I went to Havana, Cuba with my significant other and it was a wonderful trip. It was definitely a very different culture than one I’m used to.
I was given a list of things to expect in their culture and I saw most of it. I had to carry around all of the money we brought over in cash since American credit cards don’t work in Cuba due to our governments’ rivalry.
That same rivalry means that we couldn’t spend any money anywhere the government owns, which we had to investigate. There’s so much to talk about when it comes to Havana, which celebrated its 500th anniversary this year.
Havana, Cuba: The People
The location is a good portion of what makes a vacation so unique, but the people can have quite an impact. Many of the people that we met were nice and it was easy to communicate since my significant other is fluent in Spanish.
We stayed with a Cuban family at their Airbnb (aka a nice room with a private bathroom in their apartment) and they were quite nice. Damian is quite helpful with everything we needed and his family were great as well.
One lowlight of the trip was dealing with our ViaHero local guide Elvy Matos, whose job it was to make reservations for us and be our man on the ground. He wound up screwing up 3 reservations including our New Year’s Eve one at a nightclub, thus ruining the occasion for us. Steer clear of Elvy Matos.
There were a few other people who tried to get one up on you, including a taxi driver who tried to give me a phony 20 and it took me stealing it out of his hand to get it back. I was also approached on 2 occasions by a prostitute in broad daylight, which shocked the hell out of me that it was so blatant.
Havana, Cuba: The Food
My significant other is a great cook who is of Cuban descent, so I was anticipating the food choices. Along with a load of alcohol that did not disappoint.
Let’s start with the booze. I was the mojito man down in Havana since that was my drink of choice most of the time, though I did get daiquiris and pina coladas on occasion with the latter including cinnamon that gave this cocktails a unique flavor I enjoyed. Best pina coladas ever, especially since they would tell us to drink as they poured more rum into our glasses on occasion.
But the food for the most part was surprisingly bland in terms of flavor since I assume that the Cuban people don’t have as much access or any at all to the spices/herbs Americans do. It doesn’t mean I didn’t like the food, quite the opposite actually since everything tasted authentic to what it was supposed to be due to the lack of non-natural ingredients available.
There were several private restaurants where we ate at that were enjoyable including Mekede, the one business card that I got from somewhere I partook in. We also enjoyed the breakfast we would order from the Airbnb, the highlight being the produce with such succulent guava, watermelon, banana & pineapple.
Everything tasted so organic & genuine, though it took a long time to find favorites like ham croquettes & black beans! Not to mention pernil not being the pork shoulder my lady makes, but just meaning that it’s pork cooked in an oven.
Havana, Cuba: Eclectic Culture
One thing I didn’t expect was the Cuban culture being so eclectic. We took in some artwork and one place called The Cuban Art Gallery was a combination of an art gallery with musicians performing, short films being shown & clothing designers setting up shop.
And another showed how race & economic status played a role in the art. There was also a lot more Che Guevara in the culture than I expected, which makes sense considering how inspirational he was to Cuba.
We also took a walking tour of Old Havana and learned a lot about the history of the culture including seeing places where slaves were traded. We also saw El Morro including a beautiful lighthouse & a cannon that fires every night at 9 pm as part of a military tradition.
We were also right by Malecon, which is miles of sea with a ledge to sit on where lots of people hung out until late. It also happened to be the only place where we could get WiFi, which was a headache to try to connect.
Other Stories About Havana
That’s a fine segue into some other assorted tales from Havana. I had a bad first & last impression of the city since trying to exchange money at the airport was torture since it took an hour & a half to go through 10 people because the workers were so slow. I waited 30 minutes before giving up exchanging money on our way back.
Something I did expect were all of the classic cars on the road and we rode in some in the form of taxi cabs. And we did take one ride in a vintage pink convertible around the city for a bit.
We also took taxis to the beach, going to Havana’s Mar Azul for 2 days and a couple of hours away to Varadero at the top right tip of Cuba 1 day. They were both beautiful beaches that were not too deep and with warm clear water.
Business cards were pretty hard to come by in Havana, with the sum total number of cards being 11 (4 of which were different designs from the same place where we were SUPPOSED to attend a rooftop jazz party overlooking the sunset at Malecon but Elvy Matos messed up that reservation, too).
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