Cuba Trip Report
courtesy of bpete@voy.net

I was having second thoughts about going to Cuba after receiving the following email note in response to a post on rec.travel.caribbean:

"Im assuming your American. There are somethings you should know

"1)Your Mastercard/Visa/Amex drawn on american bank will not be honored in Cuba. This may make it difficult to rent a car or reserve a hotel room

"2)Amex travelers checks also will not be honored in Cuba, nor is their any tourist support for Americans in Cuba, nor will any other checks based out of the US. Nor will you be able to get Cash advances on any of your credit cards. If you get robbed your SOL

"3) What you will have to do is buy Checks in Mexico, probably Thomas Cook or something similar. not based in a US bank.

"4) You get sick in Cuba your also SOL.

"5) Travel to Cuba is still technically illegal,so there is no embassy to go to. and If the US govt wants to make an example out of you when you get back, your also SOL.

"6) You really cant bring anything back from Cuba that would make that itself worth going (cigars).

"Im not saying dont go but be aware of these things before you do decide to go. Understand why you are going to Cuba, and ask yourself if you couldnt do these things somewhere else in the Carribean."

Then, the day before I left, I read a post on rec.travel.caribbean that said Cuba was "sad" and was a bad vacation destination. Whew, I thought to myself that I was making a bad decision. But I couldn't have been more wrong. (And you don't need a credit card to rent a car -- just a deposit of around $200 -- or to stay in a hotel.)

My brother and I arrived in Cancun, rented a car ($25/day), and headed over to Divermex travel agency to pick up our documents. I recommend Divermex highly. Amira Rosado there speaks pretty good English, too, in case one's Spanish needs bailing out. For $301 each, we got three nights at the Havana Riviera hotel, R/T air on Cubana, breakfasts, transfers, and Cuban tourist cards. We got R/T air from the U.S. to Cancun for an incredible $168 each on a Mexicana charter through Apple Tours. Mexicana is an outstanding airline. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Club de Golf in Cancun for $52. A nice hotel in a pleasant area -- near the Robert Trent Jones-designed golf course. We were going to get some travellers checks in Mexico, but the first three banks we tried didn't have any, so we said to heck with it.

The Cubana plane ride to Havana was hilarious -- an adventure in itself. It was an old Russian prop plane. The man next to me said it was one of the first to come over to Cuba from Russia. It was "general admission" seating. No safety announcements. People holding bags in their laps. The interior of the plane was a bit long in the tooth. One of the flight attendants was kneeling in the aisle as the plane took off. And the plane was HOT! Everybody on the plane was soaking wet before it even took off. After the plane was in the air, a flight attendant came down the aisle offering candy on a tray, which seemed ironic to me. I mean, why?! It's not making things any better! Then a mist started coming out along the top of the cabin. I guess this was air conditioning, because the plane did start to cool off. This flight actually had food service -- half a sandwich and an apple tart, with drink. It was darn good!

As the plane lands in Havana, I start to get nervous. I'm a total basket case as we get to immigration, because I'm expecting the worst: a stamp! I politely ask him not to stamp my passport, and he just looks back down at his desk. "Welcome to Cuba," he says as he hands me my passport. I thumb through it and find no stamp. My brother comes through looking like he just saw a ghost. "LOOK!" On page 16 was a generic-looking green stamp. The stamp said nothing about Cuba and had no date. He then grabs my passport from me and shows me that I too have one. Ugh. On the bus, we meet a group of five Americans. They, too, got stamped. Everybody we spoke with from that plane got stamped. The stamps were all on page 16 of the passports.

I had emailed Vinales Tours in Cuba before leaving and asked about this. I was told that indeed I would get a stamp but that it would say nothing about Cuba and would have no date. I had seen many publications that said, "Just ask immigration not to stamp it and they won't." Well, this didn't ease my fears in the slightest, because being the king of bad luck, I knew I'd get stamped with some kind of stamp -- even if it were a smiley face! I think the publications that write this should reconsider their words. What if you run into an immigration person who doesn't like the way you look? What if he/she has had a bad day? Anyhow, people should be told that the chances of getting stamped -- even if it is not the official Cuban stamp -- are as good as not getting one. That's my read on it.

