Havana, Cuba, North America

I got a wake up call from the hotel at 4:10am, that I definitely didn’t ask for and was not expecting. I guess it makes sense that they do that for everyone who is on this flight to make sure you don’t miss the rescheduled flight. Good thinking. I had a quick shower and then went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast before getting the bus. It turns out the breakfast they put out for us was a couple of sugar cookies and little bottles of water. Not exactly something that will keep me fueled for very long, but it was better than nothing.

We all piled onto the coach bus at the hotel and got to the airport for about 5:15am. Getting through security was a breeze and got to the gate with tons of time. Everyone seemed pretty antsy about the flight. I don’t know if it’s because they just want to get there after the delays, or if they aren’t used to flying, or maybe they found out the reason why the flight was cancelled yesterday and they are nervous there is something wrong with the plane. I never actually found out why the flight was delayed, so I couldn’t care less. Let’s just get this going.

Well we finally got on this plane it was like a total time warp! It is an old Russian plane, I’m guessing from the early 1980’s. I don’t remember being on a plane this old, but I’m sure I was when I was younger. I’m pretty sure this even used to be a plane that had a smoking section on it, it’s that old. There were no reading lights at each seat, there was no seatbelt sign at all, and they had a few TV screens scattered around, but they weren’t showing movies or TV shows. The only thing they were showing was a Cuban Tourist Information video that was on a loop every hour. This video was pretty obviously made in the early 1990’s, and they’ve not cared to update it at all. I guess this was just a little taste of what Cuba will be like before I got here. They served one meal and it was rice and meatballs, with a stale piece of bread, and a stale brownie. It was old plane food like I remember having when I was younger. Crazy!

It’s funny to see how differently Cubans travel compared to western people. Since there was no seatbelt sign, we had to rely on the cabin stewards to tell us when it was safe to walk around the cabin. As soon as the seat belts could be taken off, they were, and everyone was standing up talking in the aisles. It was like a neighborhood block party on a plane. I’ve never seen anything like it. It ended up being a ten hour flight, which seemed really long to me, but maybe these old planes can’t be pushed like the new ones can.

We first stopped in Santiago, Cuba just for a stopover. I’ve never been through something like this, so it was quite strange to me. If we were continuing on to Havana, we had to stay on the plane. Everyone else got off here at Santiago. As soon as all the others were off the plane, they then took all of us off the plane and into a waiting room. This was my first experience with the Cuban heat. Holy hell it is hot down here! It’s in the mid-90’s with humidity at the same percentage. We were moved into a waiting room, sat there for a half hour, and then got moved back onto the same plane. They never checked our passports or anything, so it was a bit strange.

We got on the plan and then took off for Havana. It was only an hour flight so we didn’t get as high as we would normally fly. We hit a little bit of turbulence and at one point did that thing where the whole plane drops for a second and your stomach is in your throat. Maybe it’s just that I’ve flown enough that those things don’t bother me, but it definitely bothered some other people on the plane. At one point everyone on the plane started screaming. It was straight out of a movie. We dropped for maybe two seconds and everyone started screaming and as soon as we leveled out, the cabin steward stuck his head out through the curtain and just shook his head in disgust. It was pretty funny to me.

The plane had a cool camera view on the TV screens that looks like it is just in front of the cockpit and for this short flight they kept it on the screens for the entire flight. I really liked being able to see this perspective. I’ve never seen it on any other flight before. I’ve seen some cameras that look straight down at the ground, but never one that shows the pilot’s view.

We landed in Havana and the chaos started. I didn’t really know what the expect from immigration or customs coming through this border, especially as a British citizen who also holds an American passport. The queue took quite a while to get through at immigration, but when I got up to the window, it took two minutes. I wasn’t asked any questions, and just passed straight through. I also thought I was going to get held up at customs, but they just let me walk straight through. I’d read something on a travel forum about the Cuban government trying to charge you duty for any electronics you bring into the country, but I guess they didn’t want my money. I have my fair share of electronics with me, and they never even stopped me.

My next task was to get some cash and of course there is only one ATM in the Havana airport and it just kept declining my card. Luckily there was ONE currency exchange I was able to use my credit card at and I got some cash. Then I had to get a taxi. They were asking 25 CUC ($25) to get a ride into the city, and I didn’t want to pay that much. I searched around for someone to share a taxi with and then finally found a taxi driver who was looking for someone to go for 15 CUC. I hopped in with another guy and we headed off, but the opposite direction from the city. The driver said he had to drop this guy off at another place and then we would go back toward Havana. It was only five minutes away, and then when we dropped the one guy off, we picked up four more. I didn’t really have any idea what was going on, but I had my offline maps and I was keeping an eye on where we were going. The other guys had to get dropped off at the bus station next to Plaza de Revolucion, which is right near my guesthouse. We dropped them off and then five minutes later the driver brought me right to the front door of my casa. We had agreed on 15 CUC for the ride, but I gave him 20 CUC. It was pretty obvious from the ride here that people need all the money they can get. And the driver was really friendly and tried to speak in English to me, so he earned it.

I wasn’t sure how many of the stories of Cuba would be true, but the ones about the old cars is definitely true. There are old 1950’s “yank tanks” everywhere! Some of them appear to be in really good condition, and some of them look like they need A LOT of work, but it’s really cool seeing them on the road regardless.

The casa I’m staying at tonight (Casa de Oralia) is not nearly as nice as it looked online. To be honest, I don’t really care how nice a place is nowadays, I’ve stayed in some pretty nasty places, but if it says that it has air conditioning, don’t just give me a fan! It’s hot as hell in here and the owner is saying that it’s a mistake on the website and they don’t have air conditioning. Well there is nothing I can do about it tonight, but tomorrow I am moving to a different casa and hopefully that one has A/C as advertised.

I left the casa and went out to explore just for a couple of hours. I was completely exhausted, but needed to get something to eat. I walked down the main street near my casa, and it is possibly the most uncomfortable I have ever felt. This place is so poor, and it’s obvious that people here have nothing at all, and I couldn’t tell how they viewing me. Nothing ever happened, and I felt more comfortable toward the end of my walk than at the start of it, but still not like walking around a normal city. I didn’t get to see much on my walk, and was a bit afraid to even get my camera out very often, but I did get something to eat and a much needed bottle of water. I sat in at a burger place that was really busy, and it was really interesting to see that NO ONE was looking at their phone. I’m not even sure if they have mobile data here, but I literally didn’t see one person on their smartphone (if they even have those here). So everyone was having real conversations. I imagine it used to be like that before smartphones existed for me too, I can hardly remember those days though. I also saw a lot of people using pay phones, which I hardly ever see anymore. It is going to be a very different place to explore for the next few days, that’s for sure.

I’m back at the casa now and it’s 8pm and I’m ready for bed. It’s been a LONG day (as you can tell from the length of this blog entry), and I’m ready to try and get some sleep. It’s not going to be easy in this hot box, but at least I have a fan. I can’t imagine this heat if it was just stagnant. Ugh.