Cuba, 29.08. - 15.09.2012

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HAVANNA

Arriving in Cuba, we jumped straight into a taxi to havana centro, where we stayed with Elsa and Julio Roque (hostelperegrino.com) in a casa particular. Since a few years they have this really cool thing in Cuba where you can stay in people’s homes and pay about 10 dollars a person a night. In most of the casas particulares you get a room with an on-suite and they are very clean and super friendly. You can get a massive breakfast for 3 dollars and dinner for 6 or 8. So we decided to stay in Havana for a few nights and check it out.

Wow, what a vibrant, beautiful, busy city. Its seems like the whole population of havana is in the streets, kids playing football, oldies chilling on a little chair, women chatting away, there is always something going on. And then of course the buildings.. from very old to brand new, in all colors and forms.. some of them look like they have been falling apart for centuries, but yet they are still a part of Havana.. And ofcourse the old school cars! They come in every color and shape and you can literally take a snapshot of an awesome old school car every 5 seconds just standing next to the road!

So we chucked our bags in the casa and went for a little stroll, found a great Italian restaurant, where you can actually still smoke.. we didn’t care cause everything on the menu was 2 or 3 dollars, so we happily ate in the smokey but nice little place.

Walking around Havana is breath taking, it’s hot and crazy and busy and beautiful at the same time. There is still a bit of hustling going on, mainly for cigars or restaurants, but it was nowhere near as bad as Jamaica. To us it felt like a little holiday after all the Yeah Man’s in Jamaica. We had a pretty chilled out night on our first day, we were knackered from our trip (yes ,we are getting old.. lol)



Aaalright, first proper day in Cuba! So we walked onto the Malecon (the seaside walk), where there are loads of forts on the coast, they used to protect Cuba of invaders, and the big canons are still there. We followed the Malecon into Old Havana, where there were even more historical old buildings and loads of beautiful churches, taverns and restaurants. It’s all very romantic and flowery and you feel like you’ve travelled backwards 40 years. It was great just walking around, taking loads of photos and just taking in the beauty of Havana. We found a market as well, where we bought some souvenirs, and a box of Cuban cigars for Matts brothers Stag Due. We literally spent the whole day walking around and were knackered when we got back to the casa. So we had a little snooze and then went to a restaurant called “El Nardo”, which was supposed to be famous for its big portions and small price. We had to stand in line for over an hour, but it was all worth it in the end. The restaurant was amazing, all with candle light, big chandeliers, dark rustic wood and a guy playing the piano. The food was extraordinary, I couldn’t even eat half of my meal, but it was delicious. Pretty much every person walks out of the place with a doggy bag, except for matt of course, man that boy can eat! Lol

We met 4 english girls in the line and had dinner with them and they gave us some great advise about where to go on our 2 weeks trip. We decided to go for a little dance after food and made our way to Casa de la Musica. This Club is very famous in Cuba and pretty much every town has one. It’s a typical local place with loads of tables around a massive dance floor in front of a stage, where local live bands play their salsa and rumba. Its and amazing place to just go and people watch, Cubans are extraordinary dancers, they have the rhythm in their blood and they love salsa. It was such a joy to watch, and matt and I had a little salsa as well, after many rums and pina coladas. Lol

Another cool place to visit is Vedado, the new part of Havana, where there are more modern buildings and the Hotel National, where all the Mafia and Gangsters used to meet. There is also a massive park full of Ice cream huts, everywhere you look there is Ice cream, I loved it lol We had a chilled out night after, just relaxing with all the locals on the Malecon, listening to the waves crashing and the locals playing guitar and singing.



Playas del Este

The next day was our beach day, but we had to find an Atm first, which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare.. Cuba is not very good with cashpoints, I think Havana was the only place we went that even had one. Well, one that didn’t work lol so we had to run up and down the city for nearly 2 hours, just to get some money out.. oh well.. Even worse than the cashpoint, is the internet in Cuba. Its practically non existent. It took us 3 days to find a place with internet, and it was in a 5 star hotel, it cost 6 dollars an hour and it literally took us an hour to do a little money transfer, that on any normal computer would have taken 5 minutes. Uhhh it was testing my patience lol

Anyways, once we got money out, we jumped on a bus to Playas del Este, it took us about half an hour to get there from Havana. The beach was crazy busy, it was a Sunday after all, and all the families were out, chilling on the beach. The water was like a bath tub, super warm, just perfect for me :o)

After a nice afternoon swimming and sunbathing, we decided to check out the nightlife in Vedado. We had a stroll down the Malecon and went for a little pre drink at a bar. Straight away there was a local guy sitting with us, chatting away, telling us about cuba and his life. He was out with his girlfriend and his daughter and he seemed very nice. I found it strange how every time matt and I went out, there was at least one couple coming over to us and wanting to go out with us. I thought it was just so we would pay for their drinks, but matt was convinced that they were just friendly and wanted to get to know us.