On the van on the way to the hotel, a person from Uruguay asked our guide why his stamp in his passport did not say "Cuba" -- like the stamp on the tourist card. The guide responded that this was to protect the US citizens. I thought, yeah, but surely US immigration can figure out what these stamps mean after a while! I get the feeling that Cuba is changing these stamps to keep US immigration guessing. A Canadian who visited Cuba a few weeks before we did wrote to me that his stamp read "AERO" -- nothing like ours.

In the airport on our way back home, we asked several Americans if they had been stamped, and all had. Some didn't even know it. "Heck, I never get stamped...been here a million times and never been stamped...oh sh!t." One Cuban-American lady was irate when I showed her the stamp. She demanded an explanation from a Cuban official. He told her that it was not the official Cuban stamp and to not worry. Still, I'd rather not have had it. I figured that because of some recent trouble in Cuba (a couple of bombs), Cuba decided they had to keep better tabs on people who come into the country; thus the stamps. But I fear news of these stamps may scare many Americans -- and their money -- away from the island.

Enough on the stamps. Customs was a little exhausing for me. They took everything out of both of my bags. The lady flipped through every magazine and book I had. We had to go through metal detectors and were frisked by hand. Our passports were checked around 4 or 5 times throughout the process. I thought this was a sign of things to come, but it wasn't. Once you're in, Cuba is a relaxed place. Police there are just like anywhere else.

Once through customs and immigration, we had to sit on the van for about 45 minutes to wait for another flight to arrive. Our tour company was Havanatur. I didn't mind the wait. The van was cool and comfortable and allowed me to settle down! Finally we were off for our hotel. I won't soon forget the ride from Jose Marti International Airport to our hotel. Poor Havana is crumbling. People riding bicycles everywhere, the old American and Russian cars -- the pictures we'd seen of Cuba were coming to life right in front of us. I'm all of a sudden not looking forward to the three days ahead of us. That would soon change.

The Havana Riviera hotel has a 50s look to it, which I liked. They've started to renovate it and are doing a great job. Once they're finished installing the new carpet, it will look great. Looks like they've done about four floors so far. They also have the lobby to re-carpet. The rooms have new curtains, beautiful bathrooms with new fixtures, mini-fridges, new TVs (CNN, Cartoon Network -- Ted Turner channels -- ESPN, a couple of Cuban channels, and a channel from Spain), and magnetic card door locks. Some of the highlights from Cuban TV were the baseball games and the long-winded speeches by Cuban politicians. No commercials between innings of the baseball games, only great Cuban music. It was strange to see coaches hit grounders to the infielders between innings. There was also a good interview show with a very talented hostess who no doubt would be as popular as Cristina is in Latin America and the U.S. Rooms with in-room safes were available for $2/day. The guide recommended this and since the hotel strangely didn't have a safe deposit box, we forked over the $6 to get a room with a safe.

After we got settled in, I wanted to go over to see the Melia Cohiba hotel across the street. As soon as we got out the door of our hotel, we could see the street hustlers start to move toward us. Some wanted to sell cigars, others offered cheap taxi rides, others wanted to take us to paladares (private restaurants). (By the way, don't buy cigars off the street. As everybody will tell you, they're likely fakes.) We got a good head of steam up and just blew by them. It is like this everytime you leave any tourist spot in the city. This is why it's bad that tourists encourage these street hustlers by doing business with them. Well, I don't mind the taxi guys. The other ones I could do without. We finally got across the street to the Melia Cohiba hotel. It is brand new and is probably the best hotel in Cuba. It has several shops, restaurants, bars, and a great cigar store! We had lunch in the Italian restaurant there. The Italian restaurant there was the only one in the hotel that would let you in wearing shorts, and we didn't feel like going back and changing into pants. I know, I know -- why go to Cuba and eat Italian food. It was just this once. We were hungry! Looking out over this luxury hotel's pool at the run-down buildings surrounding the hotel, I couldn't get over the contrasts.

That night we got a "pirata" taxi to give us a tour around town for $10. The pirate taxi drivers are just people doing this on their own time in their own cars to make some dollars. We took several rides with pirata taxis and felt safe. I really don't feel there is any risk going with these guys. It was getting late and there were prostitutes all over the place. Sorry to bring this up, but to get an accurate picture of Cuba, you have to. They are absolutely everywhere at night. We gave the taxi driver the $10 and a $2 tip, because he was good. One thing we had a hard time doing was shaking the taxi drivers off of us, because we had dollars. This one wanted to know what we were going to do the next day.

