Amy, Dana and I celebrated 40 years of life by having an epic adventure in Iceland. A couple months later on her actual birthday, Amy was gifted ANOTHER adventure by her husband – a trip to Cuba. Obviously, Dana and I were invited.
Cuba?? I thought. Wasn’t Cuba the forbidden fruit of the Caribbean when it came to Americans? Amy, our intelligent travel researcher, got straight to work figuring out the specifics for entry and the best time of year to go. We settled on the end of January.
While Amy had the gift of 7 days away, Dana and I sadly did not. We could only commit to a few nights in Havana, so Amy extended the invite to a variety of the ladies we played Gaelic football with. The group soon grew to 12 in total, and the plan was to spend 3 nights in Havana and then finish up in Vinales.
Because we were splitting up our travel dates, Dana and I booked via American Airlines and connected through Miami. When we checked-in, we had to declare our purpose of visit. Tourism for Americans is technically forbidden, so because we were staying at a local AirBnB and only spending money with small businesses, we selected “supporting the Cuban people.”
Dana and I arrived in Havana first. While originally nervous about customs, clearing it was surprisingly easy. We had to complete an online form that was COVID related within 48 hours of our departure, and we were able to purchase our paper visas at the actual airport departure gate in Miami.
After an an additional security screening, we exited the airport. It was wonderful to be greeted with sunshine and warm weather after leaving the 7 degrees of a Chicago winter. We soon spotted our names sweetly written on a paper sign and we climbed into our taxi towards Old Havana. While my first impressions of Cuba did not resemble walking into a time capsule, we did see cars from the 1950s immediately. It seemed like every other car was from 70 years ago. Given these older vehicles, I also found the city to have a constant aroma of diesel.
As we got closer to the city center, my excitement started to shift a bit. The streets became narrower and people were everywhere. Our driver was a master of not hitting pedestrians, but the number of close calls was unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my previous travels. I also started to notice how damaged many of the buildings were. There were walls missing, piles of concrete in various corners, peeling paint. My heart started to hurt seeing this and I began to think of our declaration at check-in of supporting the Cuban people. If the outside of the buildings and homes looked like this, what did the inside look like? And what could we do to help?
After various detours, we finally made it. Dana and I stared up at the building we were staying at nervously. We knew Cuba was a poorer country, but had not expected this. Then, the door opened. Out came two gorgeous women with the biggest smiles on their faces. Behind them, a narrow white staircase led its way up. A lovely, clean scent wafted towards our noses. My fear started to subside a bit.
“Welcome to Elvira Mi Amor!” one of them said. They helped with our luggage and we followed them up the gorgeous staircase. We entered a small lobby inside the most stunning……MANSION. A small couch and two lounge chairs were centered in a room covered with amazing artwork. Straight ahead and to our left were two large and fully furnished bedrooms. To our right, a massive courtyard was surrounded by the kitchen and other bedrooms. Black winding metal stairs led from the courtyard to the multiple rooftop terraces and outdoor bar. How was this gem so carefully hidden from the street view?
Dana and I were sharing a bedroom which included a small balcony. We immediately peeked our heads out. The city street suddenly seemed less intimidating. We watched the people down below and realized they were happily making their way about their lives. I also started to realize there may be more gems hidden behind these crumbling buildings than originally thought.
Soon the rest of the group arrived and as we were scheduled for a night on the town, we enjoyed a mojito on the terrace to kick off the evening. As we sipped our fresh minty drinks, we attempted to connect to the outside world (internet). Turns out internet is not so readily available in Cuba. Our hosts had mobile sim cards with data included, but my phone was the only one it worked with. In a strange way, it was nice to be able to truly disconnect.
We soon loaded ourselves into cabs and headed out to an Italian restaurant called Toto e Peppino. The restaurant is known for Neapolitan style pizzas which we were happy to partake in. Prior to leaving our AirBnB, our hosts had exchanged money for us, but we found that most places welcomed payment in USD. On this evening, dinner for all of us, including dessert and alcohol came out to 16,500 Cuban pesos. That converts to about $106. Wait, what? For all of us? With alcohol? Are you sure??? We couldn’t believe it. I know each of us felt like we were practically stealing from these lovely people.
It was with this first dinner that I knew what the theme of this trip would be. Guilt. I loved every minute of my time in Cuba, but my privilege stared me in the face at every turn. It is because of this that this blog is very important for me to write. While America is far from perfect, there is a privilege associated with being a citizen of the USA. Additionally, this trip reinforced that money doesn’t equal happiness. This was never truer than in our interactions with the people living in Cuba. Even with poor American relations historically, there was never an unkind person, never a sad face to be found. We were welcomed with excitement and open arms, a reminder of the beauty and power in human connection.
After dinner, we walked over to the Teatro Nacional for a jazz concert. Our tickets were about $0.50 and we got to listen to Grammy award winning artists. It was incredible.
Sadly, though, by this point it was quite late. As it was still only our first day, the effects of our travels were starting to catch up to us. We soon headed back and went to bed, ready for the next day’s adventures.
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