Cuba

DAY 1 (by Rone)

 Getting to Cuba from Serro do Cipo as a backpacker wasn't the easiest ... but 33 hours later (2 bus journeys, 2 taxi rides and 2 plane journeys) and we were dropped off at our casa in Old Havana. On our taxi ride we immediately got a nice vibe for Cuba.  Really old cars everywhere and a sense of contentment from the people.  We searched for ages on TripAdvisor looking for places to stay. Both of us really wanted to experience Cuba and therefore not stay in a resort or hotel.  So we opted for a home stay instead.

Our room in our homestay casa

Our home was with the Wilfredo family whose house is 102 years old.  The president actually lived in this house from 1920- 1924!

A small door on the street (no signs indicating we were there) led us to the 1st floor where we were welcomed by Wilfredo and his wife. They are the nicest people!! Immediately I felt at home and wish I brought a little souvenir for them from South Africa since they were very excited about the prospect that we came from there.

Our room in the home stay had a very high ceiling with beautiful ornaments, a fan and a balcony looking out to the port and famous statues.

Wilfredo's house on 1st floor - our room was far right

After a refreshing glass of pure mango juice, shower and a quick effort to unpack the bags, we headed out to a restaurant Wilfredo recommended, where he also worked supplying food stock as a second job. It was an expensive restaurant for Cuba, but we felt like treating ourselves after our long journey.  I can seriously say that this was one of the best meals I have ever had!! Accompanied by a mojito:) And all for under £12 each. We sat outside on the rooftop of the restaurant with amazing ambiance and really soaked up where we were... in Cuba!!! Wow.

Breakfast!

9 hours of sleep and a lovely breakfast from Wilfredo's wife, and we were on our way to explore Old Habana.

Cuban flag at the Revolution Museum

Our casa was about 100m away from the "Museum of the Revolution". We were both very interested in the history of the revolution with Fidel Castro and "Che", and this museum was excellent with photo displays and detailed messages. The revolution, as well as the relationship between Cuba and the USA, and the history of the different presidents was the main focus. We spent about 3 hours in the museum and left still wanting to know more! We also managed to see the "Granma" yacht which Fidel Castro and his fellow revolutionaries returned from Mexico to Cuba to start the take over for leadership during the Revolution.

The rest of the day was spent walking around in Old Havana. We seriously walked around on a buzz. The buildings were unique since there was a mixture of old and new:  amazing ruined buildings that looked a thousand years old with beautiful renovated buildings scattered between them. Everywhere were old cars in the street. I couldn't compare it to anywhere I have been before.

Cuba has a unique money system. The Cubans get paid in Cuban Pesos which is almost worth nothing. We as tourists cannot get hold of this money and we only get Cuban Peso Convertibles (CUC).  Everything in the shops is sold in CUC so it's very expensive for the locals to buy things when they are paid in local pesos.

We returned to our casa around 6 pm and it was still really hot!! I went for a run next to the sea, which was just across the road from our casa, and it felt like I was back in Africa again due to the heat. But what a great way to see more parts of the area.

We hit the streets again around 9pm and went for a very cool dinner in the middle of Old Havana, and some more mojitos :) 

On return we bought a real high quality Cuban cigar from Wilfredo for only £1.30. I think it will cost a fortune in the UK or US. So we smoked (more like took a few drags) while chatting to him about the Cuban history and revolution.  It was really special! !!



DAY 2 (by Karen)

The buzz of lively chatter and music starts filtering through our 3 meter tall wooden slat doors early in the morning. I push my ear plugs in deeper and try to sleep off a bit more of the mojitos from the night before.

I was unsure of what to expect of Havana, and in some ways it is exactly what I had pictured, but in many other ways it has pleasantly surprised me. The first thing that I noticed was the classic vintage cars, which I had eagerly anticipated. But what I didn't expect was to see shiny new cars too ... Audi A5, BMW X1, not to mention all the smart tourist buses. They are few and far between, but clearly there is stuff coming into the country, but I think the prices are stupendously high and out of reach of most of the population. Another thing I didn't expect was the amazing architecture abundant in Old Havana ...

