Trinidad is a cobbled town, so don't take your high heels, it is flats all the way! The roads are uneven and full of pot holes. It is a quaint town, with a population of approximately 138,000.
I didn't like it nearly as much as Vinales but I suppose that was to be expected as it has a population of about 129,000 more. The only way I can describe my feelings towards Trinidad is I thought it was sleazy.. This could be because I wandered the town with a few women from the tour and we were propositioned at every new street. Either that or laughed at. For what reason we are still not sure.
I really don't have anything else to say about Trinidad, it wasn't my favourite town in Cuba and there were no real redeeming features to be honest..
I stayed in a nice casa but the hosts weren't as friendly as Tita and her family. I got a little ill here as well. So did my travelling companion. As she is a vegetarian we had no food in common for the whole day so I put it down to the welcome guava juice we got when we arrived at our shared casa. It wasn't too bad but I have travelled a lot and only ever been ill once (in Thailand and I think someone slipped something in my food as I was hallucinating about blue elephants for hours..) so I was surprised. But never fear, I had immodium - I was the travelling medical kit. Just as well.
I spent a good 4 hours on Ancon Beach, which is beautiful. I hired a sun bed, about 2 CUC ($AUD2) for the day and pulled up under a palm tree. The water was clear and very blue, the sand was quite grainy, the water was like a warm bath.. There is a small café in a wall, they come down to the beach and take drink orders, the food is okay too. DO NOT buy food off the vendors who walk along the beach. It is hard to keep food fresh in Cuba and this food has been known to cause terrible food poisoning.
One thing I noted while in Cuba is as much as it is hot and humid, I did not get sun burnt at all. Yes, I wore sun cream but only applied it once a day (naughty) and I was fine. Still take it with you though, better to be safe than sorry.
And that's a wrap for Trinidad. Till tomorrow.
Sometimes you visit a place and never want to come home. Viñales was that place for me on my Cuba trip.
A town of approximately 9,000 people, it is an agricultural area, where crops of fruit, vegetables, coffee and especially tobacco are grown by traditional methods.
We set off from Havana about 9am and took a leisurely bus trip, arriving in Viñales just after lunch.
My casa was a beautiful home stay run by a lady named Tita and her family. The room was nicely furnished, had air conditioning and an ensuite bathroom (as did all the casa's I stayed in). I shared a room with one of my tour companions, we all did at some stage of the trip.
We explored Viñales by foot - it isn't that big! The tobacco fields were amazing. Everything they do is by hand. On average, one person rolls 5 cigars a day. There is so much love and commitment put into one cigar it is amazing!
By night we were salsa dancing in a club or enjoying a mojito at a local bar. I cannot tell you how cheap things are in Cuba. A mojito is 3 CUC, which is approximately $3AUD (CAD is on par with AUD). Entry to the salsa dancing club was 1 CUC. Needless to say I spent very little during my time in Cuba - maybe 400 AUD. And I lived very well!
As a point of interest; Viñales Valley has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I bought a wifi card while here. I will take the opportunity to tell you about how this works.. Internet is not connected to homes in Cuba (well, legally, although I believe some homes have it). The government controls where you can assess wifi and the internet. You purchase a one hour wifi card from, well I guess it is like a post office. You can line up for hours and hours in the blistering heat to buy them. I am not sure what goes on inside to make it so slow, but there is nothing you can do - it's Cuba!
Once you have your card you go to the area the government has designated at the wifi zone. You can tell this in every town you go to without being told. There are 100's if not 1000's of people in one area. It could be a street, a park, a square.. Anywhere. Of course the issues with 100's of people being in one spot trying to get onto social media means it is VERY slow. FB does not load well nor does Instagram. I used my card to email my dad and tell him I was alive and some friends to let them know the same thing.
This will change, like most things in Cuba, over the next few years. With the embargo coming to an end and more tourists (read; Americans) visiting the country, it will change. But I kind of liked being "off the grid' for most of my time there.
Part 4 will be Trinidad. Stay tuned.
You've arrived at your Casa (home stay, essentially similar to a B&B) or hotel (more than likely, if you are on a tour, the Hotel Nacional Cuba).
A Casa is privately owned and there are different "grades": A Guest House through to a Premium Guest House - I am sure you can work out what that means. Here is a link for you to take a look: Cubans Casa's
If you choose a tour they will book your Casa forevery part of your trip. If you choose to travel solo that link will also guide you. Trip Advisor is also a great place to visit to review Cuban Casa's.
I arrived at my Casa just after 1am, I will admit I was freaked out. My Spanish is, well about as good as my Mandarin, so I played charades with my host. She showed me to my room and left me. I wandered out to the terrace and again, I am not ashamed to admit it, I cried because I was so over whelmed by jetlag, the heat and being in someone's home. My feedback is if you can and there is availability, book a hotel - it will be a lot less daunting and your adventure will start off a bit happier than mine.
The next morning my host knocked on the door at 10.30am (when I was finally convinced I was not about to be murdered in my bed, which can I point out is the thoughts of a mad woman overcome by jetlag and exhaustion, as it is such a safe country) I fell asleep for many hours.. I think I was supposed to be out by 10am, but hey ho, I was on Cuba time. My breakfast consisted of very thick mango juice (an acquired taste), cheese, ham, an egg and fresh bread and honey. And coffee. Oh the coffee in Cuba - it is awesome!
A taxi was called and I was on my way to the Hotel Nacional to get ready to join my tour later that night. It reminded me of Raffles in Singapore. I had a beer (local beers are Cristal - a lighter beer and Bucanero - meaning strong beer, they are the most popular AND very good!) and went exploring the grounds. A beautiful old hotel with beautiful grounds. It buzzes day and night.
