Chris Hurling's travels in The Americas

That just about sums up the Cuban internet, and why I wasn't able to publish my blogs on my travels in Cuba until I left the country!

It also describes just how much this country is isolated from the rest of the Americas, although that is mainly the fault of the Imperialist USA trade sanctions.

Talking of money, well loosely, that's another frustration. American Dollars were banned here last year and replaced with a special Peso Convertible, which is a licence for the government to rip you off. Firstly the Peso Convertile is colloquially know as a dollar, bus is fixed at $US0.89, and the government casas de cambios take an extra 10% commission if you are changing dollars! Stupidly, I changed 25 of my precious Euros into the other, National Pesos Cubanos, thinking I would get better value for money if I use them. There is actually little you can by with them, except perhaps a bread roll with something dubious inside it from a street vendor. Try changing them back as I did, then all manner of obstacles are put in your way...like trekking across town to a special booth, to find it closed for lunch whilst a long queue of Cubans wait in the sun...

So that's pretty much it for Cuba. It is a stunning country, but frustrating if you want to get under the surface, and you need to take a lot of money.

Back to Mexico City for a one night stop-over before catching my return flight to London, via Toronto, Yes I know it sounds a long way round, but it was the cheapest option at the time!

A truly fantastic 8 or 9 months. I have met wonderful people and seen amazing sights. Have I got the travelling bug out of my system? The next few months will prove that. Many people have asked if the trip has been life changing...I shall think about that one.

Lots of love,

Chris x

(Cuban beach paradise - Cayo Jutias)

Hungover, after far too many mojitos the night before, I collected my rental scooter! After having been on the back of Ivan's in Medellin, I fancied driving one myself - to the beach at Cayo Juvista.

The rental man made it look so easy, but I couldn't get the thing to start! Sus freinos! He shouted. It's automatic, so you have to pull on the brakes to start. You don't think I'd try one with gears first time did you?!

Oh the joy of the open road! I am sure this is not they way...supposed to head towwards the caves and carry straight on. Of course, I meant to drive up to this viewpoint of the valley to take photies of the magotes!

Back on track, I soon discovered that it helps to lean with the bike as you turn or go round corners. The throttle was now fully open. Wow! The cooling air as it rushes past you. I have no idea how fast the scooter went, as the speedo was broken, but it felt pretty fast for all its 50 cc!

The guidebook did say the road deteriorates, but these potholes are like craters! I managed to do an emergency stop pulling hard on both brake handles and using my feet to steady the scooter. Wow, that was an adrenaline rush! Going a little more slowly, the road eventually came to a fork. Like Dorothy on her yellow brick road, I asked the way. 40km back the way I had just come! Shit. I then found out just how rugged the scooter was as I bumped my way back over potholes.

I eventually reached the remote Cayo Juvista at around 12.30...three hours on the road! Oh well, I never have liked beaches. All that sand to reflect the sun so burning you even quicker, and then more sand scouring your skin as you apply more sunscreen. Still, an idyllic spot, and umbrellas to rent! Later I took the scooter for a spin along the beach - and few other people about...

The journey back was quicker - just 80 minutes to do 60kms. All these people waiting for non existent buses thumbing a lift. Are they crazy? Don't they know my driving?!

I like driving a scooter. Perhaps I'll get one when I am back in London, and of course with job...or perhaps a motorbike!

Chris

Public transport in Cuba is bad, so I thought it best to stay close to Havana. The book suggests a triangle including a country village called Vinales, and a spanish colonial town called Trinidad. I have had more than my fill of pretty colonial towns, so on Wednesday I taxied to the tourist bus station. My God, all these people waiting here, I am going to get a room in Vinales? No need to worry, nearly everyone left on the 1 o'clock bus for Trinidad to get their fix of spanish colonial architecture. There were just 7 of us going to Vinales.

Innovative distination board, leaving no question about where the next bus is going!

Signs in english all over the place must have been "signed off" by a bureaucrat who thinks he or she knows english!

Naturally, the bus broke down - a blow out - and we waited a good hour or more for the mechanic to come to change the wheel. When we did eventually arrive in Vinales 3 hours later, it was dark, and no waiting casas particulares landladies. As always when faced with adversity, you strike up conversation with others. I met Linda and Tobias from Sweden, and we found a couple of rooms in neighbouring houses. Vinales is a truly peaceful place, chickens running around and pigs keeping the grass short in the front gardens.

The next day, I joined Linda and Tobias for a tour of Caverna de Santo Tomas. Fab. A very different cave tour experience. No fancy lighting, indeed the only light came from our helmets, and just 4 of us in the tour group. (Scroll your mouse over the photo to find out what it's about)

The day ended with excrutiating embarassment trying to dance salsa at a Cuban live music night. More mojitos needed!

The jewel in Vinales crown are the amazing magotes - square limestone hillocks rising from the valley floor. Again with Linda and Tobias, but on a different day, I rode a horse to see the fabulous countryside in all its tranquility. The "horses" were more like mules. Linda's apparently didn't like mine, it bit me and tried to barge my horse off the path! Pretty cute cowboy who escorted us...