The Old Cathedral in Habana Vieja

So far we've only explored Old Havana (Habana Vieje) so everything I speak of relates to that. The city is filled with magnificently restored early 20th century colonial buildings which I just never tired of gazing at. There are still many buildings that are run down and dilapidated, but even these have an enigmatic beauty to them. The Old city is lined with cobble streets, square plazas, palm and Flamboyan trees, and is filled with restaurants, cafeterias, museums, art galleries, churches, and of course, classic Havana bars. The streets are alive with tourists, Cubans, touts, bicycle taxis, art sellers and horse carts. Live Cuban music streams out of the restaurants during lunch and dinner hours, and there never is a dull moment.

The Cuban people are extremely welcoming and friendly. I am amazed at how good their English is too. Everyone we've interacted with, from our homestay host to the supermarket counter assistant, they all speak incredibly good English. We've met a few locals on the street, just while sitting and having our lunch or eating our ice cream. They seem very keen to chat to us and have often sparked up a conversation asking questions of where we are from etc. It has given us the opportunity to ask lots of our own questions about what it has been like growing up in Cuba and how do the people feel about the government and the country in general. There is more optimism since the changes that Raul Castro (Fidelity Castro's brother) brought in since he took over presidency in 2008. His goal has been to raise the Cuban standard of living, and tie the individual prosperity to the individual initiative and work performance. He has expanded the laws to allow for private farmers and for housing to be used commercially, as well as for some Cubans to own their homes. He has also expanded access to certain previously restricted consumer goods, like cell phones, microwaves, toasters, motorcycles and computers. However it seems that generally although the Cuban people are content, they are not happy. Life is difficult and very limited for them, and I think they all feel the pull of the reins that the government has looped around them.

Karen trying out da Cuban cigars

I knew that the purchase of food would be very limited here, so came mentally prepared for a week of no vegetables :) The supermarkets are nothing like what you would picture for a supermarket. The items for sale are extremely limited, we probably talking about 5% of what you might find at your standard local supermarket. There is not much choice when it comes to food, but rum is another matter :) For that there is more choice than you know what to do with! The food items are on display in a glass cabinet counter, and behind the counter the stocks are stacked on shelves. So you don't go around browsing aisles of food and filling your basket, instead you stand at the counter and the assistant behind gets it for you.

But onto what we actually did today ... we walked our little socks off through Old Havana, oogling at the spectacular buildings, soaking up the culture (and incredibly hot sun), sweating buckets and slurping up loads of water. We sat in a restaurant right in the hub of Old Havana and enjoyed our £1 mojito listening to chilled live Cuban music. We also, on the spur of the moment, bought ourselves a beautiful original oil painting depicting a typical scene from Old Havana. Certainly not a second was wasted; it was a day to remember :)

Day 3 … beach day! (the tourist way) (by Rone)

After an early run and breakfast we were on our way to the beach. A well organised tourist bus system takes you from old Havana to a string of beaches for about £3. We stopped at the last one called Santa Maria beach.

The day was spent lying on the beach under an umbrella while dipping into the water for a swim almost every 30 minutes. It was really hot and the water was a fantastic temperature.  The water was a stunning blue/ green colour. People were mostly just chilling in the water drinking beers, a few locals were singing and dancing, and then others are just lazing under the umbrellas.

Overall a very awesome day, but we were exhausted after all the sun so barely managed to stay awake on our return bus.














DAY 4 (by Karen)

Jose Marti memorial building

We reserved today for doing the Havana hop-on hop-off bus (yip, we were also surprised that there was one!). So to get the most out of the day we rose early and gobbled up our casa breakfast and headed off with a spring in our step.

The first obstacle we encountered was with trying to book our bus tickets to Vinales for the next day. First its "this hotel doesn't have the vouchers, go to that hotel instead". Then the bus times we were told yesterday suddenly don't exist, then the duration changes from 2 to 5 hours, and at one spot we're even told we've missed the cut off for making the booking altogether! In the end it just wasn't coming together to do an overnight in Vinales so we opted to do the day tour instead, which was actually pretty groovy as it included all the exciting activities like the caves and tobacco farms. Of course Sod's Law we didn't have enough money on us to make the booking, so it's all the way back to the casa we troop *sigh*. This time when leaving the casa it's 10am and sweltering hot and the spring is just a tad subdued :)

"Che" mural

Eventually we on the bus and getting to see some of the city outside of Old Havana. Unfortunately though, the Cubans don't seem to understand the concept of a hop on hop off ... really it just ended up being a tour of the hotels in Havana, with the bus stopping at only a couple of actual sights of interest. It really was quite strange. However despite that we still got to see quite a few things, like the Jose Marti memorial (a Cuban national hero), Plaza De La Revolucion (notable as being where many political rallies take place and Fidel Castro and other political figures address Cubans), and the Che Guevara mural.

