Hulloooooo to all...finally!
We have finally made it to CUBA (or Cuva as the locals say!)
I'll make this brief, as no doubt Jag's blog will contain the details.
Anyway...if you asked me yesterday what I thought of Cuba...I would tell you all...DON'T DO IT!!!! Jag and I were having such a shite time here...until yesterday....
Yesterday...we decided to throw all our plans of roughing it and staying at cheap places and Casas out the window. We could not get out of Havana fast enough...so in a record breaking split-second move...we just went in the first door of an agent and booked 2 nights in Varadero...so much for "not doing the touristy thing"! hehe.
Varadero is a beach resort...and we paid about $160 CUCs ($200USD) for two nights EACH...which is ALL INCLUSIVE... The travel agent kept saying this...ALL INCLUSIVE... and we thought: OK so she's talking about AC (I mean we are also battling a language barrier here), and TV and all that other stuff...but as it turns out...she was talking about much more important stuff...stuff closer to our hearts than even the TV and CABLE (that's a funny story...see below): FOOD, DRINKS and all amenities! If I was to invite a guest to the hotel...they would have to be tagged with a coloured wrist band or won't be allowed in. Rest assured ladies...we have no such guests in mind...but just an excercise in pro-active thinking on our part!.
Anyway....in the past 3 days in Cuba we have moved about 4 times (we had been planning to stay in one spot - if you were wondering)...not including all the CASAs we checked out and hotels we walked into (and walked STRAIGHT OUT OF). We even had our first scene...which I think Jag would say was MY first scene. We yelled and screamed at the people of the hotel...but sadly enough, after having thought about it...I don't think they understood a word we were saying. BUT they did know we were P.O.ed!
I also have a small suspicion, that at least for myself, the scene was caused mainly due to all the frustrations of Cuba...and we took it out on that one hotel. But they did have no water (in the entire hotel: The maid, who lived a block down the street, finally offered (in spanish - so we were struggling to understand her sign language) to carry a bucket of water from her place to us - we declined) .. The hotel didn't bother to inform us, kept hanging up on us when we called to find out about the water and then kept charging us different rates for internet usage for one day and more for the next!
Ok...just to inform you: Yesterday, what changed our minds about Cuba; we took a tour of Havana...and that's when things became clear to us. Why the people are the way they are here. Jag was getting very frustrated with the service, etc...but now we know that people here have no reason to care about anything. Everything they earn goes to the Govt...nothing to homes, they get paid about a tenth of what they give to Govt (cause they get paid in local pesos, about $260/wk ($1CUC=$0.89USD=$24pesos), but tourists can only use CUCs- we found that out the hard way: We have about $360 local pesos with nowhere to use it (no exchange place will touch them - but will gladly take commision and give them to you!!) - so we keep trying to give it away, even thought of throwing them off balconies!).
Cubans can't buy or sell anything including homes and cars etc. They pay a lease when they take ownership of a house...but once lease is paid off, and they cark it...the new relative/owner pays another lease. Most of the houses here are crumbling anyway but...people here are crammed about 11, 12 people in one tiny home. Apparently the bus service here can rival that of any in India...if a local misses a bus, you may have to wait up to 2 hours for next one...but they take it on the chin...no one complains! Everyone's on holiday - including the locals)
Everything here, tourist attractions etc are in buildings that were previously (pre-Castro) churches, American built buildings, houses (mansions), etc and now they are museums of the old 1900s etc or restarants (Cubans had no specific religion until about 7 years ago, when Catholicism came - and now it's a fashion to go to church or get married there). It's quite a quaint old city...once you understand what's going on...but when we first got here...the whole city looked like a ghetto...very unsafe etc...and we wanted to get the heck out of here!!!
What else? The trek was....UNBEARABLE for me...though Jag did very well (I thought I was going to die on the way to "Dead Woman's Pass" (half-way)- very appropriately named place, let me tell you). To make matters worse, I was sick...so I couldn't breathe due to the altitude and a blocked nose...then was chucking (Ria would be so proud!!!) for the entire 3rd day - but not due to alcohol!!! We did the trek in 2.5 days instead of 4 - and it didn't help that we were the only girls in the group of 10. 7 out of the 10 though were Aussies!
Show pics when I get back. BEAUTIFUL scenery etc...the jungle was also amazing.
Ok...I think this is long enough...the Cable TV story: one of the reasons for our continual movement in Cuba...divas that we are..is due to the lack of cable tv at some of these places...and Jag even volunteered this gem of info to the agent...who needless to say was a little shocked!
Alright...better go.
Sorry for the long email...I wanted to write it as a record for me as well!
Miss you all,
keep in touch!
Lots of love,
Shyama.
We have finally made it to CUBA (or Cuva as the locals say!)
I'll make this brief, as no doubt Jag's blog will contain the details.
Anyway...if you asked me yesterday what I thought of Cuba...I would tell you all...DON'T DO IT!!!! Jag and I were having such a shite time here...until yesterday....
Yesterday...we decided to throw all our plans of roughing it and staying at cheap places and Casas out the window. We could not get out of Havana fast enough...so in a record breaking split-second move...we just went in the first door of an agent and booked 2 nights in Varadero...so much for "not doing the touristy thing"! hehe.
