Cuba, A Place Like No Other

We were in Cuba for a week, the plan was to spend two days in Trinidad, a town apparently stuck in the 18th century and 6 hr bus ride from Havana. Then we were to come to Havana for three days before flying out to the Bahamas (our last two day stop before we headed home). Cuba mostly went to plan. There were a few hiccups here and there but in the end it all worked out. Although we hadn’t even left the airport yet when we hit our first obstacle in Cuba. The whole scenario went something like this.

We touched down (yay!) in Cuba after a laughably short flight. That was nice and easy. We’d bought our visas at the airport (supplied by the airline) and that went seamlessly, thankfully. So we made it through customs and immigration and all that. The problem occurred when I tried to take some money out for our time in Cuba. We knew the ATMS would be few and far between and almost everywhere was cash only so having cash on us was a must. Between the taxi ride to the airport in Mexico and buying the visas we didn’t have any Mexican pesos to change over so the ATM was are only option. Throughout the whole of Mexico Callums bank card had refused to work (for reasons unknown) so I’d been taking all the money out and he’d just been transferring me half. If was a pretty good system that had served us well so far. Until I tried to take out money from the airports ATM and realised I only have $100 or so dollars in my bank account and that was all we could get out. I needed to transfer money over into my account and in order to do that we needed data on our phones. Callum wanted to get himself a SIM card for the week we were there. As the SIM place was literally just outside the airport we decided to sort that out first. Then Callum could download the bank app and I could transfer some money to myself and we could be on our way. Easy peasy.

 So across we went, spent what felt like 30/40 minutes standing in the slowest and smallest line ever. Callum finally got the SIM and the woman told him SIMs in Cuba don’t come with data, but there’s free wifi in the airport. So back to the airport we went, couldn’t figure out how to log on so we asked someone. Apparently we needed to purchase a wifi card from the place that sells the SIM cards. Where we just were. The woman at the counter for the SIM place had completely failed to even mention we would need a wifi card and she could supply one. So we were stuck. We’d spent more then an hour messing about with phones already. Did we go back to the line or just try and make it to Trinidad on what cash we had and figure it out from there?

In the end, through a very confusing conversation with a maybe-taxi driver, Callum ended up trying his card just to see if it would work. Thankfully it did. So that was one problem solved, the next was how to get to Trinidad. That was solved relatively quickly though by our new taxi driver friend who gave us a lift to the bus port. We didn’t end up catching a bus though, instead we caught a collectivo with a (weird) American couple. It wasn’t like the collectivo’s in Mexico which were more like mini buses. This was a car, just a regular car which we were sharing with this other couple. The collectivo was only $5CUC more then the bus (the bus being $25CUC) and it was leaving then and there. So we took it and apparently shaved 2 hours off of our total trip, although it didn’t really feel like it. To be fair though for the four hour taxi ride I was sitting in the dreaded middle seat which was incredibly uncomfortable. But we were dead tired from the plane so we slept most of the way there, thank god.

Arriving in Trinidad we found our hostel with minor fuss. The hostel turned out to be a little house owned by the nicest people we were going to meet in Cuba. I’m still not sure as to the actual size of the family as they seemed to have people and kids coming and going at all times. But there was a lovely older couple who owned the house and ran the “hostel”. They didn’t speak any English so we mostly communicated to their son who, from what I gather, took people out on snorkelling tours. His English wasn’t the best, but it was far better then our non-existent Spanish so we were grateful.

By then it was early evening and all we’d had since the breakfast on the plane was half a frozen sandwich at a gas station on the way down. So we were more then a little peckish. The son of our hostel family suggested a place for us to eat that night that was right next to a wifi hotspot. He told us he’d ring ahead and we just had to show them the hostel card and we’d be all good. So with that, once we’d dumped our stuff, we were off in search of some dinner. Dinner came in form of some divine pulled lamb and pineapple potatoes near the square Plaza Mayor.

We also bought some 1 hour wifi cards for $2 CUC each off of some people selling them in the darkness of the street. Was a bit of a weird experience having someone murmur to you, “wanna buy some wifi?” like they’re selling you drugs or something. Either way the wifi was too overloaded so we couldn’t get on that evening (we definitely tried). After having a mojito from a stand that claimed to have the “Best Mojito’s Ever” which stood next to a stand that said “Best Mojito’s in Cuba” we went back to our new room and collapsed.