Plaza De la Revolucion, with shade in sight :)

We couldn't believe how hot it was today. This heat is serious stuff! It envelopes you to the point where you feel like you can hardly breathe, a combination of humidity, clear blue skies, and unrelenting sun rays … you feel like you're in a convection oven :). The bus had an open roof, so we sat sizzling away like fried eggs while checking out the sights. The Revolution Square was a challenge - a massive open square with the closest point of shade being a minimum of 200 meters away! It was so bad that we even got frustrated at the ticket lady because she took so long issuing us our ticket which meant having to stand even longer in the direct sun :)

Jose Marti statue

Day 5 (by Rone)

The rum bottling station

We had an early start in order to leave our casa on time to be able to make our 7:30 bus pick up at the nearest 5 star hotel. The journey to Viñales took just over 2 hours, with the bus-guide providing some very useful information about Cuba and the sights along the way.

Our first stop was in Pinar del Rio city visiting a very small rum factory. One thing Cuba was blessed for is rum!! We had a little taster before we got back on the bus heading for Viñales.

The lush Vinales valley 

Viñales is a beautiful and lush valley in Pinar del Río province of Cuba, with a population of around 10,000. It's about 26 kilometers north of the city of Pinar del Río, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.   Viñales is said to be Fidel Castro's favorite place in Cuba. The mountains are beautiful and the farmers apparently grow the best tobacco in the world!

Cueva del Indio

The next stop was the Cueva del Indio - This is a limestone cave system in which you can float in a small boat via a small underground river for about 400 meters. We first walked through the caves for about 300 meters, and then hopped onto the boats which took us a bit further until we got to a lovely underground waterfall.    

We turned back at this point, but the guide told us that the river (and caves) continued underground for another 1km. The Indians used these caves for hiding when they were hunted down by the government in the earlier centuries. It was fascinating and beautiful inside them, but also crazy to think how the Indians survived living in these dark caves!!

Farmer demonstrating cigar rolling

Next up we went to a tobacco farm, where we got to see the tobacco leaves stacked in the drying huts, and where a farmer demonstrated rolling of a cigar with a detailed explanation of how they were produced.   Because Cuba is a socialist country, the government takes 90% of the end product for very little pay to the farmer and he only has 10% to sell privately.

Karen smelling the tobacco leaf, testing for quality :)

Rone in the drying hut

Farmer working his land

Most bizzare tourist attraction ever!

We then headed over the Mural de la Prehistoria for our lunch. It was a very weird tourist attraction - In 1961 Fidel Castro visited a beautiful valley a few kilometres west of Viñales.  There he commissioned that a cliff should be painted to depict the evolution from ammonites to homo-sapiens … so the painter, Leovigildo Gonzales, painted fossils, dinosaurs, and a family of cavepersons, all in garish colours! After our lunch and view of this strangely painted rock we headed back to Havana.

We were shattered by the time we got back to Havana at 7pm, but had an awesome day!!!

Rone just outside one of drying huts

DAY 6 (by Karen)

Spanish embassy building

Since the plan for tomorrow, our last day, was more beaching, we had today to finish up any gaps remaining in Havana.

We had a brilliant day ticking off things like the Cuban art display at the Bella Artes gallery (some outstanding pieces but also some extremely disturbing),  China Town (which didn't turn out to contain any Chinese people nor anything China-related, clearly not a China Town in the sense we know it :). Of course there was the obligatory stop at the cheap ice-cream stall, and a walk through the Plaza Vieja with the Old Cathedral.

