Liam Kerney

As much as we enjoyed relaxing on the beach, after three days in the “all inclusive” resort we were definitely getting anxious to get out and see the Real Cuba.

We didn’t have any accomadation or travel booked – just our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook to rely on. Our only constraint was we needed to be in Havana six days later for our flight home.

Leaving the Resort
We arranged a taxi to take us from the resort in Cayo Coco to the town of Ciego de Avila about 60 km away. About 20 km from the resort area, we went through what looked like a border crossing. It’s actually a checkpoint that prevents Cubans (without special permission) from traveling anywhere near the resort area. It’s quite bizzare to be in a country where we as foreigners could travel more or less anywhere, whereas the local population has restrictions on where they can and can’t go.

Our taxi driver picked up one of the police officers at the checkpoint and gave her a ride with us to her town about 30 km away! An example of the communist carpooling in action 🙂 They actually have quite a system in place for carpooling / hitchhiking. Depending on your license plate colour (not sure how this is determined?), drivers are actually obligated to stop and pick up hitchhikers. In fact, they even have officials in yellow jackets (“amarillos”) at intersections and highway junctions to facilitate rides for people.

Ciego de Avila to Santa Clara
Our taxi driver dropped us off at the bus station in the town of Ciego de Avila. Our plan was to get a bus from there to the city of Santa Clara (about 150 km up the island). Unfortunately the ticket agent at the bus station was not very helpful and didn’t have much patience for our lack of Spanish. We determined that the bus leaving that afternoon was already full and there was no bus until the next day (either that or she just didn’t want to sell us a ticket). If we had more time, we may have spent a night in Ciego de Avila and sorted out a bus for the next day; however, we were on a tight schedule on this trip so really needed to find a way to get further up the island that day.

While in the bus station deciding what to do next, an older guy came up to us offering a ride. He didn’t speak any English, but we were able to communicate well enough to arrange a ride in a private car with his friend. 60 CUC was a pretty good deal for a 150 km ride for us and the driver was certainly very happy to make that money.

Everywhere we went, we seemed to come across people that didn’t really understand that we spoke no Spanish. They’d continue to repeat themselves, not getting that we just weren’t going to be able to understand. It was quite comical and at times frustrating.

The drive to Santa Clara was quite fascinating. Not a lot of traffic on the road, other than old trucks and farm vehicles from the 50’s / 60’s and a lot of revolutionary slogans on the side of the road.

Arriving in Sanata Clara
We got dropped off in central Santa Clara and set out to find a Casa Particular (private home) to stay in. The first couple we tried didn’t work out; however, we ended up finding a great one that wasn’t in the guidebook (but should be – it’s a prime location!) called  “Hostel Santa Clara” in the home of Miguel and Noely. We had a nice big room in an old colonial house with a balcony overlooking Parque Vidal (the main square in the center of Santa Clara).

We were having breakfast on the balcony of our Casa early one morning when the national anthem started playing at the school next to Parque Vidal. Everyone in the street stopped where they were and stood still until the anthem finished!

Standing for the national anthem

We visited the local museum. It consisted of about 5 small rooms and had over 20 people working there! All in uniforms, many sitting around and a different person to turn the lights on and off in each room that we entered. Certainly keeps everyone employeed, but not terribly efficient!

What Year is It?

The idea of spending a week in an “all inclusive” resort is not really my idea of travelling; however, in this case, we thought starting the first few days of our Cuba trip in one would be a good way to relax and rest after a very busy year for both of us. A chance to recharge a bit before setting out on our own.

Getting There
After a rough crosswind landing (we were there a day after a hurricane had passed by to the East), we arrived at the small airport servicing the resorts.

The airport is within the resort zone, about a 15 minute drive from the hotels along the beach. Although we weren’t part of a package tour (we booked our flight direct with Westjet and our hotel separately), I figured we’d be able to throw our bags on one of the tour buses and get a ride to the hotel area.  They were too organized for that though and wouldn’t let us on as our name wasn’t on their list. So instead we had to find a taxi van to take us there. The driver was reluctant to take us for some reason – but eventually agreed.

We joined the line to check in at our hotel along with many of the people from our flight that had just gotten off the buses. When we got to the desk and provided our information, there was a lot of confusion!

“What group are you with?”
“We’re not with a group.”
“Ummm, how did you get here?”
“We just came in on the Westjet flight.”
“Oh, your with Westjet Vacations.”
“No. We were on the Westjet flight, but we’re not part of that group.”
After calling a couple of colleagues over and rummaging through a bunch of papers, she finally finds our reservation and says, “Ah, here it is! We thought this was a mistake!”.

Anyways, they had a great room for us overlooking the ocean 🙂  And of course we got our wristbands that we had to wear all the time while at the resort. Felt like a high school field trip or something…

Are we in Cuba?
The resort was very nice and a great place to relax and enjoy the Caribbean weather and fabulous beach. Our room was comfortable with a balcony and ocean view.

The resort was one of several on a long sandy beach and the ocean was surprisingly warm.

The food was ok and there was certainly plenty of it!