He said we really didn't need to sleep past 8 and that he'd be at our hotel at 8:30. Then he said we could sleep until 9. He wanted a time so he could be waiting for us. I told him I had no idea what we'd be doing the next day. But he would not give up and we finally had to walk away as he continued to push us for a time. We had to do this a couple of times with other drivers. We bumped into this first taxi driver the next day wandering the hotel looking for us. We told him we had other plans, which we did.

In no particular order, here are some of the sights we saw and things we did. Walking around Habana Vieja was a treat, although we constantly had to shake off the street hustlers. A Cuban woman approached us and offered to pose for a picture with us. She was a beautiful older lady and was wearing traditional Cuban attire. We gave her $1 tip. After that, a very nice street hustler approached us and I got an idea. I told my brother that we should let him show us around. The other hustlers aren't as likely to approach you if they see you are "taken." It was worth giving this guy a couple of dollars to keep the others away from us. And he really was a nice person.

We went to El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio -- two famous Hemingway hangouts. We got the daiquiri at Floridita and the mojito at La B del M. The walls of La B del M are covered with signatures, so we added ours, too.

Saw the Plaza de Armas. We walked around the Catedral and the wooden road nearby -- the only one in Cuba. We also went inside the "castillo" fort, where there are many things to see and buy.

Then we saw the Hotel Ambos Mundos, where Hemingway stayed in Room 511. This hotel has been beautifully renovated. It's amazing to see this gem surrounded by the decaying buildings. The hotel is just like the "after" in an Architectural Digest "before and after" piece. The lobby has a bar and a nice shop. We took the elevator to the roof where there is an incredible open-air restaurant/bar. Just awesome! I'd read in a travel guide that this hotel is a "cheapy." This just shows how out-of-date many of these guides are. The best of the Cuba guides is the Lonely Planet, in my opinion. As we gave our "guide" a tip, he invited us to his house for lobster. We thanked him but passed on this.

Another taxi driver suggested we eat lunch at a paladar. He took us to El Gringo Viejo. Up until then, I had the wrong image of these private restaurants in my mind. I didn't understand that these paladares are just like little restaurants. I figured you were just eating dinner with a Cuban family. We enjoyed El Gringo Viejo. It had ceiling fans, a little bar, four or five tables, kitchen had every modern appliance (including microwave oven). Food was delicious. There was even a nice sign outside the place. I believe the rule states they can't have more than 12 seats in these paladares. I was a little confused upon seeing El Gringo Viejo. I thought Cuba was suffering. It is, but how did they get the money to run a restaurant like this? Where did they buy a microwave? Just goes to show what those dollars they earn can do. If you have dollars, you can buy anything in Cuba.

We met another American at El Gringo Viejo. He joked that he was disappointed to see other Americans in town. But then he started to give us some good advice about Havana. He invited us by his casa particular and it was beautiful with great atmosphere. We decided to go the hotel route on our first trip, but if I ever go back, I'll stay in a casa particular -- like so many people have recommended on the net. They are much cheaper and it appears that one can get very nice accomodations in a casa particular. We brought some stuff to give away and he said he'd give it to a church. I just didn't want to stand out in the street and hand it out. This causes problems. Our American friend gave us some Cuban money as a souvenir, since we didn't have any yet. One of the bills we got was a 3 peso Che bill. It was a pleasant evening when we went over to his casa, and people were outside talking. His neighbor heard us speaking English and told us he had graduated from Duke. I really enjoyed talking with him. Well, the whole situation was very pleasant, and I think I could have moved in on the spot!

Later in the trip, we drove us around the Capitolio and around Vedado. Behind the Capitolio is the Partagas cigar factory and store, which we saw. Also saw the U. of Havana, Jose Marti monument, national library, and the great hospital there that attracts patients from all over. Saw the Museum of the Revolution and the old city hall. We went out to the morro (accessed by tunnel) to take pictures. The view of Havana from out there is breathtaking. I thought to myself at that time that whenever the town is fixed up, it will be the most beautiful in the world. It probably is anyhow.