Police headquarters

Internet access in Cuba is limited by lack of infrastructure, as well as being tightly controlled by the government, with only about 3% of the population being connected. And where available it comes at a price that no local can afford - roughly US$6 for 1/2 hour, where the average monthly salary for a Cuban is only US$20!  Some of the super fancy 5* hotels have Internet which only tourists can use (charged of course), so for the first time we were thankful that we stood out as tourists as the doormen let us in with no questions or problems. We needed a half-hour internet to get an accommodation booking confirmed, but we also used the opportunity to use the posh toilets and cool down in the air conditioned foyer :)

That evening we headed out to a restaurant recommended to us by some Australian folks we met on our tour the day before. We did have to stand in the queue for an hour before finally being seated, but it was well worth the wait. The food was brilliant, delicious with huge portions, and so cheap (mains about £3.50), and the cocktails were super yummy. As we walked away I think both of us were silently plotting in our heads to go back again tomorrow night :)


Day 7 … another beach day (done local style) (by Rone)

Today is out last day in Cuba :(  We have to get a taxi to the airport tomorrow at 4:20am so we're planning to make the most of today! We decided to experience things the local way a bit more and avoid the tourist trend. This highlighted to us the way the Cuban system works - generally queuing and more queuing!

We opted to go to one of the local beaches via local transportation. The tourist office lady said we could get a shared taxi to the beach for 1 CUC. But when we asked the taxi driver he wanted to charge us 10 CUC … it did often feel like we were just a dollar bill to them since we're obviously foreigners.  So we decided to decline and try the local bus instead. This is where the queuing began.  As you get to a line you ask out loud "who is last"? This way you know your place in the queue. Once you have got your place you can either opt to stay in the line or go sit somewhere in the shade. But amazingly everyone knows where your place is and there is no chance of jumping the queue or they will quickly make a noise. 5 buses and 60 minutes later and we were eventually on the bus.  

The local beach in Boca Ciega

What we couldn't figure out was that there were 2 queues for getting on the bus, and although with each bus our queue would go down, it always seemed like the other queue went down a lot faster.  It was only when we got seated on the bus that we eventually figured it out … our queue was a "sitting on the bus" queue, whereas the other was for standing only.  The bus would first fill from our queue until all the seats were occupied, and then everyone would pile in from the standing queue until they were squashed like sardines in a tin! It only cost us 0.4 CUC instead of the 5 CUC for the tourist bus the other day.  We were on a strict budget the last day since we couldn't get any more money (you can't withdraw from the ATMS and the banks are closed on a Sunday).  So this was part of the challenge.

The beach was very cool. It was a windy day, but the water was lukewarm and the whole beach was packed with locals: families and friends gathering and enjoying the sun rays. We settled under a coconut tree and enjoyed the atmosphere which was very different from the Santa Maria tourist beach.

On our way back we started chatting to some locals waiting for the bus. As always they were stunned we came from South Africa and always wanted to know more about our country. We didn't have to wait long for the bus this time and stood during our 40 min journey right back to the front of our casa!

Quick shower and we headed out to the Casa de la Musica (House of the Music). This was situated in Havana centre and away from the touristic Old Havana. Again we had to endure the unique queuing system to buy some tickets for the evening.  Case de la Musica is basically a place where all the locals come for drinks, listening to live bands, and where they can do salsa dancing. It really looked like they enjoyed themselves and they can really move in the dance floor!! We felt to embarrassed to try and dance alongside them in the centre of all the tables, but we did dance a bit off to the side. The band was actually pretty bad, and nothing as good as some of the bands at the cafes, but it was really good to experience the vibe.

Afterwards we went back to the restaurant from night. The food and cocktails were so good!!  We toasted our week in Cuba … it was truly a place where everyone should visit. I'm just wondering for how much longer it will stay this unique...

Giving the feet a break!

Iguazu falls- wow, wow, wow!!!!! (by Rone)

We arrived in Puerto Iguazu after another long bus journey from Colon. As we started walking in the streets of this small town with our heavy packs, we were greeted with torrential rain which completely soaked us.  We were told to not even look at the weather forecast since the weather is very unpredictable and you just have to hope that while there you will be blessed with some sunshine while visiting the falls. 

Iguazu, Victoria and Niagra falls are the main waterfalls everyone mentions. I've visited Victoria falls in Zimbabwe  when I was still a student and was intrigued to read about the  the differences between the 3:  

At the Brazilian side

Iguazu falls are the waterfalls of the Iguazu river situated on the border of the Brazi and Argentina. In 2011 Iguazu falls was announced as one of the new seven wonders of Nature. It contains 150-300 waterfalls,  depending on the water level, and they vary between 60-82m high.  Niagara which at 50 m is a 1/3 shorter, but Niagara has the largest average annual flow (2400 meters-cubed), while Iguazu's annual average is 1746 meter-cubed. The Vic falls has the largest curtain of water in the world, but average flow is1088 meter-cubed. 

