There Is a Cuba Bug Too…

Going to the seaside in winter, going to a country where winter does not exist, or at least is not like ours… This was the dream I had wanted to fulfil for a long time. I only got confirmation that I could take a week off at this time 3 days before departure! I rushed to the travel agency and asked what offers there were, considering that I could not leave before Saturday (21 January) and had to be back by the following Sunday (i.e. the 29th) so as not to have to ask for more days off. We had to rule out Mauritius, Jamaica and more, because they departed either on Tuesday or Thursday. Given our needs, the only choice left was between Sharm and Cuba.

Although Sharm would certainly have been a destination where the heat was guaranteed (January is definitely not the best time to go to Cuba, but not the worst either, let us say somewhere in between), it is also a destination with offers all year round, whereas for Cuba that was not so certain; our passports were already in order so no problem there either. No sooner said than done: on Saturday morning we were on an Air Europe flight bound for Havana. The flight was perfect: of the 300 seats available on board we were only about 80, so we could sprawl out as we liked, the hostesses were very kind, the food was good and we arrived on time. About 10h30 of flight. The hotel that was part of the offer (which was also "all inclusive") is in Playa del Este, half an hour by bus north of Havana.

The hotel is called Hotel Atlantic, a decent 3-star, the building dates from the '70s and it shows, it is small but has everything (pool, shops, 2 dining rooms) and above all direct access to the beach. I will not dwell on further details, but let me briefly tell you about "our" Cuba. First, let us say the temperature is above 25° but not above 30°: it is just perfect. The sea is slightly rough because it is a bit windy; when the wind gets stronger it starts to be hard to stay on the beach, obviously only because the temperature is not excessively high, and the sea, or rather the ocean, is neither too warm nor too cold.

Since the holiday was not planned well in advance and so we did not have time to organise ourselves and/or find out what we could do or see, that we only had a week and that we also badly needed to relax, unfortunately we did not see the island as we would have liked; in fact, we only saw Havana twice. The tour operator (I do not even remember which one it was, perhaps because it was not significant) offered some trips; in some cases the departure day was not clear because it depended on the number of requests. The most interesting was certainly the one to Santa Clara-Cienfuegos-Trinidad, but being a substantial tour it involved a night at another hotel, and obviously the cost was decidedly high (the euro equivalent was €100 per person!!!).

Another possible trip was to the Zapata peninsula – Guama, but it mainly consisted of visiting a crocodile farm (second in the world by size) and did not interest us at all. The one that interested us most was to Pinar del Rio – Vinales, a valley rich in vegetation that makes the landscape in this area unique in the panorama of the island. The crops in the fields, depending on the season, are tobacco or maize. You can also visit a cave by entering the cavity by boat and travelling along stretches of the watercourse, among the white limestone rocks. Very evocative. About the last two trips, though, it was not clear what day they would be made, for reasons that were not clear either… Meanwhile we immediately confirm our attendance for the Havana tour, an unmissable stop for anyone going to Cuba.

In the end we went to Havana twice (it is half an hour from Playa del Este): the first time with the organised tour, which took us to see the main places of interest (Plaza de la Revolución, the San Cristobal Cathedral, the Bodeguita del Medio where you can enjoy a real mojito, the Capitolio, the Hotel Ambos Mundos where Hemingway stayed, the place where you can see how cigars are made strictly by hand and where you can buy, besides real ron (rum) plus other places seen while travelling by coach), while the second time we went on our own (with a shuttle bus that passed not far from our hotel on the way there, and a taxi (€15) for the return) and went to visit the whole old historic centre, including the most hidden little alleys, the famous little market and the Malecon. They say it is dangerous to go around at night, but during the day there is no problem.

The trip to Vinales, on the other hand, in the end we could not do, because they organised it for the day before departure and unfortunately I was not feeling well…

Now I will give you some more quick info.

The island's current dance is not so much salsa anymore but reggaeton, much more sensual than salsa or merengue, though perhaps that depends on how the Cubans dance, and above all the Cuban women…

Go to one of the venues the Cubans frequent, that is, not the ones made specifically for tourists, which besides costing you dearly really are not worth it. We went to some venues in the nearby villages (taxis are really cheap) together with other people from the hotel (obviously mostly men); there are some girls who wait outside the venue for someone to pay their entrance ticket (€3! But Cubans generally earn the equivalent of €10/20 a month!), then once inside they go wild, dancing provocatively in front of or against the "interested" tourists… There are no prostitutes on the street because the Castro regime banned it, and this is their way of approaching clients. I found it a much nicer way than what you see on the streets back home, though it is sad to see such young girls behaving that way.

If you like rum, try it in every form; here it is different from how they make cocktails in Italy. And if you want to buy it, do not wait to get it in the duty free, because there it is very expensive; ask the locals, who will be able to advise you how to buy it at a low price (we paid €5 a bottle), same for the cigars.

At the airport they spot-check all your luggage; bear in mind you can take away a maximum of 3 bottles of rum and 23 cigars per person (note there are packs of 25 cigars!!!) and you must take them with the box bearing the stamp, otherwise it means you bought on the black market and they will not confiscate the goods (!) and this applies to all items (paintings, for example).

Final thoughts: Cuba will not be the most beautiful place in the world, but the people, the music and the atmosphere that reigns in Cuba stay in your heart, or at least that is how it was for us. Leaving Cuba made us melancholy. We will certainly return, I hope before Castro dies and before the United States changes everything.