Arrival in Havana and Trip to Viñales
We’d like to preface this with a disclaimer for our readers: everything we post comes from our personal experience. Yours will vary based on your life view and handling of different situations. With that being said, we highly recommend taking a trip to Cuba. Find accommodations that fit your comfort level, go explore, and support the Cuban people. We learned that the monthly income of the average Cuban is $20 a month. Yes, a MONTH! Everything you do there helps them tremendously. It is illegal for Americans to stay at government-owned hotels and eat at government-owned restaurants, so it’s not hard to support the real people that need it. Some citizens are quite comfortable with the simple living they have, but others want desperately to get out in any way possible and strive to do and be better. With a cheap flight and a visa, it’s much easier than (American) people think it is to get there.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
We arrived at Orlando International Airport three hours before our flight as suggested by JetBlue. We don’t usually arrive so early since we have TSA PreCheck, but we had a feeling this trip would be different. We were right. JetBlue has a completely dedicated area for check-ins on flights to Cuba and 15 or so people were already lined-up. And each of those people had at least 3 bags to check. Some had way more. Multiple people were even checking big-screen tvs, which blew our minds! Some people didn’t even have bags. Items were just wrapped in cellophane repeatedly and turned in make-shift bags. We’d never seen anything like it.
We finally reached the front of the line, got checked-in, purchased our Cuban visas ($50 each), and checked one bag. We normally only carry-on when we travel because we’ve had some bags not be at our destinations on arrival, but decided as part of our “Supporting the Cuban People” efforts, we would bring and donate some items like tennis shoes, clothing, and an old cellphone. Plus, we were staying with a friend’s family and were given coffee, medications, and other items for her loved ones.
At the gate, the call came for more bags to be checked since the flight was full. About 20 more bags were given up by people. However, while boarding the plane, Natalie overheard one of the ramp luggage workers say there wasn’t any space left and that no more luggage could be added. They would have to send the remaining luggage to Fort Lauderdale for arrival in Cuba later that evening. Sure enough, upon landing in Havana after the quick 90 minute flight, we discovered our donation bag was one of the bags sent to Fort Lauderdale. Little did know we would have to spend a good part of the night in a crowd at the lost and found.
Since we had plenty of time until the bag would arrive, we dropped our carry-on Nomatic backpacks at the apartment, which is just five blocks from Plaza de la Revolución. At this time, we found out that we were under water restrictions. That meant we only had running water from 5 pm to 5 am. Welcome to Cuba!
We set out to purchase bus tickets for the next day’s adventure to Varadero, which ended up a bust as they recommend purchasing tickets 3 days in advance. Luckily, our driver and new friend Carlos offered his services, so we’d still be able to get there. It was just going to cost us a lot more than the price of bus tickets.
Disappointed in striking out on ($40 roundtrip for both of us) bus tickets, we head out on our $250 tour to Viñales in the province of Pinar del Rio, where the tobacco plantations are located. It’s a two hour drive from Havana and we got to fully experience the Cuban roads, which we imagine is like driving on the moon. Actually, we take that back. There are less craters on the moon than on Cuban roads. And speed limits…those appear to only be suggestions. Oncoming drivers at least have the courtesy to flash their headlights in warning when the police are ahead or when any animals or people are randomly crossing the road, which is quite frequent.
The roadsides are littered with people waiting for buses, taxis, rides from friends, hitchhiking, or walking to get to where they need to be. To catch a ride, you just extend your arm perpendicular to your body in the hopes the passing vehicle wants to stop for you. Horses and carts make occasional appearances. So do random chickens, cows, goats, donkeys, etc. The roadside is also just sadly inundated with litter. We’ve both been to other countries where there is an abundance of people, trash, and animals along the roadside, but this was different. The sheer amount of people walking far distances without knowing if or when they will catch a ride is shocking.
Our first stop in Viñales is at Montesino tobacco farm. We witnessed first-hand how they carefully pick the tobacco leaves, thread them, and hang them to dry for four to six months! They were kind enough to let us walk through two of the houses built for the leaves to hang-dry in and show us the process. Then, we were given a private presentation of how they carefully select the leaves to roll by hand and allow the cigars to sit in molds for 10 minutes or so to hold their shape. Cigars came in three physical sizes, which could be purchased by the half (12) or whole bundle (24). Prices varied for each size, however, we purchased a half bundle of the middle-sized cigars to bring home for family and friends for $40.
