 for my $300, where the girls received $308 for their Euros at the same amount. Finally after arriving at 1:45pm we see the sun and fresh air at 3:30pm. We decided to get an airbnb In Havana right near the Malecón. If you look at that page we stayed two houses over from that picture. In fact after putting our stuff away we headed right over to that bar that is feature in that picture as well. La Abadia is the name of the bar. That is where we had our first Havana Club Mojito and pina colada. Pina coladas are having a moment in my life right now. I can’t get enough of them. Yummy! Their famous mojito isn’t too shabby either. The menu was in spanish and english so perhaps these were tourist prices. I got the lobster, shrimp, and fish meal for $12 pesos. That’s pretty good for seafood in my opinion.
After dinner the sun was starting to set. You know what that means...photoshoot time! 
Alright Day 2 Our airbnb host offered to make breakfast for us for $5 pesos a person. We thought sure why not so we don’t have to go out. Well of course we are all knocked out when she decided to let herself in at 8 in the morning. Now remember those goodies that the girls brought for the people? They had asked the host (which is a girl around 21 or 22) if there was anywhere they could take these items. She swore there was no where nearby that would take them. When we got back from last night we noticed not a little, but a lot of the items were missing. Including water that we had brought. Thus, far it was only those items. Nothing appeared to be missing from our bags. So when I heard her proceed to let herself in at 8 in the morning I was on high alert. Have yall ever experienced your host just letting themselves in? Or a better question is have you had someone steal anything while you were away? As much as we wanted to confront her we still had another day to stay there. Since we are in a country with no cell service, no wifi, and basically not knowing who her friends are, we decided to remain quite. If our clothes or items started to disappear then that would have been another story. I was the only person that heard her enter. I could hear her walking around. I remembered that I had left my backpack full of all my precious belongings right outside my room and her footsteps were growing closer so I listened for any zippers opening. Gotta catch her in the act! In the end, nothing happened so I stayed in bed. After about an hour it was time to get up and investigate. I was glad to see Mia’s mom sitting at the table with her. (Oh, Mia invited her parents on this trip :).) Glad she was keeping an eye out! The girl was waiting for us to get up in order to start cooking. Well we didn’t know that was the plan. We didn’t want her to have to wait around for us, so I made everyone get up. Need to start the day anyway. Was breakfast worth the $5 pesos? Well I’m from Texas so I am gonna say no. She cooked a one-egg omelet per person. It had about 5 small pieces of ham and a sprinkle of cheese. There was a few pieces of toast, fresh juice, and coffee. If you are ever wanting to start a diet go abroad. It forces you to eat 80% less than you normally do. We decided to do the hop on hop off tour bus. We just saw one and flagged it down from across the street. There was barely any hopping off. There are not a lot of huge landmarks, museums, or attractions. You basically get to see a lot of run down houses and buildings. Don’t get me wrong there are still some cool sites to see. We did hop off at the Plaza de la Revolucion. This big open square is where Fidel Castro and others addressed the people. There are great facades of Cuban revolutionaries, and the old cars are all lined up. They let you take pics standing next to them for free. If you want to get in and take pics it will cost you about $2 pesos. Just depends on their hustle.
