CUBA: FROZEN IN TIME
I booked this ticket to Cuba after waking up from a nap a month ago...
I had no expectations when it came to this trip and did not do any extensive research prior to the trip. A few of my friends went to Cuba before and I have heard nothing but great things. Let’s get one huge misconception off the table first and foremost: Cuba is not hard to travel to for those who want to go. While you cannot use tourism as a reason to visit Cuba remains prohibited, you can obtain a license from the Department of Treasury or your travel must fall into one of 12 categories of authorized travel. The airline will ask you to selected one of the 12 categories when booking your flight. All it took for me and my friends to book the flight was selecting Educational Activities as our reason. When we got to the airport we had to pay $75 dollars for a travel visa and was not once given any trouble on the trip. Day 1 We arrived around 3pm at our Airbnb I found out we lived across from a giant ice cream mall...YUP! A GIANT ICE CREAM MALL!!!! Like I was internally jumping for joy
Even more amazing...the ice cream was 0.05 cuc per scoop - 1 cuc = 1 U.S. dollar. The only downside - for those of you clean freaks out there - was the horrendous level of sanitation. I mean, the employees literally did not wash the plates off after putting them through dirty soapy water. But you're in Cuba...YOU HAVE TO TAKE THAT FILTER OFF
After settling in, I was super excited to check out the sites and decided to head straight for La Capitola which was the center on old Havana and where most of the famous sights were located All the vintage cars here double as taxis which was suuupperr amazing and straight out the 60’s
We flagged down a super cute open top vintage car Riding in the open top vintage car along the ocean, I felt straight out of the fast and furious
Once in old Havana we walked around and explored old Havana and of course, I had to make sure I got a COCONUT!!!!!
A friend of mine raved about this cool museum that turned into a club at night that I HAVE to check out while I was in Cuba so Fabrica de Arte it was for the night. When you first show up you get a punch cards for 2 dollars and you go through the multiple rooms and get stamps on your card every time you get a drink or food. Then at the end of the night we pay when we leave.
There are multi-rooms and multi-levels with amazing art hanging all over the walls. They ever have a giant movie room. We of course can not forget the giant mojito the size of our heads.
Day 2 Started the day early in search of food and we decided on La Rambla Bar Cafeteria Restaurante. Decided to take a walk around the area and discovered this amazing street commission by Salvador Gomez. Callejon de Hamel
Met Bethany from the airport since she missed her flight the day before and had to come a day later Headed back to the Capitolia BIG TIP: you should only pay a dollar per person for the ride Bargaining and knowing its ok to refuse taxi rides that are too expensive because there is always more is key here!!! Or else you will be hustled. Made our way to the famous Floridita: where Hemingway went for his inspirations and his favorite daiquirI (pretty much an alcoholic slush lemonade) Truth be told though, you can skip out on drinking at this spot. When you can get classy monitors on a rooftop bar for 2 cuc, the 6-8 cuc prices here are not worth the commodity.
What is worth it is the amazing and cool rooftop we found with cheap drinks and live music from a violinist!
We had lunch at Los Nardos and and showed Fabrica De Arte to Beth and had dinner there as well Day 3 Woke up and decided to check out Cafe Mamaine which is a cute gallery doubling as a breakfast cafe-- art is huge in Cuba and is seen everywhere Decided to do some more exploring and made it our goal for the day to see the fort by the coast
Along the way we discovered a series of beautiful streets -truthfully, all of the streets in Havana is just an adventure waiting to happen and you can get lost in them for hours
There is always something to see and the sights never end -including 7 churros for .5 cuc
We ended up in a town square with this stunning cathedral that I have only ever seen in movies.
We stumbled upon the cutest flea market with the coolest pre-revolution souvenirs. I got some cute lil pins and Arron got this cute lil film camera that this smartass obviously lost like 5 HOURS LATER.
We then headed under an ocean channel to the for a canon ceremony - where every Friday night at 9, a cannon is Launched chef to commemorate closing of the ports. Here, we found cute little souvenirs at stands throughout the fort - all for 1 cuc each.
Day 4 Woke up and headed to La Roca for brunch. Here, we got the most bomb-ass pina coladas ever to exist and a Paiea with an entire lobster in it. We then headed to Lennon park and met this phenomenal artist that makes pieces out of sand and plaster.
Per my suggestion, we then decided to make our way over to a cemetery. (I have this weird love for the buried dead ok? Get over it)
But as the holy ghosts would have it, by the time we got there, the cemetery was closing and the rain was coming so we opted to find shelter at a bus stop. We returned home by a (possibly not official) taxi
When it had stopped raining, we decided to go to Cafe Laurent, a rooftop restaurant that Kim K was once serviced at. We all shared the most fantastic brownie ever - which we had to get a second round of - seeing that Bethany actually teared up a little.
Day 5 Out final full day and we finally got to do the vintage taxI ride we had talked about doing all the past four days. AJ, our driver took us to see all the sights around the city. He even stopped at Revolution Plaza - this huge square that houses a giant monument, the military headquarters, the police headquarters, and the telecommunication headquarters of Cuba - and an abandoned football field that we found aesthetically pleasing.
After the hour long ride, which we extended for an extra half hour, we decided to go to the most expensive hotel in all of havana. We had dinner on its rooftop - which is honestly probably one of the most stunning rooftops to ever have existed - where we got to watch the sunset over the cityscape and ocean.
From there, we took our first coco taxI (lil motorcycle taxis that looks like football helmets) to Hotel Nacional
Here, we met a beautiful and shimmery peacock that *sigh* we didn't get to see flex in all its glory.
We ended off the night, and essentially the trip, here, with a Pina colada in hand as we watched the distant waves of the Atlantic roll into one another. Wave after wave after wave.
What a trip. For an in depth BTS look at what a trip like this really entails, stay tuned for the next post.