Here, we also encountered our first squat/no-seat bathroom experience (similar to an outhouse or open-air port-a-potty), where it’s also encouraged to pay for your toilet paper that you must put in a bin to throw away.
After the tobacco plantation, we see a lush greenery scene that brought back memories of a year prior, to our vacation in Hawai’i. The mountains are not quite as tall, but the leaves were just as green and the cascading landscapes are just as beautiful. The best spot was a panoramic overlook next to a hotel called Horizontes Los Jazmines, who had an infinity pool to enjoy this stunning vista for its guests. Luckily, there is a small public parking area that included some local souvenir options and a one-man liquor bar.
It was fast approaching 2:00 pm and we hadn’t eaten since we left Orlando that morning, so to say we were hangry is an understatement. Carlos had a friend’s recommendation to try El Campesino restaurant. It was $15 per person and included a small amount of your protein choice for each individual, and then a sharing of three types of rice (white, black beans, and yellow), along with salad, fruit, soup and a drink (soda or alcohol). Our driver also ensured the bill came to us as one check. The Kevin and Natalie mojito count also began with one each.
We paid to come to the beautiful countryside and have a tour, but we didn’t realize how much of a tourist destination this area was until we reached our next destination, which was the Cave of the Indian. After being the only people at the tobacco plantation and among only a handful of people at the viewpoint, a 45 minute wait to go inside a cave didn’t sound appealing, so we bailed. Instead, we stopped at another cave down the street, paid our 3 CUC each and gave a highly encouraged tip at the end for the show. We don’t recommend this one at all. It’s a small cave that literally took 2 minutes to walk through and was nothing spectacular. Afterwards, our driver took us to the prehistoric mural, which we also saw was touristy and decided to skip out on. We want a genuine experience everywhere we go and this just didn’t feel right, so we asked to head back to Havana.
Once back in Havana, we visited the house of our friend’s sister, Odalis, and met her husband Roly, who speaks excellent English. They have a massive garden and insisted we take some potatoes, tomatoes, guava, and bananas to have at the apartment. He also cut off about 20 plantains for a party we’d be attending on Saturday. This well-kept plantation was self-sustainable and perfect for sharing with an extended family. The gesture was a generous gift that we treasure from the trip.
We then headed to the airport to retrieve our missing bag. What a process! The lost and found is a separate building from the terminal and is inside a locked gate. When we arrived, we found about 30 people waiting outside the gate. Lost bags appear to be a regular occurrence here. Only 10 people at a time would be allowed inside the gate to another holding area. Then, 5 of those people would be allowed inside the building to search near the baggage claim area for your bag. Sounds organized, right? Nope. It was chaos and took us over an hour. Welcome to Cuba! We were discovering today that nothing is simple here.
Now that the bag was back in our possession, our driver Carlos then took us to Doña Juana Restaurant for a small bite. Kevin was craving tostones so he got those, and we had our first experience of eating fried malanga. It was delicious! Those and a salad did us in, along with a couple of mojitos each (the tally is now at 3 each). The bill was only $14, and included Carlos’s beer. Dining out in Cuba is incredibly affordable for visiting foreigners.
This long day started at 4:00 a.m. and it was fast approaching 11 p.m. so it desperately needed to end. But first, we stopped at a roadside stand for bottled water to have on hand all week, which only cost 0.50 CUC each, so we got a six-pack. We brought our Grayl water filter bottle but with the limited ability to get water, we decided this was a necessity. We finally got back to the apartment and crashed, having our only good night of sleep during the entire trip
Here are some takeaways from our first day:
-If we were ever to go back to Cuba, we’d like to stay at the hotel in Viñales and go trekking through the lush greenery and scenic landscapes.
-Find out ahead of time what your driver expects from you when they are driving you around all day and communicate what you want to do instead of going along for the ride. This trip seemed extremely overpriced given what we actually did.
-Brush up on your español before a trip here!