Ok I thought, let’s give it a try. The guy asked us if we wanted to go out to a club later with him and his girlfriend, he knew a very cool Cuban place to go, 10 dollars entry each. But first we had to go to their house, because the girl wanted to get changed. A bit dodgy I thought, but whatever. So the whole way home of course they told us how poor they were and how little they earned and so on. To be fair, their flat was tiny, and that’s exactly what they wanted us to see. They took us to a club in a hotel, and the girl told me it was 5 dollars each, with a drink included, but the guy had already asked matt for 20 dollars and paid entry. Oh well, we had to get scammed at one point and to be fair, I was quite happy to pay 10 dollars just to prove a point to Matt that I was right, so I was smiling all night lol The place they took us was quite terrible, a hotel club full of white guys and Cuban prostitutes and weird techno / dance music. We had a blast anyways, got pretty pissed and went for pizza on the Malecon before bed.



VINALES

The day after we had our bus booked to Vinales, 4 hours out of Havana, it was a beautiful place surrounded by mountains, famous for its caves and rock climbing. We already had a casa particular organized through our last place, and when we got there they had the cutest little 2 months old puppy in the world. The casa was really nice and clean as well and Alex, the owner was very helpful and told us everything there was to do in town. The casa was called Villa El Nino. We went for lunch and pretty much fell asleep straight after, due lack of sleep the night before. Lol! When we woke up, the mother of Alex had prepared us a maaassive dinner, 6 people couldn’t have finished it, it was huge! So we had a fiest and went out for some drinks after at the plaza with 2 french girls we met at our casa. We played some drinking games, since the cuba libres and mojito were only 1.50 we could splash out a bit..



San Thomas Caves



The next day we went for a trip to the San Thomas Caves, the biggest caves in Cuba. They had 8 levels and we climbed around in them for 2 hours, it was quite fascinating. There are quite a few animals living there, we saw crabs, spiders, bats and grasshoppers. There were some really beautiful stalagmites as well and loads of little lakes inside the cave system. It was actually a quite difficult trip with loads of climbing and crouching, but it was great fun.

Later on that day we wanted to get some money out, only to find that there was no Atm in town and also no internet. There was only exchange bureaus, but for some strange reason our card didn’t work. Oh oh, we were in trouble, we had no money left and Havana was a 4 hour bus ride away. Not that we had the money for the trip anyways dou. So we spoke to Alex, the casa owner and he said he would lend us some money and we could just give it to his friend in Havana when we get there – how nice of him!

Luckily we met an English couple the same night who said they were leaving for Cienfuegos the next day, and they were happy to give us a lift. Perfect! When they picked us up in the morning, they actually lent us the money to pay the casa owner aswell, so we didn’t have to owe the poor man anything. What nice people!



CIENFUEGOS

So we are on our way to Cienfuegos with our new friends Mohammed and Rahel from London. They hired a car for 6 days and had roughly the same plans as us, so it was great to share a ride and the petrol money. Yes, we did get lost a few times on our 7 hour drive, but we had some interesting conversations while driving, since Mohammed was a Psychiatrist and and Rahel a Doctor, so they both had some crazy stories to tell. We got to Cienfuegos and found a nice Casa which had a porch onto the water, very romantic..(Casa Villa la Mar) We tried to get money out again and failed miserably, tried to find internet and failed, and after 3 hours, finally found internet, got onto the NAB website, and oh surprise, NAB online banking is currently out of order..aaahhhh.. so we had to borrow some money of the English couple to go for some food. We found a nice and cheap Italian and had a lovely dinner. Interesting thing in Cuba, chicken and rice is usually about 8 dollars, Italian food is only 3.. no idea why..??



The next day we planned to go check out a river and then the beach, but somehow we ended up doing a tour around a swamp (Rahel has never seen a swamp before, soo) yeah it was very average, just what u expect of a swamp really, loads of crabs and trees and a lake. We jumped into a little dingy to go around the lake, which was actually really nice and we saw some flamingos. Then we headed to the beach, where we were followed by a retarded man that kept asking us for money and nearly got naked in front of us when he went for a swim lol Mohammed and Rahel got serenaded by a local Cuban band while Matt and I had a game of Volleyball. A very nice afternoon on the beach, warm, cristal clear water and a beautiful sunset, what more can you want? Later on we finally managed to get onto internet banking and could transfer some money. Of course we had to celebrate that, so we bought 3 bottles of rum and had a game of Circle of Death on our friends veranda, which was right on a little private beach overlooking the sea, Happy days!