The second day in Cuba we mostly wandered the cobbled streets of Trinidad. We found many a shop that sold many a wooden thing we were weary about bringing into the country (Australia naturally having some of the strictest, if not the strictest, quarantine laws in the world). We followed the Lonely Planets walking/photography guide for Trinidad and ambled around in the hot sun. Our walk through the cobbled streets was filled with lots of stray dogs, a skinned pigs head (which we originally thought was a dog but now think that hopefully it was a pigs), many a horse and cart, and taking the odd photo of an old car. It was a good day even if we didn’t achieve much. At the end of it we went to a restaurant our hostel and the Lonely Planet had recommended a Vista Gourmet which was lovely. The restaurant was a rooftop ordeal and we were accompanied by a dog wandering around the neighbouring roof. Clearly the roof was his backyard and everyone in the street was trespassing. It was cute but a little unnerving watching the dog stand on the edge of the roof and just stare down at the ground.

At the beginning of our trip in Mexico City we had run into another Australian who had been to Cuba and had recommended Trinidad as a place to go. Which was actually partly why we were there. One of his warnings about Cuba though was that the food was crap. I hadn’t found the food too bad thus far which was a relief. But I think the difference between Cuba and Mexico is that in Mexico everywhere from street tacos, to proper restaurants has good, yummy food. Whereas in Cuba I think you get what you pay for (insert traumatising flashbacks of the $1CUC frozen ham and cheese sandwich).

The second full day in Trinidad was… interesting. We set out in the morning because I was determined to find us someone to take us horseback riding. It was a big tourist attraction there and something I was really looking forward to. I did horse riding as a little tyke an age ago and I was interested to see what it would be like again (answer: sore). So we wandered around, checked in with the wifi where there was some, and then eventually found a man offering horse rides for $15CUC. Bargain! So we disappeared back to the room to grab bathers, as the ride was to a waterfall (even better). Then we found him again and we were shown to our horses.

Now I said I used to ride horses, but I was smaller then and to be honest don’t really remember that much. The horses we had in Cuba were pretty skinny and I don’t think they were too happy about the cobbled streets and us on their back either. Also it turns out the horse ride was $15CUC per hour, per person. So it ended up being pretty fucking expensive trip. So there’s a word of warning for you. But we gritted our teeth (I really wanted to go), paid (I was also already sitting on the horse when our “guides” cornered Callum and told him the real price), and we were off! Our guide was not the man who we’d made the transaction with but a younger fellow with not much English who rode behind us the whole time and just directed us which way to go. Which was a little off putting but not too bad. He tried to make conversation and was pretty nice the whole day. So I have no complaints about him.

The horses slip and slid along the cobbled streets which was completely nerve-wracking before they made it to the sealed road that led outside of Trinidad. So we were off down that at a trot with the odd car coming past and us unsteady riders on the side of the road. The journey was about 40 minutes there and 40 minutes back. We stopped for lunch in the middle and got to see how they juiced sugarcane. It’s amazing how much they can get out of a few sugar canes.

After lunch the track turned to dirt. Which resulted in muddy puddle water getting flicked all over us as the horses clomped through the odd puddle and stream. We had a few hairy moments as neither horse wanted to be at the back where are guide held a makeshift whip so they pushed past each other at the worst possible times. And at one point the front of my horse took a dive as she slipped on the uneven dirt rode. So it was kind of fun, but also kind of not.

We eventually stopped though and walked up to this little hut by a river where we were served coffee and given a complementary cigar. Callum ended up smoking one and I tried his. My first cigar, pretty sure I didn’t smoke it correctly but I didn’t die. So that’s a win. After the coffee we left our guide there as he pointed out a winding path that led up stream. So we followed that till we came to the waterfall.

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Now it was’t as impressive as the waterfall we went to in Palenque but it was gorgeous all the same and the water was very cold. Super refreshing after a hot tiring horse ride. It helped too that some entrepreneur had balanced a drinks stand on the rocks that sold beers and mojitos. So I went for a swim in the fresh water and Callum sat on the side with a beer. We’d rocked up just before a group of people so we had a few minutes to have the waterfall to ourselves before the people invaded. I could’ve spent more time there but our hours were ticking away and we didn’t really want to pay any more then we had to. So a quick swim was it then we were back off to the horses.

The ride back was a lot less nerve wracking. I think the horses knew their part was almost over so they were much more lively about dropping us off then they were about bringing us there. It’s when we got back to Trinidad though that our trouble started.

Before I get into that however I’m not really sure how I feel about the whole horse riding experience. On one hand I’m not a horse person and can’t really tell a well treated horse from a working horse (is there a difference? Should there be a difference?). On the other hand I’m not sure I was totally comfortable with the state of the horses or their tiredness/tripping. Is that normal? I don’t think so. I think if I was to do it again I’d go through the Lonely Planet’s recommendation and would pay the extra money for a well treated animal. At the same time though, maybe the horses were just working horses and were coming to the end of their day (it was early evening when we got back) and they were just tired. I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure. I think I just would’ve been happier with myself if we had gone with a more “official” horse riding guided tour. One where you know the animals are treated well so there’s none of this back and forth about it. So yeah, there’s my thoughts on that. Now onto the unpleasantness of the evening.

