Cuba

2017 was a busy year. With multiple trips completed early on we decided to save one last trip for before baseball season and decided the time was right to travel to Cuba. Now I don’t know about you but all I knew about Cuba was that they had good rum/mojitos, spoke Spanish, and that Havana was the capital. Boy did I have lots to learn! With (ex) President Obama making the partnership between the US and Cuba a bit friendlier we figured it was a bit safer and easier to get to Cuba.  Also knowing that Southwest flew there made panicky me feel a bit less on edge. 

When doing my research there wasn’t much to look at. I also got some great inside information and tips for traveling to Cuba from a friend who had just been. I knew that we’d spend the most time in the Havana area but had a rough time finding a hotel. We decided to book an Airbnb. I researched, wrote to hosts, read reviews, and came across an Airbnb that looked like it would work for us. The host was pretty quick to get back to me and assured me they were close to the city center as well as could arrange a pickup and drop-off at the airport, which was super helpful. 

We decided to take a long weekend and go over St. Patrick’s (day) weekend. The weather was still nice and it was our last free time before the busy season came. On our plans: visit Havana, go to Viñales, drink mojitos, eat Cuban food (we go to a Cuban restaurant in Baltimore all the time, called Little Havana, and love Cuban food!), smoke Cuban cigars, and maybe.. hopefully, enjoy a day at the beach. There was also a super cool art gallery that turned into a nightclub at night so we hoped to go check that out.  Now, with all that being said we were definitely able to check all those boxes but not necessarily the way I had planned it out in my head. 

We got up early on St. Patrick’s Day and headed for our flight to Ft. Lauderdale and then got on our flight to Cuba. In Ft. Lauderdale we got our passports checked as well as filled out paperwork and paid for our visas to get into Cuba. We were so excited that we were going to actually get to go to Cuba.  Getting into José Martí International seemed like any other airport. While a bit small I didn’t feel like I was in another country.  Immigration was simple and we made our way out.  The first thing that freaked me out a bit was that Cuba had no WiFi or phone service, and for the most part, this was everywhere in Cuba. This meant no calls, texts, internet, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. If you wanted internet you had to buy an internet card and go to specific spots in town to access the internet. It was not free.  We were only going for 4 days so no biggy; I could use the cleanse from the internet and social media. 

The next uneasy situation that we came across was our money situation. There are no debit and credit cards in Cuba. They have a cash economy so you can’t just go to a store and pay with a card.  We knew this so brought all the money we would need. I average $100/person per day so we brought $800. I had already paid the Airbnb so that didn’t need to come out of our cash. We made our way to the exchange area and exchanged our USD for Cuban pesos. One thing we didn’t know until we got there was that you could only exchange $400 USD/person at a time. Luckily for us we had $800 so it worked out perfectly. (More on the money situation later). 

We headed outside and found our driver (whom we had pre-booked) and headed out to our Airbnb. Our driver spoke very little English so there wasn’t much talking going on during the ride. He did put on some fun Cuban music. His car was very Cuban looking but had no shock system, no AC, and ran off of diesel fuel. The roads have not been repaired in who knows how long (probably never) so it was a bumpy ride. By the end of our trip, I was sick from the diesel fumes that I was ready to go home.

When looking for an Airbnb (because hotels were very expensive) I came across a nice place, Hostel La’Kosna. Talking to the host had been easy and her English was decent. When we arrived at the Airbnb our host spoke no English (she must have been using an online translator) and the house was fine. The beautiful pool that I saw in the pictures was empty and the house was not close to the tourist part of the city. While a disappointment, we had to go with the flow and try our best to enjoy the time that we had in a new place. 

The next morning I scheduled a tour with an English-speaking guide who took us around Havana and talked about the history of the country. Our guide was wonderful, taking us around in a fun Cuban-style car. We saw lots of highlights in the city and even went to some other places (the baseball stadium) to see things that tourists might not get to see. It was crazy to see how Cubans huddled around “Internet” areas just to connect with the world. We are definitely lucky to have more than basics in the US. 

We stopped at the local shops and saw the Capitol and the Revolution Museum. Checked out Plaza de Armas and drove by the Malecón. We ate some Ropa Vieja at a local restaurant and drank some mojitos at El Floridita (which is definitely a tourist trap, but worth checking out and grabbing 1 drink).  My favorite part of the city might have been the live music and people dancing in the streets & on the sidewalks all over town. 

The next day we found a tour that took us out in the farmlands of Cuba (Viñales). A car picked us up from our Airbnb bright and early and we headed out. We drove for about 3 hours when we finally got to our starting point and met our tour guide Elier. Elier spoke decent English and took us around the town of Viñales. We went to a cigar farm, smoked local handmade cigars, ate lunch at a local's house (so delicious!), and checked out the town square. It was well worth the 3-hour drive and I would highly recommend spending a night or 2 in this cute town. 

Our last night in town we found a place called Fábrica De Arte. At night this building turns into a nightclub. There are contemporary art pieces on the walls, there are old movies/shoes playing on a wall on one of the rooftops, there are different types of music playing in different rooms and sometimes they even have fashion shows.  when you enter you get a card, which when you get a drink or snack they mark what you got and then you pay your “tab” when you leave for the night. This needs to be on your to-do list if you ever make it to Cuba! 

All in all, Cuba was a huge eye-opening experience. I am proud and happy to live where I live, to have unlimited access to the internet, and brand new technology all the time and to even be able to pay with my debit/credit card and not have to carry around cash. I am normally good at budgeting and managing money but somehow I forgot that we did not prepay our tours so we ended up at the airport heading home with $0. Thank goodness we weren’t staying another day, as we were broke. The memories that we made there will forever be in my memory to remind me how lucky I am to be an American and hopefully after reading this you can feel that as well. If you’re wanting an eye-opening trip then Cuba is for you!