And now we’re in Cuba – Havannah
Perhaps tellingly for the rest of our Cuban stay our arrival was a bit of a disaster! We had booked via Kuoni as they’re pretty great at picking you up from the airport personally and getting you to where you need to be in record time. However when we got through customs – and customs in Cuba are quite intense with sniffer dogs and bangy wee doors which you have to go through and scary immigration officers – there was no one with a wee sign waiting to meet us. I was so tired after the 9 hour flight, it was gone 11pm, this wasn’t good. We don’t speak Spanish either so weren’t really sure what to do. Eventually we managed to find out that Kuoni had a sister company at the airport and that we had to go to their office to sort it out. There then ensued a fraught discussion with the woman resulting in – eventually – a taxi ride from THE MOST GRUMPIEST TAXI DRIVER in the world to our hotel with a promise a rep would meet us tomorrow. The taxi driver was really, awful and didn’t even say thanks for the tip we gave him (now that’s just downright rude huh?).
That’s th ebad bit, the good bit is that the hotel was LOVELY. Here it is: link its bang in the centre of the city surrounded by a mix of beautiful majestic old and new buildings. It was opposite a white marble tree lined square flanked by horses and carriages. We had also been upgraded to an amazing courtyard view room (woo hoo) with mini balcony and welcome cakes (very tasty!). Things were looking up.
We breakfasted the next morning in the blue frescoed dining room, again a lovely spread, then met up with our Kuoni rep to find our what we could see / do and also explain last nights fiasco. She was very sympathetic and arranged for a free meal for us at La Bocadita – the place Ernest Hemmingway used to frequent for his Mojitos in the old town – so we were feeling quite lucky and content and booked a guided tour for that afternoon. As we generally don’t have much time in these places we are finding these tours, though quite dear, invaluable as there is invariably so much to see and do and this way we cover most of it off!
All that sorted we headed out to explore. And got ripped off 🙁 The next bit is kinda sad as we genuinely yet naively offered friendship to this nice young Brazillian couple we met and in return they conned us. Let me explain the context a little. You probably know Cuba is socialist under Castro. They have as a result amazing musicians, doctors and education systems. What they don’t have is is anything at all American. Not on the open market anyway. They also have rationing – a 2kg bag of rice for example to feed a family of 3 per month – collected from a food hall. There is of course a black market getting stronger every day and this has driven some of the younger Cubans to exploit the tourists for cash wherever they can. Things will likely change when Fidel croaks it but this is the situation now.
So, we were standing out like 2 sore thumbs, all white and sweating buckets in the sweltering +30 degree heat, and were beign approached left right and centre by guys selling (or trying to sell) cigars which we politely but firmly rebuffed. The young couple took us by surprise, no hard sell, just walking along with us, them telling us about themselves and their lives, appearing really interested and, well, just plain nice. And we responded. And we suggested getting a drink, our treat of course. And in the end we were charged for four Mojitos in a proper Cuban bar more than they would cost in our 5 * hotel. It’s sad that they did that and sad that the bar were in on it too. We bought some cigars from them too taken in by the deal (1/3 of the price in the shops) and the work pass from the girl who ‘got good deals as she worked there’. Our Kuoni guide later told us we’d been scammed, the cigars weren’t good. Looking back it seems obvious but in truth we are nice folk interested in other countries and cultures and we openly offered our friendship. The experience begun what would eventually become a dislike of Cuba and the Cuban people… here there are. It was a good scam, hats off to them for that, don’t fall for it though if you ever go there!
The guide was late for the City tour, almost half an hour. It seems that’s the way of things here. There is no rush for anything. So laid lack the are virutally horizontal. The tour encompassed the Square and the old town, photos to follow…
One really, really cool thing about Cuba is the cars. Its like stepping back 80 years. The cars on the roads are HUGE, old fashioned american cadillacs in all colours, old estates some in good condition, some falling to bits. Old bulky truck from the 1930! It was an amazing sight to behold. They haven’t had new cars in years and as a result have been forced to become very, very good mechanics!
Our guide recommended a typical Cuban restaurant and after a bit of a freshen up and a bottle of Mendoza’s finest 😉 we headed off in search of this resturant. Queue bad Cuban experience 3!
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