 |
| Cuban transportation |
A quick word about Cuba money before I start…there are two
currencies in Cuba – the Local Peso “Peso” and the Tourist Convertible
“CUC”. $1 USD = about .90 CUC (almost 1
to 1 less a 10% surcharge). There is no
surcharge if converting Canadian or Euros.
So, once you convert your foreign money, you then take 5 or 10 CUC and convert
it into Pesos. 1 CUC = 24ish Pesos. Now, you can only spend Pesos at the local
fruit and veggie market or on street food, which is why you don’t convert too
much. You have to use CUC at
restaurants, bars, grocery stores, etc.
 |
| Maria enjoying Cuban rum and cigar |
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, we found the
local bus by the marina, paid 1 Peso and hopped on. Now, I used to live in NYC and took the buses
in the city and I thought they were crowded – Holy Cow, they have nothing on
Cuba. There must have been 100 people on
it! We bounced and sped around corners –
stopping every few minutes to pick up more people. Everyone was very polite – men would give up
their seats for older women or for women with small kids. About a mile away from Santiago, the bus
stops. “Que pasa” or what I hoped was
“What’s going on” in Spanish to a woman sitting in front of me who had kindly
held onto my bag for me so I could hold on to the rail with two hands so I
didn’t go flying. “Roto” she
said…broken. Oh boy. In my broken Spanish and her broken English,
I figured out that we weren’t too far from where we needed to go and she
suggested we walk. Just as I yelled down
the bus to the other troops that we were going to do that, a bunch of guys got
off and started pushing the bus down a short hill. The bus driver than popped the clutch and the
bus started. A great cheer rang
throughout the bus!
 |
| Making the best mojitos in Cuba |
We got off at one of the squares where there is a huge cathedral
at one end of the square and the town hall at the other. A fellow came up to us who turned out to be
one of the custom officials from the previous day and offered to show us the
best place to change our money. You can
change it at a bank, but the line is super long, so they also have places
called Cadeja which only deals with changing money. After that, he introduced us to one of his
friends and told him to show us a good place to eat for lunch. So, we followed his friend to a house and
showed us inside. We walked through a
woman’s living room, through a small courtyard where laundry was hanging out
and into a small room with 3 small tables, a fan and a stereo. This was the “restaurant”- really a room in a
private house where they cook great meals for you. We had a cerveca and looked at the menu. Everything was 10-12 CUC – a little more
expensive than I would have thought. We
said as much and they knocked the price down to 8 CUC. We got chicken, rice, a salad and fried
plantains. Not too bad, but still not
the deal I would have thought. Well, we
were right – as we later found out, there are much cheaper ways to eat in Cuba. But, for our first meal, it was pretty good
with an awesome atmosphere! As we were
waiting for our food, we took a 15 minute walk around and saw Fidel Castro’s
old house and the outside of the revolutionary museum.
 |
| Enjoying the mojitos |
After lunch, we walked over to a place called La Casa de
Tradionales where they supposedly make the best mojitos in Santiago. I would have to agree with that
statement. The bartender lovingly made
the mojitos – not like in the States where they mix everyone’s drink in a big
shaker and then pours it into a glass.
Oh no, here they put out the glasses, then add a little cane sugar, then
a little lime juice and takes a small spoon with a long handle and mixes it
around. Then adds a lot of mint, stirs
again, then a ton of rum and some soda water and stirs it a final time. We brought the drinks out to a little patio
under a shaded area made from vines and oh my gosh, it tasted like heaven!
We met up with Josh and Connor by this point. Those two decided not to have the expensive
lunch meal and instead went out in search of street food. Boy oh boy did they find a deal. Josh and Connor split 4 mini cheese pizzas, 2
chicken sandwiches, a large tub of ice cream and 2 sodas, all for around 70
Pesos, which is less than 3USD! Now
that’s a deal!
We made our way back over to the square where the internet
place was. I had to shoot out a few
quick emails and check on my health insurance stuff to make sure Cuba is indeed
covered. The internet was 6 CUC per hour
and was PAINFULLY slow! No posting
pictures on the blog while in Cuba!
While I was doing this, Maria, Kevin and Dena where in
sitting on the benches in the park people watching and enjoying the cool
shade. We had brought candy for the kids
and soap for the adults, as we had read many people come up to you asking for
soap. This is an understatement. I could have given away 20 bars of soap the
first day in Santiago. Deanna took out
some of her stash and almost got trampled over!
After I finished on the internet, I joined them and a street musician
with a guitar and harmonica struck up a conversation with us and then treated
us to two great songs. 
We continued to wander around the streets and stopped in
another bar just to make sure the first really did have the best mojitos. We found a second place with a beautiful dark
wood bar that made you think you were in a bar from the 1950’s. We sampled their mojitos as well and they
were good, but not as good as the first place.
We had a second one just to make sure though! 
We hit the streets again and strolled around for a couple of
hours, sampled some 5 peso street pizza which was really good and then followed
our ears to a place that had a band playing traditional Cuban music. It turns out we found the site of a 3 day
music festival! Every hour, a different
band would play and people were dancing the salsa inside, outside, wherever they
could! We joined in the outside party
and danced in the streets with whoever came by and took our hand. Man can they move their hips!
After a while we decided to call it a night and found a cab and for 10 CUC the six of us jammed in the back of a Russian built car and headed back to the marina.
No comments:
Post a Comment