I took a shower - again a tip, be prepared for minimal water flow in Cuba, it is more a trickle and hot water, even in hotels, is hit and miss, again all a part of the adventure. Forget trying to wash shampoo and conditioner out of your hair in a hurry - I didn't wash my hair for 5 days once I left the hotel... Dry shampoo is your friend - take some with you!!
I will pause now to tell you what you should take with you to Cuba, as most things are not easy to purchase. Sun block (rumour has it the sun block for sale in Cuba is not good, so if you are fair skinned like me, take your own), insect repellant (all roads lead to Bushmans, it is the recommended one as it is the strongest, apparently) - believe me mosquitos are out in full force (and Cuba has the Zika warning at present), some sort of pain relief (I took Heron, I didn't use it but other members of the tour did), small packets of tissues (toilet paper, once you are out of the hotel, is hard to come by), hand sanitizer (I didn't use this but lots of my tour companions did), a good hat with a peak, and lots of cotton clothes - the heat is intense (and I was there in winter) and the humidity is high. Your host at your home stay will offer to do your washing if required, everything came back squeaky clean and in good shape! Oh and take some form or stomach relief (get my drift? Something like Immodium and Buscopan).
I met my tour group at 7pm. An interesting group of varying ages from 31 to 65 - 7 of us in total (a great sized group!)- 4 Australians, 2 English and 1 Swiss. Our tour guide was Tatiana from Peregrine - a fabulous human being! We headed out for our welcome dinner. The meal was good (I will review on Trip Advisor soon, and post links for you to follow). An early night as we headed off early the next morning to Vinales.
More on that tomorrow - a beautiful region of Cuba. Best home stay I had the whole trip!!
Till tomorrow.
While I was away and in the 24 hours since I have been back I have received a lot of messages asking me about Cuba - so I decided to put it all in one spot. Right here. I will have to blog it over a few days as there is a lot to tell you - just means you have to visit a few times to get the low down.
Getting to Cuba:
My brother and sister in law have a saying: "Friends do not let friends fly United". I now have a saying: "Friends do not let friends fly Air Canada".
This could be difficult for a while, until the embargo with the US is completely gone, at which time you can fly to Cuba from the US (my understanding, and this could be incorrect, but it was what I was told) is that until the end of November unless you are an American citizen you can't fly to Cuba from the US. Check it out again in December. So at this stage you have the option to fly to Canada and then onto Cuba. At this point remember the above advice: "Friends do not let friends fly United" and "Friends do not let friends fly Air Canada".
It is a long haul. I went from Sydney to Vancouver (14 hours) and then onto Montreal for a wedding and then after a week in Montreal I travelled on. You can go directly to Havana from Vancouver (or if you want to stay and look around Canada, which I recommend you do to break up the trip) you can go from Montreal or Toronto also. This is more expensive than the option I took (Montreal to Havana via Mexico - I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS - this is a 20 hour haul for a trip that can take as little as 5 hours direct from Canada - via Mexico is a cheaper way but it makes it a hard slog for a few days due to the continued jetlag, even though you are on the same time zone as Montreal - note; Vancouver is 3 hours behind Montreal and Toronto).
I went on a tour - I recommend this if you are not a regular traveller - it is a challenging country to navigate on your own, although if you are a seasoned traveller you will be fine without a tour. Tours are: Peregrine, Intredpid and Gecko. All owned and operated by Peregrine. They are just different levels of tour in terms of what you get. Peregrine is the most expensive through to Gecko which is cheapest. I do not know the difference between them other than $'s but I can say I rate Peregrine highly. If you can get a tour with Tatiana as the guide you will have the best time!!
A tour will provide you with a transfer - a relief as I landed at 10.40pm at night. It was about 28 degrees with humidity in the high 90's. I was jet lagged and tired, an air conditioned transfer was a saviour.
Now you are in Cuba:
Just to confuse you, Cuba has 2 sets of currency. The CUP (Cuban Peso) used strictly by locals. And the CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso) used by "foreigners". The next challenge is that Cuban currency is only available in Cuba - and you can really only change Canadian Dollars and Euro. You can take American dollars but an additional 10% charge is put onto the transaction (this may change eventually once the Americans and Cubans become friendlier). DO NOT TAKE AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS - they have no idea what to do with them. The exchange rate as at today, 26 October of Canadian dollars is 1 CUC to 0.74 CAD. Use this link to work through it: Currency Converter
Once you exit via customs (on arrival, be warned it can take hours to clear customs and get your bags - I landed at 10.40pm and got out of the airport at 1am, you are now on "Cuban time"). There are two currency exchanges outside near the taxi rank/pick up area. Again, be prepared for a very long wait - sometimes the line can go for a few hundred metres and you can be in that line for a few hours. No point in getting cranky, everything in Cuba takes a lot longer than the western world, get used to it, it is the way it is and there is nothing worse than a cranky, rude westerner who complains about everything - you have been warned!!).
Only use a certified bank or the hotel to change money. Do not get sucked in by street hawkers, they will sell you the CUP - essentially useless for foreigners (and quite often counterfeit notes). The CUP is used by Cubans for their rations (more on this in another blog) and day to day purchases. You will be charged in CUC everywhere you go. A bank is used by Cubans to pay bills etc, this is why it can take forever. I recommend changing money at hotels (all government owned, more about this later) - you will get a little less than a bank but save hours of time and not have to stand in the heat.
Okay, now you are finally out of the airport, you will head to a hotel or a casa (home stay, very popular and used all over Cuba). But that can wait till tomorrow as I know the above is a lot to take in.
In short: Remember, Cuba is not a western country. Take your patience, leave the attitude at home and prepare for an adventure.. It is a fabulous country - relax and enjoy it.
P.S. You will hear lots of things about what inoculations you should get to visit Cuba - I recommend you talk to your doctor.
