chiobrelis

[chiobrelis]

Cuba. Must know.

Before leaving to Cuba

Coming to Cuba can get a little bit on a nerve for people who like spontaneity. One not only needs a tourist card but also -  travel insurance. I should admit, I travel often, but never bother to get an insurance, unless I plan diving, snowboarding or some more dangerous activities. About obligatory to have a travel insurance I found out only a day before plane from a just bought guide. Oops, what can I say.. But well, it appeared not to be a big problem as a tourist card and insurance can be obtained at the arrival airport from the travel agency just before passport control (such a relieve for residence of the countries which don't have Cuba's consulate/embassy). Otherwise it can be ordered through internet (for example for  UK residents) or offered by some airlines.

Tourist card extension might be a hustle. It might be prolonged only max 5 days before the date of expire, so one should be prepared beforehand. If you plan overstay, just in case make copies of required documents before leaving to Cuba (passport, flight tickets, tourist card, insurance (which need to cover all your travelling days)), pay in a Cuban bank for “visa” extension and keep the “tickets” and receipts for it, have a booking copy for the last days/weeks of stay or at least business card of your home stay or a hotel. Check in advance the working hours (and days) of the immigration office (and actual department for the visa extension as it not necessary located within immigration office). Warning! In a office man can not wear sleeveless t-shirt, so be modest to avoid a kick-out. Don't ever consider the idea of the paying penalty for the overstay instead of the extending travel documents unless you are stupid and long hours in a officer's office, possibility to miss your flight and deportation sounds like a great adventure.  

Another thing to keep in mind before arriving to Cuba – money. Nobody likes to keep a big amount of cash on themselves, however, money melts very quickly in this country and many ATM don't give more than 200-300 dollars at once (or sometime doesn't give you any). Every withdrawn might cost fortune, so it's better to take cash at home country, exchange it on arrival and spread it all over your secret pockets and money belts (so if stolen – not all at once). Prepare to pay around 100$ a day (15-25$ the cheapest home stay, 4-5$ per person - breakfast, 15-30$ dinner for two, the rest of money are being spent on a water as I say: dollar for coffee, dollar for city transport, dollar for every single who asks you and suddenly Cuba is a very expensive country to travel).

One more idea to consider before check-in to your flight – registered luggage. I usually try to travel as light as possible, but here buying a sunscreen can cost same price as your extra 15kg, so better pay those and stuck in there everything you might need: shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, cream, snorkeling equipment, hiking shoes and clothes, which can be exchanged for the souvenirs. I should admit, I didn't expect to see a such shortage of the products in the shops. Even post-soviet deficit I remember in a brighter light than I see shelves of the stores in Cuba. (How funny it sounds but tampons (if founded) are being sold by one sometimes (“9 tampons, por favor!”). Another advantage of the registered luggage is that you can fill it with rum, cigars, coconut or/and coco oils, chocolate and coffee on the way back.

In Cuba

Money. There are two currencies in the country: CUC and CUP. CUC (convertibles) = US dollar, mostly used everywhere where tourists can be found, probably designed for touristy prices too (to avoid inflation, I speculate).

CUP (national currency – pesos) = CUC/25, money used by locals in a places where tourist is a rare find. For example if tourist want to go to the caves and it's ticket office has prices in CUCs and CUPs, expect to pay in CUCs as a foreigner. If it's a horse-carriage taxi or bici-taxi, locals would pay 1 peso for a ride, but as a tourist expect to pay 1CUC per person (or 25x more than local pay). If you decide to travel like a local by truck-buses (rather than “Viazul”), you will be charged by your knowledge. If you have CUP, you will be paying in between 5-20pesos per ride, but if you don't see difference between money it can be accepted in CUCs without change (still cheaper than air-con buses or even collective taxis from 50-ies). Sometime you can find ice-cream cafes with prices like 2,5$ per portion but still full of Cubans customers. No, that won't be a place for big spenders, that's a place for a cheap treat! Yes, that's a place where for a huge portion of ice-cream one is expected to pay 5CUP (or 20 dollar cents).

Sounds complicated? It is. Expect to find this country expensive and only sometime to treat yourself for cost of peanuts. Last, however, requires effort, knowledge, sharp eye and sometime inconvenience. Have two currencies and see a difference. Have an eye for the local places and transport so you can spent CUPs. You can save on every CUC if spending 20CUPs instead. Learn to count as a local: 1CUC=25CUP, 4CUC=100CUP, 125CUP=5CUC and so on.   Check all the change you get or you can find yourself cheated by 10 dollars (instead, let's say, 16CUC change you can receive 1CUC+5CUC+10CUP). Refuse changing money on a street. They can agree exchange CUC into CUP for 1=24 rate (not too bad deal), but when dealer will slowly recounts money (when you notice that 20CUP note is missing), he will return your missing 20CUP, but invisibly will keep few (from so carefully counted pile) notes for himself (Bugger!). You can change your money in all official changing points for the same fixed price, but if you have US dollars, exchange them to Euro or GBP back in your country, otherwise you will be charged 10%. CUC can be exchanged to CUP in the same changing places.

