This was originally posted on 2018-02-18 on my sister’s travel blog (dead link) .
As you probably not now, I, Marina’s brother, went to Cuba with the intent to visit to my sister on her world trip.
My original plan was to visit Urs and Marina in Mexico, but after being a little bit scared of that nation, I decided to go elsewhere. I thought I might go to Cuba since I knew that it was going to be their next destination.
Towards the end of December, I booked my flight to Havana and told Urs about my plans. I told him that I wanted to keep it a surprise for my lil sis and to keep my up to date with their travelling schedule.
As you might know, their original plan was to sail from Mexico to Cuba. They tried to arrange a boat for quite a long time, without being very successful.
On January 4th I began my Cuban trip, without knowing whether I was going to see them or not (spoiler alert: I did!).
The first 2 weeks of my trip I travelled alone. I visited a lot of nice places, met a lot of cool people and drunk a lot of piña coladas. But the first part of my trip is not the topic of this post.
On the 18th of January, while I was in Baracoa, which is situated in the south-eastern part of the island (about the furthest away from Havana you could be), I received a message from Urs telling me that they were going to arrive at the Airport in Havana on the 20th of January at 10 AM. Yessss. Unfortunately, I could not make it to Havana at such short notice, I decided to meet them in Havana a little bit later, without me having to rush.
So, what did we do together? Since I already saw some of the most interesting cities and I didn’t have much time left in Cuba (about 6 days to go), we decided to go to Matanzas, due to its proximity to Varadero, where apparently some of the most beautiful beaches are.
Travelling in Cuba is always an experience. As everywhere, there are several ways to reach a destination. The most comfortable is obviously the taxi, but it’s expensive. Then there are taxi collectivos. They usually run between the main cities, they pick you up in the morning at your staying and drop you off at your next accommodation. Then there is a (state owned, like almost everything) bus company called Viazul. Every big city has a terminal for those busses. They are really comfortable but they might only run once or twice a day, so you need to make a reservation in advance to have the guaranteed seat.
We kinda spontaneously decided to go to Matanzas, so first we searched for a collectivo without success. As a second attempt we asked for a normal taxi, but the price was out of our budget. We then opted to try to get some last minute tickets for a Viazul bus, i.e. without having reserved a seat in advance. Luckily, they still had 3 seats available, they must have been the last ones since the bus was full afterwards. Anyway, I didn’t want to go such into detail, just wanted to let you know about the feeling you have in Cuba when you try to do something. You will fail at first, but at the end you will eventually achieve your goal. The people are willing to help you, but maybe not immediately. They have time, so they assume that everybody else has enough time as well. So I wouldn’t recommend to go to Cuba if you are an impatient person. Or maybe I would, so that you could get over that attitude.
Anyway, we managed to get to Matanzas. As soon as you descend from any Viazul bus there will be at least 10 people aggressively asking you if you already have an accommodation, a taxi or in the most cases both. As always, to be left in peace, we told them we were already set. We randomly walked through the city center hoping to find a staying. Luckily we didn’t have any bicitaxi following us and persistently asking if we wanted a ride, as they did when I was alone or with some friend. This is because we were 3 people and bicitaxis only have place for two passengers ;). The first accommodation we found was too expensive, and the owner recommended us another, which was full. After the 3rd attempt we finally found a casa particular. Now I have to tell you what a casa particular, or simply a casa, is. A casa, as you might have correctly guessed, is a house, 10 point to Gryffindor! Particular because, well, I don’t really know. They are private owned and you pay per room, independently on the number of guests. They usually have one double bed and a single one. Originally you lived with that family, but meanwhile casa owners got bitten by the entrepreneurial spirit (along with taxi drivers, the only ones with that kind of western disease) and started to give the guests (i.e. tourists) more comfort with an own restroom, maybe a kitchen and so on, so that they can charge more. Casa owner are richer than the average. They have a higher salary than the average Cubans, which is about 40 USD a month (tough you have to keep in mind that education and healthcare are provided by the government and life is cheap there). A casa owner has to pay some license fees to the government and hand on some of the income, but what is left over, is theirs. I don’t exactly know how much they earn after all deductions, the only thing I know those people were among the richest I’ve meet on the island.
