In 2005, my mom and I made plans to go to Cuba with her best friend Judy. Due to her health at the time we opted to stay nearby and instead went wine tasting in the Valle de Guadalupe right outside of Ensenada. Since then Cuba has been on the top of my traveling bucket.
When Timmy and I started talking about our travels we had no specific destination in mind. One night we opened up a world map and went through region by region going over all the countries each of us have yet to visit but want to. We discovered that many of the countries I have on my “to-visit” list Timmy has already done, and vice versa, but we were able to come up with a small list of places neither of us has yet to visit... these will make up the next few months of our travels.
When I mentioned wanting to go to Cuba, Timmy said it was at the top on his list too so it made sense to make it our first destination. Plus we both wanted to make sure to visit before the U.S. lifts all travel restrictions and it becomes too touristy. Right now, travel is restricted to family visits, journalism, humanitarian and packaged cultural tours, but it’s only a matter of time before U.S. relations normalize and a wave of tourism hits this time capsule of an island.
The timing worked out well, as Timmy had already been planning to come to the States for a month in November to celebrate Thanksgiving (and to attend a UCLA football game of course!). So, after spending time in San Diego for the holidays, we headed down to Tijuana (shout out to Amber for driving us to the border!) and flew to Cuba from there. Timmy was so surprised how easy it was to enter into Mexico with the pedestrian border. We didn't pass through any border control exiting the US or entering Mexico. I knew this would be the case, but he didn't believe me. From TJ we flew to Mexico City where we picked up a tourist card (in place of a visa) and then flew to Havana. Easy as 1-2-3.
Cuba is an absolutely incredible and beautiful county that both met and challenged all my expectations and preconceptions. Growing up we've been taught to think that communism is evil and cannot work, but I think Cuba shows there is some good in this form of government. I realize we had a very narrow tourist experience, and sure we saw many examples of how this system is definitely lacking; but there were certain things, such as the lack of beggars, trash and sense of desperation in the streets, that really stood out to me and show that communism also has its advantages. Certain systems like health care, education and service delivery are abundant and accessible to everyone, and from what we could tell people genuinely seemed to be quite content and happy. If you walk through the streets you see people outside laughing, playing games and enjoying each other's company. The lack of commercialism, big brands and social media allows for family and true social interaction to take centre stage. It was really refreshing to see. I hope this does not get lost when the country opens up to Capitalism.
As I mentioned, one thing that truly stood out to me was the lack of beggars and the feeling of safety we felt throughout the country. This is a rarity when traveling anywhere, even sometimes in our hometowns. I think there are two contributors to this. First, I’ve heard that begging is illegal and highly punishable. The presence of police in the streets is very blatant. Second, people don’t really have to beg. Even though Cubans have very low income when compared to our standards, almost everything they need is subsidized. That being said there is a definite black market and culture of street hustling to make some extra money. These people are called Jineteros/Jineteras. They aren’t dangerous, but rather more of an annoyance. Most often a seemingly friendly local would stop to ask if we needed assistance finding a restaurant or help with directions. There were so many people on the streets of Havana who wanted to take us to their “friend’s” restaurant that was “just as good, but much cheaper” than the place we were intending to go. In the other cities, the main annoyance was everyone trying to offer us a ride in their “taxi”. We clearly stood out as tourists because when we walked along the streets there was a constant barrage of “taxi, taxi, miss you want to go to Havana, Varadero, Trinidad, etc….”. But again, if that is all you have to worry about I think that’s pretty incredible. Timmy walked around with his camera gear late into the night, even in Havana, and never felt threatened or as if someone was going to rob us.
Things to know before you go:
Cuba has a dual-currency system. The official currency, the moneda nacional / Cuban Peso (CUP), is illegal to use if you are not a local. The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC; $1 USD = 1 CUC) is the currency used by the tourists. Currently U.S. credit and debit cards don't work there, so when going one needs to take cash in advance. We brought Euros as there is an extra 10% surcharge (on top of the standard exchange fee) when changing USD into CUC. But given the fact that I had to pay two conversion fees to change money anyway, I'm not sure which would have been a better deal. I'd do the math before you leave and see how each currency (USD/Euro/Canadian Dollar/Pound) is doing. You can change money in big hotels and at currency houses called CADECAs.
When looking for places to stay we avoided hotels which are either government run or commercially owned and quite expensive. Instead we stayed in casas particulares, basically Cuba's Airbnb (minus the internet). The abundance of these make it easy to find a cheap, quality place to stay in every city. An official casa particular should display a small plaque or sticker declaring it to be a government sanctioned casa. The symbol is a blue sideways "H" with slightly bent horizontal lines, and the top horizontal line longer than the bottom one. It should say Arrendador Divisa. This means the owner of the house is allowed to rent rooms for divisa (hard currency). Quality ranges widely, but the cost is pretty much fixed throughout the country ($25-30 CUC), so make sure to do your research or at the very least check out the space before committing to pay. Most casas serve breakfast for $5CUC as well as dinner for an additional fee. Not only will the dinner be much cheaper than you will find out in a restaurant, but the few times we did eat in home we found it to be some of the best Cuban food! I mean basically you have a personal chef cooking for you.
Speaking of food, everyone who knows me knows that one of the (if not THE) most important things for me is food. Everyone warned that the cuisine left something to be desired. While I will admit there is not too much variety, especially in the Cuban food (chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, rice, beans, etc.) we were able to find some incredible restaurants. This is in large part due to a culinary revolution happening over the last few months. Once upon a time all food was served out of government run restaurants, now a common place to grab dinner is at the privately owned paladares, or home restaurants. Here they serve incredible food inside a liberal interpretation of their "living rooms" and provide some of the best food in the country, far outshining the government run restaurants. A common occurrence at almost every place we dined was that I would order an item and they would respond "we are out of that today" or "none left". So it's best to have a few items in mind when placing your order as often you need to order at least 3 items before you get one.
Drinking in Cuba is part of the culture. Rum is the national drink of Cuba. And the most popular rum is Havana Club. We had our fair share of daiquiris and mojitos throughout the country. Some of the placed we visited served delicious drinks! But sadly most were subpar, mainly due to the poor condition of the Yerba Buena (mint). We also drank some decent Cuban beers and wines mainly from Chile. Our favorites though were our night caps of “expensive” rum. They would have high quality rum for so cheap compared to what you would pay in both the States and South Africa.
Out favorite was Havana Club Selecion de Maestros which could be purchased anywhere for $40CUC. I say anywhere because we found this in a nice hotel, in the airport, and in a local tourist shop and it was the same price. Point for communism! One night Timmy and I decided to sit in rocking chairs on the the patio of our casa particular with a bottle of this fine rum and a Cuban cigar. One night cap turned into another, which led to another, etc. The next day I felt HORRIBLE!!!! It wasn’t until later that night when Timmy pulled out the bottle did we realize just how much we had drunk…. Oops! Oh well it was a fabulous night and luckily I was still able to drink the rum again later in the trip.
Wrapping up this first post, I have to say that it was a really interesting time to see a county in a state of transition. After talking to Judy about her trip in 2005 and other friends who have gone over the past few years it seems that in just the past year alone the country has gone through major changes. I really hope it is able to maintain its beauty and not become too filled with McDonald's / Starbucks as most of the world has. It will be interesting to go back in 5 or 10 years to see what’s become of the crumbling old buildings, 1950s cars and all the beauty this country holds.
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