The day took a downhill turn as soon as we got back to Trinidad. We got off the horses, the guys from before who’d hooked us up with the horse-guide were there asking if we wanted to buy cigars. And yes, we did do the dumb tourist thing of buying fake cigars off of the locals. We were too trusting, and too nice. So we ended up buying two boxes of fake cigars. Even having to go to the ATM to take money out (as most of what was left had been given to them already, for the horses). Afterwards I mentioned to Callum my doubts about the cigars authenticity. Which resulted in us heading down to the wifi spot and googling it; and yes they were definitely fake. Fake, fake, fake.

Callum was pissed, I was pissed, we were annoyed at ourselves and to be honest kind of at each other. Callum at me as I didn’t say anything when we bought them, me at Callum for thinking I should’ve said something (I wasn’t sure they were fake. Maybe he knew something I didn’t) and mostly both of us were just pissed at those guys. We’d just paid for a very expensive horse ride which had almost shot our daily budget right out of the water, and then they’d sold us fake cigars which definitely shot our daily budget to shit. Then after selling us fake cigars they both had the audacity to ask Callum if he had any clothing he was willing to give to them! Which of course we said no.

Amazingly though that wasn’t the worst rip off of the day. Both of us still fuming and trying to take our mind off it we went to dinner. Same place we went that first night. We chilled out there, had a cocktail, ate the amazing pulled lamb again, calmed ourselves down, and decided to talk about something else. There wasn’t much we could do anyways.

So after dinner we were innocently walking back to our rooms when this man shoved a grasshopper made entirely of reeds into my hands. He claimed it was free (nothing is free). So we paused. I was now the owner of a reed grasshopper. The man quickly whipped one up for Callum whilst we were trying to be polite and make excuses to give the one we had back and leave. He gave Callum his new reed grasshopper then proceeded to make me a flower and Callum some weird necklace. At this point we were both just standing there watching him unsure of how to make him stop or go away.

Once he was done forcing reeds upon us he asked for a tip. We’d just taken money out of the ATM earlier so my wallet was kind of full which I think was our fatal mistake. So I opened up my wallet, and pulled out a $10 as he objected when I went for the $5. What about his family?! I gave him the $10. Then he turns to Callum. I’d given him a tip, where was his tip from Callum?

Now this is where the experienced or sane person walks away. Which is clearly neither of us as Callum took a look in his wallet, told the man he only had a $20. So the grasshopper man said that was fine just give him the $20. Which he did, and that should’ve been the end of it. But no. Then, then, the grasshopper man turned back to me. Callum gave him a $20, where was his $20 from me? I only gave him a $10. My wallet was already open I looked into it, tried to pull out a $5 a $20 came out with it. He snatched both right from my wallet. Then he turned to Callum, his hands already reaching for his reeds, and I was done. His reeds were just too expensive. Which I told him. As we walked away, very quickly. The reeds cost us $55CUC all up. It was the most impressive rip off of the day. He got $55CUC for reeds he probably picked from a river. So be wary of all grasshopper men and free gifts.

The whole experience was like a friendly mugging where we got crappy reeds we couldn’t take into the country anyways. To be honest the whole experience kind of made the night. We walked away from him poorer in cash but richer in spirit as the ordeal was hilarious. Who cares we’d just bought fake cigars earlier that day, we’d just paid $55CUC for goddamn reeds. How funny was that? Looking back I’m super annoyed at myself for letting him do that. But at the time it was just the best thing. We’d just been conned again and this time we had nothing to show for it. Not even fake cigars. We were laughing all the way back to our room as we placed reed grasshoppers on random cars. Callum even tried to give away his reed necklace to a man on a bench. The man didn’t want the necklace, but he would pay Callum $2CUC to buy his T-shirt that he got in LA for $50US.

At that point it kind of felt like the whole place was out to get us and rip us off. So we retired to our rooms for the evening in the house of the nicest family in Trinidad and we finally did our first sensible thing for the day and went to bed. Tomorrow was an early start. Tomorrow we were off to Havana. Tomorrow we’d try again at life.

