Get ready for a special report my friends. As my Latin American trip nears its end it escalates accordingly. For my last few days I had a layover in Cuba. Following the cheapest travel routes brought me here. Flights from Colombia to Europe were about thousand dollars in any reasonable time horizon so I had to search for alternatives and Cuba was the one. With my Cuban layover I would make it to Madrid for about half the price than directly from Colombia.
Even if that meant I have to stay four days in Havana I was in. Let's unwind the story to see if it was a good idea...
I should begin with the border control as that was already quite a show. After presenting the officers with all the paperwork and documentation needed we went through a scanner. This checkpoint was easy, standard way like anywhere else. Things out of pockets, shoes of and off you go to their x-ray of some sort. However next step was the customs. Obviously me having just a carry on luggage I didn't had anything to declare, so I was hoping for a smooth passing. It wasn't that easy though. An officer in civil approached me, asked for my passport and additional stupid questions like how much money I have with me for Cuba. I said two hundred dollars as it was somehow what I estimated to spend at tops. Naively I was hoping I would do it just with one hundred. Why that is not enough, we will find out later as by now the officer had my passport and told me to wait with bunch of unfortunate others.
Than a dog arrived. They really had a dog sniffed every single bag of all the visitors, who were not of Cuban nationality. It was rather funny experience not smuggling anything illegal. After this we performed another scan of our luggage and were of to the communist grounds...
First mission was to exchange some cash. This is rather sketchy part in Cuba as their money system is not that efficient. In fact the government rips you of at the very airport first. They give you about half of what is the real exchange rate. Luckily I only exchanged sixty dollars and went of to the taxi drivers. When they asked for thirty dollars I was in shock and refused. I also didn't know where to go as no bookings are really available from abroad. At least not any cheap ones. So I wandered around a little trying to connect to the airport's wifi. That didn't work of course, but at least my phone activated it's GPS and I could hence see where I am on the map.
Any official bus line from the airport is either non-existing or non-functioning. However somehow I was able to find a bus for myself. It turned out to be a ten dollar ride for me. What a weird travel it was. I was the only passenger on the bus. Almost as if the bus was my taxi. I really have no idea what is was. Most likely a rip off, but hey, I have made it to center for twenty bucks cheaper. Driver was talkative and told me things about Cuba I didn't know. In fact I had no idea of what to expect of course. Locals make about a dollar per hour and their stories are rather tragic. I was considering giving the man a tip, but than he was automatically asking for more than what we agreed on and wouldn't open the bus door. So he got his tip included in his rip off... Not nice! But so is the Cuban way of survival.
The hostel of my choice wasn't open when I arrived to the address. I found out it is not going to be as easy to find a room as I thought. Hostels in traditional sense as we know from other countries are non existing. One has to swallow the bitter pill and pay extra for a private apartment. I have visited three of them before accepting the price of hundred dollars for four nights. My plan to survive Cuba on hundred dollars was hence very quickly over...
All the best,
Global Local
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I loved Cuba. Even though it took a while to get use to the smell of diesel constantly I loved the atmosphere and seeing all the old classic cars.
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