...the first stop was a small farm to be refreshed on grapefruits filled with fresh sugar cane juice, hown grown coffee (or so they said!), and a puff on a cigar. I was buzzing!

The next place was to cool off in a natural swimming pool deep in a cave. Sorry, potos didn't come out that well, i.e. not to my liking. I need to go to the gym, or as Shaun put it "you've got udders"! Bitch.

Why lobster fest? That was my dinner at the house on my last night, a huge lobster tail cooked in a tomato sauce. Scrummy! It was the night before Mother's Day, so a special meal for the family.

Vinales good!

Chris

"I came to Cuba to backpack and meet people. It's driving me crazy! I went to Varadero thinking that's where people will be. I was two nights in a low budget hotel all on my own. I've read nearly all my books and listened to every song on my i-pod, and I only arrived Friday. I've got to get out of here - today if I can get a flight to Mexico. I'd rather backpack six weeks around Sweden"

That pretty much captures what a young guy from Norway said to me as we shared a taxi from the bus station. And he is right. Cuba is not geared up for the backpacker. There are no hostels, and the cheapest place that a foreigner can stay in a casa particular. They are very lovely B&B, but too expensive at $30 a night, and you are quite likely to be on your own as there will be at most two rooms. Even in the casas particulares, the family may eat seperately from you.

I'm not saying that Cubans ignore you in the street. I took a sunset stroll along the seafront, called Malecon. Would have been absolutely stunning in it's heyday.

There was no shortage of cute young men running after me, wanting to be my friend and know where my hotel is. There is no shortage of eye candy here! And yes, you can easily pay for the company of Cubanos. At the very least you will be picking up the tab for the night you've had with your new found Cuban friends. I did meet Marcus from Switzerland at dinner one night. Interesting guy, worked all over Africa for the Swiss government and then the UN. He met a Cuban guy in a bar and then toured the island with him, naturally paying for everything. I can't afford that, and it's not the the sort of "friendship" I want with locals.

The language doesn't make it easy. It's like starting all over again, after 8 months! Cuban Spanish is delivered very fast, and consonnonts are rarely pronounced, making it almost impossible to understand. Cubans also have little patience if you don't understand them, unless they are making money out of you, e.g. your casa particular landlady.

There is little public transport, so you really have to travel by tourist bus. This way you are not really going to get to meet Cubans. Some Cuban transport is forbidden for tourists, for example the bicycle rickshaws, called bicitaxis, and in practice you won't get a taxi as used by Cubans to stop for you. You are unlikely to ride on a bus with Cubans, because there is a shortage of buses...

...and long queues...

Cuba has been set up as package holiday destination, so if you are on your honeymoon, or are happy to be cocooned in your 4 or 5 star all-inclusive hotel, then it's the palce for you. But you could be anywhere in the Caribbean. You also need to come with plenty of money.

Fidel Castro's government has succeeded in finding ways to relieve you of as much of your hard foreign currency as possible, without letting you really get close to Cuba or Cubanos. I have found it much harder than when I visited the old Czechoslovakia in the 80s. At least you could change money on the black market at a good rate and travel by train and bus, even if you did need to register with the state tourist agency, every time you moved!

Arrgh!

Chris

If I thought I had overdosed on Spanish Colonial cities, then I was wrong. Havana is absolutely stunning, if crumbling. But then Havana has several centuries of grand building styles, so it isn´t just a Spanish colonial town.

I stayed right in the heart of Havana Vieja in what´s called a casa particular. There aren't any travellers hostels here, so casas particulares are the next best thing for the budget traveller, and believe me, my budget is tight! There has been much rennovation going on since the 1990s when Cuba switched to tourism to replace the financial lifeline was cut off by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Indeed, there was rennovation going on right across the street, the screach of the stone cutter making a siesta quite impossible. Here's a photo of me on my very own balcony...

...and some other local street scenes...

Cuba has a very communist feel about it. So reminiscent of when I visited Prague in the 80s - beautiful old buildings falling down, and almost empty shops with barely a dozen different items available for sale, just one lone sample of each displayed on a dusty shelf. Some items are scarce. I saw a crowd form in a street outside a shop that presumably had just got in a supply of electric blender, as people were coming away clutching their new purchases. On the plus side though, not a MacDonalds, KFC or Burger King in sight. Hooray!

Back to the buildings. Here are some magnificent examples of Colonial, Fin de Siecle, Art Deco and Neo Classical styles. I found out what Neo Classical means: the building is not nearly as old as it looks.

The Barcardi building looks like a advertising agency with all the motorbikes parked outside, but I am sure they are not courier bikes!

The Capitol is packed full of Italian stucco and marble, and French light fittings. Equally, if not more impressive as the Capitol on Washington DC, though apparently it is also modelled on Versailles and St Peters, Rome.

Other famous sights on the streets of Havana are classic, pre-revolutionary, American cars. Here's an action-shot of one passing the Railway Station, although you are more likley to see Ladas!

That's probably enough for this blog!

Chris