I knew there were some pretty major issues between the US and Cuba but I don't think I really had any idea of the scale. Sitting in Cancun departure lounge I heard a number of American accents – there was a youngish girl with her disabled father, she was carrying a series of tennis rackets in her bag, I guess travelling there to train or take part in some sort of tournament. I wondered why they'd be going to Cuba, well not really why, but how they were going about it all. I ended up talking to a big burly southern American guy who looked pretty terrifying but was actually sweet and a nice guy to talk to. He was travelling with an equally daunting looking bloke - who was sitting cross legged with a striped bandana on his head and dirty brown cowboy boots on his feet. He explained that they had flown to Mexico from the US and had had to purchase their tickets to Havana in cash from Mexico. They had to have enough cash on them to fund their two weeks in Cuba as they wouldn't be able to withdraw money whilst in country. Any indication on your bank statements or credit cards to show that you’d travelled to Cuba would be bad news. He was concerned that he didn't have the address of the place they’d planned to stay in for the first night in Havana as this was a requirement of the 90 day tourist card. I'd read a fair amount on the entry requirements and from what I could gather stating where you'd be staying for the first 3 nights of your trip was more of a formality than anything too official.
I ended up giving him the address of the place that Jo and I would be staying in so that he’d have a valid street name. Seeing this big bloke phased by this whole issue was quite bizarre. I think maybe because it was hard for me to put myself in his shoes. The US doesn’t take this business lightly and I was told that the maximum fine for any US Citizen caught in Cuba was $250,000 - that would make for a pretty expensive holiday. I have to admit that I felt slightly strange knowing that I'd be going back through the States on my way to the UK - people had told me that if customs found any goods made in Cuba on your possession they'd all be confiscated.
So I boarded the 19:45 Cubana flight to Havana – such a strange mixture of people took their seats on this small but fairly modern plane. There were a number of wealthy looking couples who I imagine were heading for one of Cuba’s many all inclusive beach resorts, there were a few of lone travellers, and some Cuban nationals that I assume must have completed a little trip to Mexico to do business or see family. I was surprised to find out that there was a two hour time difference between Mexico and Cuba – for two countries that lie so relatively close it seemed strange that there was such a big difference. We flew over the dark Yucatan Channel heading almost exactly due East to the sprawling town of Havana. There were a number of clusters of lights in the ocean – one set I’m convinced was an oil rig, the others I imagine may have been small islands or ships.
We had a very smooth landing in Havana and everything was exciting for me. Handing my passport across to the Cuban immigration was a little nerve wracking. Maybe the thought of there being a problem resulting in me being turned away, maybe my lack of Spanish making me a little more apprehensive, but really I think it was just that feeling of the unknown. My first mistake, or rather regret, was that I could have asked the friendly Cuban guy behind his immigration window to stamp my passport rather than just the tourist card that he had used. Unbeknown to me this was a simple way of assisting the Americans in their illegal quest to visit this Land of Miracles. They stamped the tourist card on your way into the country and would then stamp it again on your way out and remove it from your passport. By doing this there was no evidence left in your passport that you’d actually visited the country at all. All a bit sad really that that’s something they have to do in order to attract certain people to their island – I was a little disappointed as I would have liked my visit to be documented.
So, I was in! Having had a bit of a disaster with my bags on arrival in Cancun I was hoping that things would go smoothly in Havana. Sure enough they did and my bag was the first through. After changing some money I hurriedly went through the automatic doors to the arrivals hall. I’d said to Jo that I’d love to see her at the airport but if she wasn’t there I’d just jump in the cab and meet her at the casa that we’d already booked. I can’t remember the last time someone was waiting for me in the arrivals hall of an airport – there’s definitely something rather satisfying about having someone waiting just for you. The doors opened and sure enough there was little Jo – sadly she looked terrible; she was sitting on the floor, really pale and not her usual self. She’d managed to pick something up on the flight from London to Toronto and unfortunately had got progressively worse during her four days in Canada. She had an awful infection in her chest, a high temperature and generally felt very ill. I felt dreadful that she had come all the way out to the airport to meet me as by this stage it was almost midnight. She’d got a taxi driver to wait for us outside so we trudged out to the car and started the 30 minute ride into central Habana.
