Part 5 continued- CUBA in Shyama's words

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.

Part 5- The Cuban Trilogy- Cigars, Cofee and Rum.

Yes I have skipped part 4- but will fill you all in later regarding the Inca adventure. For now, I am in Cuba, at Hotel Seville, listening to live Cuban music in the background and trying not to choke on the pungent smell of strong cuban cigars. First impression of Cuba - a man at the airport (an airport official of some sort) standing infront of a NO SMOKING SIGN, smoking a cigarette. There you have it. Funnily enough, the three most popular items in Cuba are Cigars, coffee and rum (none of which I consume - but Dev - you would love it!).

Everyday is a Sunday in cuba. Somewhat like India. We are on vacation, but the problem is, so are the cubans. So the word "efficiency" or "customer service" is absent from the cuban dictionary. People stand in queues waiting for a bus that may come in 5 minutes or even 2 hours. "People watching" is the number one pass time. You will find locals sitting around literally doing nothing for hours. Cubans are not allowed to buy or sell property. Wages average about USD$10 per month. Generations live in one small apartment which the government has total control over. There is no such thing as ownership- not of tangibles and certainly not of responsibility. If your hotel runs out of water, deal with it. If it's on the menu, just don't expect it to be in the kitchen. Shyama ordered toast and butter at a popular place called Hotel Inglaterra today - the answer from the waiter was "no". No toast and butter today....hmmm. This was about the 4th time we have heard "no".

My first 2 days in Cuba- nightmare! We just wanted to get out! At the airport, the money exchange lady tried to rip me off by giving me less and when i insisted on a receipt, she said she lost it (in the span of 5 seconds...hmmm). The people were not helpful at the hotel and it was impossible to commuicate our disappointment in the services. The streets felt unsafe especially for women. Nonetheless, once we did a city tour (which I highly recommend) with a local who explained the workings of the Cuban culture - we began to appreciate Cuba for what it is. As the tour leader stated "don't try and understand Cuba, just accept it".

Ok- come tips:

Habana Libre is a fantastic 4 or 5 star hotel, after which everything failed in comparison. It's best not to go into a hotel off the street - better to go to a tourist bureau or agency to geta good deal on hotels. Otherwise we spent one night in a casa (local's home) which costs $25 USD per night. This is a great way to stay on a budget.

Cuban food for vegetarian's non-existent. But we have eaten at some great restaurants including El Barracon in Habana Libre and a meditteranean restaurant in Park Central Hotel.

Cuba has 2 currencies (go figure)- the CUC convertible cuban pesos and the local currency called Nacionales/pesos. Do NOT exchange your money into Nacionales. We thought we needed both currencies so we changed on USD$20 into Nacionales of 360. But we are finding it impossible to use this currency as it is worthless. We are trying to get rid of it in tips and giving it to beggars. Yesterday Shyama and I were about to throw all our Nacionales off a balcony of a nice Irish pub called O'Reilleys - but we had forgotten our Nacionales at home. The currency is worth nothing but the locals earn wages in Nacionales. I hope I have made my point. Also - DO NOT BRING the US Dollar or the Aussie Dollar. The commission on USD is upto 20%. It's best to bring Euros, which guess what? -Neither me or Shyama brought...lol.

My favourite thing about Cuba would be the music. It's everywhere! And all cuban's can dance! We saw an amazing band and fashion show on Saturday night at Habana libre 25th floor. And the dancing was incredible - Shyama and I were intimidated to get on the dance floor. The cuban people are beautiful people - both men and women. But it's always the ugly ones that whistle at you on the street. Hotel Nacionales had a spectacular Cabaret show which we saw. It was very colourful - but cabaret is not our style. Everyone says to check out Casa De La Musica, which we went to yesterday but it was closed. Instead we ended up at some bar where they had a cuban girl band and everyone dancing salsa. Music was pretty poor but we joined in the dancing.

After the painful Inca Trek- Shyama and I wanted to unwind - but we have been pretty stressed out so far in Cuba. We are going to a resort at Varadero for 2 nights to lay on the beach. Our initial plan was to go to the country side/ mountains in Vinales since everyone has recommended it. But after the spectucular Andes in Peru and the excruciating climbing - we have chosen the beach over mountains.

Here's another tip - Shyama and I didn't realise that breakfast was included as part of our stay at Habana Libre. On the second day we discovered an endless breakfast buffet unlike any other we have seen. You could choose your juices/shakes. there were atleast 50-80 items. It's on level 2 at Habana Libre. They don't check your room number so just walk in like you stay there and get yourself a free breakfast of a lifetime! make sure you try the guava shake....delicious!

For those who are writing in - thank you...please keep doing it. I will try and write back but it is too difficult since all the intructions are in spanish and I don't know what the icons mean.

Ciao!

Jag.

Part 3 Buenos Aires: Tango and punches

(Picture of Shyama which sums up our experience of the poor food quality).

Love Buenos Aires! Wish we could have stayed here longer. You need atleast 4 or 5 days to enjoy this city.

The Hostel Estoril was fantabulous!! Besides the noise factor in our room which was facing the main road, it was a great place to stay.

