Cuba – what to visit, part 1

Hey hey ! In the past couple of years Cuba became really popular destination. This country frozen in the 20^th century attracts thousands of tourists with its charm, magnetism and mystery. I’ve been there in the beginning of 2017 and probably some things have changed since then, but I will try to describe most of the things I’ve done and seen there as they were back then. For all of you who plan to go there soon – I hope my post will help you, for those who haven’t decided yet – go, book your ticket and just go! I promise, you will not regret 🙂 Let’s start with what to visit while in Cuba – part 1 La Havana!

Our trip itinerary was the following: Havana-Trinidad-Varadero-Havana.

We spent 12 days on the island ( I hope you realized that this means it will be a long post :D)  If you are not sure which cities to visit, keep in mind that moving from one place to another takes more time than here in Europe. There are several internal flights that you can take in order to get to the eastern part of the island, but we decided to keep it simple. It also depends on what you want to see and experience, if you are targeting all-inclusive resort, there are many cayos where you can find luxurious hotels and amazing white beaches. The problem with these places is that they are for tourists only and no local people are living in the area. People who know me and my travel crew know that to spend our whole vacation like this is impossible for us 😉

  Havana

In Havana we spent in total 3 days. It is absolutely enough to see most of the important parts of the capital. We rented rooms in a casa particular – most of the local people have guest rooms and you can share their house. I strongly recommend this type of accommodation, people are nice and friendly, they tell you stories about their history, life or simply give you advice where to go and what to see. You can order a breakfast if you want, it costs around 5 CUC. Speaking about money.. Cuba has two currencies – peso cubano and peso convertible. The Cuban peso is the currency that the local people are using and the convertible one is for tourists. 1CUC = 25CUP=1 american dollar. My advice is to bring cash, preferably euro and to exchange it in a local bank. First because it is really hard to find an ATM and they don’t accept some bank cards and I am not really sure how secure is to withdraw money there. Second, bring euro because the exchange taxes are waaay lower compared to the American dollar. Exchanging money also requires making a queue for quite some time, so be prepared to wait. Actually be prepared to wait wherever you go, the time is not flying in Cuba, keep calm 🙂

Havana is magical. The city combines contradictory landscapes, rich and poor are living together.

I am coming from a small post-communist country so for me it was not that surprising seeing old Russian Lada cars or empty supermarkets offering just few products. I still remember the stories that my parents and grandparents were telling me about Bulgaria before the democracy, I felt like I was teleported back to the time when my parents were children. The city is colorful and alive, the streets are always full of people, street sellers, kids playing around, street musicians playing Cuban salsa.

Our casa particular was located right next to El Capitolio, which is one of the main attractions in the city.

Cuban people are bragging that their is few sm higher than the one in Washington. Right next to it there is a popular hotel called Inglaterra which has a good rooftop bar where a lot of people go to use the Internet. I don’t know if you are familiar with the Internet situation in Cuba, but for people like us who are used to have internet connection all the time and everywhere is hard to believe how people survive there. There are several hot spot areas in the city, usually in the main squares, where you can find wi-fi. Before that you need to buy a prepaid card, costs around 2 CUC for 1 hour internet. As you can imagine the connection is not really fast as usually there are hundreds of people trying to use it. But it is fine, living without Internet is actually a pleasant experience. We all need that from time to time, right?

It is easy to find where to eat, there are plenty of restaurants and the food is delicious! One of the nights there we asked our hosts to cook us a dinner and it was amazing, there is nothing better than homemade food! People in Cuba eat a lot of rice, yucca, beans, etc. I am a big fan of seafood, so I enjoyed eating grilled lobsters almost every day. Yummy, isn’t it?! Depending on the area and the place the price of a lobster varies between 12 and 20 CUC.

As a part of our cultural activities we visited the museum of the revolution, where we got surprised by the fact that Bulgaria and Bulgarian people participate in their documents and history. Later on we found out that pretty much everyone knew Bulgaria and they really love our country. Our old political relations are still remembered in Cuba. Feeling proud? We tried to visit the museum of the Rum, but unfortunately it was closed.

Yes, I know, you are surprised, me visiting museums?! Compromising, people, compromising… 🙂

Another fun thing that we did in Havana was to book an old car ride – driving around the city in an old American car is a must.

It costs around 35 CUC per hour and you can choose the car you like. It was so much fun! This ride also gives you the opportunity to see different parts of the city, we stayed mainly in the old center so for us it was positive experience.

The night life in Havana is vibrant. We were informed that there are many places where you can go and dance salsa, bachata or reggaeton, but to be honest we didn’t go to a club there.

Arranging our transportation to Trinidad was exciting.

While walking around the city we asked many taxis how much it will cost to take us to Trinidad (360km south) and as usual the prices were crazy expensive. We did our research in advance and we knew that people pay around 120-160 CUC for the car. Renting a car is complicated in Cuba and the cars they have are so old that nobody wanted to take the risk. There are buses but the tickets are usually sold out days in advance and it is extremely slow way of transportation. If you want to rent a car with a driver, my advice is to go to the Chinese neighborhood, there are plenty of drivers willing to take you for 120 CUC. It requires a bit of negotiation as usual in Cuba, but they were fun to bargain with. P.S. Knowing Spanish helps a lot!

To be continued…