Los Angeles, CA, Habana, Cuba
It’s 5:30am PDT and I am waking up for my trip to Cuba! My flight leaves at 9am and I am worried that everything is going to go wrong.
At 6:30am, I arrive at LAX. I somehow allow my driver to convince me that my flight leaves out of the Tom Bradley international terminal, even though I am pretty sure it goes out of Terminal 6. By 6:35 I am speed-walking to Terminal 6.
By 7am I am checking into my flight. I have to stop at a special counter to show my passport and pick up additional paperwork for Cuba. I get through security quickly and even have time to grab a breakfast burger at The Counter. After breakfast, I frantically check the flight details for Laura and Andrew who are flying out of Austin just an hour after me. Given their layover, I should get to Cuba about 1 hour ahead of them; we have plans to meet outside of customs. At the last minute, I send out a text to tell them that if we end up in different terminals, that I will come to them.
Soon my boarding group is called. I pass off my signed affidavit to the flight attendant, stating my purpose for traveling to Cuba. Of the 12 available general licenses I chose Educational Activities - People to People. Even though Trump’s new policy, closed the People to People travel category last month, I had booked my airline ticket prior to his announcement. I am grandfathered into the old policy, but just barely.
The flight attendant checks my paperwork and then I am on the plane. Man, this flight really is empty.
At 6:30am, I arrive at LAX. I somehow allow my driver to convince me that my flight leaves out of the Tom Bradley international terminal, even though I am pretty sure it goes out of Terminal 6. By 6:35 I am speed-walking to Terminal 6.
By 7am I am checking into my flight. I have to stop at a special counter to show my passport and pick up additional paperwork for Cuba. I get through security quickly and even have time to grab a breakfast burger at The Counter. After breakfast, I frantically check the flight details for Laura and Andrew who are flying out of Austin just an hour after me. Given their layover, I should get to Cuba about 1 hour ahead of them; we have plans to meet outside of customs. At the last minute, I send out a text to tell them that if we end up in different terminals, that I will come to them.
Soon my boarding group is called. I pass off my signed affidavit to the flight attendant, stating my purpose for traveling to Cuba. Of the 12 available general licenses I chose Educational Activities - People to People. Even though Trump’s new policy, closed the People to People travel category last month, I had booked my airline ticket prior to his announcement. I am grandfathered into the old policy, but just barely.
The flight attendant checks my paperwork and then I am on the plane. Man, this flight really is empty.
Once I am settled, I go through a mental checklist of all of my preparations for Cuba:
1. Money: I have 1700 Euros pressed tightly in my travel notebook. Even though I have planned ahead, I have to admit that I have some major anxiety in this regard. My extensive research uncovered the following facts: The Cuban Convertible Peso (also called CUC) is a closed currency, so you can only get it in Cuba. Cubans charge a 10% premium on exchanging US dollars (ergo the Euros). And US credit and debit cards will not work in Cuba.
1. Money: I have 1700 Euros pressed tightly in my travel notebook. Even though I have planned ahead, I have to admit that I have some major anxiety in this regard. My extensive research uncovered the following facts: The Cuban Convertible Peso (also called CUC) is a closed currency, so you can only get it in Cuba. Cubans charge a 10% premium on exchanging US dollars (ergo the Euros). And US credit and debit cards will not work in Cuba.
My plan, which was validated by the currency exchange rep in downtown LA, is to walk immediately to the exchange window in the Habana airport, exchange all of my Euros, and then divide my CUCs into multiple locations. I have been assured that crime in Cuba is basically non-existent, but I can not shake my LA sensibilities about carrying large sums of cash.
2. The Spanish language: Despite the fact that I have been practicing, I am not feeling confident in my Spanish. As an extra measure, I have downloaded Google Translate and even ran a few tests in offline mode.
3. Traveling sans GPS - Cuba is known for lack of cell reception (none, in the case of AT&T) and spotty wifi. To this end, I have a folder full of printed maps (though, I have no idea how to read them!). I also downloaded Maps.me and tested it offline. I am feeling moderately good about my navigation abilities.
4. Traveling sans email access - I have printed confirmations for all of our Airbnbs plus my flight back home. I also have 2 color copies of my passport (one in my suitcase and one in my carry on) and multiple lists of tourist stops and other travel recommendations.