It was quite obvious though that this resort could have been anywhere in the Caribbean. There was nothing particularly Cuban about it. All of the staff spoke English, and the majority of the guests were Canadians (with a handful of Europeans). It was almost as if we were still in Canada, but on a Caribbean beach! The TV even had TSN on it!

The Experienced Ones
We could quickly tell who the experienced “all inclusive” tourists were. They were the ones carrying around their coffee travel mugs to use for carrying around their drinks, instead of the small plastic disposable cups the bars would give you otherwise.
They were also the ones lining up early every morning to make their dinner reservations. We missed out on that and ended up at the “Oriental” restaurant.

Where is the Real Cuba?
We went to the desk for making dinner reservations and after looking up our name and details, the guy had a confused look on his face.

“You are only here for four nights?”
“Yes” [so?]
“How much does four nights cost?”
“Uh… about 400” [why is he asking me this??]
“Per person?”
“No – total”
“Including airfare??”
[Now I’m realizing he’s just confused as we’re not part of some package deal]
“No. After we leave we are travelling up the island. Going to Havana.”
“This is a new Sunwing package?”
“No – we are on our own.”

He has a confused look for a few seconds – then he finally gets it!
“Oh! You want to see the Real Cuba!! Yeah, this is not the Real Cuba here. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone doing this”

Well this definitely made us laugh and excited to be getting out of the resort soon to see what the country was really all about.

“You don’t go to Cuba for the food” is something we heard a lot before we took a trip there in November 2010. There is certainly a lot of truth to that; however, we did have some really interesting culinary experiences ranging from mediocre to outstanding to comical!

Chinese food in Cuba?
We spent the first three days in an all inclusive resort on the beach in Cayo Coco. There was certainly lots of food available all the time, but with the exception of our afternoon pizzas at La Barcaza on the beach, it was pretty mediocre. The buffet got tiresome pretty quickly.

Aside from the buffet though, there were several restaurants that you could make reservations at for dinner. There were about six of them with different themes (Italian, Mexican, Cuban, etc.). Of all of them, the only one we wanted to avoid was the “Oriental” themed one. As much as I love different types of Asian food, I just couldn’t imagine it would be much good in Cuba.
Being inexperienced at this all inclusive thing, we didn’t join the long line up to make our dinner reservations early. When we finally did get around to it, the “Oriental” place was the only one left! Ok, we knew it would be an interesting experience at least.
We arrived at the restaurant and it was decorated quite impressively actually and the waiters all wore Chinese waiter jackets (not sure what those are called?).  The menu had three entrees on it: Curry Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Teriyaki Beef. Eva ordered the Chicken and I ordered the Pork. It arrived quite quickly along with red wine (that I think just came out of the freezer!?) and of course no chopsticks.

As we were eating, I commented to Eva that her dish came with the same plain crunchy noodles that mine had. We quickly realized though that wasn’t the only thing the same: our dishes were basically identical except for a different coloured sauce! The meat was deep fried and tasted suspiciously similar (and not much like either chicken or pork!). The sauces were different colours but really had no taste either!

Quite a comical experience really!

Coconuts on The Beach
Official salaries in Cuba are really low ($25 / month on the high end), so the people are very motivated to do what they can to earn real money (Convertible Pesos) from foreigners. We were on the beach and one of the garden workers hacked open a couple of coconuts for a couple of pesos. Delcious coconut flavoured water! I can’t believe how much water one of those contains.

Street Pizza and Peso Ice Cream
After getting away from the resort to the real Cuba, we got to experience a bit more of the real Cuban food. In Santa Clara, we got ourselves onto the local currency (National Pesos instead of the Convertible Pesos that us foreigners are supposed to use) and enjoyed the “steet pizza” that is cranked out all day long from little shop windows all over town. These are individual size pizzas — basically lots of melted cheese on fresh doughy bread. Delicious! and the equivalent of about 25 cents.

We also enjoyed the Peso Ice Cream. For one National Peso (about 4 cents Canadian), a street vendor would crank out ice cream cones all day long. There was always a line up, but the ice cream was delicious. Something good that the average Cuban can actually afford. Viva La Revolucion 🙂

Overall the Ice Cream in Cuba was quite exceptional. Not quite on par with Italy or Slovenia, but not that far behind!

Casa Food
The rest of our time in Cuba was stayed in Casa Particulars – basically private houses that the owners rent out one or two rooms in to earn some convertible Pesos. They also typically offered breakfast and/or dinner for a few extra pesos.

By far the best food we experienced in Cuba was at “Hostel Santa Clara”, a Casa run by Miguel and his wife Noely in an old Colonial building overlooking Parque Vidal (the main square in Santa Clara). The dinner Noely made of bean soup, rice, chicken, and salad was delicious!

Breakfast consisted of fresh pinapple and guava with eggs and ham and probably the best tasting fresh fruit juice I’ve ever had. We tried to ask what kind of fruit the juice was made from, but without speaking any Spanish and with Miguel not speaking English, the best we could determine was it was some kind of “special orange”!

So while I wouldn’t recommend going to Cuba if all you’re looking for is exceptional food, there are some great experiences to be had!