We later went by the U.S. Interests Section building. Out in front of it is the famous sign that says, "Hey Imperialists, we have absolutely no fear of you!" We took turns taking pictures of each other in front of the sign. I have to wonder why we have such a huge "Interests Section" building in Havana, when we have few interests in Cuba at the present time. A couple of people asked us if we felt unpatriotic by travelling to Cuba. Not at all. We can travel to communist China legally, and it's no different than Cuba. In fact, it's probably worse. So going to Cuba didn't bother me at all. It's all politics.

One of the highlights of the trip for my brother was getting to scuba dive with Jorge Mario Garcia, a Cuban who holds the world record for deep diving without a tank. His record is 72 meters. My brother had met an Irish guest in our hotel who was also a diver and the tourist bureau at our hotel set up a time with Mario. The three of them did a shore dive near Marina Hemingway. The drive out there through Miramar was beautiful. Miramar is where many of the embassies are located. I went along to translate as best as I could. Mario is a great guy and my brother and the Irishman really got a kick out of diving with him. They took some beautiful pictures. After that we all knocked down some Mayabe beers at a restaurant there.

Later on, we went through the Hotel Nacional. This is probably the second-best hotel in Havana. Many famous people have stayed here. The poster who described Havana as "sad" said that the Nacional is really a one-star hotel and not a five-star. Just by the way it looked, I'd give it a good four stars. Heck, even the Riviera, where we stayed, was a solid three-star hotel by U.S. standards.

Another paladar we went to was La Casa Colonial. Most of the places in Havana are run down, but this house was not. It was in immaculate shape. We were led out to the patio where we were brought drinks an an appetizer of "croquettes." They were some kind of chicken croquettes that had been fried. Delicious. The patio had wicker furniture and beautiful plants. Really nice. We were eating this up. Then they led us to the table for the meal. Great service, beautiful presentation, delicious food. We got homemade vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce for desert. There cannot be too many paladares in Havana better than this one. It was an elegant setting. Nice artwork on the walls, tile floors, bottles of wine and rum on display, etc. Probably a little more expensive than your average paladar, but darn good.

The Riviera was only about five blocks from there, so we walked. We noticed that nobody along our walk hit us up for any money. Just about the only place you'll get hit up for money is around the touristy places. Don't encourage them. Talking to a taxi driver, I told him that Havana wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I said correct me if I'm wrong, but even though the country is in a bad state, Cuba isn't quite as bad off as I thought. He said I was right. For example, gas is easily bought now that the Mexican firm is selling there. I believe the company is called "Servi-Cupet."

One morning during our stay, I decided to go for a jog. I was told that most joggers get their running done in the morning. I looked out the window and didn't see anybody jogging but went out anyhow. When I got out there, I saw a few joggers. A funny thing happened crossing the street. I wanted to cross the street to run by the ocean -- like everybody else. Cuba is known for not having many cars. There's no traffic at all on the island. So I figured I'd just run out the door and across the street with no problem. Well, as luck would have it, every car in Havana was passing the hotel just as I got out there. I barely made it halfway across the street and had to pray for my life while standing on the yellow lines as cars whizzed by me. Everybody was honking at me and I was really feeling like an idiot. Finally, the way cleared and I crossed the rest of the street in one piece. Whew! What kind of problems would we have had if I'd gotten hit!

Running along the Malecon along the ocean in Havana, Cuba, got the adrenaline pumping, and I was flying down the Malecon -- relatively speaking. As I reached around one mile in my five-mile run, a very athletic-looking jogger passed me going in the other direction. We crossed right around the U.S. Interests Section. We nodded at each other. Before I know it, he's right next to me. He had turned around and I guess just wanted someone to run or chat with. This guy was way out of my league and was running much faster than I had been. I faked it for about a mile and then told him I had to back off or I was going to keel over! He didn't mind at all and slowed down to my pace. We had a nice conversation. He said he runs the 1500 meters competitively. I mentioned some Cuban track stars: Javier Sotomayor, Ana Quirot, Ivan Pedroso, and of course the legendary Alberto Juantorena. We talked about all of them and about track in general. I told him I was a Tennessee track fan and mentioned our two NCAA titles. There was a big track meet at Pan American Stadium during our stay, but we did not go. Crossing the road back to the hotel was much easier upon my return. Form held, and there were -- thank goodness -- no cars in sight in either direction!