5. The People to People documentation requirement - In order to travel under the general license of “Educational Activities - People to People”, I will need to spend at least 6 hours per day for 5 days per week interacting directly with the Cuban people. This can involve staying in an Airbnb, using a private car service, taking walking tours, eating in private restaurants, etc. I’ll also need to avoid any of the government-run companies, recently published on Trump’s blacklist. I have a printed copy of the list and a small notebook to document how I spend my time.
Around 4pm EDT, we start our descent into Cuba. I am nervous but also very excited. Once we land, it only takes a few minutes for everyone to exit the plane. My next stop is to check in with border control; they want to take a picture of me and the lady has to tell me 5 times to stop smiling. Oh well, I’m here!
I make my way over to baggage claim and confirm three things: I am in Terminal 2, this is not the main terminal and my friends will be arriving in Terminal 3.
First things first, I line up to retrieve my bag. I quickly strike up a conversation with a 20-something guy who is a bartender. I use this opportunity to brush up on my knowledge of rum-based cocktails. Eventually, he wanders off and a nice, older Californian lady asks if it’s my first time in Cuba. I say yes and she gives me some advice to make sure to get out of Habana for a few days (luckily, this is already part of the plan). She tells me that she travels to Cuba a few times a year and seems to be well versed. I decide to ask her about getting to Terminal 3 and her expression suggests this is complicated. Ugh. She tells me to stay put and then goes to talk to one of the security people. They go back and forth for what seems like forever. Soon she returns and tells me that Terminal 3 is about a 10 minute drive away and that I’ll need to take a cab. She says that I should pay 8 CUCs and that they will try to charge me more. I thank her profusely.
After nearly an hour, I see my bag come through on the carousel. Since I have nothing to declare, I quickly make it through the final checkpoint. I look for a place to drop off my health declaration card, but no one is around.
When I first walk outside, I am bombarded by cab drivers. I politely say no to most of them, but one guy is persistent, so I ask how much to get to Terminal 3. He says it’s 30 CUCs; I say no way and continue my search for a money exchange. Eventually, I am directed up an escalator to the departures level and walk up right up to the exchange window. I hand over all of my Euros and am rewarded with nearly 2000 CUCs. I silently breath a sigh of relief.
I take a few minutes to divide up my money into multiple locations and then head back out to the crowd of crazy cab drivers. I identify a less enthusiastic driver and he says that it’s only 15 CUCs to Terminal 3. Eventually, we settle on 10. I am feeling proud.
I follow him into the parking lot. His car is slightly further away than I am comfortable with, but I just go with the flow. We quickly exit the airport and enter the highway. We are driving pretty fast down the freeway for a full five minutes before I re-confirm that we are going to Terminal 3. He says yes and I try to relax. Eventually, we arrive and I am beginning to understand why this was so complicated.
I pay my driver and re-enter the very crowded airport. I make one full lap to look for Laura and Andrew. I do not see them yet, but streams of tourists are flooding in from both sides of the building. I am looking for somewhere central to wait when I spot them. I am basically jumping and yelling and they see me immediately. I am so excited!
They had an easy flight in and just need to exchange their money before we can head into town. Exchanging money in Terminal 3 proves to be way more time consuming than it was in Terminal 2. I sit with a mountain of bags, while Laura and Andrew wait in line. When Laura finally gets to the front, the money machine seemingly breaks. It takes extra long for her to get her money, but, eventually, we are ready to brave the large crowd of cab drivers. Luckily, our Airbnb host has given us an estimated cost to her house and it is easy to get the price we are looking for. Soon we are all settled in the cab and are on our way into Habana!
The drive takes about half an hour and ends up costing 30 CUCs. It’s dark outside and we are all surprised by the lack of traffic. Our driver is weaving through tiny streets and continually talking to people on the road. It seems like he is asking for directions, but we’re not sure. I am tempted to pull out my large folder of maps, but I restrain myself.
Eventually we are dropped off at Leyanis’s house, which will be our home for the next 3 nights. She quickly answers the door when we knock. She introduces us to Manny, who will also be hosting us. Manny makes an extravagant show of presenting our half of the row house, which includes a living room, a master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and secondary bedroom, which also has its own bathroom. At one point, he tells us not to drink from the sink and makes a funny pantomime of being sick to get his point across. I probably wouldn’t drink from the sink anyways, but his point is well taken. After the tour of our 3 rooms, we stumble through a pretty awkward conversation in Spanish where we set up breakfast for tomorrow and a plan to meet our tour guide. When Manny asks us what time we would like to start breakfast, we suggest 8am. Manny shakes his head disappointingly and negotiates us down to 9am. I am secretly grateful.
