Cuba: The Forbidden Fruit

Where do I even begin? It's Cuba, a country I spent decades dreaming about. My entire life it had been illegal to go there. Let's just say that 9 days were nowhere near enough. 

Many Americans who dream of going have a lot of questions, as did I. That's why I've decided to include not just the fun, but also some informational stuff. Here’s what we did and learned on our trip in March of 2016.

"Havana ooh na na...half of my heart is in Havana ooh na na" 

Getting In

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t getting into Cuba that’s hard. That was a non-issue. But to be on the safe side, I booked our flights from Seattle to Cancun, Cancun to Havana. I had read that it was easier to enter via Cancun as an American. Once in Cancun, I purchased a tourist visa for Cuba that costed around $20. I was super nervous going through customs in the Havana airport, but they just quickly looked at my documents and let me pass through. Turns out it’s not Cuba that doesn’t allow us in, it’s our own government that doesn’t allow us to go. They want to punish/isolate Cuba by not allowing Americans to spend money there. Cuba wants our tourist dollars and doesn’t turn Americans away.  This was all confirmed when we were entering the U.S. again, this time in Houston and my husband, a Spanish citizen, glided right through Customs and Immigration without a care in the world. Meanwhile, I was stopped and interrogated by the agent about why I went to Cuba. Very few times in my life have I been that nervous. I could hardly get the words out without by voice shaking. The customs agent was so intimidating and was trying to trick me into admitting that I had done something illegal by going. He tried with all his intimidation and manipulation tactics to get me to say I went there for pleasure a.k.a. tourism which IS actually illegal – illegal in the U.S. Luckily, I had made an itinerary for every day that I was going to be there with the names, addresses and phone numbers of all the people we had rented Airbnb rooms from. My plan was to enter under the People-to-People provision under the Education section of the 12 reasons Americans can go to Cuba that the Obama administration had opened up. Again, I thought I would need this to get into Cuba NOT back into my own country. Eventually the agent calmed down and realized that he couldn't prove that I had gone to have fun and let me enter back into my own country. Phew! They can slap you with a hefty fine upon entering if they feel like it. 

Airbnb

After reading up, I learned that what they call “casas particulares”, and what we would call renting a room in an Airbnb, was a cheap and wonderful way to, not only have lodging but also interact with the Cuban people. When I went to book our lodging, I was surprised to see how many were listed on Airbnb and how affordable the prices were. I don’t think we ever spent more than $50 a night for a place to stay. Most the time prices hovered around $30 a night for a room in a house.

                                                                                

They love them some colors. 

The Side Hustle

Since most Cubans “officially” live on about $50 per month, many of the hosts, and Cubans in general, are looking for ways to make extra money under the table. From cooking your meals, renting you bikes for the day, driving you to the airport or hooking you up with a local tour, many of the Airbnb hosts are going to offer such things at a charge. All the homeowners we encountered let us know these options existed but without even the slightest hint of pressure to partake. They absolutely want their guests to be comfortable first. Knowing how much the average Cuban makes motivated us to eat in often. Plus, in my travel experience, the food is always better in people’s homes than in restaurants. 

In Boca, our Airbnb hosts served us meals out on their porch with a partial view of the ocean and gorgeous sunsets. 

Took our Airbnb hosts up on their lobster dinner for $15. It was quite a feast! The goverment owns all the lobster and it was apparently illegal for our hosts to cook lobster for us. That is reserved only for the Cuban people-mostly the government it sounded like. 

The $5 Breakfast

Every morning we bought their breakfast at $5 per person, which nearly always consisted of the same thing no matter which house or town we were in. Fresh juice, either mango or pineapple; a small carafe of strong Cuban coffee; chopped banana, pineapple, mango and sometimes, if we were lucky fresh papaya; and whole wheat toast with margarine. I learned later that dairy products are scarce, hence the margarine, and powered milk when I requested cream for my coffee. In Havana they don’t drink the water without boiling it first which had me a little paranoid about the juice, which is a mixture of juice and water, but I had very little stomach issues on this trip. Again, because tourism is a way for Cubans to make cash that their government can’t touch, they treat the tourists very well. 

Mmmm, fresh mango juice!!

Our first morning in Havana with our Airbnb hostess. 

Communism

It’s no secret that Cuba is a communist country. It’s also no surprise that politics are complex, and sometimes we never understand what’s going on in our own country let alone in someone else’s. What I will tell you is that we passed several murals, that looked like they were painted in the 70s, on many government owned buildings, such as schools, that read “communism or death”, “patriotism or death” “everything for everyone”.  Also, we had various people open up to us about life in Cuba and the political climate, but as with every country, you have your varying perspectives.

