Cuba from my experiences- Part1

Cuba from  my experiences- Part1

2 years ago few of my friends talked about going to Cuba but that was just a talk . As every year I was planning my birthday trip I suddenly though of Cuba. I asked many friends  to join me but as usual every one had some excuse to let me go alone. well I am used to this now. 

Any way I finalised my destination and started googling about Cuba. I was really not knowing much about this country and also had some prejudices. First important thing was to find a right agency to plan a trip. After long search found really good company Cuban Adventures to plan my trip. As I was going alone in this country for the first time I was a bit afraid to do on my own all things. So decided to do a group tour and I must say I chose the right company to do this tour with.   I chose the 8 day round trip which started from Havana followed by vinales, Cienfuegos, Trinidad and back to Havana.

I don't want to write about these places as everyone can google it. I would like to write about people, the country and my experiences. Would like to write about some tips to plan the Cuba trip. 

The very first step was to get a visa which is called a Tourist Card. For Germans we have to apply in Berlin consulate with copy of return ticket, insurance, visa fees  and passport copy and normally in 2 weeks we get the visa. For more info check here:http://misiones.minrex.gob.cu/alemania 

Cuba is not as cheap as you would think. For most of the currencies the exchange rate is 1:1 so you can imagine its not that cheap. It is a better option to exchange euros or pounds than dollars. To exchange dollars you have to pay penalty of extra 10%.

The first new thing for me was 2 currencies. Cuba has 2 different currencies ;one for the tourist CUC and one for locals CUP . Of course CUP is super cheap. 1 CUC =25 CUP. Another important thing to note is you cannot exchange your money with Cuban currencies anywhere except Cuba. So the first thing after getting out of the Cuban airport is to exchange your money. Of course you can get money from ATM, bank or any other money exchange offices there. 

I had a little funny  experience with my credit card although at that time it did not find it funny. 😀

I went to ATM machine to get some money out . I used my credit card and I somehow entered wrong pin at the first time. Normally at the first time when the machine recognised that pin is wrong it should not go further with my transaction but it did took me till end and then asked to enter the pin again and yet again I entered the wrong pin. The machine displayed this message and asked me to enter again my pin. I just pressed cancel button to end the transaction as I was not sure about my pin but It still did not cancel the transaction and stopped the further processing and just swallowed my credit card. I was really freaked out to see my credit card is gone in the machine. Normally after pressing cancel it should just give me my card back but no..... it didn't. Luckily I had my tour guide with me as I was doing rum testing tour with him ; he came in the bank with me and talked with the lady in the bank in Spanish. and then after showing my passport and signing 2-3 times I got my credit card back in half an hour or so. Oh man you cannot imagine how happy I was to see my card. Now I can laugh on it but at that time I was really worried as I did not have enough cash with me and now card is also gone , new country, not knowing language, had 10 more days to go ...what a situation. 

In cuba 99% places you have to pay in cash only . No credit card transactions. That is something we all have to get used to. As we all are so much dependent on card shopping that paying in cash and basically to keep that much cash with you all time was one difficult thing to do. 

We all are so used to have 24 hrs. internet connection that cannot imagine a place without it. But yes its Cuba.  5 years ago when one of my friends went there he told me there is no internet in Cuba at all but now situation has changed. Now they have limited internet. Well people do not have internet at their homes. only important people and may be people like journalists or so have internet at their homes but then analog i.e. dial-up connection which is slow and also keeps telephone line engage. The kind we might have 15-18 years ago. So every one uses an Internet card. We have to buy it at  telephone office which costs 1.50 CUC and it is valid for 1 hour . You can also buy it privately or in a big hotels but then it costs at least 3-4 CUC so better to buy in official telephone shops called ETECSA . that's the network they have. This card has a user name and password and then we have to search for a public Wi-Fi zone . This could be anywhere in middle of a square , or at the end of street , park , outside of a big hotel. Then go there and get connected. It was really new to me. So everything is public, on the road. you can do skype or video chat and it will be on the road ; in public 😀 everyone can hear it , see it  😀

I always had to walk 5-6 mins. from my casa to the next Wi-Fi zone and then use internet. Wherever you will see many people with mobile in hands looking into it you can be sure that is a Wifi zone. it was quite funny. 

This is how the card looks like 

And this is how the public Wi-Fi zone looks like :

One more new thing for me or for any tourist for that matter is use of toilet paper.  We cannot flush the toilet paper in Cuba . We have to throw it in the bin. It took really conscious efforts to remember this . They have a very old pipe system and so paper can not be flushed. 

IF you want to plan some trips in Cuba definitely check the websites of

Cuban Adventures:  https://www.cubagrouptour.com/ 

profil-cuba-reisen: http://www.profil-cuba-reisen.de/en/

viajeskronoscuba: http://www.viajeskronoscuba.com/en 

cubatravelnetwork: www.cubatravelnetwork.com 

I booked all of my tours from these different companies and I had really good experience with all of them. 

Definitely do a tour of Cuba by night including Cabaret Parisien in famous hotel National, and Hemingway tour . But do not waste your money in Rum tour if offered by any company as its really not worth of its money. You can go on your own to this rum museum in old Havana and get the 15 mins . not so interesting tour including one shot of rum at the end. I wasted my money but that's why you should not . 😀

Another interesting place one should visit in Havana is Fusterlandia. This is the place where Cuban artist José Fuster has decorated his house and also the neighborhood houses in colorful mosaic. 

Something like this:

Also if you have time  and you are staying in Havana between Thursday and Saturday then do visit fabrica de arte cubano for live music shows , art exhibition and to enjoy some night life. One more bar one should visit in old Havana for good cocktails is O’Reilly 304. Really loved the place. The bar man make even simple lemonade look fancy and testy . 

Tobe continued.......