05/04/2019 – Day 1 in Havana, Cuba

We woke up at around 09:00. The balcony door was open and outside was light, hot, and there was lots of noise - music and the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Susannah brought us a coffee – an espresso in a china coffee pot with 2 tiny mugs. We sipped it on the balcony and watched the world go by. It was so strong that afterwards Josh and I were jabbering on at each other about goodness knows what. We saw pedal tuctucs going past and hand pushed carts selling onions and garlic, bananas, and there was even a guy sharpening knives. The road is really uneven; there are large bits of road missing in fact. We heard a squeal, looked over and a baby goat had fallen off the back of a tuctuc and had been ran over, grinding them all to a halt. They picked it up, put it back and pedalled on. The goat seemed pretty chilled about it, as if it sits there most days! We were glad it was a goat because initially Josh thought it was a baby! Susannah had been to the local bread shop (a hole in the wall) and gave us each a roll for breakfast.

The morning coffee Susannah had brought us.

We got set for the day and went downstairs. In the living room was a little 4 year old boy called William (Susannahs son) and a 9 year old girl Lucy (Susannahs second cousin) who is staying here at the moment. Lucy lives in Kentucky, America usually and is bilingual so came in handy as our translator! We went out looking for some food and found ourselves in a busy local fruit and grocery market where there was a queue of people with their own sacks to fill with rice. We ended up buying 2 bananas for 1 CUC – we watched as the next Cuban bought about 20 for the same price! Our jaws hit the ground when we realised how mugged off we had just been, and the guy who sold us the bananas handed us a free mango as I think even he felt guilty! The vibe we get here is that everyone is very friendly and well meaning but there is also such a need for money and resources that it only makes sense to rip off the tourists! What’s even funnier is that the bananas weren’t even ripe so we couldn’t eat them!

The fruit & veg market

1 CUC's worth of banana's (plantaine), and a free mango.

The next plan was to find some Wi-Fi in order to download a map of Havana and work out what we wanted to do with the days ahead. The first thing I regret not packing is a Cuba guidebook – Internet is so limited so it is very difficult to find anything without a map. I think it’s the first time I can remember travelling without having Wi-Fi to help when we need to find something. In Havana the way to get Wi-Fi is to go to one of the big tourist hotels and buy an Internet card, usually for around 1 CUC per hour. There are also internet parks, for these I think you buy the internet cards from what seems like a random person on the street – so its difficult to know if you are going to get a legit card or not (unless you are a local then I’m sure its much easier!) It is noticeable that when you are out and about no one is on their phone at all, and then you walk past a Wi-Fi park and there will be a cluster of people all absorbed on their mobiles. Whilst on our way to one of the hotels we got swept up by yet another opportunistic person wanting our money! He took us into a beautiful decadent building, all the way up to the top, to his mate who was apparently selling tickets for the Buena Vista Social Club. Tonight only (of course) and they are selling out (of course) its now or never, and they will stop selling tickets in the next half hour. When we say we don’t have the money on us (30 CUC ‘with a mojito’ they exclaim) they say oh, that’s ok, pay half now, half later! By this point we are still feel so mugged off about the bananas that we actually have the sense to say no thank you! Maybe we are learning?.... Maybe not though…. Later in the day we try and buy some rolls just like Susannah had… yet instead of paying 0.05 CUC per roll, yup, you guessed it - we pay 0.50 CUC! I’m sure we will get there one day….maybe.

Time for another coffee stop. We are now in a more touristy part of old Havana, and we choose a café where you can hear a local Cuban band playing. The people next to us have a map! I take the opportunity and we ask to take a photo of it and they let us which is nice! They were an Israeli couple over for a little holiday. We tell them about our travel plans and they tell us that in Israel after their army service it is very common for them to go travelling in South America for a few months, which they have both previously done. According to them Cusco in Peru and Bolivia are highlights!

Still trying to find a Wi-Fi hotel we get side-tracked at the thought of food. We shared a pizza (7CUC) and some bottled water. Something we have noticed is that there seems to be no toilet roll – you have to buy it by the sheet (which doesn’t bode well for Josh who can go through rolls of the stuff, no problem!) again another reminder of how little there is here.

A couple of hotels later (the first couple we tried had run out of internet cards already) and we were online. In the hotel Josh managed to find a map of Havana for sale! Bonus! We messaged the Sudells and Bakers to let them know we had arrived safe and sound, and then marked some things on the map to see and do over the next few days.

We strolled back to our casa and Susannah was in. She was upset at how ripped off we had been so offered to go shopping for us. When I asked if we could go with her she said that the vendors would automatically increase the price when they saw us, even if we were with her! So we gave her a list of vegetables and fruit. She gave us some of her guava marmalade which was so delicious! We also had some long chats about Cuba. She told us about her brother who was walking from Brazil, North through South America, in order to go through Panama and central America with the ultimate goal of making a life in the USA. She said he will have to walk through the jungle where there are scary people as well as scary animals. Similarly to her brother, her husband had managed to fly to Costa Rica a couple of years ago and get up to America where he now lives and works. Her plan is to join him with their son and her mother as soon as she can. She has never been outside of Cuba although she would love to travel, it’s hard to get Visas and it costs too much money! It definitely makes you think of the privileges you get or don’t get just depending on where you are born. Life seems quite tough and unfair when I think about it, although she explains it very matter of fact and not for a sympathy vote!

Susannah goes to the market for us, and Josh and I go up to our room where I start on this diary. Josh sits on the balcony and someone begs him for money for babies milk, when he says no he still gets wished a happy holiday! Josh made us do press ups, dips and sit ups – apparently we need to get beach body ready! Susannahs granny makes us another buzzy coffee and we also get given some bananas and guavas to munch on. We have been drinking the tap water through our special filter water bottles – so far so good but we will keep you updated as Susannah says even she boils the water before drinking it.

The house is long and thin and there is quite a lot without a roof. There is a lot of stone and minimal soft furnishings, as it is so hot here. There is a small mosaic water feature with some goldfish and a terrapin in it – which Lucy and I later name Tom. Susannah makes us some rice – she refuses to take any money as she says Cubans get a special card from the government to get rice and some other staple foods really cheap – kind of like a ration card it seems. This explains the queue and the sacks at the market earlier! She says its only 4CUC for the groceries she had got us – 4 aubergines, 6 large tomatoes, onions and loads of garlic. So we of course give here 5 as I am sure it would have cost us three times as much had we gone to the market ourselves. We make ourselves a big old dinner and Lucy chats away at us, asking do we like tea? You remind me of my English aunt! Your Spanish sounds German! When Josh goes to get his camera she says she thinks her granddad has a camera! We clear up and head upstairs to write this. Susannah has to take our passport numbers, as she has to speak to the immigration office and pay tax for everyone who stays with her. There seems to be a bit of a party in Havana tonight, there’s even more people than last night and whistles being blown, of course music playing, and people chatting in the street.