Internet. Well, I decided, we have to have a rest in our relationship. I brought a guide and a book to read instead. Would be perfect if I load more films on my laptop thought. But well, if one is more into the Wi-Fi, “Etecsa” card can be bought with a prepay for internet and can be used in city parks/squares with public Wi-Fi. So, yes - internet exists in this country, but no - don't expect to sit in your room logged into Facebook all day - you need to go out for it! And yeah, don't forget to turn of Wi-Fi when done with internet, otherwise your credit will finish sooner than expected.

Transport. Uh, my favorite. So, one can find horse-carts, bici-taxi and motorbike-taxi (in a bigger cities) for city interiors and price for a foreigner usually 1CUC/p.p. To travel in between towns I would suggest to use “camiones” (buses made out of tracks) or jeep-like “collectivos”. It doesn't have AC but it contains crowded bunch of friendly locals, some feeling of the  adventure and a great save for your wallet. For longer distances and AC comfort (sometimes seen as a freeze) take “Viazul”. “Collectivos” or shared taxis are slightly more expensive but  can save a great amount of time. I don't mention trains as I heard about their existence and even saw some, but non was ever moving.  

Safety. It is safe, but don't expect to make friends with locals (especially met on streets) if you don't sponsor them (sometime cup of coffee will do, but they see foreigners as a rich uncles. Deal with it). Despite of kindness, good nature and sincereness, people will try to make money off you. To deal with tourists for one day can be worth a month teacher's salary. It's a small loss for a tourist, but real misfortune for the country, as all brains shifts into the tourist business or flee the country for the better future abroad, leaving academic and professional platforms abandoned.

Culture. Cuba it's a cocktail of Caribbean mixed with Africa, colonialism - with slavery, communism - with tourism. All in a 19th, mid. 20th., start of 21st. centuries shake. All being cooked together in a broken oven. History moves slowly in here and only speed in highways (when old cars move with a speed of 80km/h, it feels like 180km/h!) reminds that time exists. It settled in the old generation and inpatient in young people's hearts. Time breaths in historical buildings so they fall and kill people, and it dies and resurrects again and again depending on the Wi-Fi signal strength, shared between fifty other curious young people in a park. Communism is present. It is scary for only western spoiled tourists. Otherwise it has some good lessons of equality, our actual needs, importance of collaboration (all works on “I help you, you help me” principle). It of course has a huge downside too. It unfit for the generation which didn't touch the Revolution. Their gazes oriented towards Wild West with non or almost non of criticism towards it, while criticism towards stagnated policy of Cuba cannot be exposed as it accepted as a betrayal. As one very intelligent girl said: “Education is for everyone, unless one opposes  the system”. Situation makes young people feel hopeless. 

Architecture. You can see it better from the middle of the road. Besides it safer. Don't expect to see renovated buildings everywhere. Think of Colonial architecture as of a Roman Empire's – only left overs of it.

Beaches. Varadero is The One. But better come just at the end of a busy season (May), so sun (not a hurricane) can be caught and tourist can be forgotten. Other beaches are sometimes too unspoiled (read: sea weed, not enough powdery sand, afterhuricanial mess or mosquitoes). Great country for the diving thought.

Places to see. All. No seriously, take your time and money and visit it all. Ok, very must see: Havana, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Varadero, Vinales, natural parks and cities like Cardenas, so you know how life with no tourist going on.

Good luck!

[chiobrelis]

Who said time travel is not possible? Cuba is the place where centuries and places merge: XIXths century horse carriages and sombreros, TSSR and US cars from 50s, internet how I remember, when we entered 2000s, electric motorbikes from the future - all mixed in a crystal after-revolutionary and almost 60 years old time pause. Pause, when Caribbean beats meet Africa and dream about West.  

[chiobrelis]

 Knokke-Heist, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Lille, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and some little cities - all visited. Because that’s what you do when you live in Cadzan-Bad (the very last town by the sea in NL by Belgium border). and want some escape for the museum, cinema, concert, festival, subculture or just waffles. 

[chiobrelis]

Summer 2016 was rich: travelling in Thailand with a bunch of closest friends, visiting my dear friend and her 5 months old boy in Sri Lanka and exploring Turkey in the most astonishing way.