We arrived at Casa Luis Miguel (Calle Campanario # 63 entre San Lazaro y Laguna, Centro Habana)
[1] – it was a traditional colonial building with a small courtyard in the acting as an external hallway. There was pretty stained glass, some lovely big wooden doors and antiques dotted all over the place. Luis was a really nice guy; he’d only started up the casa a few months earlier and was very eager to please. He spoke good English and had an answer for everything. He lived with his parents, his wife, his daughter and his siblings. It’s fairly common in Cuba for the whole family (extended) to live under one roof. Houses are passed down over generations so people don’t really buy and sell property as we do in the West. If you’re great great grandparents owned something a few hundred years ago it was likely to still be in the family today. Jo and I had a little catch up and went to bed.
25th November 2005Jo had a pretty tough nights sleep and didn’t feel any better in the morning. We’d decided to spend three nights in Havana – still not really long enough but with only two weeks in Cuba we wanted to see as much as possible. So many people had warned us that the food was terrible in Cuba and that we’d get used to a lot of eggs, plenty of ham and cheese sarnies, and not much in the way of fresh stuff. We were pleasantly surprised when we were given a bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast, granted we got the ham and eggs too but that seemed to be counterbalanced by the fresh guava and pineapple.
First stop of the day was the pharmacy, stupidly neither of us had brought any amoxicillin away with us, it’s something that I often travel with and Jo always has a few antibiotics stashed away for this kind of thing. We headed out and decided to go to the big hotels in Central and see if we could find some drugs. We knew that there was a big divide between dollar shops and peso shops and figured that we’d have to find a dollar pharmacy. We were directed to one in Hotel Seville, which we did eventually find. It costs $28 for a course of antibiotics so Jo was a little miffed by the whole experience but we both knew that without them she’d be really quite ill for a while.
Once she’d taken her first one we decided to go for a gentle stroll around town. We didn’t make it too far until we decided to have a sit down. The infamous Malecon (the long and windy coastal promenade) was bathed in warm sunshine, the sea was fairly calm and there was a bustle of activity all around. We positioned ourselves on the sea wall and just observed everything going on around us. There were a number of spear fisherman in the water in various different outfits, some were kitted out fully in decent wetsuits and gloves, others just in shorts and maybe a pair of fins. The water wasn’t particularly pristine but it was obviously the place to be. We sat soaking up the sun for a while, reading the Lonely Planet and figuring out where our next stop would be. It wasn’t long till we attracted attention from a few local guys, the first wasn’t particularly nice and both Jo and I got a little frustrated by his aggressive manner and demands for money. He eventually left us alone and before we knew it another was sidling up to us. I got on the defensive and when he started to speak to us – the usual opener is “where are you from” followed by “Canada?”, “Italy?”, England?” - I rudely stated that we weren’t going to give him any money if that was what he was after. I’m not sure whether that had been his initial objective or whether he truly did just want to ask a us a few questions and practice his basic English. Either way we ended up having a nice conversation with him for a good half an hour, we found out that he was either a soldier or a solder – I think the former but I think Jo was convinced that he was the latter! He had a young daughter, a wife and a small house not too far from central Havana. He was wearing tatty clothes; he’d been fishing and unfortunately hadn’t been too successful. When we asked if we could see the fish he pulled out a small little fella not more that 6 inches long.
That was going to feed the whole family apparently. He was on a bike that was nothing flash but it got him around town. He assumed that we’d both own a car in the UK but we quickly put him straight and I explained that I got around London on a bicycle, I’m not entirely sure that he was fully convinced. Interestingly we then had a conversation about the restrictions that are placed on the Cuban nationals. He said that even if he had money he’d have trouble spending it – they’re not allowed to leave the country easily and so many goods have restrictions placed on them. We were all three deep in conversation when a policeman came up and asked to see Julian’s (I think his surname was Little – he likened it to Stuart Little the cartoon mouse) identification. The policeman asked him a few questions and then proceeded to take down his name and address. He didn’t acknowledge Jo or I sitting there next to the Cuban. When he left Julian explained to us that it can be seen as an offence in Cuba to speak to foreigners. Fidel is afraid that the Cubans will scare away the foreigners if they talk to them – often tourists do get approached by people wanting to take you on a tour or show you the way to a famous spot. The tourists are very well protected as tourism is seen as the primary source of income for Cuba and anything that might affect that is taken very seriously. So the policeman had taken his details, and apparently should we complain to the officials at any stage during the day that we’d been bothered by Cubans, Julian’s door would be the first one that they knock on. We took a few photos, declined Julians offer of a visit to his family home, and strolled off to marvel at another part of Havana.