Our first Airbnb hostess in Havana (pictured above), a patriotic woman in her late 50s talked about how great their health care system was and asked me where else in the world you could get an organ transplant for free. Wide eyed I responded, “not in the U.S.”. On the other end of the spectrum was the young cab driver that drove us from one side of Havana to the other in his old, 50s' beater, openly and passionately talking about his dream to move to the U.S. where he could have a better life economically speaking. He even said that if you speak out against the government, you could "disappear". We also met a friend while salsa dancing (the guy I’m dancing with in the salsa video) who had tried to enter the U.S. 3 times and had been deported 3 times trying to be with his wife and 1-year old daughter in New York. He wants nothing more than to be there with them, but after Pies Mojados was ended, it’s gotten harder for Cubans to migrate to the U.S. Being married to a U.S. citizen doesn’t guarantee your citizenship on any occasion, but especially if you’ve been caught trying to enter the country illegally.

Other things we learned are that it’s very hard for Cubans to travel outside their country. Apparently, you have to be able to pay the government quite a fee in order to leave. Because Cuba is so proud of their medical system, they do send a lot of doctors abroad. But for your average person it's nearly impossible. Interestingly though, on the way there, we saw lots of Cubans in the Cancun airport, going back to Cuba with their purchases of TVs and mattresses, presumably purchases at the Cancun Wal-Mart (yes, they have a Wal-Mart☹). Prices and scarcity of certain things, make it worth flying to Cancun (only 1 hour away granted) and paying a fee to put something as big as a queen size mattress on a plane back to Cuba. I sincerely wondered if our plane would be so heavy that it might not make that short trip over the Caribbean with how many mattresses and TVs we saw literally stacked up.  

Nevertheless, Cubans know how to enjoy life, much of the time through the music. Music and dancing is a big part of the Cuban lifestyle. Their government may have a lot of restrictions for them and few opportunities, but from the outside perspective, they seem to still find a lot of happiness in their everyday lives.  

Yes, the cars are truly everywhere. I'd say that 1 out of every 3 cars you see on the road is a 50s' American car. 

Cuban Food

If you go to Cuba thinking you will eat great food, you will be sorely disappointed. You don’t go to Cuba for the food; you go for the people and their culture with their 50s' cars, colorful buildings, and their uniquely Cuban music. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the best typical Cuban meal we ate there was probably the ropa vieja. It’s shredded beef in a yummy red sauce that is not spicy at all but really flavorful. We also enjoyed the Cuban sandwiches. Aside from that, the food is surprisingly boring. I got the idea that food is more of a sustenance thing for them and they don’t necessarily have the luxury of fine ingredients or experimenting with food. In fact, having just been to Miami again, I will say that the Cuban food in Miami is better than the Cuban food in Cuba, and I think that mainly has to do with access (financial and pure availability of ingredients). In Miami, I discovered that I liked yuca and tostones as well. 

The Tourist Track

A foreigner would have to put a lot of effort into not getting put on what I call “the tourist track”. We went with the intention of not getting directed down this more expensive and less authentic version of Cuba, but at every turn, people directed us that way without us even knowing. If you ask a Cuban where a good restaurant is they will tell you an expensive touristy restaurant rather than where the Cubans themselves actually eat out. If you ask about transportation, they make sure you get a ride in a colectivo (50s' car shared with other foreigners) or taxi rather than a cheaper mode of transportation like a bus.  

Even when you specifically ask them in Spanish for a restaurant where the locals eat, in most cases you will still get redirected and you won’t know until you've arrived that it’s not where the Cuban people themselves eat. Two out of maybe ten attempts to eat where the Cubans eat were successful. The first time because I spotted a place while wandering the streets of Havana alone while trying to find bottled water while Jesus was buying our colectivo tickets to Viñales. A young man asked if he could help me find something. Of course, I was suspicious, as I’ve been led on uninvited “adventures” before or been essentially charged (demanded I give them money) after someone acted as though they were just being nice when helping a lost looking foreigner find something (ie Puerto Vallarta). But I am also a risk-taker, so I followed the man into a nearby Cuban neighborhood. We posted up in a line of maybe six people with a very busy looking host manning the front at what looked to be a restaurant. The man I was with politely shouted to the front of the line, so the host could hear. “Can you give us a bottle of water?”. The young man quickly obliged even though we were at the back of the line, charging us a much cheaper price than what we had found thus far in Havana. “Hmmm”, I thought “this is the real Cuba that I’ve heard about”. One of the other things that made this a dead give away was that they charged in the Cuban peso, also known as the CUP. Cuba has two currencies, one related to tourism (the CUC) and one used by the Cuban people. You could easily get by the entire time with just CUC, since everyone tries to steer you down that route, but we had also exchanged some dollars for some CUP so that we could try and access the real Cuban lifestyle. That is the first time in my travels that I was working with two sets of currency, with totally different exchange rates. Trying to keep them separated and understand what-was-what had me a little confused at times, but it was worth it to be able to eat in a couple of restaurants where the actual Cubans themselves ate.  

