Category: Cuba

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BARACOA – Guantánamo, CUB

9 o’clock was the official starting time for our hour long horse & buggy ride through the streets of Bayamo, who’s major claim to fame aside from being the birthplace of the national flag and anthem, was that its produced two national Presidents, who actually lived across the street from each other.

Whilst I’m not a huge fan of touristy horse carriage rides, due to the fact that the animals always look in poor condition and/or are mistreated. Truth be told, I think this may have been the second or third one in all my travels.

On closer inspection these animals looked in great shape, the equipment was obviously serviced and maintained well. There were no rub marks or open wounds on the horses and their hooves and shoes looked were on excellent shape. I come to find out that the government vet inspects the animals every day and pulls the operator’s license for any issues found during the inspection.

Our next stop for the day was the infamous – in recent times, 120 square kilometre U.S. naval base Guantánamo Bay or Gitmo as the locals call it. As attractions go, you’ll be sorely disappointed as you’re over 20 miles away, perched on a hill overlooking an inlet that protects most of the site. Even when paying the $1 USD fee to climb the tower and use their Spanish-American war era looking glasses (i.e. busted arse binoculars) you are afforded no better views.

We ended the day with a two-hour drive into Baracoa in which I’m staying with a local family at their casa by the Atlantic Ocean, which makes a change from the hotels I’ve had so far on this trip. Casa Stays have sprung up everywhere in Cuba since the government allowed such capitalist ventures nearly a decade ago. You as a traveller are essentially a guest in a local’s house which allows them to supplement their income with hard currency and you get to experience the hospitality of a local stay.

Dinner was an off the beaten path restaurant affair at Terazza La Roca Grill which was a family style buffet of local dishes including pork, lobster, prawns, bean soup, rice, plantain chips, salad, custard pudding and coffees for $15 USD.

A few of us headed back to the towns square for a couple of night caps where another of the group, repeated my efforts of buying the bottle of rum, thus allowing us to sit on the porch, sipping “Vitamin R” while listening to Bob Marley and people watching until midnight.

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BAYAMO – Granma, CUB

As much of a pain in the arse spending 9½ hours on the road is, it is apparently a far better option that trying to catch any of the domestic air services. The trip was broken up with a pretty decent lunch at Le Compana de Toleda in the town of Camaguey.

While in Camaguey I had to use an ATM which cost me $9 USD for the privilege, fuck you very much! I did however fare much better than those who used the banks teller services to change Euro’s to Cuban Pesos. They paid only $5 USD for the transaction and got a pretty rubbish rate i.e. a third of the Euro’s current trading value AND had to spend an hour waiting for one of the two tellers to service the three customer before them.

We got in to our accommodations at the Hotel Royalton where after getting squared away, we dined in their restaurant and then headed out to the local square, where there was a street concert taking place.

Here we are standing in the street, sipping on $1.25 USD Crystal creveza’s when it was my round in the shout. I grab a ½ dozen beers and ask about the cost of a Cuba Libre (rum & coke) for one of the group and was informed that it was $3 USD. Being the ½ smartarse that I am, I asked as to the cost of the entire bottle – $5 USD was the barmen’s response. I grabbed a full bottle and a can of Cuban Coke for an extra 50 cents and wandered back out to the town square – job sorted.

In the interests’ full disclosure and impartial testing, I felt a shot or three of the Cuban “Vitamin R” was in order and found it to be a rather smooth tipple, that you could get to know on an immediate & intimate level quite easily. It’s a whole lot better than that Queensland cane cutters cordial – Bundaberg Rum.

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SANCTI SPÍRITUS – Sancti Spíritus, CUB

Today was a 7-hour bus trip to the regional town of Sancti Spiritus located 380 kilometres ((240 miles) from Havana. Thankfully it was on one of the air-conditioned Transtur tourist coaches and not the local service, busted arse Toyota coaster or mini-van.

The trip was broken up with regular breaks along the way including lunch at Pia Cua where they are apparently known for their Cubano sandwiches. For $5 USD you got two pieces of grilled bread, a piece of dry cold roast pork, a slice of lettuce, tomato and cheese with a choice of ketchup, mustard, HP or Worcestershire sauces. The sandwich was nothing like the Cubano sandwiches I came to love and enjoy in Little Havana in Miami.

From there it was about an hour’s drive to the mausoleum of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, just outside the town of Villa Clara. Che was the Argentine born doctor who became one of the heroes of the Cuban revolution and right hand man to Fidel Castro. Of interest was how passionate our guide was in telling the story of Che, in which he was literally brought to tears.

We managed to walk the oldest bridge in Cuba, that crosses the Rio Yayabo and continued on foot to our stop for the night – Sancti Spriritus.