When we are finally left alone, we take only a few minutes to get settled. Most of this time is spent discussing what we we are going to do with all of our money. There is a weird, little safe in the master bedroom, but we eventually decide that would be the first place to be robbed... also, we can’t open it. We each make decisions about where to store our cash. I end up literally putting some under my mattress. Between the 3 of us, we have stashes in at least 9 locations; this seems logical.
It’s almost 9pm and we are finally ready to go find some dinner. When we leave the house, we have to use a makeshift, pulley system to open the door (it’s being painted and is wet). Laura and Andrew are feeling generous and let me have the first turn at operating the pulley. When we get outside, the door will not latch. We all three stand around it for nearly 5 minutes, before a neighbor finally comes over to help. He shows us how to latch the door by slamming it shut. Okay, that works.
I pull out my Maps.me app, but we really have no idea where to go. We pick street that looks long and straight on the map and decide to follow it. We quickly pass a few restaurants and review the menus. We decide on Chacon 162, which has a pre-fix dinner special for 10 CUCs each (including mojitos!). We could all use a mojito.
We grab a table on the sidewalk and are served multiple courses. Our meal is nice and there is a really cute street cat that keeps begging us for food. Laura and I feed the cat, even though we know we are not supposed to. After dinner, we hang out for a round of beer. The server introduces us to the idea of national beer, which is either Cristal (light) or Bucanero (dark). We all choose Cristal, which tastes a lot like Coors.
Next we decide to explore. We head over to Floridita, which is known as the bar that Hemingway frequented (and is, admittedly, a big tourist trap). As soon as we arrive, rain starts pouring down; we run inside. The ambiance feels a little stuffy, but we are trapped, due to the small monsoon that has developed outside. We hang around long enough to slurp down our drinks and take funny pictures next to a bronze statue of Hemingway.
Now that the rain has died down, we decide to walk around a little bit and see what else we can find. Eventually I spot an outdoor bar next to a park full of cats. We stop in for a round of drinks. I try to order rum and Diet Coke and the bartender tells me no. Well, regular Coke it is!
This bar has a pretty good atmosphere. There is a large group of tourists behind us who are attempting to transfer the remains of all of their cocktails into one large empty soda bottle. Eventually they are successful and leave the bar with a soda bottle half full of watered down, rum-based cocktails.
Around midnight the bar is starting to shut down. We decide to head back to our Airbnb and agree to only stop if something looks interesting and is on the way. About one block away we see a bar called La Farmacia. We stop in for a night cap. Thier cocktail menu is interesting and Laura and I pick drinks at random (Andrew opts for a beer). Laura’s drink arrives in a classy, little dessert wine glass. Mine arrives in a fishbowl with an upside down beer on top of it. Laura and Andrew can’t stop laughing me.
It’s nearing 1am and it’s as good of a time as any to wrap up the night. We make it back to our Airbnb and all promise to reconvene in the living room for breakfast at 8:50am.
Habana is already shaping up to be totally awesome and, as a bonus, it’s full of cats!
When I first walk outside, I am bombarded by cab drivers. I politely say no to most of them, but one guy is persistent, so I ask how much to get to Terminal 3. He says it’s 30 CUCs; I say no way and continue my search for a money exchange. Eventually, I am directed up an escalator to the departures level and walk up right up to the exchange window. I hand over all of my Euros and am rewarded with nearly 2000 CUCs. I silently breath a sigh of relief.
I take a few minutes to divide up my money into multiple locations and then head back out to the crowd of crazy cab drivers. I identify a less enthusiastic driver and he says that it’s only 15 CUCs to Terminal 3. Eventually, we settle on 10. I am feeling proud.
I follow him into the parking lot. His car is slightly further away than I am comfortable with, but I just go with the flow. We quickly exit the airport and enter the highway. We are driving pretty fast down the freeway for a full five minutes before I re-confirm that we are going to Terminal 3. He says yes and I try to relax. Eventually, we arrive and I am beginning to understand why this was so complicated.
I pay my driver and re-enter the very crowded airport. I make one full lap to look for Laura and Andrew. I do not see them yet, but streams of tourists are flooding in from both sides of the building. I am looking for somewhere central to wait when I spot them. I am basically jumping and yelling and they see me immediately. I am so excited!