Later that day, we returned to that restaurant and ate a huge bowl of chicken and rice with a cerveza for less than $3 while salsa music played in the background. Of course, I made Jesus dance with me which must have been entertaining, because we felt eyes watching us from outside the surrounding apartments. Our only other experience with the real Cuban lifestyle and the CUP was when we returned to Havana at the end of our trip. We found a place that was serving food outside the window of their house. It was, again a giant plate of rice but this time with shredded pork. All started out well, but not far into the dish I found a course, curly hair. I kept quiet as the hosts hung out there while we ate, and Jesus scarfed his down. I think that meal costed us less than $2. Obviously, these things happen no matter where you’re eating, but I definitely lost my appetite early on in that meal, while Jesus says it was one of his favorite meals from the trip. I think he just liked the quantity for the price, and the fact that we were eating outside someone’s apartment window. Plus, they were a super friendly family who you could tell derived a lot of pleasure from serving the people. 

One of the rare moments we were able to get off the "tourist track". 

The under-the-table out-the-window restaurant.

Playa del Este 30 minutes outside of Havana. You can take a tourist bus that leaves from one of the main town squares. 

The calm, crystal waters of the southern coast. This just is before Playa Ancon coming from La Boca.

We rode bikes that we rented for $5 from our Airbnb hosts and saw many nice beaches along the way. It was hard to choose which one, they were all so beautiful. 

We got there in the morning to get a good spot. As you can see, we did. Surprisingly you could still order a mojito at this hour as the "cocktail servers" get there early as well.

Parking lot at one of the beaches. Told you they're everywhere.

The beautiful small city of Trinidad

I could watch this couple for hours. Sadly they only danced one song for us. Aren't they amazing though?

Roaming the streets of Trinidad

A barrio in Trinidad

Chariot crossing. No, for real. People ride in what I would call farmer's chariot through the streets there. 

And then there's me, the non-latina, doing my best to keep up with the guy we met who's tried to make it to the U.S. three times to be with his wife and daughter. This and the video of the couple dancing salsa took place at La Casa de la Musica in Trinidad where you can dance any and every night of the week to live salsa music. 

Viñales

I wish we would have spent two nights instead of just one in Viñales. We spent half of a day just getting there in a “colectivo” (also a car from the 50s) from Havana. Plus, it is a small town with cute little brightly colored houses that is very manageable for foreigners to navigate on foot. For a town of it’s size, it has a fairly decent night life going on there as well.

One funny thing we noticed in the bars, is that there seems to be a sort of tourism where young, handsome Cuban guys make old, single foreign women feel fun and beautiful for the night. Not sure what happens after they dance the night away, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was some exchanging of goods and services. That was an interesting phenomena we noticed. More of that side hustle I presume. 

In our short, less than 24 hours in Viñales, we road horseback through the tobacco fields; smoked  organic, hand rolled Cuban cigars; drank a special rum drink from the area that is garnished with a piece of sugar cane; watched a horse race between a child and an adult (see video); learned about the Cuban cowboy culture and went bar hopping. Phew! You can see why I would have liked some more time here.  We were so pooped that the next morning we didn’t wake up in time for breakfast and our hosts had to come wake us up because our taxi was on its way. 

Learning about cigars from this character. 

That time I opened my big mouth, saying I had some experience riding horses before, and got stuck with this bastard horse Piquiri (pronounced Pea-Key-REE). He was in such competition with the rest of the horses that he ended up hurting one of the women on the tour because he took off at full speed on a tight trail, pushing past all other horses. He just HAD to be the leader. Ay, Piquiri! 

Cuban cowboys! This little guy had some cojones racing against an adult at that speed.  

The great Cuban crab migration. We had to change vehicles, because there were so many crossing the road for miles upon miles, that the cab driver was afraid they would pop his tire. The funny part was when he first warned us about this, I thought he said there would be rabbits crossing the roads and getting smashed like crazy. You see cangrejo (crab) and conejo (rabbit) sort of sound alike and my brain heard rabbit. I was imagining this giant rabbit massacre and once we got on the road it turned out to be a giant crab massacre, which was a little less shocking to my system but still gross and sad. We ran over hundreds and hundreds of crabs for at least 20 miles of highway as they migrated to try and lay their eggs. 

The legendary Tropicana on the outskirts of  Havana

With a nightcap included.

What a fun and enlightening trip! I would love to go back someday - see some other parts of the island, dance more salsa and just absorb more of that intriguing culture. It is truly a unique place and everything I hoped it would be. Gracias Cuba!