  We ended getting off to hunt for the bar that Hemingway said had THE best daiquiri. I will say the Cuba app I download had been very helpful until now. It had the bar’s name as the Hemingway bar. We could not find it. It seemed like the locals didn’t want to be bothered or honestly didn’t know. How can that be if it is so famous? Mmm...humm...We went in circles for awhile until we found a hotel that lead us in the right direction. The restaurant is actually called El Floridita. Everyone's tastes are different. I wasn’t impressed at all by the drink. But, the restaurant is beautiful and you can’t beat the novelty. Lastly, you have got to check out La Bodeguita del Medio. It is said to be the birthplace of the mojito. It has live music and the food is to die for. No kidding. In my 5 days in Cuba this was by far the best meal. I recommend the shredded beef (ropa vieja). You will not be disappointed. Yum! Our Journey Continues in Varadero O the journey...the host from our airbnb arranged for a trusted taxi to take us to Varadero. Now it is a total of 7 of us on this trip, and that includes two bags each. We were not expecting a classic car when we walked out. It looked like we were about to be in a clown car. We were so jammed packed. We were on our way for about 45 minutes when we got pulled over by the police. Now here is a little gem we didn’t know about. You have to have some sort of documentation stating that you can transport tourist. He did not have that documentation so he received a ticket. There are cops every few miles just hanging out on the side of the highway waiting for an opportunity to pull you over. A good 30 mins after taking off again Mia says do you want the bad news now or later. !?!?!? Apparently, if he got pulled over one more time his license for being a taxi would be revoked. So he would drop us off in the next town and help us find another ride. WHAT!?!?!? You have got to be kidding me. Nope! So serious. We get to the next town and he unloads our bags, and proceeds to find someone else to take us the rest of the way. It was not a long wait. This other guy jumped at the opportunity. Now were are back on the road jammed packed into yet another car. We threw our stuff in the house and proceeded to find food. It was a long car. We didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast. The driver told us about this local spot called Super Machi that was super, cheap, and extremely flavorful. Now these were Texas portions. They gave a whole heap of rice, a cabbage salad, this mystery creamy green stuff, and meat of your choice. All of that for about $2 pesos! It’s located on 15th street. Don’t miss it! Especially if you are trying to stay on budget. The restaurant is literally a walking path away from the beach. We had to go check it out. Oh my dear Lord it is unbelievably gorgeous. So much so that the girls decided to jump in fully clothed. That water was freezing. I passed.   After frolicking around the beach for awhile we decided to go back change and get ready for the night. It’s really kind of sleepy around Varadero. We had looked into staying at a hotel, but everything was sold out. But, where are all the people? There also seemed to be a NO NOISE policy. Even at night you barely heard music from the bars.
Next Up The Club We were told by locals to check out Calle 62 and Casa de la Musica for live music and dancing. On our way there we saw where all the tourist from the hotels were hanging out. There is an outdoor bar called The Beatles that has a cover band playing American 80s/90s rock hits. We wanted a more authentic experience so continued on toward Calle 62. There was another huge crowd here as well. There was a guy doing a firestick show, followed by a live band and dancers. We wanted to dance so we proceed to Casa de la Musica. They also had live music from two guys singing reggaeton style music. It was like a mini concert. Afterward, the DJ kept the music going till 3 am. It was a fun night. Day 2 BEACH DAY!!! We ate again at Super Machi because why not? The food is super cheap and amazing. Who doesn’t love a good beach day!? Plus it is a good break. A vacation from our vacation. This beach! It was only about two dozen people out. This made it extra relaxing. There was no music, no kids running around, and hardly any talking. The water is pretty cold, but who cares when it looks this good. There are no rocks on the bottom either. For these reasons it is one of the top beaches in the caribbean I have been to, and I have been to a lot of beaches.
In my book the only reason to leave a beach is to drink or eat so sadly we had to go. First stop, pina coladas!! Across the street a few blocks up is a bar called Snack Bar FM 17. If you remember I love pina coladas and I decided to recruit my friends on this hunt for the perfect blend. We asked the bartender how their pina coladas’ measured up. He said “It is so good---if you do not like, you will not have to pay.” Sold! He wasn’t lying. This bar certainly won the contest. Soooooo good we had to have another one. Time to go home and get ready for the night. Have you played phase 10 before? It’s a really good way to pass time without wifi or tv. We weren’t able to finish because that game can go on and on. We need food! We ended up getting another café bom bom---seriously you have got to try one of these! We also loved the steak at El Toro so we went back for an encore. Definitely try the filet mignon. It has so much flavor. We got a flyer the day before for a local club called La Comparsita that offered $10 pesos entry. The entry included all you can drink all night. There was yet another live band playing some good latin jams. We again danced the night away. OUR LAST DAY IN CUBA We regret not booking our flight out of Varadero. Which means we had to wake up bright and early to drive back to Havana. Our driver opted to give us the scenic trip back, which included this stop. 
 Great views. You can also get a pina colada in a pineapple here :) For an extra 20 pesos our driver took us to Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro where we got in an amazing photo shoot. We later found out it was not far from our final destination. Oh well :( 
We spent our final evening at Hostel Habana H.M. where we were pampered by a pleasant couple who ran it. We were treated like family and offered a delightful breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, fresh guava juice, and coffee for $2.50 pesos. If that weren't enough there is a restaurant right across the street with reasonably priced food.
Well that’s Cuba folks! If you have any questions feel free to ask :) |
AuthorTraveling makes my heart happy. My mission is to use words and pictures to inspire you to get out there and take in the beauty of our world. Archives
December 2019
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