Cuba

The land where colors shout out to you. It’s a place where someone has forgotten to turn the hour glass. The narrow streets, the dilapidated buildings, the old frame of community, the bits and pieces of history in the city all together create a magic around you.

Cuba has two sides, the Atlantic side and the Caribbean side. We flew from Toronto to Varadero , which is on the Atlantic side of the Island, via Air Transat. Booked all Inclusive deals with them, for the first time.Cool thing is: Not only all food and drink is included but they also provide transportation from the airport to the Resort. So,as we boarded the bus, there was a Guide in the bus, he handed, chilled beer and funny stories to all. He summarized what we should expect in his broken English, as he mentioned he has learnt the language only a year back to join the tourism industry. It seems to be a very profitable industry in Cuba, so everyone, regardless of their education background, wants to work in tourism. So, the person serving you at the bar could be an engineer or a doctor at his day job. Thus, comes the tipping culture. They rely on the tips that they get. So, you need to tip nicely. Its not mandatory, but you will feel bad and would want to give something for tip.

Also there are two types of currency in Cuba : CUC and CUP .

1 CUC - 1 USD

1 CUP = 0.0377358USD

CUC is the currency that you will get as you are a tourist . CUP is the local currency . Three things are very famous in Cuba: Cuban Cigars, Cuban Rum and Cuban beaches.

We were dropped at the Resort intact along with our bags. The resort seemed to be a pseudo city, all by itself. There is a huge difference outside and inside the place. Its like a huge oasis in a dessert. Varadero is full of resorts along the shore line.With the increasing number of tourists, they multiply in numbers. Also that means more jobs to the local people. The main language spoken in Cuba is Spanish. As Cuba was a Spanish colony way back. It was captured by so many countries. It’s history revolves around fighting for its independence so many times, that I almost lost track of how many were there. If you do not get out of the luxury of your resort, then language is no problem at all . Everyone at the resort speaks some amount of English .

We had booked a tour of the Havana city with Cubatourings .They are very helpful , an email and you are booked for the day . Its better to do your bookings before hand , if you do not have much time , as internet is a very rare commodity . Even if you get one at your hotel reception for $2 an hour , it is very hard to make it work . Being an IT person if I say so , that is it.

A tour guide , wearing a pink t short , a super friendly smile , of the age of my father with a pony tail arrived sharp at 8:30 at our resort, as promised over the email .He took us in a cab to get the vintage car we requested for . As we reached someone’s backyard , the taxi came to halt and so was the rambling of our tour guide .He is a very talkative person you see .There stood our ride for the day in all its might.Its an pretty old red car but very well maintained . In Cuba , vintage cars are a common sight ,as they refused to import new cars during the revolutions.

With the windows rolled down and as the gorgeous old car started , we were hoping to enjoy the scenery around , instead we were trying very hard to concentrate on the words our tour guide has to say .

On the way to Havana , we stopped at a place to have pinacolada . It is the best I had ever had . On top of a mountain , they make the drink inside a pineapple and let you add as much liquor as you want .Live musicians play by and you can enjoy the drink and the scenery around.

Havana is totally breathtaking, especially Havana Veja or old Havana . The narrow cobbled streets , the old mansions , the vintage cars , the coco cabs,the street musicians and the stories around them – is mind blowing . We also visited the Havana Cathedral . People say , if you don’t see it , you have not seen Havana .

We went past the shore drive in EL Malecon and the place where the film Fast and Furious was shot . People with business on that street was paid to keep their shops closed in USD , which was so much money that with the shops open they could not make that much . People really wanted that movie makers never to go . Also , the government allowed the film crew on the deal that they can use the street , but they will have to build the whole street a new .

We bought some cigars from a shop .Was told, Cohiba is the brand supposedly preferred by Fidel.

Last but not the least was the Revolution square visit , where we discussed a lot about Cuba history with our guides and realized Fidel Castro and Che Guevara has different imprints in different peoples mind .

The next two days we spent in the resort .We had never spent so much time in a place like this ever . Good side of it is , we almost discovered every square inch of the place and what it has to offer . Bad side of it is , did not get enough opportunity to mingle with the locals and get to know them more . Life in a resort is that of an emperor , especially if you have the all inclusive deals . Get up in the morning whenever you want , no schedule at all , no alarms , take a walk to the breakfast area and get a room full of options to choose what you want to have for breakfast . The list of food is so big , you might get lost and go for the same stall twice . Then you head to the beach , and go for a swim or lay down on one of the beach chairs under the bamboo umbrellas and take a nap . Or you can do what we did , walked up to a guy and asked if we can snorkel . Its pretty cheap there compared to Key west .This guy is very funny.He supposedly liked my shades . What do normal people do when they like someone’s something.They compliment , right ?

This guy came up to me and said ,

“Nice shades , how much ?” .

I am like “What do you mean , "how much"?” . Then he says, “Its my girlfriend’s bday , I give your sunglass , so how much ?”

Now here is a thing , the above conversation may seem really funny /awkward . But in Cuba , people don’t get RayBans, Guccis etc in normal shops. There is a parallel black market though, where my shades could have landed that day.

Anyway , coming back to my original story , we booked with this strange guy to take us for deep sea snorkeling ; imagine our courage! They take you out on a sail boat in the middle of the sea .They fold the sail and let you down in the water and you can see hell lot of fishes of all different colors and creeds . While coming back , I laid on the sail boat watching the sail fill its lungs with air ; the clear blue sky , with white clouds floating by .

Another day we took out a kayak in the sea . It is hard to beat the waves to take it out . But once you are past the waves , the calmness around you really is amazing .

In the evening , we took a long stroll in the local market in Varadero.

On our way back , the thing that we noticed at the airport is : the queue for people travelling back to Canada is huge , almost the end of the queue cannot be seen at a glimpse . But the next counter was for USA , there were only 4 people in the queue . Atleast there were 4 thanks to Obama.