Recently I have been reminiscing on one of my favorite trips from this summer: CUBA! My friend Caroline and I had such a fun week traveling to Havana, Vinales, and Varadero Cuba. We learned so much about the culture, economics and history of the country, met amazing people from Cuba, Australia, Canada, Holland, Washington, and Texas, saw incredible sights, and rode in some fabulous vintage cars.
Havana, Cuba
We arrived in Havana mid-afternoon and went to exchange our money. In Cuba, they have two currencies (CUC for travelers, and the Cuban peso for locals - which is worth significantly less). We got a taxi from the airport to the place we would be staying (We later would realize that our taxi driver totally punked us by giving us our change in Cuban pesos hahaha). We stayed in casa particulars throughout our time in Cuba in which we stayed with individuals there who had sleeping accommodations for travelers. In Havana, we stayed at Marluis House with the sweetest couple! They were so helpful when we needed directions, and they were so kind to us by offering us coffee and inquiring about our days. We hit the ground running to explore El Vedado. We wanted to meander through Necropolic Christobal Colon, but it had closed a few minutes before we arrived. We still got to view it from the perimeter and enjoyed walking and taking in tour initial views of Cuba. We went to Plaza de Revolucion, a flea market, and walked around at the National Hotel (which is said to resemble to The Breakers!) THANK GOODNESS the Caroline had brought two different travel books on Cuba that she had checked out from her library, because we relied on them the ENTIRE time we were in Cuba to look up directions to the places we wanted to go to and to find places to eat at. These books came in SO handy, especially due to lack of any kind of cell service (unless you bought a wifi login and stumbled upon an internet hot spot location - which were easy to find since there were typically large crowds in that area, but were only useful for posting a quick Instagram picture!)
While we walked from place to place, we got many stares, remarks, and questions from Cubans asking where we were from. We tried our best to ignore them, but was as if they had never seen light skin and light haired travelers from America (which they probably had not due to the travel restrictions...) Regardless, we never felt unsafe, and just assumed they were interested in Americans. At first, we thought it was comical, then we got annoyed by it, and then eventually we came to terms with it and just took the remarks as compliments! It left us with a nice boost of self-esteem nonetheless!
The second day was absolutely amazing. We spent the day exploring Habana Vieja, which is the historic old Havana. We saw the iconic colorful buildings, bright, shiny, and flamboyant vintage cars, and amazing architecture! We had a BLAST riding around in a hot pink convertible around Havana and down the Malecon, the boulevard along the sea. Our taxi driver let us sit on the top of the seats and many people would honk and wave at us - it was SO fun and absolutely one of my favorite memories. We went to the central park, saw the capitol building, cathedrals, and El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio (two of Hemingway's favorite places!) After we ate supper and chugged water (after not being able to find anywhere to get water all day), we watched the sunset on the Malecon, which was the perfect end to an awesome day!
The third day we discovered our favorite (and likely the nicest) restaurant in Havana called El Biky where I drank the BEST cappuccino I have ever had! It was so nice to enjoy a yummy meal, as some of the food we ate was not the most delicious. We then got a taxi and headed to our next destination: the beautiful countryside of Vinales (which I had no idea I would enjoy so much, but it was my favorite city that we visited while in Cuba!) It was an interesting taxi ride, as our drive picked up two hitchhikers on our way (which is supposedly quite common there!) and stopped to buy a juice from a person selling it alongside the highway.
Vinales, Cuba
Once we got to Vinales, we went to our casa particular, grabbed lunch at a cute cafe overlooking the mogotes, then took off towards a popular cave. We walked so many miles away from town, and decided we would hitch hike back to town. It just so happened that a bus full of Cuban men, who we assumed had been working and were heading home, stopped to drop off a passenger right across the road. They stuck their heads and arms out the window and excitedly motioned for us to get on, saying they were going to Vinales. Carol and I exchange glances, and hopped on! It was SO fun and they were so nice trying to communicate with us and compliment us (have I mentioned that we don't speak Spanish very well and no one there speaks English very well??) We exchanged many smiles and laughs, although we had no clue what they were saying. We got to Vinales, hopped off, and they all smiled and waved goodbye at us as they drove off. What a THRILL! That night we went to our favorite restaurant in Vinales, Tres Jotas where we had the most delicious bread EVER. We met two awesome girls from Washington and we all went salsa dancing that night at Casa de la Musica! Cubans are EXCELLENT at salsa dancing!
The next day in Vinales was even more fun. Caroline and I rented a moped for the day and zoomed all over the Vinales countryside. Of course we wore outfits that we could get a good tan in while riding in the hot sun... First we went to a cave called Cuevos de San Tomas, which was neat - but in order to get to the cave, we had to HIKE up the side of a cliff... We could hardly manage to get up the cliff due to laughing so hard about how we probably should have worn something a little more suitable for the activity (although we probably were the best dressed spelunkers there)! We then went to lunch at Murales de Prehistorica where we ate an authentic family style Cuban meal of perfectly cooked pork, beans, rice, potatoes, veggies, fruit, chocolate pudding (?), coffee, and refrescos nacional naranja (orange national softdrinks!!!). So yummy! We then took off on our moped (laughing and singing along the way, and honking at every person we passed!) We went to a tobocco plantation, went swimming at a PINK hotel, met up with the girls we had met from Washington again at Tres Jotas, and salsa danced the night away with friends from all over the world! Such a fun and unforgettable day!
Veradero, Cuba
The next day we got a taxi to Veradero - which is a 13 mile long peninsula lined with fancy hotels. We enjoyed the stunning beaches: clear blue water and white sands! We hadn't planned on staying the night, but we decided to last minute and it was quite a hassle to get a place to stay! We saw a beautiful beach sunset that night and relaxed on the beach the second day. It was even more difficult to find a taxi back to Havana the next day - but we ended up taking a tour bus back hahaha. It ended up taking forever, but was a memory nonetheless! Although we enjoyed Veradero, I would not consider it to be authentic Cuba due to the height of tourism there.
Havana, Cuba
We had one more full day in Havana, and walked in search of the Industriales Baseball Stadium. We found it, but it was closed for the season. However, there were some people working inside and after being many attempts to get inside (everyone kept telling us that they were not allowed to let us in), we finally asked a group of guys and they were more than willing to let us in! Although it was quite old and not anywhere near as fancy as baseball stadiums that American major league teams play in, it was neat! Then we went back to Old Havana and ate at Hotel Inglaterra, which is the oldest hotel in Cuba. We went to some museums and shopped along Ospisbo street. Then we took a ferry (the most crowded and stinky ferry ever) to Casablanca where we visited the Monte Cristo, a huge and beautiful statue of Christ. Back in Havana we did some more exploring and sight seeing, and ended our last night with supper at El Biky!
It could not have been a more amazing trip full of adventures, beautiful places, awesome people, and GREAT memories. If you ever have the chance to go to Cuba, GO! It's 100% save and 110% incredible. If you are planning on going to Cuba or want any information, I love to talk about it and would be glad to help in any way!
Enjoy today! Love,