It’s so easy to get lost in the small cobbled streets of Habana Vieja – they open out into big squares and then fork off into more little back streets with people calling up to balconies and kids running after one another. Every direction you look is a fantastic photograph a snap shot that I’m sure would have looked very similar 50 years previous.
You do feel as though time is standing still and you’re experiencing something that very few in this day and age have had the opportunity to. There is a lot to be said for the influence that the West, especially America, has had on the world. You really notice a lack of everything western and commercial in Cuba and it really is a breath of fresh air. I’m sure the Cubans don’t share my opinion as many feel held back by the American embargo and the trade restrictions that they’ve had placed on them for the last few decades. The shops are pretty much empty and there are very few logos or brands that a European/Westerner would recognise in the street. There’s no advertising plastered all over the walls and unless you’re in one of the large tourist hotels not many objects that look familiar.
Cuba is a fairly expensive place to visit. They have a dual currency system, which takes a little while to get you’re head around. Foreigners are supposed to deal in Cuban Convertibles and the locals use Cuban Peso. The Convertible is a new currency in Cuba, until April 2005, tourists used American dollars and there was a distinct desire from the Cubans to get hold of them. This has now been abolished and no one is particularly keen to get hold of the American currency.
If you want to exchange dollars for Convertibles your rate is 10% less than most other western currencies. So, the Cubans use pesos and we use convertibles. There are about 24 peso to the convertible and the peso will get you a lot further than the convertible. The main problem for foreigners is that the $ sign is used for both peso and convertible. This means possible confusion between which currency a menu board or card is outlined. We didn’t encounter any problems but I heard some terrible stories of people paying for a 20 peso meal in dollars (people still refer to the convertible as the dollar). Some friends of mine got completely stung when they visited Cuba when a local guy convinced them that he had some “special” peso that were worth two to the dollar (rather than 24). Somehow he managed to get them to change $200 for 400 peso – the peso was still only 24 to the dollar – so they made precisely 16 convertibles! Amazing!
May 16th 2007:
And this is where i ran out of time to write over Christmas! What a shame. I'm not sure i will ever be able to recount the rest of the trip as well as i could in 2005. The notes below will hopefully jog my mind though. 26th November 2005
Breakfast, Capitolio, Coco taxi, Colon Cemetery, Parque Almertaire, Parque Lenon, Walked back
through vedado, market – necklace, two tourists following us, Along the malecon, bar we didn’t go in with men, sat on the side of the road next to sidecar, Coco taxi to paladar – driver commission, hairy bean, writing on walls, walked home,
Fishermen?
27th November 2005
We woke up early having booked two seats on the tour bus to Vinales. We had also booked a taxi to take us and our bags through the dark early morning streets of Havana to the Centre.
Bus – countryside, Cigar factory, America girl, view from Jasmine hotel, Pototo, Casa
Margherita, No tourist card, Casa Juana, Clock comp, nice room, Carnival in town, beer trucks, pork sarnie, Square, dancing, music, light skin colour, pork sarnie, Louis the taxi man, Hotel on the hill, Casa Juana dinner, storm
28th November 2005Breakfast – very big. Walk to Los Aquaticos, guide on horse, old dude with wellies, walked through fields, pigs, elderly couple in the hills, conversation, murial, restaurant, mango marmalade and cheese!, walk home, turkey vultures, mojitos, shower, pizza place otherside of town, bar for a couple of drinks, jo diarrhoea, home to bed.
29th November 2005 
Louis, Jo and Clinton, drive to Havana, pick up tourist card and tickets, Louis dad, drive to Trinidad via Cienfuegos, arrive Trinidad, find casa for J and C, drive to La Boca, meet Louis and Sonia, beach, mountains, sunset, swim – annoying boys, dinner – 3 courses, soup. Bed.