Amazing!!!

We were blessed with good weather which was great since we had a very busy day planned. We decided to go on an organised trip which started with a mini bus picking us up at 7am the next morning.  

The company we went with took us through the Argentinian- Brazilian border very quickly and soon we arrived at the Brazilian side/view of the falls. It mainly consist of one view point which you reached with another well organised short bus journey. 
Your reward is a panoramic view of the falls while you get completely soaked from the spray! As you stand there you can feel yourself getting drawn closer.  

One of the first views!!

Stunned!

The border between Brazil and Argentina runs through the Devil's Throat (more details below). On the right bank is the Brazilian side which has about 20% of the falls and the the left side are the Argentinian side making about 80% of the falls.

Getting soaked!

We spent about 2h at the viewing site before we headed to a lunch buffet. Kaz and I don't usually do organised trips or lunch packages, but we were so pleased about the variety of food and quality at this spot. We were in heaven!! Maybe it's because you struggle to decide what to cook after a while with limited supplies and lack of spices when backpacking... Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and felt like rolling out of the restaurant afterwards.

Taxis in Paraguy!!

Our mini bus journey continued by taking us to Paraguay (meaning we visited 3 countries in one day!). There is a famous shopping area  which is situated close to the border of Paragauy and Brazil. It reminded me of Bangkok - complete chaos!! They were selling electronics,  loads of street markets and anything you can think of.

We strolled around for about 90 minutes with another French guy we met on our trip.

Afterwards we reached our last destination in Paraguay which was the largest Hydroelectric power plant in the world. We eventually returned to our  hostal at 7pm, completely exhausted from the day. But what a super and packed day it's been.

At Devil's throat

 There isn't much to do in town so we cooked our meal in the hostel and played some poker - ready for another early start to visit the Argentinian side of the falls.I think this day was definitely my highlight. The area was extremely well organised and wonderful paths were laid our everywhere with information to allow the best views of the falls. Several views presented with breath taking images, but nothing compared to Devil's throat!

The Devil's Throat  is U-shaped, 82m high, 150m wide and 700m long. In comparison, the mist at Devil's throat rises to 150m, but to over 300m at Victoria (but this is vary dependent on the season). We tried to stand there as long as possible before getting completely soaked.

A helicopter rode offer you spectacular views, but I don't feel this is essential since the layout of the paths were excellent giving you the best and closest views of the falls. At one point you can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls.The Devil's throat in Argentina has water pouring into it from three sides.

Iguazu really did deliver the goods!! It was an amazing few days here, and although you have to take a few very long bus rides to get there from BA, it was so worth it. You can also easily reach Puerto Iguazu by plane if you are on a time limit. Iguazu falls is by far the most impressive waterfall I have ever seen and I have to say that it has ruined any sights of waterfalls for me in the future. I'm not sure anything will ever come close to this again!!!

We left Iguazu for a challenging 20h journey to our next destination: Paraty (The Green coast of Brazil). As you drive along the coast you see why it's called the green coast - literally green fields and trees everywhere on the one side and amazing coastal views on the other side. The town only has a population of only 3600, but there was a big religious festival on the weekend we were there.

Paraty

Breakfast every morning-close to the beach

This created a great vibe and atmosphere with lots of craft markets, little shops, cake stalls and traditional Brazilian food. 

We stayed in a nice B&B, which was literally on the beach, and it's here that we've experienced the beginning of what a true Brazilian breakfast tastes like. 

Colorful boats

We soaked up the experience having cake, fruit and lovely white bread every morning, knowing we will have to burn the calories off …. This inspired us to hire some bikes which ended up in an epic bike ride up the steepest hill to some beautiful scenery. The 3 days here consisted mostly of chilling and exploring the area which included a day trip to Trinadad

Chilling on Trinadad beach

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Trinadad is really a beautiful beach with the water being warm even as we're entering their winter. Paraty was a nice pit stop to recharge batteries, and to enjoy the scenery- it's definitely recommended especially as it provided a half way stop on our way to Rio de Janeiro.

More awesome views of the falls- Just can't get enough!!

Colorful butterflies everywhere