Cienfuegos, Cuba

Folks,

Internet café's aren't that plentiful in Cuba, and they're expensive, so I didn't get the emails posted. This is the first week, and I'll follow with the second at the weekend.

I arrived to Havana on Sunday, and met Jack at the airport. He'd travelled over from Dublin earlier the same day, and this is the only part of my trip where I'm not travelling on my own.

The pic of the week shows one of the dancers from the famous Tropicana nightclub which we went to on Tuesday night.

Flight
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I flew from Cancún by the Cuban airline, Cubana. It was the chicken bus of planes. It was so full, and the seats were so close together they make Ryanair look spacious. Before we took off a fog almost filled the cabin, and I could hardly even see the steward giving the safety demonstration. It was like an 80s pop video.

Havana hotel
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I'd booked our hotel on the internet. At €58 a night, it was more expensive than I've been paying on the rest of the trip. When we got their they said that they were having problems with air conditioning, and were transferring us to a better hotel.

The new hotel was nice, and we had a view of some sort of an oil refinery across the harbour complete with a flame burning off the gas. We were told that if we wanted to stay more nights, it would be €102. So the next day we went around the other hotels in old Havana, but all the prices were the same. They're all government run. Our original hotel was a little cheaper, at €87. We couldn't now get the €58 rate because that's just on internet and you have to book a week in advance. We stayed in the expensive hotel, and because we booked for 3 nights we got a 10% reduction, and so paid €92.

On the second day 2 bars of chocolate that Jack had brought from Ireland were stolen from the minibar in our hotel room. We reported it, and were told that we must have eaten them.

Money
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My guidebook, the Lonely Planet, advised that the best way to fund your trip is to bring US dollar cash, because credit cards may not work and usually have surcharges.

There are two currencies. The moneda nacional which locals use, and peso convertible, or CUC, which is hard currency, used by tourists, and very sought after by locals.

When I went to change my US dollar cash in the airport I was told there was a 10% penalty on dollars, so the guide book advice was out of date.

Later I went to a bank in Havana, and they told me they deduct 20% as the penalty. She told me the for every $100 they would take $20, then change and charge commission on the remaining $80!

So we trekked around until we found an ATM. My card didn't work, maybe because it's MBNA, an American company. Jack's Irish credit card was fine. He had to make two withdrawals, because of a transaction limit, one for him, and one for me. On Wednesday, authorisation for his card was refused at a restaurant. It didn't work at the ATM either.

We went back to the hotel so he could phone his credit card company to see why it was being refused. For some reason we couldn't dial out on our mobiles, so had to use the phone in the hotel. His 8 minute 47 second call to Ireland cost over €50.

It turned out that the double withdrawal had led them to suspect that the card was stolen, and so they had put a block on it.

Havana
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I loved Havana when we arrived first and went through the old town. There are beautiful colonial buildings, and music is playing everywhere. However, when you go past this centre the city is really in decay.

And for tourists it's very expensive. I've been keeping well within my budget for my travels so far. But with the hotel, restaurants and taxis in Havana charging almost Dublin rates I'm going through it fairly fast. Although I'd budgeted more money for Cuba than for any other country, not only am I over budget, but I've also gone through all of my savings from Guatemala and Mexico.

Tropicana Nightclub
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The feeling of being ripped off was coming at us from every transaction, and so going to the biggest tourist venue, the Tropicana Nightclub, was perhaps not the brightest idea.

It was a whopping €63 each for a ticket, but I said to Jack that if it gave us a night we'd always remember that it would be worth it. And to be honest it was the highlight of our time in Havana. Because we paid our money up front, we knew what it had cost us. There were no hidden expenses or extra charges. Then inside we were given a cigar each, and half a bottle of Havana Club rum, and 4 cokes, all included. We were sitting out in the open air with a beautiful starry sky with the moon over us, and the show was really excellent, with a huge cast of dancers and an impressive set. They even dragged myself and Jack up for the finale.

After the show was over, the coach parties left, but we stayed on, and after a little while the stage descended and became a dancefloor, and a new band came on.

What looked like it could be an expensive mistake actually ended up being the one time in Havana we felt we got value.

Cienfuegos
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We were kind of relieved to be heading out of Havana. But with no road signs escaping is easier said than done. We had a map, but without road signs it's impossible to follow if you don't know where you are. We asked a couple of people for directions but they didn't know.

Eventually we got on what we thought was the right motorway, when two soldiers stood out in front of the car with their hands up to stop us. Assuming it was a checkpoint I stopped. But it turned out they were hitching, so they said they'd help us find where we were going and got in.

At every junction there were loads of people hitching. They would actually swarm out onto the motorway.

We dropped our soldiers off when we took the road off the motorway to Cienfuegos. When we got to the town I pulled in to check my guidebook. In an effort to save money we'd decided to try casas particulares, which are like bed and breakfasts in people's houses. I was looking for directions in the book to where we wanted to stay. As soon as we stopped about 5 people came around the car knocking on the windows and asking us for pesos.

We eventually found our casa, and I have to say it's beautiful. We're on the tip of a narrow peninsula in the Bahía de Cienfuegos, and from the balcony of the house (where I'm writing) you can see the water on all three sides. We had a five course dinner served to us by the woman of the house last night, for just €7.90. And it was beautiful. One of the nicest settings for a meal I've ever had. I feel that we might be saved by the casas particulares, and by getting further away from state control.
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Tomorrow we're going to the colonial town of Trinidad, after which we will drive back, past Havana again, to Viñales. We're going to spend our last few days at the beach in Maria la Gorda.

So until next week,

Chau,

Éamon

Today's Headline in Granma (the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba): CUBA'S ANSWER. The Elections: a new demonstration of the maturity and political culture of our people