Search for the Big Ball of Yarn

October 9, 2016. Welcome to our blog about our trip to Cuba in April 2016. I plan to post a new post every day. Keep your fingers crossed that this actually works!

Enjoy! bc and gc

In the fall of 2015 we decided to take a trip to Cuba. This trip has been on our bucket list for many years. Bob has wanted to go to Cuba for many decades. He was drafted into the Navy in 1968 and worked in photo intelligence in the naval intelligence forces (no puns required). In the late 60’s and early 70’s his job was to review U-2 reconnaissance photography taken over various parts of Cuba during that time of “peaceful” coexistence. So to see places for real was going to be intriguing.

Contrary to what the internet has told you (!), Cuba is not open to American travelers. There are very specific rules and guidelines to follow in order for an American to enter Cuba, legally. As you know, Mr. Obama opened an American Embassy in Habana. But American travelers must go on “People to People” trips approved by the US Treasury. There are no monetary, cultural or economic relationships between Cuba and America.

Bob researched trips to Cuba extensively and found that “Insight Cuba” was the best program to use. We chose their 13 day trip. We figured we might as well see it all if we were going to go. So we made our reservations and down payment in September 2015. Then in January Mr. Obama announced that he was going to Cuba! We were lucky that he decided to go when we would not be there. Several of our travel mates had their earlier Cuba trips canceled due to Mr. Obama’s visit.

We had a conference call with Insight Cuba and our travel mates six weeks before our trip. This is where we learned more about the processes of traveling to Cuba. In order to enter Cuba we had to buy specific health insurance, agree to monetary guidelines and other stipulations. We received permission from the US Treasury and then on April 12,2016 we began our trip!

April 13, 2016 We flew to Philadelphia to spend a few days with Mike, Jenn, Samantha and Sydney. We love going to see them because we love them so much and it’s so much fun to hang out with them! But also it’s a nice way to get acclimated to the 3 hour time change while having a blast with our kiddos. We visited with Lisa and Greg also and celebrated Lisa’s birthday. It was lots of fun.

April 16, 2016 We said goodbye to our family and flew to Miami. We settled into a hotel and relaxed.

April 17, 2016 After a little taxi-mall shopping in Miami for items necessary, yet not brought, we were prepared to meet the gang of 23 for an informative talk by our leader Alfredo. Alfredo lives in Costa Rica after having grown up in Southern California. He has done several trips to Cuba and turned out to be a wonderful leader.

April 18, 2016 I was so happy that our flight wasn’t until noon! Yay! We caught a shuttle to the Miami airport and proceeded to get checked in. Looking back, it is not surprising that our actual flight time was 45 minutes and it took close to 3 hours to “check in”. And of course, the flight was delayed because the incoming flight was delayed. No doubt it was delayed due to the regular airline check in procedures that we later experienced in Cuba! In any case, we flew to Jose Marti International Airport in Habana, Cuba. Yes, Habana is the proper spelling of what we colloquially call Havana. And the correct pronunciation of the country is not cue-ba but rather coo-ba spelled Cuba.

After a 45 minute, flight with the usual lines to get in and out of the country, we were on Cuban soil. The Miami TSA agents opened one of our suitcases to give us back the TSA approved lock that they cut off our suitcase. Hmmm…. Let’s not go there. While standing by the luggage carousel a Cuban lady came up to me, picked up my Insight Cuba badge that we were instructed to wear and asked me what my name was. I told her, she asked me why I was in Cuba and evidently my response was acceptable as she said “welcome.” I’m in!!

We headed for the Rancho Boyeros restaurant for chicken, pork, salad, taro root, fried plantains, black beans and rice, with mojitos and Cuban cigars. Now there’s an introduction to Cuban culture! I was sure I wasn’t going to like Mojitos as I’m not a mint with my booze kinda’ gal. But let me tell you, Cuban Mojitos are fabulous and cheap! The food was great, the bathrooms weren’t, but that’s what we found throughout the entire trip. Our Cuban tour guide Rene gave us a short talk on how Cuban cigars are made and smoked. We were given a Cohiba to smoke. That was very nice, however, I’d be hard pressed if I had to smoke that entire cigar in my lifetime. However, BC kept track of them throughout our trip and we brought them back. Rene also gave us a short talk on Cuban rum, with tastings, naturally. I mean we are in Cuba, right? It was a very nice start to our tour. We got to know the other travelers in our group and that was nice.

We then were taken to Hotel Melia Cohiba in Habana. It’s a very nice hotel. We were being spoiled but didn’t realize it yet! Ha! We had a lovely dinner in Old Habana of beans/rice, chicken/pork.

Since there is no monetary exchange allowed between America and Cuba, every transaction for Americans in Cuba is Cuban cash. No US money, credit cards or travelers cheques are allowed. We had to physically carry all our cash for the entire trip. BC changed some of our US money into CUCs. (Cuban Convertible Currency. Pronounced “kooks”) There are two types of currency in Cuba. CUCs and the Cuban Peso (CUP). One CUC equals one American dollar. Oh wait! There is a 13% surcharge for exchanging US dollars into CUCs. It became a game as to where we can exchange US money, how much would they let us exchange and will the exchange office have enough CUCs? We learned that they run out sometimes. We didn’t want to exchange too much cash as we are not allowed to take CUCs out of the country and there is a 10% fee to change CUCs back into US currency. Most Cubans are paid in CUPs which naturally, are worth less. One CUC equals 24 CUPs. Are you following me? Don’t worry, you’ll catch on…

There is internet service and cell phones in Cuba, however, the internet is very sketchy and we decided we didn’t want to chance or pay for a service that may or may not work and would not be safe to use. Bob rented a Cuban cell phone for us to use for emergencies. Luckily we didn’t have to use it, though we did text our kids once in a while. We took our cell phones to use for a camera, timer and to play games and of course tell us what time it was! We put our phones on airplane mode when we took off from Miami and didn’t change it until we landed back in Miami 13 days later. It was actually nice to be free from the internet and phones.