Havana: everybody wants "nothing"... - Havana, Cuba
Havana, Cuba
Days 24 - 28 (Domingo 6 - Jueves 10 Octubre) So as a prequel: about 4 days before heading to Cuba we purchased our exiting tickets online via the Cubana Airlines website (very difficult to navigate and a pain in the **** to book tickets! Then no replies to emails over 3 days!). After tickets were 'purchased' Yalzy begins to think about visas, on Thursday before we fly on Saturday! So visaHQ suggests that Israeli passport holders require a visa and possibly an interview - starting to stress. Saturday. We get from Curaçao to Panama City no worries, no stress. But to enter Cuba we may need proof of health insurance (check), visas/tourist cards (we have tourist cards, but Yalzy is stressing about the Israeli passport thing), and ongoing/exiting flights (they still haven't come through! Or replied to emails!!). We are in line at customs and Yalzy is a little worried, which makes me a little worried. I go first. Heart pumping, but smiling face ;) thanks for coming, no problems, straight through this locked door to security screening (after a 30+ min wait in line). Yalzy is next. I'm already through a one-way locked door so can't do anything but wait. After a few minutes, she's through, with a massive (and relieved) grin. She got asked a few questions about her flight, as it wasn't coming up on the screen properly, but other than that, no worries mate. We're here! Havana: Sabado 6 - Jueves 10 Octobre Beautiful architecture, hole in the wall food stores and plenty of rum and cigars fill Old Havana with a maze of smells and sights. Though there are plenty of posh hotels and rich tourists Wifi is extremely limited and sometimes even non existent so it may be a good idea to inform your family that they may not hear from you for a while... The Cuban people all appear to be very friendly, and don't get me wrong, they are! The only problem is that many times a quiet beer with a local will end up with them asking for money or expecting you to pay for their drink. Everybody is your 'amigo' and knows skippy or has a cousin in Sydney - how convenient. If you want cigars, gunga, taxi, horse and carriage tour, Cuba hat, peanuts rolled in paper or your hair braided, these are the people to talk to. Prime example - day 1. A guy starts talking to Yalzy while crossing the road, next thing we know we are at a cafe having "the best mojito's in Havana" and hearing about some amazing and cheap restaurants we can be hooked up with... Our shout for drinks at the end of all of that!! We returned to the same cafe (on cnr at right of entrance arch to Chinatown - avoid!) later for food as the menu looked decent and cheap. Unfortunately we were informed the menu on the wall (next to the service window!) was for the food stand out front which was closed (obviously), so we were handed a menu which was strikingly similar with higher prices (tourist menu I'm sure!). Food was average at best. Luckily there are also the other ones who want nothing apart from a friendly conversation and perhaps to learn some English. And there are many of them. After a few days of learning to ignore (firmly, but politely of course) the tourist hunters, we had some great conversations with honest locals who actually wanted to learn about where we are from and learn some new words in English (only the nice ones tho, for use with tourists). Money: You can change major currencies at many places, best to do at airport I think?. From our understanding, Pound, Euro and Canadian dollars are easist to change but incur an 8% charge, US dollars cop an extra 10% (ish) on top of that. Our option was to pull large chunks of cash from ATM and store at home, only taking out 20-40cuc each day for food and drinks. This also incurred a US$12 charge from ATM. Tip: We had massive troubles transferring money from our Aussie bank accounts to our transaction card as it always required an SMS authentication code, which we could not receive with our Aus SIM cards. So a simple internet transfer involved calling bank via Skype, getting a code sent via post to my old address, to be re-directed by post office to my parents address, then for my dad to contact my sister with the code so she could send an email... Still waiting for that code today! Accommodation: We stayed in a casa particular (family house), which we would highly recommend to do. You may not have the cleanest room or the most space, but you stay with locals, support them with your dollars, and get a great inside view of their day to day. Our hosts in Havana were Luis and Marianni - we found this casa particular on Couchsurfing (some more info on Couchsurfing at the end of this post).We had a private room, with a double bed, fridge and it was a decent size. For $20cuc per night we got this plus breakfast of eggs, fruit and coffee. We learnt some Espanol over breakfast and had some memorable experiences (like I said, your casa may be small, but did I mention that a small piece of the roof may fall off during the night and smash on the floor at the foot of your bed? That woke Yalzy up with a fright!). We ended here on a bit of a sour note as we felt the last day that once our hosts had our money on the night before we left, they did nothing else to assist us on the morning we left (in fact we didn't see them and there was no breakfast), but all in all, a reasonable start to the casa particular journey. Food: The food options here were surprising as it seems that the main cuisine amongst the locals is pizza, hamburgers, white rolls with jamon and cheese and even hot dogs! Not the typical rice, chicken and beans that we expected (and craved!). Finding a local type place serving authentic creole cuisine was an interesting task because while we were looking though the dirtiest local neighborhoods, the only places where we found Cuban food was in the touristy areas! Obispo and Obr apia were very touristy streets, but there are numerous food options which include a main, small sides and often a beer, for about $3-6 per meal. Can't complain really (well, besides every restaurant having waiters out the front hunting you down as you walk past - but that's tourism). One tip for those who like SPICY food: surprisingly there isn't any in Havana and most places don't even have chilli or hot sauce on request.... So not a bad idea to buy your favourite bottle of hot sauce and carry it with you in case of emergency! Sights: - Museo de la Revelucion. Loads of information and relics from the Cuban revolution and the rift between Cuba and the USA. If only we weren't so hungry and HOT before and during the visit, we may have taken in more information. Lacking air-con and fans, but very informative. - Museo de Chocolat. Another wowee. 55cent traditional hot chocolate (with cookies), 40cent house made chocolates. Cheap lunch and provides an hour of air-con relaxation and people watching. We attempted to run a couple of times along the Malecon (riverside walkway), considering all we had done since the marathon was eat (loads of cheese) and drink cheap cerveza and cocktails. 2x attempts in the humidity of Havana and the humidity won. We knocked out a slow 5km both times, but ended with hands on knees, panting, and sweating for a good half hour after our cold showers... Lesson: give up on running? Havana Pros: - great live music all around - on the streets and in many restaurants - beautiful architecture - Very safe - friendly people - 1L bottle of Havana Club rum $5, local beer $1 Havana Cons: - Internet / Wifi availability is VERY limited and very expensive ($8-$10 per hour) - Endless number of taxi drivers and tour guides whistling at you and trying to sell something - difficult to trust that people are genuinely nice. Many times it ends with requests for money - watch where you step. Dog poo everywhere... Tips: Food: If you like spicy, maybe bring along your own bottle of salsa picante to meals. Money: check/ figure out how you will manage money / transfer while travelling. We had big issues with SMS authentication codes when trying to internet transfer between banks! Internet: limited and slow throughout the whole country, and usually only accessible from main hotel lobby's at a high cost. On a positive, this helped us to not rely on technology and we were able to enjoy the day to roam around and enjoy the sights. Couchsurfing: So long story short, check out Couchsurfing.org. There's also a great book about a travellers journeys around the world and all of his Couchsurfing experiences. This was my first insight into it, thanks to Michelle Paterniti, and it's been a great eye opener into a new way to travel and meet people. We joint in December after we began to plan this trip. We had about 5 groups of people stay with us in Broome from this time, and they were all positive experiences, and people who we would definitely see again and hope to stay with along our travels. Basically people crash on your "couch" (or bed, or floor, whatever is available), usually always for free, and sometimes may make you a meal or something in return. They have a hot shower and wash their clothes, and meet locals, rather than other tourists in a hostel. It's really just a great way to assist other travellers and meet new people - then one day when you travel (as we are now), others hopefully return the favour. Simple as that. Run total: 2 (Total: 4) Almost choked from car fumes on both runs along the Melacon. Nice area to walk or relax at night, but not ideal for long runs in the heat and humidity.