Havana to Cartagena, Colombia

Today we got chatting to a lovely English girl name Merrily who was staying at the same Casa as us. She was a very interesting girl, and we chatted with her for quite some time.

After this we headed off out into Havana to a small square we had found just yesterday afternoon, via La Bodeguita Del Medio. Yesterday I had bought a Montecristo Cigar to have a crack at and today was our final time in Cuba, so this was as good a time as any. So standing outside La Bodeguita Del Medio  I decided to go and light it up in the bar.

We wandered around for a little while, and then made our way back to the casa to get our taxi to the airport. Merrily was heading to the Viazul bus station to get her ticket to go to Santa Clara tomorrow, so we shared a taxi with her as it was on the way to the airport.

Our taxi driver had no idea where he was going, which was interesting considering he was a taxi driver. We were not exactly killing it for time, and unfortunately he took us to the wrong terminal. We kind of suspected it wasn't the correct terminal when we were on our way, and I asked him to make sure and he assured us it was right. Along the way we picked up some random guy (collective taxis are a big thing in Cuba) and dropped him at the terminal - he went and found out for us that it was the wrong place, and told us the right terminal.

The driver took us there and dropped us off - we went inside the terminal with our backpacks, and were about to get them cling-wrapped for the flight to Colombia when we noticed that Nikkis backpack wreaked of petrol. It was absolutely doused in it. Soaking. We assumed it must have come from the boot of the dodgy Lada car that took us to the airport. We did all we could with a bottle of water and a packet of tissues to clean it as best we could, got it wrapped, got checked in and got on the plane for Bogota.

We finally arrived at our final destination in Cartagena on a street called Media Luna at around 2am. We are staying at a hostel called the Mystic House Hostal, and it looks not too bad, however the room we are currently in has no window and is quite claustrophobic.

Should be interesting to see what Colombia offers up!

Havana to Trinidad

Today we caught the bus from Havana to Trinidad. This meant we had to get up around 5:30 so that we could get a taxi to the bus station to get our tickets an hour before the 8am departure, and the bus station was the other side of the city.

The bus station didn't open until 7am, but we made sure we were there by around 6:30 to be sure to get a good spot in the queue so we could ensure we got on the bus.

Luckily we did this, as the bus certainly appeared to be full. It was a crazy morning, but we are now safely tucked up in our Casa Particulare in Trinidad called Casa Arecelys. We had arranged for this to be booked from Havana with our previous hosts, so when we got off the bus, there was someone waiting for us with a sign and a bici-taxi. It is quite nice and has a beautiful terrace for breakfast and for chilling out in.

The drive on the bus down from Havana was beautiful, and awesomely we passed through an area there called Central Australia (which actually has it's own interesting history within Cuba as being crucial to some of the aerial assaults during the Bay of Pigs invasion).

We passed along the coastal area near Australia and it was absolutely stunning - we were on the Caribbean side of the island now, and even though the Atlantic side is a.mazing, the Caribbean side looked fantastic too.

After we arrived in Trinidad, got sorted with the place, we went for a wander through the town to check it out. The location of our Casa was brilliant, being only about a block away from Parque Central, the main square in Trinidad (there are 2 - there is the 'touristy' main square, and then there is the one that is 1 block from us that the locals hang out at....)

We went on to the touristy square, and got some great photos of the sun setting on the square. Trinidad is certainly a beautiful place - it's celebrating it's 500 year birthday as a city in 2014 so it was cool to be there for it. The main part of the town is also a UNESCO world heritage site - the colonial buildings in the town certainly give it a different feel to Havana, but it is beautiful albeit in a different way to Havana - Havana's beauty I think is from it's rustic-ness and the fact that it IS run down - there is a main square in Havana where they have done it up, and it feels very unauthentic. 

Tonight we went to a restaurant called San Jose and it was really quite nice - we've been struggling a bit with decent food in Havana, but we found a great place in this restaurant.

Havana Day 3

Today we went on an open-air bus tour around Havana. This took us a few hours, and then we had a heap of admin stuff to try and sort out again, (mostly just tidying up leaving London) so we spent a few hours on the Internet again doing this. We also had a look into our bus tickets on the Viazul website to see about the best way of getting from Havana to Trinidad and seeing if we could book tickets, but it appeared that the best way was just to go to the bus station early. Apparently we were in high season, and there's a good chance that tickets can be sold out, so we're a bit worried about whether we're going to get on the bus tomorrow.

