I am Cuba

I AM CUBA

Like kids waiting for Christmas, January 11th 2016, the date of our departure, was the day we were all waiting for. My Father and I have been researching and planning the Hannas family trip to Cuba for almost a year. It's the first time our entire family (my parents and two older brothers) have travelled together on a real family vacation since touring California in a brown van (with Elvis playing on 8-track) in 1980! 

We flew from Vancouver to Mexico City (6 hrs) and then to Havana (3 hrs) on AeroMexico for five days at the beach in Varadero and then to Havana for five days. After leaving Havana at the end of the trip, we stayed overnight in Mexico City in the posh Centro Historico district at the Fiesta Mexicana Reforma. We had a half day of sights, shopping, and lunch before flying home to Vancouver. Comped breakfast that morning in the hotel's white linen executive lounge made us feel like Royalty. My shopping in Mexico included the usual; Day of the Dead skulls and a bottles of anejo Mezcal. Beautiful.

It was an intense trip. It wasn't relaxing but it was extremely interesting. The weather was terrible the whole time. In Havana I counted fifteen minutes of actual sunshine. It was either raining, overcast, windy or a combination of those with the odd day that had scattered clouds. It was cold too. The temperature ranged from the low to mid twenties with pleasant humidity. Because the weather was so crappy, I think it forced us to do more. Walk more. Shop more. Repeat. Repeat.

The food was a mixed bag. At the same restaurant, the first dish would be terrible and the second would be incredible. If you love eggs, ham, and cheese you won't after two weeks in Cuba! But, the local meat stews were fantastic. We had Cuban lobsters twice. Both times they were overcooked but very tasty. The Cuban coffee is good but not great. The cigars and rum are considered the best in the world. Cuban cigars are no longer a buck a smoke like they were just a few years ago. Cohiba's are considered by many to be one of the best cigars in the world. I bought and smoked one, the smallest real cigar I could find of that brand, and it was $15 USD! It was mild but with a very strong nicotine effect. Depending on the size and brand, a decent cigar like Romeo and Juliet was about $7 USD each.  Although my favourite rums are Jamaican (but that's just me!) Cuba's Santiago de Cuba brand is my next choice. I much preferred it over Havana Club which is also excellent. Bacardi is oddly nonexistent.

In both spots we stayed in Casa Particulars. They are family ran bed-and-breakfast businesses which are much cheaper and a lot more interesting than a generic all inclusive resort. You'll be surrounded by a warm Cuban family with home cooked food instead of being surrounded by lumpy white complaining tourists sun burning on the beach with their toxic smell of sweat and coconut sunscreen as they eat club sandwiches with the crusts removed. Gross! Casa Papo's House in Varadero and Casa 1935 in Havana are both highly recommended. You can find them easily online and you can book by e-mail or phone. No credit cards are accepted. You'll pay cash with Cuban CUCs, the tourist's money at par with the US dollar, when you check out.

My brother Kurt bought a nice set of bongos and he had them thoughtfully engraved with his friend's name on them. They are fragile so he brought them through Cuban customs as carry on when we were leaving the country. They seized them. No reasonable explanation was given. I guess bongos are a threat to national security? A weapon of mass destruction? They let him keep his maracas though. The logic escapes me too? Moronic and blindly rule abiding customs officials make for good Nazis I say. 

We were gone for less than two weeks but if felt like several months. No email. No cel phones. No news. Perfect! I kept on wondering which famous celebrity had died while I was gone? If something catastrophic had happened I'm sure I'd hear some tourist going on about it. Upon return I had eighteen e-mails, thirty FaceBook updates, and four messages. Not bad. Manageable. To my great disappointment upon my return it seemed like only a few days had passed in the real world. Was Cuba all a dream one of my brothers had asked? Or was Cuba real and life in Vancouver is still a dream? Okay. Back to reality. Whatever that is?

Varadero

VARADERO

My first impressions of walking out onto the nearly empty white sand beach was that it reminded me of Indonesia; Thatch huts, palm trees, and very little development on the actual beach. It was weird. It felt more like being in South East Asian than in the Caribbean. But all of the wonderfully beat-up vintage 1950's American cars colour coded like summer popsicles put a weird time warp spin on the place that wouldn't make sense in any fictional novel. 

