Cuba Libre
As regular readers will know, I’ve now gotten hitched, so I’ll probably have a lot less to blog about in the future – even I run out of crap to prattle about eventually. But my documentation of the whole wedding experience wouldn’t be complete without a review of my honeymoon in Cuba. I last wrote about this when we booked the holiday back in February, but what did we make of Cuba? And more importantly, what did Cuba make of us?
First, a bit about the itinerary. As previously mentioned, we were looking for a reasonable balance between sitting in the sun for a week and doing a bit of culture and visiting a new country – I get easily bored on the beach, which inevitably leads to drink-related shenanigans… So after a bit of shopping around we decided on Cuba, and booked with Kuoni. They seemed to offer the best range of top-end hotels and packages, and – most importantly – they were happy to tailor the entire itinerary to suit our needs (even down to arranging a classic car to pick us up from the airport). In fact, I should offer my apologies to Kate at Kuoni, who patiently re-quoted me about six times as I prevaricated about virtually everything!
"Can I drive it? NO? OK then."
So, the plan fell together – Three nights in a posh suite at the NH Parque Central in Havana, followed by eight nights in the beach resort of Varadero, at the Blau. Both of these locations are also pretty central, offering us the opportunity to do a few day trips etc. (without spending the whole fortnight travelling). So after a relatively painless flight, we touched down in Havana airport! Then began the only major problem of the holiday – currency.
In a nutshell, Cuba has two currencies – the Cuban peso, which the locals use, and the convertible peso (CUC), which is for tourists and businesses etc., and is tracked to the US dollar (USD). However, due to strict currency movement rules, you can’t get either of these before you travel. You also can’t use USD there, or anything to do with a US bank, due to the ongoing trade embargo. Traveller’s cheques will work there, but so will Visa or Mastercard – or so we were told by our banks. The wife’s card was blocked (despite a call to Natwest the week before to tell them we were going!) – so we had to go through a difficult and very stressful process of calling their local office to get it unblocked. I further found out that my Santander card wouldn’t work at all, because apparently it had been issued by a US company (despite Santander being Spanish?). I’m not going to go on about this, but it can be a huge problem there, so check before you go, and take enough cash (sterling not USD) to cover you for a couple of days if you get stuck.
This was a bit of a bad start, but once it was sorted we could start to chill. The hotel room was massive (it seriously had about three bathrooms), and the place was lovely (if a bit posh-touristy). You can see across the whole city from the rooftop pool bar, which is where we spent our first night, drinking mohitos and smoking Cohibas (well I was smoking Cohibas, Mrs. P has more respect for her body). Drinks aren’t super-cheap here – expect to pay about USD5 for a decent cocktail – but it will have about five shots of rum in it, so go easy! TBH you might not want to drink a huge amount of spirits here due to the heat, but the local lager Cristal is a great alternative.
Kickin' back the Cuban way.
Havana can be hectic, particularly if you’re in a posh hotel near the old town, as a lot of the locals are after a piece of the tourist peso. This usually takes the form of simple peddling, some pretty predictable begging, and some more ingenious scams you need to be careful of. The most simple is the offer to take you to a great bar/restaurant or the mythical “salsa festival” which always seems to be going on somewhere – but they’re not trying to mug you, they just get a bonus from the bar owners for every tourist they drag in.
Other scams include asking for help in some way – the wife got done by a convincingly-pregnant woman who wanted her to buy milk, as she said her government ration wasn’t enough. Mrs. P was charged nearly $20, which the woman apparently splits with the shopkeeper, who is in on the scam (the Cuban government actually gives pregnant women unlimited milk vouchers). Also, be aware that anyone dressed up and offering photo opportunities will also expect to be paid handsomely.
But don’t be too scared – these locals are often friendly, colourful and very rarely aggressive. The police are everywhere in tourist Havana and will crack down hard on anyone causing any serious hassle to the tourists. Besides, after a day or two you will stop being so polite and start ignoring them or just saying a firm no – this usually worked. Interestingly, I seemed to get far less hassle when I was on my own, maybe because I look more Cuban or have just perfected that “I’m in a hurry don’t bother me” look from years of dealing with London…
In fact, the rise of tourism has created some interesting and sometimes tragic dichotomies in the country. One of our tour guides studied in Russia, had three university degrees and spoke four languages – but chose to be a guide as he made more in tips on a good day than the government pays him in a month. The whole Varadero peninsula is also off-limits to any Cubans without genuine business there. Seriously, they stop every car at a checkpoint and question them. This made me a bit sad, but this is the price we paid for being able to walk around freely and spend all day on the beach without people constantly trying to sell us shit. The government, like the scammers, has realised the value of the money we bring in, and want us to come back.
Rum. So much rum.
Other than the scammers, Havana was lovely. The amount of history there is astounding – it has links to everything from the slave trade and pirates of the Caribbean right up to Ché Guevara, and the UNESCO Heritage Site designation means much of it is how the Spanish left it. It’s truly a meeting of the old world and the new world, and evidence of the ongoing spat with the US is everywhere – the trade embargo between the two countries is still strictly enforced, and there is no US embassy on the Island. However, far from the pathos of the communist-era Soviet Union, Cuba is bright, friendly, relaxed and very welcoming – this is socialism with the chilled attitude of the Caribbean. We saw rum being made, went on a tour of Hemmingway’s haunts and caught the legendary Buena Vista Social Club at the Rum Museum, and to be honest I would have liked a couple more days there, but we were on honeymoon, so it was time to start relaxing.
Varadero, as mentioned, is pretty much a huge gated community for tourists, on a peninsula out into the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by perfect white beaches and warm sea. The hotels get more exclusive the further down the coast you go, and there’s even one with a huge golf course, if you want to waste your time in the Caribbean doing that nonsense. This part of Cuba is fine if you want to eat well, drink well (most hotels are all-expenses paid), and lie in the sun, but you won’t see much of the real country if you just stay here. Fortunately, there are plenty of tour companies willing to take you off the peninsula to do just this.
Rum in a coconut and crocodile meat... Are you SURE this is what the locals eat??
Kuoni offered a wide range of trips (including sorting us the tickets for the Buena Vista), but the best was probably a whole-day jeep trip into the bush in the centre of the Island. The roads here aren’t too great, so you need a 4×4 to get properly off the beaten track. The wealth of flora and fauna on the island is amazing, even down to the lazily-circling vultures that are everywhere, and we went snorkelling over a coral reef in the Atlantic (even though Mrs P can’t swim!).
Health and safety seems to be pretty relaxed here – they were also quite happy to let me drive a speedboat with a 10hp outboard with no training whatsoever, and the trip on the steam train in the Bay of Pigs was great as they let us sit on the tender. Unfortunately this relaxed attitude means you’ll see animals being kept in rather small cages etc., and I refused to have anything to do with the filthy dolphin “aquarium” in Varadero. However there are some encouraging signs that the Island is realising the value of its unique wildlife to tourism, and several laws have been recently passed to protect the more endangered species.
Chilling beaches
So, in conclusion, the whole trip was amazing, and I couldn’t recommend it enough, it really was an once-in-a-lifetime experience. Just be aware that visiting Cuba is not like going to Greece or Spain – it is probably the last second-world country left in the world, so should be treated with respect by less experienced travellers, especially as English speakers are few and far between. However, virtually everyone we met was polite, very friendly and happy to help if they could. Plus, if you’re staying in a decent hotel and you stick to the organised tours, you are unlikely to encounter any problems. We not only came back relaxed and tanned (which is the point of a honeymoon after all), but felt like we had had a real adventure that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Although there were a couple of evenings on the mohitos which remain a little hazy…!
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