We had an unscheduled last minute change in hotels, due to the original not having any water. This saw us freshen up at our new digs at the Hotel Plaza before heading for a meal at Meson de la Plaza. A little further research in my Best Cuban Mojito endeavours back at the hotel rounded off a great day. Whilst there, I noticed the bar doing a roaring trade in selling Havana Club rum by the litre bottle for $3 USD to passing traffic. The doorman was even in on the action as he was ferrying rum to cars or motorbike parked at the footpath.

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HAVANA – La Habana, CUB

I got up around 5AM and headed off to the ensuite shower, which in all honesty was so small that you couldn’t change your mind, let alone clothing. On the way into the shower, I brushed up against the hand basin in getting around the toilet and managed to knock it off the wall, smashing it. Now that’s a different start to the day I reckon.

After sorting out the hand basin situation with the hosts, I sat down to breakfast with Gretta, who hails from Mildura (Victoria, Australia) but is currently based in Vancouver (British Colombia, Canada). We got to chatting, as you do when travelling alone in foreign countries, and decided to combine our talents and take a wander around Havana together for the day.

From our Casa, we headed out up to one of the local squares, which is also the neighbourhood Wi-Fi hotspot. Just so you’re in the know – aside from brand name Cuban Hotels, the internet is strictly controlled by the government and as such you have to purchase one hour blocks for $1 USD directly from ETECSA and then got to the dedicated Wi-Fi spots to access the service. Theses area are usually the local square in every town or large neighbourhood.

As we hadn’t purchased a Wi-Fi access card, we continued down to the waterfront and along the foreshore to the opening of Havana Harbour. From there we cut through the cobblestone streets of Old Havana, behind the Capitola building and popped up on the wharves at the Artists’ Market that is housed in one of the huge old Bonded Goods storage facilities i.e. a whooping great big shed.

On a whim, and the fact bus was sitting right outside the market, we made use of the $10 USD all day hop on/hop off tourist bus just to get a feel of the size and scope of Havana. It’s easy to see the change in capitalism in Havana with several multi-acre waterfront sites have large hotel construction projects in progress.

One lap of the city takes about 3 hours, but as it was just after 1:30 PM and in need of a feed & watering, we legged it off the bus at the Capitola and headed to El Chanchullero to get that sorted real quick.

Dinner tonight was $15 USD set menu affair at the Espacio Old Fashion which included a welcoming Mojito, a main course and either coffee or papaya with cheese as a desert. It was pretty ordinary if the truth be told. I arrived back at the hotel room to find a new hand basin installed and a bill for $50 USD in replacing the unit. I figured it was a fair amount, even though most would dispute the charge as the old unit was obviously not installed correctly, but when you know that these folks live on less than $100 USD a month, then what is $50 USD to me as compared to ½ their earnings for the month?

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HAVANA – La Habana, CUB

At 50 minutes, my flight took less time than it did for me to collect my luggage, as it seemed that the baggage handlers have thoroughly embraced the who communism concept by releasing one bag every couple of minutes.

I have to say that clearing Customs & Immigration at the Havana airport was one of the easiest and quickest clearances I’ve been even been involved with. They did pay special attention to my camera gear and USB hard drives by asking me to show the camera body working with each lens and how the USB and SSD drives worked and what they were for.

I was met by a transfer driver who was spitting chips that I was an hour and twenty minutes late in getting to the Transfer Collection area, but as it was out of my control – care factor zero.

My second “What Tha” moment came when changing US dollars to Cuban pesos or “CUC” as it’s better known by. For the record, the first “What Tha” moment was the length (or lack thereof) of the female Immigration officer’s skirts. Fair Dinkum they were “Greyhound Skirts” as in chasing the hair!

I digress, back to the money changing. In retaliation to the US Embargo’s, the Cuban government had slapped a 10% tax on all US currency and have set the CUC rate to mirror the US dollar. Yeah … that’ll show Uncle Sam not to mess with you Cuba.

I got to my accommodations at Casa Reyna around 5:00 PM and was met by my hosts Marilyn and Ismael. With my lodgings, since approximately 2008, the Cuban government relaxed their stranglehold on the economy and allow private enterprise to service to burgeoning tourist trade, which is now the country’s largest hard currency revenue generator. With the relaxing of the laws, many of the locals have converted their homes to supply temporary accommodations as their major income source, thus relieving the burden on social welfare and earning themselves as decent wage, when the minimum wage is around $12 USD a week. As I was fanging for a feed, I headed over to one of the local squares and found the El Chanchullero Restaurant and managed to settle in for $2.50 USD Mojito’s and a really good feed of prawns for $7.00 USD.