Cuba

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Finally I got the chance to visit this highly praised country in the middle of the Carribean. So many people had told me it is a fantastic country, that I persuaded my favorite travel partners to come and join me: my brother Peter and his g-friend Karin.
And in any case, it is almost like being a part of a live experiment of a different government form... Like many other people we were curious about learning how Castro's Cuba is working.

Actually, Castro never does public appearances. A guy from Havana I spoke to told me that he was 46 years and had only seen him once, a very long time ago. Because of the security risk he does not meet his citizens. Nowadays nobody knows where he or his family lives, if he still lives...

We decided to spend two full weeks traveling around the country and discovering: from Havana to the south coast down to Trinidad and then back up to the north coast and back to Havana.




My first impression of Havana was really not the best and I had troubles seeing the charm everybody had talked about. It was very much hidden behind the touristy streets with Europe-prices, regulations about how to make tourists pay the most possible, the people whose sole goal is to find a foreigner to pay for their Cuba Libres for the evening, behind the government propaganda and the touched up tourist attractions.
Ok, seriously, after Colombia everything will be fade, but I had higher hopes for Cuba...

Havana is just as you see in the pictures: there are beautiful nice houses from earlier days that are completely run down and that nobody cares about repairing. Nobody owns them, so why would they care? I also talked to some people who said that nowhere on Cuba you can actually buy building material, so even if you wanted to renovate a building, you would not be able to.
But when you walk next to the sea on the Malecón and the waves splash up on you and you see the castillo in the backgorund, it is clearly beuatiful.




However, Havana was far too touristy for my liking and we got a rental car and started driving south from Havana. Well, after some hesitation and getting lost time, we managed to make a U-turn on the highway and get driving in the right direction.
Listen to this: in Cuba there are special tourist cars that everybody can recognize from the big T on the license plate. Also, (it is probably just made up, but you don't dare to test...) you have to use a special gaz in these vehicles - a gas that is double as expensive (because of government taxes) as the gas native people use in their old American cars.

We picked up a Geely, which is considered to be a very good car in Cuba. When a young boy told me that my eyes popped out and I asked him to repeat what he said, because I was pretty sure that my Spanish was poor and that I did misunderstand what he said... But no, he thought it was a fantastic car... Contrary to me... But at least I have driven one...

The highway on Cuba was supposed to go all the way from Havana to Santiago in the south, but when it was halfway done, The Soviet Union crashed and the funding stopped, and consequently so did also the highway, in the middle of the island.
And probably also the funding for signs, as there are very few... The tourist office lady tried to push us to buy a super-duper expensive map of the island but I am glad we did not since that would not have helped, the map is not the problem, the lack of signs are the problem.
Anyway, Cuba is not that big and when you get lost you might just see something off the beaten track!

The first night we arrived to Playa Larga in the very end of the Pig's Bay, a historical landmark. The road to go there is lined with big propaganda signs showing how the Americans were defeated in 1961 proclaiming that Che will always live on and that communism will win!

We had heard that "Casas particulares" were better to stay in than in hotels because private persons actually care about tourists, which hotel personnel does not. The people working at the state run hotels are going to keep their job no matter how many tourists come and stay at the hotel, so they simply couldn't care less about you. You ask for information - they most of the time do not know, and do not have the slightest interest in finding out. Finding out can also be hard since they do not have Internet and are only allowed to call within their region...
So we asked an old man if he knew were there were a private house that rents out rooms. He jumped into the car and we drove around the whole village to find one that could host three people. We thought that he was very friendly, but actually, he expected money for his services...

The house we found was lovely though, and the lady a very friendly and honorable. She was very keen on helping us to find nice activities to do, and called her cousin during the night so that we could go scuba diving the next day.

This afternoon we had our first dip in the crystal clear ocean. For me it was quite cold, but coming from Europe it was absolutely wonderful. In any case, swimming where there are almost no people in water with 25 m sight is always a big pleasure!

Up until then we had only been eating in state restaurants - shortly that means bad food, bad service and high prices. Again, nobody cares because the state owns it...
But this night the cute lady asked us if we wanted to eat at her house and we decided to do so. We had the choice between lobster, shrimps, chicken or porc (which later turned out to be the choice in every casa particular). We had delicious lobster, which we had so many times in Cuba that we ended up being tired of it!!!
And the breakfast was very good too, including fresh fruits. It was very odd, but in Cuba there seemed to exist five fruits - banana, guyava, pineapple, mango and papaya. I don't know if it was not season for the rest of the fruits, or if it simply did not exist, but I would have imagined that there would be as many as in Colombia.