They had an easy flight in and just need to exchange their money before we can head into town. Exchanging money in Terminal 3 proves to be way more time consuming than it was in Terminal 2. I sit with a mountain of bags, while Laura and Andrew wait in line. When Laura finally gets to the front, the money machine seemingly breaks. It takes extra long for her to get her money, but, eventually, we are ready to brave the large crowd of cab drivers. Luckily, our Airbnb host has given us an estimated cost to her house and it is easy to get the price we are looking for. Soon we are all settled in the cab and are on our way into Habana!
The drive takes about half an hour and ends up costing 30 CUCs. It’s dark outside and we are all surprised by the lack of traffic. Our driver is weaving through tiny streets and continually talking to people on the road. It seems like he is asking for directions, but we’re not sure. I am tempted to pull out my large folder of maps, but I restrain myself.
Eventually we are dropped off at Leyanis’s house, which will be our home for the next 3 nights. She quickly answers the door when we knock. She introduces us to Manny, who will also be hosting us. Manny makes an extravagant show of presenting our half of the row house, which includes a living room, a master bedroom with it’s own bathroom and secondary bedroom, which also has its own bathroom. At one point, he tells us not to drink from the sink and makes a funny pantomime of being sick to get his point across. I probably wouldn’t drink from the sink anyways, but his point is well taken. After the tour of our 3 rooms, we stumble through a pretty awkward conversation in Spanish where we set up breakfast for tomorrow and a plan to meet our tour guide. When Manny asks us what time we would like to start breakfast, we suggest 8am. Manny shakes his head disappointingly and negotiates us down to 9am. I am secretly grateful.
When we are finally left alone, we take only a few minutes to get settled. Most of this time is spent discussing what we we are going to do with all of our money. There is a weird, little safe in the master bedroom, but we eventually decide that would be the first place to be robbed... also, we can’t open it. We each make decisions about where to store our cash. I end up literally putting some under my mattress. Between the 3 of us, we have stashes in at least 9 locations; this seems logical.
It’s almost 9pm and we are finally ready to go find some dinner. When we leave the house, we have to use a makeshift, pulley system to open the door (it’s being painted and is wet). Laura and Andrew are feeling generous and let me have the first turn at operating the pulley. When we get outside, the door will not latch. We all three stand around it for nearly 5 minutes, before a neighbor finally comes over to help. He shows us how to latch the door by slamming it shut. Okay, that works.
I pull out my Maps.me app, but we really have no idea where to go. We pick street that looks long and straight on the map and decide to follow it. We quickly pass a few restaurants and review the menus. We decide on Chacon 162, which has a pre-fix dinner special for 10 CUCs each (including mojitos!). We could all use a mojito.
We grab a table on the sidewalk and are served multiple courses. Our meal is nice and there is a really cute street cat that keeps begging us for food. Laura and I feed the cat, even though we know we are not supposed to. After dinner, we hang out for a round of beer. The server introduces us to the idea of national beer, which is either Cristal (light) or Bucanero (dark). We all choose Cristal, which tastes a lot like Coors.
Next we decide to explore. We head over to Floridita, which is known as the bar that Hemingway frequented (and is, admittedly, a big tourist trap). As soon as we arrive, rain starts pouring down; we run inside. The ambiance feels a little stuffy, but we are trapped, due to the small monsoon that has developed outside. We hang around long enough to slurp down our drinks and take funny pictures next to a bronze statue of Hemingway.
Now that the rain has died down, we decide to walk around a little bit and see what else we can find. Eventually I spot an outdoor bar next to a park full of cats. We stop in for a round of drinks. I try to order rum and Diet Coke and the bartender tells me no. Well, regular Coke it is!
This bar has a pretty good atmosphere. There is a large group of tourists behind us who are attempting to transfer the remains of all of their cocktails into one large empty soda bottle. Eventually they are successful and leave the bar with a soda bottle half full of watered down, rum-based cocktails.
Around midnight the bar is starting to shut down. We decide to head back to our Airbnb and agree to only stop if something looks interesting and is on the way. About one block away we see a bar called La Farmacia. We stop in for a night cap. Thier cocktail menu is interesting and Laura and I pick drinks at random (Andrew opts for a beer). Laura’s drink arrives in a classy, little dessert wine glass. Mine arrives in a fishbowl with an upside down beer on top of it. Laura and Andrew can’t stop laughing me.
It’s nearing 1am and it’s as good of a time as any to wrap up the night. We make it back to our Airbnb and all promise to reconvene in the living room for breakfast at 8:50am.
Habana is already shaping up to be totally awesome and, as a bonus, it’s full of cats!