Some adventures and experiences cannot be eluded from my memory. 1) Ability to gather seven friends in Thailand for a backpacking and go through a trip smoothly with a great enjoyment was a lovely surprise for me. 2) Going for a boat tour in southern Thailand among other tourist boats and founding out later that one boat  crashed. Accident took 4 tourist lives. 3) Exploring Sri Lanka by myself, visiting Northeastern part of the country which is undergoing rehabilitation after war, risking my clear mind by agreeing to ride motorbikes with men I didn’t know and by this silly actions discovering spectacular places and hearing unique life stories. One of them tells the story of the boy who was found on a streets as a baby, grown up as an orphan, started to work in a television as a coffee maker and end up owning it, meanwhile being a war journalist in Tamil Eelam, surviving it, getting a house in a after-war territory and opening there a hostel (where I stayed). 4) Arriving to Ataturk airport just days after the terrorist attack. 5) Being overwhelmed by Turkish nature (especially Kapadokya, Pamukkale and eternal flames of Chimera); by food (and learning “rules” of “Rakija table”); by people (I met clever, witty, beautiful, charming and talented people of different professions (well, mostly architects, musicians, tutors and ad reps). 6) Witnessing changes and opinion split provoked by the coup in Istanbul during my stay in Turkey (my opinion? - It’s naive to cheer for democracy while "representative” gets an ultimate power. Simple.)

[chiobrelis]

Another summer spent in Iceland. This time as a hotel worker with my friend Marija. It was less adventurous than my first year in Iceland when I was au pairing, but nonetheless more happy. What is more, I had entered my 30ies and the way it was celebrated, never can be forgotten! 

[chiobrelis]

2015 started new epicurious page of my life: winter seasons in Alps. Spoil by mountain views, adrenaline and injuries on snowboard, free accommodation and food, half prize for alcohol, flexible job hours, friends, romances and off-piste! 

[chiobrelis]

Chill in Chile. The oldest mummies in Arica, Moon Valley and the star gazing in San Pedro de Atacama, Bahia Inglesia with its beautiful rocks and a charming color of ocean, Pisco Elqui and its apricots, Valparaiso, its street art and people, Santiago and a fine wine with great friend in the Bocanariz restaurant, what made me drunk before the plane back home…

[chiobrelis]

If it is happened you are in South America - don't miss Uyuni, Bolivia - it is must do 3 days tour. Just believe me - must do/see!

[chiobrelis]

That's Peru.

[chiobrelis]

Ecuador it is such a compact country with everything you need from a travel: lively, musical, artistic and beautiful Quito, snow on the Cotopaxi volcano, hot springs in Banos and "The swing on the edge of the world" near by, people from the postcards, Devil's nose and Galapagos (ahem, haven't been here, but you've got the idea).

[chiobrelis]

Colombia is green and mountainy. All the way South/North one still can see mountains, enjoy green. In between, there are (at least) two amazing places to stop: Cocora Valley (imagine Switzerland crossed with the highest palms) and San Agustin for the Archaeological park (the only place highlighted 500 imposing stone statues carved by Indian sculptors). 

[chiobrelis]

When I was a child, I imagined Panama as an island with a palm (maybe few), monkey, maybe some lazy guy in a hat under the tree and sea around. I was quite right until I came to the Panama city, which have been recognized as a New York of the Central America. It has huge new part, beautiful old town and - of course - the Canal.

But, yeah, my favorite part was still that lonely island. We came to Bastimentos after we left few tourists in a pirate-like-ship. We stayed in a hostel, which was the only around. We walked to the Red Frog beach through the jungle path. We tried to explore the island and it was always ending with a muddy shoes and dirty clothes (yes, yes, we was getting coco nuts in a Robinson-like way. Stubborn and thirsty for the wild adventure).

And yes, the red frogs. I love them.  

[chiobrelis]

Costa Rica: meeting friends in Plaja Yaco and exploring cloud forests from the park-looking-paths. Personally, I would suggest chose zip-lines instead..

[chiobrelis]

Yes, we did ash boarding from Cerro Negro and yes, we went to the Museum of Revolution in Leon. No, we haven't understand a word of a Spanish-speaking guide, but of course the body language and artistic skills can make miracles!

Another 'yes' for Ometepe and shameful personal 'no' for volcano trekking at this island.

[chiobrelis]

There is no pictures from Honduras, as we stayed only in Utila (except first night we stayed in a bus station of the San Pedro Sula..yeah yeah, the one of the most violent city on earth). So, I finished PADI course and I am qualified for the scuba diving. Finally. 

[chiobrelis]

El Salvador has beautiful crater lake in Santa Ana volcano, Juayua cascadas (waterfalls) range, San Salvador at the foot of it's volcano, cheap surfing side. However we haven't seen any of that. The reason - wrong season. However we experienced 7.4 EARTHQUAKE here and I should say - it was amazing!!! It's interesting to feel that the stable ground under you might be so fragile..

[chiobrelis]

My beautiful Guatemala. I fall in love with sweet Guatemalans, their colorful handcrafts, so positive loaded (for me) and well organized (by sitting) chicken buses, Tikal pyramids starring from the jungles, melancholic Atitlan lake, surrounded by the volcanoes and Antigua - lively neighborhood city of even more breathing volcanoes..