We went beach diving in Pig's Bay with the diving instructor. My equipment was actually leaking, but the instructor told me not to worry about it... eh... ok... ;o)
We had a very nice dive with tons of fish that I really appreciated. I got to be alone with the instructor, perfect, since I consume so little and usually have to get up when I have more than 100 bars left because of other divers.

After me it was Peter and Karin's turn to dive. They did not have their licenses so they did a try-out session. They turned out to love it, so now I am waiting for them to get their certificates so that we can go on diving trips together ;o)

It was a busy day and after the scuba diving we went on a nature trail, had a swim in sweet water and then went to the crocodile farm. Our scuba diving instructor took us there, I think because he gets some comission on every tourist he takes there, and also because he simply did not have anything else to do.
The crocodile farm was really nice and served a good purpose since it breeded extinct crocodiles and reintroduced them into the nature.
Crocodiles are just interesting but creepy creatures - they eat eachother. We saw some small ones eat a bigger one that was hurt...

In the night the diving instructor asked me if I wanted to do a night dive and I thought why not? I had only done one in Holland which was not fantastic. So we went around ten and it was freezing. We both shivered with cold while we put on the complete equipment - double wetsuit, hood, gloves and boots. Yepp, you wouldn't think so of the Carribean, right?

It was an absolutely won-der-ful dive and I was quite impressed with how my instructor managed to navigate under the water. We went quite far, but he managed to get up exactly where the car was parked. We saw a whole lot of crabs and lobsters on the night walks. Great dive!

After the dive the instructor invited me to have a Cuba Libre with him in the local hotel. That was very interesting since we were alone in the bar and could speak freely about what we wanted, without anyone disturbing us.

What surprised me a lot was how outspoken Cubans are, the only you get a chance to talk to other than in the street. They all loudly and clearly condemn Castro and his regime. They are clearly not happy and I could find a sense of hopelessness that was completely absent for example in Colombia.
People are not allowed to take any actions to improve their living conditions. They are not allowed to take any initiatives at all. And in any case, if you want a job that actually pays anything (ie a job working with tourists, the only way you can actually earn money to buy anything else than what you need to survive) you have to swear your faith to the government and promise that you are completely with them...

Pro-Cuba people always brag about how Cuba has free healthcare and free schooling... Well, schooling is theoretically free, but to be able to go to school you need to buy a school uniform. Only the shoes of this uniform cost about three monthly pays of a normal Cuban salary...
And free healthcare... Yes, with some reservations... If you are a foreigner you get to the doctor through the back door and get help before anyone else. The local people might have to wait several days before they get help. And most of the time there are no medications anyway...

Further, Cuba has a very good medical program for students, but since you don't earn any money being a doctor people who are well educated and speak English always tries to go into the tourist industry. Therefore, in Cuba, doctor's drive black market taxis... Isn't that a waste of resources???

The day after we went ona tour in Gran Parque Natural Montemar. Of course we were not allowed to go on our own. It was not hard to go there and no way you could get lost or instrude in the wild life, but we had to pay a government employed guy to take us there. A guy who only wanted to go back as soon as possible. I was not really impressed by the wild life (mostly birds), but maybe it was the bad season...




On the way to our next destination we stopped at another crocodile farm and had a taste of the bests. Completely legal. Actually the breeding program at the crocodile farm went so well that they had too many crocodiles so they started cooking them. Interesting taste!

Then we started seeing more and more colonial houses, with big porches and colorful, but flakeing colors in what is said to be The Paris of Cuba. Founded by a French emigrant in 1819, it is a bigger city, situated in a natural bay and became a prosper city riding on the sugar boom. You can still see many old, very beautiful houses along the long tree-lined Avenidas.

We lived in a magnificent house with a man who excused himself several times for being a mess in the kitchen - you understand, his mom was in Havana and couldn't steer things up...
But he was very friendly and helpful.

The city itself has a very nice block in the center, but outside of that it has not very much to offer. We had a walk around but was quite soon done with the centre and walked but, disappointed that the city is situated in a bay but that is was not possible to go swimming...

