Cuba: Tag me in it.

After leaving the beauty and wildness of The Galapagos Islands, it was time to hit the beauty and wildness that makes up Cuba (albeit a different kind). As with most travel, we thought we would go with the flow for our time there, usually checking the internet for things to do and places to stay at on a day to day basis, however after walking in to a few cafe's and bars asking if they had wi-fi, and getting "this is Cuba" as a response, we soon realised it wouldn't be that easy.

Ears: Buena Vista Social Club

Like everything in Cuba since the trade embargo was enforced (which started in 1960), Cuba has been somewhat frozen in time. This is the reason why all the cars are Classics, there is no internet available, and the standard cost for a Cuba Libre is at an impressive $1.50.

To me the most impressive thing about Cuba is the fact that people are outside hanging with friends and family, playing cards or dominos, kids playing marbles or football/baseball in the street. There is not a single iPhone to be seen, no one is taking selfies, updating there status or even thinking about jumping on to Tinder - in this regard it truly is a paradise and seeing a lot of the kids in the street took me back to my childhood, something I feel a lot of kids these days will never experience.

Street book market in the Plaza d'Armas,  Old Town Havana.

Heerey getting all Cuba Libre

View from our Casa, these guys played domino's for about 5 hours one afternoon, a typical scene anywhere in Cuba.

Monument to Che in Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion. 

Hannah getting taken to the Buena Vista Social Club by Marcelo

One of the issues with no internet, was sorting ourselves out with where to go, doing minimal research on Cuba prior to landing (as is usually the case anywhere), I remembered that Trinidad was one place we wanted to go to for a few days (about 4 hours drive from Havana), however we didn't really know how to get there. Enter Marcelo, as seen below........

Marcelo saw us wandering the streets during our internet searching phase (it was actually legit as we needed to send some information to the place we were staying in Nicaragua about our airport pick up or something). He, like many of these Cubans, are your best friend and come across way too eager that you know it is a scam or something is up. Sure enough though he lead us to the one place in Havana that has internet that you can use without actually staying there; there is internet, but only in the big "American Style" hotels.

After doing our business on the net, we walked back outside to find him waiting for us, "here we go" we all thought thinking he was gonna try and scam us of something. Sure enough he says come to the Buena Vista Social Club tonight, tickets are this much, I will take you there now. We sit down and they are setting up for the night to come (it was about 3pm), we buy a few mojito's and buy him one hoping it persuades him to not kidnap us tonight, and to our surprise within a few minutes we have the tickets and it is all dandy.

Doing the small talk we ask him about how to get to Trinidad, (we got a price off another bartender earlier in the day and though we would compare). Marcelo says he has a friend who will get us there in a big American car, he names the price, quite a good price too) and asks where we are staying (another possible dodgy thing to tell him, but by then we started to trust him a little). Then he says he will pick us up from the house at 8am the day after tomorrow.

That night we had a pretty nice night listening to some amazing Cuban music at the Buena Vista Social Club (it is a pretty famous thing and no doubt many of you have heard of it).

Two days later we find ourselves in this car, being driven by this wrecking ball looking guy with Marcelo riding shotgun.

Hannah still dodgy, an hour outside of Havana.

Plenty of places to run, but nowhere to hide out here.....

 Turns out Marcelo's parents live out in the bush somewhere, he was visiting them for a few days, our driver then took us the rest of the way - he spoke no english, our spanish is limited to greetings, small talk and how to order food and beverages. Next thing he pulls over for a piss, and asks us if anyone wants to drive, Heerey puts his hand up for is and drives....... for all of 90 seconds before the Wrecking Ball decides it better if he drives.

Still got this shot though.

We made it to Trinidad, it was #2 or 3 in places to visit in Cuba on TripAdvisor, needless to say, we were actually a little underwhelmed when we went there.

Our host family in Havana told us to ring them when we got to Trinidad to make sure we were alright (they we obviously dodgy on the car ride too - which heightened our worries!). When we found somewhere to stay, the new hosts rang up our Havana friends (the phone number was all of 5 digits), and spoke to them for about 20 minutes, laughing like old friends. Turns out they don't know each other, it is just how Cubans are!

We were walking around, and I could swear the photo's I had seen had some beach or something in it (Trinidad was actually about 10km inland which is where our initial disappointment came from). Then in a bookstore I was flicking through a Cuba tourist photo book and saw a photo of Playa Ancon - Trinidad. I asked the lady where it was and she said 10 minute taxi ride that way.

Within the hour we were here.

After a few days on the beach drinking Mojito's, Cuba Libre's and having cheeseburgers in paradise at Playa Ancon, we found our way back to Havana and back at our original Casa and Host family. They and the hosts we had in Trinidad are still probably the nicest people we have met on the trip.

After travelling through the rest of South America, heck most of the world for that matter, we were surprised at just how happy the people were. All the propaganda about Cuba and Communists and all that seems to be completely false when you get here. There is no one in poverty, no one begging on the streets, the streets are clean and safe, and everyone just seems to be happy. Everybody seemed to have time for people, kids actually playing in the streets, parents sitting on the front steps talking with their neighbours. Sure there are always people trying to scam you because you are a tourist, but generally people were happy and helpful.

There is a bit going on here.

Not sure what to make of this statue?

Typical friend when having food at a street side cafe/bar in Cuba

Overall, Cuba is probably one of the highlights of the trip, we didn't really know what to expect here, but the music was good, drinks were cheap, the people were fun, the beaches were amazing, the city was unlike anything you would ever see and there was not one iPad, McDonalds, GoPro or Facebook mentioned the whole time.