30th November 2005Bikes – Playa Ancon, Marina, then to beach. dive place, beach, blue sea. – flasher. Book Jo in for a try dive. Back to Sonia’s, start to walk into town, picked up by locals bus, go to pay, guy tells me not too, one guy pays with cucumbers. Get off in town, change money, wander around. Stop to have mojito and ice cream.
Back to Sonia’s for dinner. Meet Spanish guy (name?) – he goes into town we stay at sonia’s.
Which day did we bike and which did we walk?
1st December 2005Up really early – oversleep, taxi to beach, diving, amazing, bit cold, nice reef, nice fish, good dive outfit, great boat. Back to beach – back out diving at 11am. Asked out by dive man – said we’d meet him in Artex club that evening. Meet jo on beach – sun bathe. Walk back to hotel ancon – buy snacks and sit on swings. Start walking back to la Boca via the Grille Caribe by taxi, ice cream and mojito watching the sun set, walk the rest of the way, flasher. Back to Sonia’s – dinner with Spanish guy, he drives us into town, very slow.
Go to Casa de la musica – amazing. Bendy man, short blonde guy, all the couples, all the salsa, all the compliments, the sex tourists, the mojitos. After a couple of hours we walk to Artex bar. Meet dive guys. Dance to some weird 80’s music, salsa with short guy. Get a lift home at about 3 am.
2nd December 2005Wake up late, and tired and hungover! Cycle manically to beach just in time for dive – both jo and I feel terrible. Jo stays and has her training. I get geared up. Problems with bits of stuff. Off on smaller boat. Don’t check equipment properly. In water – realise gauge isn’t working properly. Show Ego – said it’s fine. Then run out of air. Have to share his tank for rest of dive. Scary but I handled it well. Very cold. Came up – blistered feet from small fins! Back to shore. Pick up Jo and other girl. Four of us on boat. Ego gives me his full length wetsuit.
Second dive shallow and very pretty. Jo did really well. Very pretty dive. Back to shore. Talk to guys at dive hut. Don’t make any plans. Harley man – compliments us. Stay on beach for a while. Get sun then go to hotel and buy food and sit on swings. Get thrown off swings. Cycle back via grill Caribe. Ice cream. Mojito. Back to sonias shower, dinner, and then into town. Go to Casa de la musica. Very cold forgot sweaters. Go to get taxi back as really cold – guy playing with himself - horrible. End up giving up. Back to steps. Enjoy the night – cold. All the same guys there. We moved seats to try and shelter a little and ended up talking to Yony and Flago – nice bunch of Cubans. An Italian guy. Music ends – all go to the nightclub behind the square. Open air club. Good music. Dance, talk to some Americans. The go to cave. Yony a bit full on and wants me to go home, same with jo and flago. Say no. leave club at about 5 am. Have to get a bike taxi all the way back to la boca – music blaring, skinny guy sweating. Have to wake Louis up. Love bite!
3rd December 2005Wake up at 7am feeling terrible. Sonia does breakfast. Say goodbye having packed up. Get a taxi to the car hire place in town. Spend hours deciding what to do. Hire a car. Driven to car. Both excited. Drive out of town. Lunch at a petrol station – local food – smoked pork and rice. Stop at slave tower.
Get lost on the way to Camaguey. Stopped by loads of touts. Had a drink in resto – had a quick look at the church. Back in car. Find nice place in Camaguey to stay – friend of sonia and louis. Relax for a little while then go out for food. Busy night – Saturday and everyone out. Go to an outdoor resto – nice starter and beer. Then to resto next door. Meet James Edward all in white. Decline offer of spending the eve with them. Walk to square – so many people. Great music, young guys dancing. Meet three guys and american girl. Danced and enjoyed the evening. Two guys a little full on. Mine saying all this stuff about me not liking Cubans. Back to casa Isabelle – bed.
4th December 2005
Woke up to pigs screaming. In car drove to Santa Lucia – not a very exciting road. Road of hotels. Stopped at dive shop - shark dives. Stay in the cheapest hotel. Go to beach for a while – a bit cold. Long walk along beach. Had some horrible food. Big Canadian commented on love bite. Showers – tried to find playa coco – dirt road. Back to hotel for dinner.
