SwiftRambles

Cuba At-A-Glance and Quick Facts for the Traveler

Cuba At-A-Glance

Days spent: 6

Transportation taken: Planes = 2, Buses = 4, Taxis = 6, Boats = 0

Number of places we stayed: 3

Final daily budget: $96

Wildlife spotted: Nada

Alcohol tried:

- Cristal beer

- Bucanero Fuerza beer

- Mojito mixed drink (Tom's favorite)

- Buena Vista mixed drink (Amber's favorite)

- Taverna La Muralla homemade brew - Obscura, Negra, Clara

Tours taken: only self-guided walking tours that were in the Lonely Planet book

Verve, views, and vomit - Vinales, Cuba

Not only is Vinales known for tobacco, but it's also known for granite cliffs called "mogotes", and the region is referred as Cuba's version of Yosemite. Here we saw some Cuban life as people "resolver"-ed. With limited resources, Cubans ofter use the verbs "conseguir" for "to get or to manage" and "resolver" for "making do". We saw examples of both words in our travels. For instance, our Havana home-stay host secured our next home-stay for us in Vinales so that when we got off the bus, our host was waiting for us to take us to our room. Thankfully we had a reservation because there was a crowd of about 25 women waiting for the bus passengers and recommending their homes for accommodation. The casa particulars (home stays) are very lucrative for Cubans so in retrospect it makes sense that hosts fight for tourists. Our hosts also figured out that they can make additional cash by providing us an in-home meal. Additionally we saw people fixing up old cars to get them to run, taxis asking for fares off of the government-run meters, and entrepreneurs renting bicycles to tourists (without the government knowing about it) for a few tourist pesos.

Unfortunately, bad food (not fresh, bland, and in short supply) was common theme in Cuba and Vinales was no exception. We usually have good luck with Lonely Planet recommendations, but this time around we definitely struck out. First was a well-known fried chicken restaurant where I sunk my teeth into a still raw piece of chicken. I sent it back and it still came back clucking. Then that night we ate at our host's home and the main course was of course...chicken. After my little run-in with chicken earlier that day, I wasn't feeling the same affection for the poultry dish. I ate it anyway and it was actually quite good. The host went all out to provide us a full meal. There were multiple plates of fresh fruit and vegetables and the requisite rice and beans. This meal was one of the better meals, primarily for the large selection of food to eat. The odd part was that the family did not eat with us. They did get a lot of leftovers however because Amber was feeling a little ill from a stomach bug and I was left to eat a dinner fit for 5 people all by myself. The next day we ate pizza in town that was quite bad and we longed for Havana street food. I did search for a recommended restaurant outside of town, and the supposed large menu had been reduced dramatically to pork and mashed potatoes so we passed on it.

Amber's little stomach bug turned into a night of hell (primarily for Amber) because she had to run to the bathroom every half hour to worship the porcelain god. It wasn't much of a god however because like every other toilet in Cuba it was lacking a toilet seat!  This is one time that we were very thankful to have our own bathroom in our room...

Our plans to hike the area changed as Amber needed a day of rest to recover from what we've dubbed The Worst Night Ever. So I was left to my own devices on exploring Vinales. I rented a decrepit bike that seemed to always want to go left and set off towards the hills. I figured I would ride until I got tired (which didn't take too long), but was so interested in what I would see around the next corner that I kept going and going. I rode by spectacular rock cliffs, some with deep caves carved in the side, and Cubans working the fields.

Views of the rock formations and the countryside:

Mommy, where do cigars come from? - Vinales, Cuba

As an occasional cigar smoker, I of course had to try one of the quintessential Cuban products: the cigar.  I was wary of random people trying to sell me ones-ies on the street as most of these are throw-aways from the factory or re-labeled fakes so I first bought cigars at proper cigar stores.  It was definitely more expensive, but I felt like I at least was getting a legit product. 