Normally I avoid the souvenir stands in the tropics as they are filled with what my Father calls, "trinkets and trash" but in Cuba the usual made in China junk is replaced with mass produced but hand crafted junk that is much more charming. Again, the money that tourists use, the Cuban CUC, is on par with the US dollar. And with the exchange rate and fees that meant that Canadians were getting about 63 cents on the dollar. Cuba wasn't cheap. It was cheaper. If you want cheap you'll have to head to south East Asia or Mexico.

The highlight of Varadero is when my oldest brother Kurt got to play guitar live on stage at a packed out door club! He played, "You Really Got Me" with the local classic rock band (including the solo!) in front of several hundred people at an outdoor patio restaurant called The Beatles. He told me later that he hadn't played with another musician let alone playing live for several years. At the end of the gig he told me in all seriousness, "I don't think I'll be falling asleep early tonight." When my Dad was recording the event on his camera at the front of the stage he mentioned to the woman beside him that it was his son who was playing the lead guitar. She replied, "Your son is fucking awesome!" My Mom later joked, after we all shared a bottle of rum in the park like teenagers, that her sons are all fucking awesome. Thanks Mom!

Golfing in Varadero is exceptional. The ninth and eighteenth holes are right along a cliff that drops into the wave crashing Caribbean Sea. Our sunset sundowner cocktail on the outdoor patio along the same said cliff at the back of the Dupont Mansion while smoking a fine Monte Cristo cigar was for me, sublime. I had the best lime Daiquiri ever and watched the colour of the clouds change. All with my family for once!

Even though the weather was crap I still managed to go for a quick chilly swim three times. Nothing beats swimming in a warm ocean with it's frothy waves, sun, and white sand. And afterwards, the relaxed feeling flowing through your bones. I can't wait to jump in again. Hopefully soon!

Havana

HAVANA

Walking through Havana for me was like time travelling. Actually, more like place travelling as not to brag but it constantly reminded me of so many other places that I have been. Walking down the grand Prado boulevard reminded me of strolling up Barcelona. Having lunch in a square reminded me of Florence. Rounded corner buildings with ornate wrought-iron railings reminded me of New Orleans. Creamsicle orange facades and Key Lime walls reminded me of Key West. The view from the walled El Morro fortress reminded me of San Juan and the choking petrol fumes took me bact to Kuta Beach, Indonesia. The chunky Russian concrete beach hotels of Varadero paired well with austere and grey architecture of Revolution Plaza in Havana and felt oddly Soviet; I'm now in Latvia. Another plaza with an ancient looking domed building took me to Rome and grand Greek steps with their classic ionic columns moved me to not to Greece but to Washington DC. The Mob created icon, the Hotel Nacional was soulless with it's cold heart and felt like it could be the hotel in The Shining. Or maybe it was the weather? A stormy and chilly early morning walking along the wave-crashing Malecon seawall seemed more like Scotland. Aggressive street vendors selling counterfeit cigars and bartering with street vendors over trinkets reminded me again of Indonesia. On an Art Deco tour of the city, some of the buildings were straight out of New York City. Only King Kong was missing hanging from the top clutching Fay Wray in his mitt.

If depressing paintings are your thing then Cuba's national museum, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, won't disappoint. It's lined with loads of dark paintings of dreary people throughout the ages. There are some stunning works that you won't see anywhere else and the modern pop art section is a refreshing change from the usual Americana influences; Replace the colourful Marilyn's with trippy Ché's.

Havana is the perfect storm. There is no place on earth quite like it and there never will be again. Go now as it is already changing. The Hemmingway bars now are all cruise-ship tourist traps in the worst possible way. It will only be a matter of time before this cancer spreads to the rest of this Caribbean gem. On lanes where the pale pear-shaped tourists fear to tread, there are dozens and dozens of lively side streets, all with too many stories to tell, filled with dog shit and busy locals living their lives in the open amidst the fading crumbled beauty that is Havana.

Havana Noir

Havana's Malecon

Mexico City