It was annoying to have to spend time in a hotel doing all this stuff, when we really wanted to be enjoying Havana, but it did have to happen, unfortunately.

Apart from this, we ended up going out for dinner on the Malecon (beach promenade) and it was quite nice. The place was quite modern and the food reasonably tasty, and they definitely deserved to be doing better business than they were doing. I guess that's one of the sort of things that happens in Cuba though.

It's been very interesting learning about the Revolution, Castro's background, Che's interesting ways, and everything about it. We've been doing some reading about it all and it's an absolutely fascinating country. One of the most interesting we've been to by a long shot.

Cuba is a strange place - there are not so many places on earth where you feel awestruck by the beauty and at the same time enraged by the ridiculousness of it all. In some ways we have compared it to Africa, rightly or wrongly. We were chatting to a taxi driver today, and he told us that he used to be the General Manager of a Petro-Chemical company with a masters in Engineering, but he chose to become a taxi driver because he couldn't afford to support his family on the income from his other job. He was definitely earning a lot more driving a taxi than he was as a GM.

The amount of "Jinteros" in the city is astonishing too. Everywhere you go, you are constantly being asked if you want a taxi, a cigar or a lady. So much, that saying "No, gracias" really should just be printed on your shirt or something. It's actually so prevalent that it has a nick-name - the Havana Hassle!

One thing that is really annoying so far about Cuba is that they try and rip you off on pretty much every transaction you make - they will either try and charge you too much, or they will short-change you when they give you change. Almost EVERY time. At first we weren't really paying attention too much, but today when we went to a coffee shop, and they tried to charge $4CUC for a Mojito, when every other drink on the menu was $2CUC, I had enough. But after the fact, I think it's going to be just one of those things where we will have to keep an eye on it all the time.

Either way, it's just another idiosyncrasy of Cuba I suppose. So far, we're absolutely loving the place though!

Havana Day 2

Today we spent another day in Havana. We decided that we would probably rent a car, and drive around Cuba. Renting a car is a very expensive proposition in Cuba. For one day's car rental, it is approximately the equivalent of 4 months salary of a local. $100CUC a day approx. for a car, and they earn about $25CUC per month. I suppose we weren't really ready for the levels of poverty we were about to see.

We tried to rent a car from Havana for the next day, but it turned out that we probably wouldn't be able to get a car, and anyway, we had decided that we were going to go to Trinidad and spend a few days just wandering around that town and going to the beach etc. so there'd probably be not much point having a car there anyway.

After a hell of a palaver trying to get the Internet booking for the car sorted, we finally ended up with a car booked for the 20th in Trinidad.

Today we went through a really cool market and ended up picking up a few things. We also went for a ride in a Coco-taxi, which is a bizarre, coconut-shaped trike/vespa combination painted bright yellow.

We went out for dinner at a little place near Obispo which was not too bad. One thing we were learning very quickly, is that Cuba is not so much renowned for it's food. Very average in general! Apparently there's a saying in Cuba - "The revolution came at the cost of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner."

Havana Day 1

We slept in a bit after such a late night, and had a large breakfast at Casa Armando. We made our way out into Havana in search of sights, and also in search of Internet. We would come to find that Internet in Cuba is a fairly large problem. Usually only the large hotels have it, and it costs around $8CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos - pegged to the US Dollar) per hour, and is fairly slow and a bit unreliable.

We spent the day wandering around Havana and attending to some business on the Internet, and had some dinner at a restaurant just off one of the main squares in Havana Veijo (Old Town), and I had an amazing rum after dinner.

Getting a feel for Havana is very difficult - it feels like it should be VERY dangerous, but at the same time it doesn't feel dangerous at all. We're obviously being fairly careful with regards to showing anything flashy around, and even though we have heard that Cuba is quite safe, we're not really taking any chances.

Some shots of wandering around the town:

Playing dominoes outside

Our Coco-taxi ride

The outside space at Casa Armando

Buildings in Centro Habana

Street Vendor