Over and Out,

Rachel

Going With the Flow

The shock of the humid and hot weather after San Cristobal had us craving a swim. So we looked up a good place for one in the Lonely Planet book and set off in the direction the front desk waved us in to look for a collectivo to take us there. Two things were a bit unexpected firstly no one was going to where we wanted to go but apparently to another waterfall that was better so we ended up there. Secondly our collectivo was not the regular white vans we’d become used to but rather a truck, or if you’re an Australian a ute. Some people sat in the truck but we got to sit in the back. It had seats and a cage that you sat it. It was open at the front above the trucks cabin and that’s where people put a lot of their stuff. They also stored it under the seats. But we shrugged it off and just went with the flow of the day. Sure we’ll go to somewhere we don’t know in an interesting looking vehicle, why not?

So we endured the half hour bumpy ride with a horde of locals and two Germans in the back of the truck with us. When we got to the waterfalls it was just us and the Germans who got out. We had to pay $20 pesos to get into the waterfalls and somehow we ended up with a guided tour. Which was cool as he showed us where it was safe to jump in from as high as you can get, and where caves were hidden under the waterfalls. It was a series of waterfalls that ran into pools of beautiful blue water that slipped down into another waterfall ending in another pool and repeat. There’s not really much to report about the day. We’d had a lazy morning so it was the afternoon by the time we’d gotten there. We spent the few hours there with the guide and the Germans who had been on the collectivo. Thankfully they spoke English and some Spanish, and the guide spoke a little English so we made it through alive and unscathed. It was an awesome afternoon, and I finally got to test out the GoPro’s waterproof claim which was thankfully good.

Once we finished at the falls we wound back up in town and ended up having a lovely dinner with our two new German friends who were unfortunately leaving that night. So after dinner we walked them to the bus station saw them off and went back to our hostel. Queue the photos!

The view from the back of the collectivo heading back to Palenque

Mezcal Waterfalls

Woo! Finally, an internet connection good enough to upload pictures with! I only have to camp out right next to the router. So much to update you all on but I’ll start where we left off. Oaxaca.

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In Oaxaca we were staying at the Casa Angel Youth Hostel. I have no complaints, the staff were lovely and very helpful, our room was nice, and it was in a great location. I’m just mentioning it so I can post this photo of Callum and the dog, called Doggie, that had apparently adopted the hostel as its home. It seems out grand plan for Mexico is finding all the vaguely friendly dogs in Mexico and petting them.

So day two in Oaxaca started with us getting up early and signing ourselves up for another tour. Since the one in Mexico City went so well, we figured this would be a good chance to socialise and learn some more about Mexico. It was a semi-success. The day didn’t start off too well with the tour guide talking for about 10 minutes straight in Spanish and then giving us the two second English version. His general “tour guiding” followed much the same route. Which was annoying as there were only two people who spoke Spanish well enough to follow.

Thankfully though when we got to the stops our mob of English speakers was usually fobbed off onto whoever was showing us around. We made five stops, a two thousand year old tree, a rug place, a mezcal distillery, a city of the dead, and a solid waterfall.

The tree was a two thousand year old cypress tree that sat in front of a church. Behind it sat a one thousand year old cypress tree. The tree was amazing. Huge, willowy, and it completely dwarfed the modest church it sat next to. Callum asked me how old trees lived for. I have no idea. Do they die of old age or are they like elves and are immortal if they’re careful? How old is the oldest tree in the world?

After the tree we all hopped back into the mini bus and travelled further out to a small nearby town that was home to the rug makers. Apparently everyone in that village learned to make rugs from the age of five. The man also showed us how they create the colours in the rugs. There were many variations but the most amazing was the colour red which came from tiny dried insects they took off the cactus. Dried they looked like little stones. But they would dry them, crush them, then add the powder to the water, lime juice, and create over a hundred different shades of red. They could add limestone powder to the mixture and create a stunning purple. Theoretically I know a lot of dyes come from this kind of thing, herbs, flowers, roots etc. But it was awesome seeing it first hand and watching them mix the colours. He also showed us the weaving process, but he had his little daughter with him who stole the show. She was apparently about four and she had her own mini machine which she showed her mad skills on.

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After that adventure it was off to the Mezcal distillery to attempt to try their 24 flavours of mezcal. Mezcal is the forefather of tequila. As the woman who showed us around explained; all tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila. It depends on how they brew it but mezcal is known for its smokier flavour. It comes from an agave plant and the youngest plant they can harvest to produce the mezcal has to be ten years old. The oldest is twelve (potentially older, I can’t really remember). I won’t go into the distilling process because to be honest the whole thing seems very complicated and I can’t really remember it. But a horse was involved to crush the plant, and they cooked the plant in huge underground ovens for days at a time, plus at least four or five other steps. Then they would throw the mezcal into barrels and let it age for years. The whole process seems to take an awfully long time. It’s something you don’t really appreciate about spirits, any spirit really, is how long they take to make. A lot could happen in the 8, 12, 30 years it takes to flavour the spirit. Not sure if I would have the patience to brew spirits. How would you even start?