TRINIDAD AND EL NICHO

We decided to take a little de route to go and see El Nicho on the way to Trinidad. After a 3 hour scenic drive, we arrived at El Nicho, which is a park with Waterfalls. It was a roundtrip of 4 km, and the waterfalls on the way were breathtaking. Matt and Mohammed had a swim in the Ice cold water, while us girls enjoyed the sunshine and took pictures. We came across 4 waterfalls and the whole park was stunning.

After a little feed we drove on to Trinidad, where we checked into a casa (Rent a room Yohanka) near the plaza and went to check out Playa Ancon, a very beautiful beach 10km outside Trinidad. Some more swimming and Volleyball in the afternoon, and then we finished the day with a lovely meal on the roof of a very nice restaurant.

Afterwards, we headed to the plaza of old Trinidad, where there was a live Cuban band playing and it was packed with tourists and locals having a dance and a few drinks. It was a great spot, like a nightclub outside and on the stairs of a Church, very very beautiful. We had a few drinks and watched the locals dance like Pro’s and the tourist girls getting thrown around and seduced by the local guys lol



The next day we had a walk around town and took loads of pictures of the pretty little village. There are loads of old buildings and fallen down churches and cobble streets everywhere. There was also a cool little market in the streets that was selling loads of necklaces and cotton stuff. Matt made a great purchase of a massive lizard made of grass, he bought it of an old lady and was well proud. Lol

In the evening, we had a salsa lesson by the son of our casa owner, it must have been very entertaining to watch haha.. Afterwards, we went back to the Casa de la Musica, where there was more outdoor dancing and a live band. It’s just fascinating to watch the locals dance, they just have the rhythm in their blood and dance like they have never done anything else. I personally find Salsa quiet a sexy dance and loved just watching everyone. Matt was happy cause the Moijtos there were only 1.50, so happy days for everyone..lol



For the next day, we had a little horse ride tour planned that was going to a waterfall. I was quite nervous, because I only sat on a horse once before, and same with Matt. The horses we got where absolutely fantastic, so calm and nice and easy to navigate. So we went out into the fields, we rode past a sugar cane field where they showed us how to make sugar cane drinks old school style and some old dude was serenading us with his guitar. Then we went on trough a few rivers and forests and more fields into the national park. After an hour and a half, we tied up the horses and walked up to a really pretty waterfall with a swimming whole in front. There was a cliff jump into the lagoon and the water was absolutely perfect, since it is sooo hot in cuba. It so refreshing diving into the cold water and chilling out with a coconut full of rum lol

On the way back, the horses went a lot faster, and we even went galloping a few times, which was loads of fun! Wow, horses can go fast lol We were knackered after that, so we had some food in the casa and went out to take a few pics of the casa de la musica.



The day after, me and matt were suffering; our backs and legs were fucked from the horse riding. So we decided on a chill day on Playa Ancon, the beach just outside of Trinidad. Great day swimming, chilling, and having a cool volley ball match against 2 german dudes. We decided to go to “The Cave” in the evening, which is a nightclub that’s in an actual Cave. Very very cool place, it looks amazing from the inside and the sound is awesome in there. There was a lof of geeky tourist in there, very much to matt and my amusement. So you had the locals salsaring away, and the tourist just jumping around, looking stupid. Quite a fun experience!




VARADERO

And we are off to Varadero! After quite a nightmare of a morning, running around, trying to find a banc that is open at 8 in the morning (cause our bus was leaving at 9, and as always, matt and I ran out of money to pay the casa lol) Finally we found one that opened at 8.30, we literally ran back to the house, paid, got our bags, ran to the bus stop and just caught the bus, it was already driving off. Phew…

After a comfy 6 hour drive in a Viazul bus, we got to our Casa in Varadero, which was located directly on the snow white beach with turquoise blue water. Little Paradise! (Berta & Alfredo, calle 24 y 1ra) We jumped straight into the beautiful cool water and had a walk along the 20km long, beautiful white beach. We sat down for sunset and enjoyed watching all the locals swimming and running at this hour. After a nice stroll back, we had some great Italian food in a cheap restaurant and went back to chill out, since Matt wasn’t feeling well.

We didn’t do much more exciting the next day, just chilling on the beach, swimming and relaxing. Oh yeah, and trying to find internet, mission impossible in cuba! No connection, no cards, no computer, whatever, its just impossible haha And already on the day after, we are on our way back to Havana, and then to Bahamas and Puerto Rico.

Cuba was absolutely fantastic, definately one of our favourite places and we already cant wait to come back here. The people are so friendly and fun, food is cheap and we absolutely loved staying in the casa particulares and get a little insight into people’s lives in Cuba. The beaches and waterfalls here are absolutely breathtaking, Cuba, we will miss you!

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