We wanted to see tobacco country up close and with limited time in Cuba, we headed to Vinales, in the heart of the tobacco-growing region.  Here we got to check out a working tobacco farm which was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Cuba.  It reminded me of heading to a winery in wine country where you can see the original product and enjoy the end result.

We arrived seeing workers in the fields harvesting the crop:

Propaganda - Cuba

After about 2 minutes after arriving at the airport in Cuba, one of the most startling things we noticed was the political propaganda. Since the country is socialist and most industry is government-owned, there doesn't seem to be a need for advertisements, so the billboards that do exist are dedicated to government messages. 

Below are some examples of the pieces of propaganda that we saw.  From the homespun to the government sanctioned, it puts what we have in the US to shame right? Many of the themes were about the following:

- Pictures of Jose Marti, Castro, Che Guevara, or other important political figures

- Revolution (what Castro calls taking over the government in the 1960s... so it's been about 50 years of "revolution")

- "Volveran" which means "to return"; pictures of 5 political prisoners that I think are held in the US

- Simply put: "Patriotism or death"

Note: many of these pictures are poor-quality as they are taken out the bus window, and I must apologize in advance for my mistranslations in Spanish. 

Socialism:

He who harbors terrorists is a terrorist:

Cruisin' - Havana, Cuba

As I mentioned, there is an overall lack of transportation in Cuba and cars are no exception.  Therefore, many of the cars that we did see roaming the streets of Cuba hailed from the 1950s and 1960s, right around the time of Castro's Revolution. As many as classic cars as we saw it seems like we would see an equal number of men bent over an engine trying to fix them with limited parts and resources.

Hi, Jeff:

The green machines:

The Streets of Habana - Havana, Cuba

The title of this post doesn't contain a typo.  Most of the English-speaking world inexplicably calls Cuba's capital city "Havana" but in Cuba they spell it "Habana". Regardless of calling it Habana or Havana, we had a great time exploring the city. 

Whether it is because apartments are fairly small and crowded with multiple generations, the overall lack of cars, or because there aren't many courtyards, life in Havana takes place on the streets.  As we strolled through the city, we would see children playing "baseball" with a PVC pipe for the bat and a water bottle cap for the ball, elderly folks sitting on chairs in first-floor apartments simultaneously watching fuzzy TVs and the street life, people chatting with each other in the middle of the road, and things being thrown down from balconies above.  We noticed beautiful yet crumbling architecture, ration shops selling mysterious unmarked goods, old-timey signs from a previous era, and tons of graffiti that was more reminiscent of art. We would look up to see Havanans standing on their balconies watching the same scenes that we were seeing on street level, laundry drying on the line, and crazy power lines going every which-way. 

It's hard to explain an intangible, but just walking through Havana imparted on us such a vibrant sense of culture that can only be experienced in one of the world's great cities.

To formally explore the city, we did a walking tour of Old Havana and Central Havana, where our home-stay was located. 

7 Reasons Why I Am Glad We Went To Cuba

Quick Update: Sorry we have been MIA lately! We have landed in Patagonia and like true pioneers have provisioned for our adventures in Punta Arenas, Chile, traveled to Usuahia, Argentina (the world's most southernmost city) and are slowly making our way up north doing treks along the way. We are enjoying ourselves but days of trekking make posting on the internet next to impossible. We're trying to catch up and more to come on Cuba and Patagonia! Stay tuned...

One of Tom's travel goals for this trip was to visit Cuba "before it changed". Although tensions have been high between the US and Cuba over the years, it's possible that now with Obama, some of the US policy will shift and the trade embargo could be lifted, which could certainly impact the present state of the island nation 90 miles from the state of Florida.

Despite Tom's enthusiasm, I was reluctant to go as I just didn't see the draw. I felt like it would be out of the way from our other travels and a difficult experience and therefore not really worth going to. However, I am so happy that I listened to my man and we visited Cuba. Wondering why? Some of the top reasons are listed below....