Last thing we did was yet another taxi tour. This one was the best. This driver was a real corker. He pointed out the difference between places that take, as he called them in his broken English, "Cuban dollars" and "American dollars." He'd ask us, "What do you think -- Cuban dollar or American dollar?" If it were nice we'd say "American." "Right!" he'd answer. "Beautiful, lights, everything..." Then we'd come up to a not-so-nice place. We'd say "Cuban dollar." "Right! Ugly, no lights, nothing..." It was fairly easy to distinguish between the two. He took us by probably fifteen of each type of place. Then we came up to another place, and he says, "Cuban dollar, but the best sandwiches in town." We screamed, "STOP!" We swung it in and he changed a couple of our dollars into Cuban money for us from a black market guy. Then he ordered three sandwiches to go and three glasses of an orange drink for there. We downed the drink and took off. The sandwiches were wrapped in grey paper. He got his with soft bread. Because he needed new dentures, he couldn't bite through the traditional hard crust bread. I could hardly wait to get back to the hotel to eat them. Were they ever good! When we got back, the taxi bill was around $14 dollars. It was at the end of the trip and we had more money left than I'd thought we'd have, so I gave him a $20 and told him to keep the change. He really appreciated that! He told us he is our "grandfather" whenever we come to Cuba. God bless him. He was typical of the wonderful Cuban people. They were the highlight of the trip and more than anything made us want to hang around.

One thing all the taxi drivers told us is that Americans are the best tippers. They mentioned a few European and South American countries that are bad about this. Cubans, if they can get the dollars, can get anything they need. One other thing we did was go by the port where there was an Italian cruise ship docked. Beautiful sight at night. Wow, wouldn't that be the way to travel to Havana! Of course, by docking there, that ship can't dock in the U.S. for 6 months. That's one of the purposes of the U.S. Interests Section -- to keep an eye on ships. The U.S. Interests Section building is about 10 stories tall and has a great view of the ocean. One has to wonder the amount of tax money we're blowing there. Not to mention Guantanamo.

It was time to leave, and we had to meet the Havanatur bus outside the hotel at 6:30 am. First, a hotel housekeeper had to check the room to make sure everything was still there. This is standard procedure for this hotel. The road to the airport didn't seem so shocking as the road in. It had to be a different route. Plus, we were used to Havana now. Getting out of Cuba was much easier than getting in. We flew a jet this time to Cancun. Much nicer but still not anything near the standards of your typical U.S. airline. Food service was the same as before: candy, half sandwich, apple tart, drink. On this Russian jet, there were only overhead shelves -- with no doors -- for carry-on baggage. Taking the tickets at the bottom of the stairs of the plane were two Cuban military people. When we got back to Cancun, I asked the immigrations guy there if he would not stamp our passports. The two entry stamps wouldn't look good. All he wanted was a 5 dollar tip. No problem.

When we got to Cancun, we got all the Cuba stuff we'd aquired and shoved it into a FedEx box and mailed it back. Didn't want that stuff on us at customs back in the U.S. We had bought some cigars in Cuba, but you can buy Cuban cigars in Mexico, too. We asked if we could put cigars in there anyhow and were told we could not. We asked if we did so anyway, if they would find them. "Oh, yes." So we just put the t-shirts, airline tickets, magazines -- all kinds of stuff -- in the box and sent it off. Cost was under $40. It all got back with no problem. We were a little nervous upon getting back to the U.S., but the guy at immigration just passed our passports on through the computer and that was it! We were going to lie till Kingdom Come if they'd asked us if we'd been to Cuba. They were going to have to prove it. If they had asked us about the stamps, we were just going to say we didn't know where we'd gotten them. There was nothing on us that proved we'd been to Cuba (the stamps did not say "Cuba"), so to heck with them. But I think next time, we'll take birth certificates to get back into the U.S. -- just in case.

It was a wonderful trip and I'm looking forward to going back. We decided after the second day there that even if they put us in handcuffs upon returning to the U.S., it would be worth it. We had that much fun. The icing on the cake was that customs did not check our bags and we got about $400 worth of Habanos in -- Montecristos and Cohibas! They were buried in my brother's diving gear and it would have taken the jaws of life to get them out anyhow!

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