Varadero is a beach resort...and we paid about $160 CUCs ($200USD) for two nights EACH...which is ALL INCLUSIVE... The travel agent kept saying this...ALL INCLUSIVE... and we thought: OK so she's talking about AC (I mean we are also battling a language barrier here), and TV and all that other stuff...but as it turns out...she was talking about much more important stuff...stuff closer to our hearts than even the TV and CABLE (that's a funny story...see below): FOOD, DRINKS and all amenities! If I was to invite a guest to the hotel...they would have to be tagged with a coloured wrist band or won't be allowed in. Rest assured ladies...we have no such guests in mind...but just an excercise in pro-active thinking on our part!.
Anyway....in the past 3 days in Cuba we have moved about 4 times (we had been planning to stay in one spot - if you were wondering)...not including all the CASAs we checked out and hotels we walked into (and walked STRAIGHT OUT OF). We even had our first scene...which I think Jag would say was MY first scene. We yelled and screamed at the people of the hotel...but sadly enough, after having thought about it...I don't think they understood a word we were saying. BUT they did know we were P.O.ed!
I also have a small suspicion, that at least for myself, the scene was caused mainly due to all the frustrations of Cuba...and we took it out on that one hotel. But they did have no water (in the entire hotel: The maid, who lived a block down the street, finally offered (in spanish - so we were struggling to understand her sign language) to carry a bucket of water from her place to us - we declined) .. The hotel didn't bother to inform us, kept hanging up on us when we called to find out about the water and then kept charging us different rates for internet usage for one day and more for the next!
Ok...just to inform you: Yesterday, what changed our minds about Cuba; we took a tour of Havana...and that's when things became clear to us. Why the people are the way they are here. Jag was getting very frustrated with the service, etc...but now we know that people here have no reason to care about anything. Everything they earn goes to the Govt...nothing to homes, they get paid about a tenth of what they give to Govt (cause they get paid in local pesos, about $260/wk ($1CUC=$0.89USD=$24pesos), but tourists can only use CUCs- we found that out the hard way: We have about $360 local pesos with nowhere to use it (no exchange place will touch them - but will gladly take commision and give them to you!!) - so we keep trying to give it away, even thought of throwing them off balconies!).
Cubans can't buy or sell anything including homes and cars etc. They pay a lease when they take ownership of a house...but once lease is paid off, and they cark it...the new relative/owner pays another lease. Most of the houses here are crumbling anyway but...people here are crammed about 11, 12 people in one tiny home. Apparently the bus service here can rival that of any in India...if a local misses a bus, you may have to wait up to 2 hours for next one...but they take it on the chin...no one complains! Everyone's on holiday - including the locals)
Everything here, tourist attractions etc are in buildings that were previously (pre-Castro) churches, American built buildings, houses (mansions), etc and now they are museums of the old 1900s etc or restarants (Cubans had no specific religion until about 7 years ago, when Catholicism came - and now it's a fashion to go to church or get married there). It's quite a quaint old city...once you understand what's going on...but when we first got here...the whole city looked like a ghetto...very unsafe etc...and we wanted to get the heck out of here!!!
What else? The trek was....UNBEARABLE for me...though Jag did very well (I thought I was going to die on the way to "Dead Woman's Pass" (half-way)- very appropriately named place, let me tell you). To make matters worse, I was sick...so I couldn't breathe due to the altitude and a blocked nose...then was chucking (Ria would be so proud!!!) for the entire 3rd day - but not due to alcohol!!! We did the trek in 2.5 days instead of 4 - and it didn't help that we were the only girls in the group of 10. 7 out of the 10 though were Aussies!
Show pics when I get back. BEAUTIFUL scenery etc...the jungle was also amazing.
Ok...I think this is long enough...the Cable TV story: one of the reasons for our continual movement in Cuba...divas that we are..is due to the lack of cable tv at some of these places...and Jag even volunteered this gem of info to the agent...who needless to say was a little shocked!
Alright...better go.
Sorry for the long email...I wanted to write it as a record for me as well!
Miss you all,
keep in touch!
Lots of love,
Shyama.
2 comments:
Oh thank God u guys have blogged again !
We were all hanging out for it :)
I can't believe u guys did the trek in 2.5 days...good effort but that is insane...no wonder u guys were sick. i thot we had some ahtletic idiots wanting to proves a point...but i guess ur groups was worse...i feel 4 u. What? did they think MP was gonna disappear if they only got there byt he 4th day? Sheesh ! Stupido gringos man...they r so loco !!
SS c u soon...am tired of being ambushed by our curry clients...hurry back and yell at them in spanish :)
ciao for now.
oh you crazy kids!! Didn't anyone warn you about altitude and taking it a bit slow? Good to see you have survived the trip so far, and each other ... so far :)
You'll be amazed no doubt that Marshie dragged me on stage for the second time ever....OK It was 3am at QV and no-one else was there except this one drunk guy and we had to do our own playback singing which was appalling but it was a stage.
Take care and stay in touch! And I want to see more parallel posts with Shyama's version of a day compared to Jag's version of the day.
Post a Comment