We then moved on to trying the mezcal, which in this country is sipped straight. With, if you couldn’t take it, chasers of orange dipped into a paprika and salt mixture. Mezcal also can have the worm in it. Apparently the worm, which lives at the base of the agave plant, adds flavour to the mezcal and is also good to chew on as it tastes like mezcal, if you’re lucky enough to get it. And yes, someone asked, you do chew. Don’t just try and swallow it whole. Apparently that’s just not done.

We were slowly meeting the others travelling with us on the tour. It is really amazing how many Australians we have met in Mexico. In Mexico City there were four of us staying in the hostel. Besides the Americans that was the biggest group of foreigners from the same country. In Oaxaca there were four New Zealanders, and four Australians on our tour alone. Three of us were all from Perth. It’s really bizarre when you think about it. Especially since most Australians we’d spoken to before going on this trip hadn’t even considered Mexico as a holiday destination. So we figured it wasn’t really somewhere Aussies ventured very often. But here we all are, on the other side of the globe, from a huge country with a tiny population, and we are the biggest majority group of foreigners (beyond Americans) staying in hostels at any one point. There’s no big groups of Germans just awkwardly gathering in Mexico, this is just apparently reserved for Australians. Very weird.

Anyways, so after the mezcal distillery we wound up at the City of the Dead, otherwise known as Mitla. The Zapotecs used the palace we visited as a retirement place for their priests and kings, and the city as a burial place, thus the name. Mitla was also conquered twice, once by the Aztercs, and once by the Spanish. The Spanish, as we know they were wont to do, built a church with the stones from the temple near the palace. So the temple was gone, a church in its place, but the palace itself remained. The palace had thick stone walls with patterns carved into them, the meaning of some he explained. What was really interesting about the palace was between it and the church that sat next to it the church had been repaired more times due to earthquake damage. In the region earthquakes are apparently a dime a dozen on average, according to our guide, there were around 800 a year. This year alone, an outlier, there had been over 2000. The Zapotecs were well aware of this and built their palace accordingly. There is no cement, or anything sticking the stones together. They were just built to fit together. So the whole thing is a jigsaw of custom made pieces each one made to fit perfectly with the other and some with wrap around corner carvings of complicated patterns. All so when the earth does decide to see if it can knock anything down the palace will remain standing. Apparently this wasn’t a tidbit the locals shared with the Spanish.

After the city of the dead we grabbed lunch, and were then driven up a winding mountain path to a solid waterfall. Now our “tour guide” for the day actually ditched us before we even started the long drive up so we just had the driver at the waterfall. He didn’t exactly explain anything about why the waterfall was solid or where to really find it. So we wandered through some stalls selling us food and drinks and then down a slope. At the bottom we found some huge empty pools. Water trickled around them and at the bottom but not a lot. Beyond the original pools we found the one that was filled with water. It bubbled up from inside the mountain we were perched on and trickled out holes filling the lowest pool. In the distance you could see the solid waterfall cascading out of the mountain. The pool just seemed to end on the cliff face. It would be pretty easy to fall off of it, but hey the lack of safety barrier makes for good photos.

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The stalactites slumping down a hill aka a solid waterfall

Now apparently, which I’ve learned from the fam (thanks Dad) the phenomenon is basically this. The water itself is high in calcium carbonate so what happens is the water trickles out and tiny amounts of carbon crystalizes out. So what we’re seeing is actually the same stuff stalactites and stalagmites are made out of. Because its ground water this means it’s rich in minerals and heat means the saturation level would be higher.

So there you go. I showed my dad a photo of the solid waterfall and he described it as ‘a bunch of stalactites slumping down a hill’ which I guess it technically is. But I’m sticking with calling it a solid waterfall. A natural phenomenon that we were stomping all over and taking selfies with.

“Act Natural” they say

Our day came to an end there. The sun was setting when we left the mountain and by the time we dragged ourselves back to the hostel it was way past dark. Callum and I had some tacos from the same place we went to the first night. They were not as delicious, no idea what we ordered the first night. Google translate didn’t really help us as most of the taco fillings translated into things like ear, and tongue, and other unappetizing things. I have a feeling it was Google translate failing us. But who knows, maybe we had tongue tacos on the first night and loved them.

 

Also, as a side note, we found this adorable newborn puppy and its mum lounging at the top of the pools. What a cutie pie.

Over and Out,

Rachel