Massive room – ok food – no atmosphere. The entertainment. Back to our hotel – early night.
5th December 2—5Up early – drove to Playa Cocos – amazing beach no people. Little resto for coffee. Sun bathed, germans, sweet, swam. Sunbathed. Amazing lunch. STs – outfits on girls. Drove along northern road to Remedios. Hitch hiker lady. Beautiful scenary – palm fields, cowboys, farms, hills, drive into Remedies – had a look at the sea and then drive to ????? where we found a nice little casa and stayed there. Met two people staying. Went out to dinner in the local hotel – food not great – seafood starter! Back to the casa
and early night. Painting on the wall. Hot shower.
6th December 2005
Up early again. Nice drive back to Trinidad. Good scenary. Fog. Cowboys. Hitchhiker lady. Get back to Trinidad by lunch time. Drop off car once we found casa in town. Casa Ana. See the boys at the art shop straight away! Embarresed. Get bikini, stop for liver and rice and head to the beach in taxi. Sun bathe for a few hours. Swim. Meet Canadian boys – lockwood and ??? diving into water. Sat with us. Went for run – jo went for swim and then they asked us out! Left it open. Walked down the beach – got some snacks – and a beer – sat and watched the sun set. Back to casa – shower – went to nice resto for dinner. Whisked mojitos. Band. Back to casa for loo. Then to Yony gallery – bought a painting. nice to see him. Stocked up. Walked up to casa de la musica – yony told us about the police. Fabricsio and I went and bought a bottle of rum from the bar next door. Sat and drunk neat rum on the steps. They weren’t drunk this time and really funny – met Edgare the American dentist and his sister who we’d seen on the beach earlier. Go to flago’s gallery – edgare buys a piece of work. Walk up to la cueva. Nice time there. Danced salsa. Went back to yony’s grandmothers. Walked down the cobbled streets and into dark house. time has stopped. Really nice night. Set alarm. Woke up and said that I’d meet jo outside casa door. Got there with yony. Ana was looking out the window – she opened the door. Said goodbye to yony. Went and woke jo up. She was confused. Got packed up – felt terrible.
7th December 2005Had breakfast and walked to the bus. Looked terrible. Sat on bus for 6 hours.
Stopped for food – jo slept all the way. Watched terrible film. Got to Havana – nice to be back. Got bags back in the most ridiculous fashion. Got taxi with the biggest rear view mirror in the world. Went to casa louis Miguel – they were full but we were taken to his friends house. had a shower and lay around for a while. Went to pizza resto. Walked around a bit. Checked flight. Booked taxi for morning. Chocolate museum. Mojito on the roof again. Walked back to the house along the malecon. Back to the place – packed up my stuff. Realised about tax. Had no cash left. Looked for a place that would take a card. Went walking around town. Found a resto – palaver with the card. Good food. And band. Walked to another bar. Talked to waitress. Walked home. Slept well.
8th December 2005
Up at 5 am – half asleep. Said goodbye to Jo – got taxi – weird driver. Slept in airport – panicked. Got flight.
Arrived back in Cancun.
[1] http://www.cuba-junky.com/havana/havana-casas-particular-viejaycentro.html
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
They were living there for about two years and it wasn't until almost the end of their contract that i managed to get over there for a visit. They ended up based in Playa, just south of Cancun. Really the time spent in Mexico was more to see the two of them than to site see but we managed to get to a few places in the few days i was there. The Mayan ruins being one, and of course a little bit of diving. It looks like we spent most of the time at the beach by the photos that i am posting but i think basically that is what we ended up doing. Lying around talking and generally relaxing. 
They were living there for about two years and it wasn't until almost the end of their contract that i managed to get over there for a visit. They ended up based in Playa, just south of Cancun. Really the time spent in Mexico was more to see the two of them than to site see but we managed to get to a few places in the few days i was there. The Mayan ruins being one, and of course a little bit of diving. It looks like we spent most of the time at the beach by the photos that i am posting but i think basically that is what we ended up doing. Lying around talking and generally relaxing. 