We also tried to get money from the monay machine in Cuba, which is not the easiest thing to do outside of Havana. Not only does the government charge you a tax of 10% for getting money (that you are clearly going to spend in Cuba since it is a special currency!) but also none of the three machines in Cienfuego worked. So after going back and forth to different banks, we finally found one that was able to help us over the counter getting money from the credit card.

If you go to Cuba, bring money, paper money, but not American dollars as there is an additional tax on this money. Cuba is an extremely safe country, so you do not have to worry about carrying around big amounts of money.

In the morning we went jogging along the longest Avenida in Cienfuego and met some school kids. They told me they go jogging every morning with school. That is something good! Unfortunately some of them did not even have shoes, and they were looking wistfully at mine...

Then we headed towards the ocean!




As we desperately needed a swim, we decided to stop at this highly rated playa in the guide book. It was a nice place, and we spent the afternoon swimming and sun bathing. Our beach neighbours were Cubans and they would not stop taking pictures off our white butts... Until Karin decided to give back with their own method. They were completely happy about being in a camera of a foreigner and started posing in every way possible!


[La Boca and Trinidad]

Then we arrived to our next real stop, which was La Boca very close to one of the big tourist towns called Trinidad another city that earlier surfed on the sugar boom.

La Boca was a quiet and very small fishing village. We persuaded a guard at the local fishing-boat parking to let us in so that we could take some pictures and talk to the fishermen. I tried to persuade a fisherman to take us up the river in his boat, but he sadly shaked his head and said the he is not allowed to, he would be punished... (I wonder if he was even allowed to tlak to us, probably not...)
Another thing that is very curious in Cuba is that it is clearly an island, but it is very hard to find any boats...

Again, we stayed with a lovely family, the parents, the daughter and her boy-friend and Doña Sonia, a demented old, but very cute lady that tried to talk English with us. we adored her, but I can imagine that the family was quite tired of her crazy behaviour...

One day we rented bikes and discovered Trinidad, the pedestrian streets, the viewpoint, la Casa de Musica, danced some salsa etc.
There was a big Plaza with live Cuban music, crowded with Cubanos dancing some of the best salsa I have ever seen!
Trinidad is tremendously beautiful, but full of tourists.
We also tried the famous peso pizza that is supposed to fill you up for nothing. Unfortunately they have figured out that tourists like to get this food (which is by the way disgusting) and they now force all foreigners to pay five times the price in tourist currency...

Talking about buying food... In Havana we went to a supermarket and I was astonished of how there was nothing to buy there. Nothing! In Trinidad we went to another one and we thought it had a good choice... It is amazing how fast you get used to things.
What you find in supermarkets are pasta, rice, crackers, soft drinks and alcohol. Nothing fresh, no fruits or vegetables.
I never figured out how all of the casas particulares had such nice food. I beleive they must have access to a special market for people who are working with tourists.

The thing is that the policy is not to show anything bad about Cuba for tourists. Therefore the casas particulares only belongs to already wealthy and highly educated people. Before having the right to rent rooms you have to pass aninterview and you have to declare that you fully and completely support the government. Then you can apply for one of two rooms (with two people in each, most people did not dare letting the three of us sleeping in the same room even though it had three beds by fear that a government controllant would come and see it and they would loose their permission) and you have to pay a big fee in advance, non reimburseable. So most people cannot come up with this sum from the beginning, which puts them outside this possibility.
Then I think that they have a checklist they have to follow for equipment and food, because all casas particulares offered exactly the same food and had the same standard rooms.
However, this opportunity is no longer available for Cubans. Since it worked so well and so many people applied to become a casa particular, the government decided that no new casas particulares were allowed...

We also took the bikes to Playa Ancón. Here again, a person with "a very important" profession told us that we had to park the bikes on the road and pay him for parking them. I said I did not want to park our bikes and pay him a relative fortune and that we would bring them with us. I got a big no-no, so we went 50m further and brought our bikes to the beach there...

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Photos

Can you imagine his job?
Climbing up this fairly unstable-looking scaffold to cut palm leaves...

Propaganda
Pictures like this are displayed everywhere in Cuba, especially around the highway, proclaiming that communism is the best, and worshiping Castro, Martí, Ché and Chávez...

Our first beach in Cuba...
...with crystal clear, warm water!

Karin adapts to Cuba...
being chic a la 50

Don't they adapt well to Cuba?
Peter with his Cuban hat and Karin being chic a la 50!