Cuba – what to visit, part 2

To be continued…What to visit while in Cuba…

 Trinidad

After around five hours ride we finally arrived in Trinidad. It is a beautiful colorful city located in the south part of the island. It turned out that our house was like an oasis in the middle of a ghetto, but the neighbors were really nice and friendly and in the end of our stay everyone was smiling and waving at us when we passed by. Apart from being Unesco heritage, Trinidad can offer many interesting activities. Trying not to be typical tourists we visited some of the main attractions in the city (sightseeing is obligatory so I will not mention it):

• The local Cigar fabric – you can pay for a tour and see how famous Cuban cigars are made. To be honest it really didn’t look healthy for the people working there. The workers were trying to sell us part of their production (we were not sure if they were allowed to do this) but later we were told that part of their salary comes in cigars. This is why some people are stealing boxes from the fabric and selling their cigars to the tourists. It is illegal activity so they have their crafty ways to snick out. I am not going to reveal how, I am not a rat!

Most of the women in Cuba are really impressed by nails and lipstick, so in case you go there – bring some, they will love it! Unfortunately they don’t have where to buy it, everything there is so limited that people usually stop you on the street asking for random things, like your clothes for instance.

If you want to buy cigars there are two options:

1. To buy them in the fabric or

2.To follow some random men who stopped you in the city to a shady place where you can negotiate a reasonable price for a box of cigars.

As you can imagine we did the second one and it was quite exciting experience! Do you remember that I told you I am not a rat, so yes, I will not tell you how they have these boxes and how legal was what we did, but the whole process was super adventurous and we got some free cigars in the end! All you need is to be brave to follow them, they only look scary but they are super nice and fun, to have good negotiation skills and to have a Spanish speaker with you (that was me) to facilitate the communication flow. And then boom you have a brand new box of Cohiba cigars (this is the N1 Cuban cigar) for 60 CUC.

To compare – the fabric sells it for 160 CUC.

And from what we heard the real price is 30 CUC, so for us it was a fair deal, everyone was happy. Before buying a lot, check how many you can import in your country, there are restrictions and your luggage is usually checked when coming from Cuba.

• Beach day! Just few km outside of the city there is one of the most beautiful beaches in Cuba – Playa Ancon! White sand, crystal water, palm trees, little chiringuitos, Cuban salsa and Coco Loco sellers at the beach. The taxi ride costs 8-10 CUC, don’t give them more!
• As typical panoramic view lovers we also did a little hiking, on the way up there is an interesting cave where you can enter during the day and go partying during the night. Yes, you read right, they turned it into a night club, called Ayala! Usually there is a queue, you need to wait, but we are used to it, latinos, remember ?;) We came back for the party, in order to go there you have to pass through another not really safe looking neighborhood, but everything was fine. To be honest, Cuba felt like the safest place on Earth, really, I am not lying, people are genuinely helpful and respectful.
• Food tasting. We found a cute restaurant on the main street in the old town,called Restaurante via Reale, where all the restaurants are concentrated and we ate grilled lobsters, like seriously…we ate there almost every day, they were so incredibly tasty, best ones so far! We found another place on tripadvisor, restaurant with a terrace and had dinner there (I really don’t remember the name). We visited a local rooftop bar – El Criollo, with a live band and we really enjoyed the show.  The local drink of Trinidad is called Canchanchara, I personally liked it. One of the good things about Cuba is that if you like rum ( I LOVE IT) you will be more than happy to find out that you can drink as much as you want and you won’t have a terrible headache on the next day. We did a lot of tests, trust me! The cocktails are amazing and they cost 2-3 CUC, it is almost cheaper to drink rum than water! Kidding…kind of. J If you want to buy bottles as souvenirs check the restrictions again, we managed to smuggle more than it was permitted, but other members of the group were not that lucky and they had to leave it at the airport. My personal preference is Havana club Reserva and Havana club añejo – 7 Our casa particular didn’t offer very good breakfast this is why we checked one of the local places –Parilla che tango, they have a board where people from all around the world leave bills from their countries, now you can find a Bulgarian one there.;)

Talking to people on the street helped us find a ride to Varadero (another retro car to be tested), which was our next stop.

  Varadero

3-4 hours ride and 90 CUC later we were in Varadero. For this location we picked an all- inclusive hotel, it is not my style to stay in an all-inclusive hotel, but we decided that after all these adventures we need to relax a bit and take our beach time. Actually we picked this option because while looking for accommodation we found this super cheap offer compared to the rest and we decided to go for it. The site where we did it was quite dodgy so before arriving we were super nervous if we are going to have a booking or not, judging by the comments it was 50:50 chance. At arriving our hotel was having problems with the hot water (we did have a booking, yyyaayyy) so they upgraded us to another resort located in the beginning of Varadero – Puntarena playa Caleta. Like everything in Cuba the hotel was not that luxurious and modern, but it had good location, stunning terrace view, pool area, amazing gardens, bars, everything we needed.

Varadero is well known as the party place of Cuba, but our goal was to mainly enjoy the stunning beaches and relax, relax, relax.

We booked a snorkeling trip, around 2 hours tour costs 15 CUC. Part of the group decided trying kitesurfing, so we spent some time at the beach, watching them learning how to handle the wind in order not to fly towards the nearest palm trees. Next few days we spent around the pool or at the beach, drinking a lot of free cocktails, enjoying paradise. Dreamy, right?

One advice – if you go to an all-inclusive hotel make sure that you have a lot of coins with you (or small bills), tipping the personal is an essential part of the stay, as the  people there receive incredibly low salaries every help is much appreciated. They provide good service and it has to be rewarded. And when they like you they give you the best and biggest part of the fish of the day!

Finding a car for a reasonable price in Varadero was the hardest part.

It is really touristic area and drivers are not open for negotiation. 80 CUC for 1,5h ride… the best price we could get!

In a summary : Cuba is magic, Cuba is time travel, Cuba is music, Cuba is kindness. I hope my story inspired you to go there and find out for yourself.

See you soon when Travelista goes to…