Travel Series (1) - Cuba - Santiago de Cuba

My experience of arriving in Cuba and my view of Santiago, Salsa Dance Capital!

Follow me for travel info (can I help you plan?), photography and interest in me changing my life from business man to travelling and family guy :)

Santiago - Starting point for Cuba's independence

It is my mind that plays tricks with me, I know that going to a place with an image already formed will have an effect on my experience and I would prefer to let the experience be completely “pure”. I try not to form the image before travelling to a new place. Even after the travels, I feel I cannot say how a place really is because I know it was only this one specific experience. If I come back to the same place and do the same things in one month, my experience might be completely different (and my image of the place) - because of circumstances like weather, people I meet, food that’s available, my state of mind… In this series of posts, I share my personal experiences and thoughts on travelling through Cuba with my wife, Aline.

It is hot, it is humid, it is sticky and damp - dive in!

The plan: Arrive in Holguín (Booking made in a “Casa Particular” - A family offering a room in their home) and travel north to Viñales and La Habana (nothing booked).

Destinations: Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Viñales, La Habana.

OK, here we go: SURPRISE – “You are flying to Santiago de Cuba, not to Holguín as booked”, is what we were told during check-in. Quickly, we changed our booking at the casa particular (by phone because no website really works) which was no problem.
Arrival in Santiago: Massive search by the police and overly excited sniffing dogs looking for drugs in our luggage and on person. Upon clearing us, the police insisted on calling our casa particular to check our booking and make sure we are picked up. Then we waited… and waited… and then our new friend arrived and brought us home.
Made it: Santiago is a buzzing, hot, humid, vibrant, colorful place. Our home, beautiful and a hosted by our super friendly host Mama.

Initial observations:

1. The first day, starting to explore, we noticed most businesses and shops were closed despite being a week day.
2. The shops that were open mostly had more empty shelves showing than products available.
3. Restaurants were closed at lunch time and we really struggled to find a place to eat.
4. There is one big square, day and night busy – It’s where you can purchase access to WIFI – only here.

Arriving at the tourist center, there was lots available and prices relatively steep. Not willing to settle for a “tourist trap” we continued searching when an older man approached us and insisted on giving us a tour and showing us the best place to eat. It was not recognizable as a restaurant from the outside, décor was very 1960s with velvet tablecloths, heavy silverware, old images with solid golden frames, rice and beans were great and they charged us 25 Cents (US$) for a full meal. Our spontaneous guide was the Chess teacher of the local school and we visited the Chess class which is on the main tourist square, open doors for people to observe some of the probably best Chess playing kids in the world – It’s serious.

Kids in school getting ready for Chess class

In our home, we spoke with our host family about Cuba and differences to… outside of Cuba. Very interesting conversations we had, especially with mommy who proved very savvy of international affairs and has even travelled abroad twice for her work as a doctor. It was her daughter though who made us think most about life inside Cuba, people’s values and interests in contrast to ours outside of Cuba… We asked her about what she wanted to do when she graduated. She must have misunderstood and answered that her biggest dream was to go onto the Cruise ship that just arrived in Santiago de Cuba one day before we arrived to swim in the on-deck swimming pool! That’s it – that’s her BIG dream.

Images of communist heros are all around
Santiago was really different to anything else I have ever experienced and I was ready to travel across the island with my lovely wife to explore the beautiful nature and intriguing culture of Cuban people. From Santiago we headed north to Trinidad next.

This is the first post of our Cuba series, stay tuned for more. Looking forward to your comments, questions, suggestions... Cuba is very close to our hearts since we traveled this beautiful country.