So, we found that casa with a nice rooftop, probably with a magnificent view. Probably because every time we had the occasion to go on it, it either rained or it was cloudy. After a couple of hours of travelling and looking for a casa, our stomachs were asking to be filled.
If you are hungry in Cuba and don’t want to do anything wrong, you search for street food vendor and eat a bocadito. Cuban bocaditos are small sandwiches, usually with cheese, ham or a combination of the two. I never had one which I didn’t like, after all, there is nothing a masterbocaditocchief could do wrong. Ah, and they cost around 5 CUP, which converted in USD is 0.20. I don’t want to go into detail about their currencies, the only thing I want to say is that having some CUPs (the currency intended for the locals, as opposed to the CUC) makes your life easier, so if you are going to Cuba exchange some as soon as you arrive, understood? Good. So, what else can you eat? You could go to a restaurant of course. You open your guide and look for one. After you found one and comfortably sit in your chair, you think that you can have a look at the menu order what you like, right? Theoretically yes, practically no. They don’t offer everything they have on it, sometimes (my own impression) is that they are too lazy to do it, in other occasions they simply temporarily don’t have the required ingredients.
Cuban food is not really something special. I wouldn’t advise you to go there if you expect to have a culinary enlightenment. I would claim that the pasta I cooked there was better than 90% of the meals I had to eat there. Anyway, my little sister ordered an insalada fria, what she received was a cold dish of pasta, a mixture between a Russian salad and spaghetti carbonara. Urs and I supposed it was a can dish. Useless to say that she didn’t like it much (even though she pretended to like it). So, the cuisine is not that good, how about other crafts? Well, as a noob in arts I have to say that it’s comparable to the ones I found in other places. In Matanzas we visited Galeria-Taller Lolo, a group of various artists working together. We were lucky to see how they casted bronze statues. Paul (or Simon?), an exchange artist from the U.S, kindly showed us around and explained how this casting process works. We could watch how they poured the melted bronze, which was highly contaminated with other materials since they recycled water taps, musical instruments and other stuff which they found, into some gypsum cast, held in place by sand. If you got interested in bronze casting, you find a link to a description at the end of the post. Don’t be rude, do it afterwards, I’m talking to you right now. After only 15 minutes, since they were impatient (by the way: the only time I saw Cubans being so) they already opened the casts and freed the hot statues (I would guess still about 200°C hot) from the sand and gypsum. It was a really nice experience, they were really into what they were doing!
How about other things we, or at least I, liked? Well, surely not their political system. The (socialist) government is that restrictive that it doesn’t allow its citizens to go abroad. Anyway, I wanted to say something I liked, mumble mumble, maybe their approach towards problems. They always try (and usually succeed) to find a solution. They somehow manage to make everything to work. Just look at their old cars. They repair them on a regular basis without having the right tools nor the adequate knowledge. They simply know somebody who has an uncle whose cousin has an idea how it could possible work, and they try.
Sorry for the small excursus. I wanted to tell you what we did, that’s probably the main reason you came here. Well, the truth is: not much. We played cards, we walked around, enjoyed being together without the need of doing something very exceptional, visited a (boring) cave, played cards drinking rum, went to the beaches of Varadero (unfortunately it was cloudy when we were there), smoked cigars, drunk rum, got drunk, danced naked (not really naked, ok, not even danced), walked around, enjoyed the views, played cards, talked about travelling, listened to Marina read a book (and got sleeping doing so), walked on a railroad bridge, and other stuff.
I hope you got an idea what we did together during those 6 days. If not, you are always free to ask ;).
Hasta luego,
Marina’s brother.
[Bronze Carsting Process][http://stevensartfoundry.com/faq/bronze-casting-process/]