We spent all day wondering around Buenos Aires trying to find tiketek. That was quite an adventure as the only words of spanish we seem to know or use are "si (yes) and gracias (thank you)". Anyway after much wondering around from place to place we managed to find tikatek. The only problem, as we have found over and over again was the fact that the bookings officer didnt know a word of english. We finally booked a tango and dinner show not realising that "Cena" means dinner. But as fate would have it it was all worth it. The Tango show has been the highlight of my trip so far and Shyama has some fantastic footage and photos which you will see later. I strongly recommend any visitors to check out the San Telmo area that has most of the tango bars. We went to a show at Taciendo and I absolutely loved the music and dancing and absolutely hated the food. So far Sth America has measured up to it´s reputation of having really really bad food, especially for vegetarians. Although, we found a vegetarian all you can eat restaurant in Buenos Aires called Bodhi which was great! The only half decent food I have eaten so far.

While leaving Buenos Aires, I left my mark at the airport. Let me explain. So far both Shyama and myself each have encountered really really really bad food at certain places and we tend to laugh it off-partly because in most cases we don´t know what we are ordering since everything is in spanish, but also because we came with low expectations. But this went too far. Airports usually charge 10 times the usual price for a sandwich anyway. I ordered a foccaccia because in the picture it looked good (Tip: never judge the food by it´s picture- even though its difficult since you cant judge it based on the written menu without knowing the language). So when I ordered it, they brough out a dried up, stale, shrivelled so called foccacia, which was costing me about $9 or 10 AUD. Shyama and I looked at it and couldnt help but laugh out loud. She was so amused that she even took a photo of it (u will c it later). I took a bite but it was completely inedible so i went up to the counter to complain. Again, very interesting when you don¨t speak the language. But overall I think it translated and they were going to give me a fresh one, instead they sent me a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich (which costs about $5AUD). I didn´t say anything since I assumed they had no fresh ingredients for the focaccia and I am trying not to be fussy...lol. The toasted sandwich was edible. When the bill came out however, the lady had charged me for the focaccia instead of the sandwich- overcharging by about $4 which is a lot when you are travelling, but more so if you havent been give the food you are paying for. Then she was being a total beeeyatch and saying its not her problem that i ordered the focaccia and returned it. So the story goes on and Shyama was by my side the whole time- the righteous side..lol. Eventually Shyama and I were the last people to board our flight because of this little incident. We finally got the right change after much argument with 2 different counterhands. Uff! What an ordeal. I have a feeling that I can proudly say I have tasted food with not only Australian spit, but possibly even Argentinian spit..lol.

Our theme song for this trip has been decided - DONT WORRY BE HAPPY! Lyrics are currently being brainstormed.

Adios
Jag.

Part 2 -Shyama´s INSIGHT- Santiago Day 2

(Photo of Carolina and myself. Carolina was our first real encounter with a local. Needless to say, she coulsn't speak a word of english and we couldn't speak a word of spanish- she has emailed me in March in spanish- I'm going to need Camma's help to translate and reply.)

Hey!

This won´t prolly happen every day...but since I have access ...I thought I´d write to you guys and let you in on the goss....

It´s our second day in Chile and we´ve had a so...so day, although Jag´s day has definitely taken a turn for the better...possibly even best....hehe. I should let her tell the story on her blog...but She is still in action...so you might not hear about it for a couple of days.

Our morning started off....in the afternoon (about 2pm...). We took a leisurely trip up a mountain on an almost vertical (maybe a bit of an exageration) train up a mountain...then took quite a fast cable car back down the mountain...again the language barrier kind of kicked in and so coming down took a little longer than necessary.

However...the language thing didn´t really reach maximum crescendo until we found ourselves at the bottom of the mountain...and no where to go. We had no idea how to get back to the hostel...no cars, no train station...etc. When we had asked people about it, in our minimal spanish, we got a whole verbal tirade of directions back...of which we understood only the pointing, and we came to a point where pointing took us NO FURTHER.

So we stopped a woman on the street and asked her...unfortunately...she was getting no where communicating with us and vice versa...so, finally she motioned for us to follow her.

It took us 10 mins...she was talking...we were talking...neither of us were understanding, but we persevered. Jag got out her spanish book...and told me to tell the girl what I was studying (telling me exactly what to say)...even though we were quite sure that was not what she´d asked. She wanted our email add...and so we exchanged addresses...but don´t know how we are going to communicate...Oh well.

We sort of figured out at the end that this girl had gone 10 mins out of her way...to show us to the train station...even though she had gotten through to us (sort of) that she was running late for work...feel so bad!

Then we had the worst food ever...won´t ever try ordering stuff without knowing what it means.

Anyway...then we tried a salsa club that would have rivalled any salsa club in Melbourne (We were the only 2 people there)...so we left and had some pizza...Italian in Chile. Then we chilled with the people at the hotel...who´d just had a BBQ...and Jag is still chatting to (flirting with) one hot, steamy, tall, brooding, possibly young englishman...good on her. Am about to find out if she wants to be alone...here goes!

Will keep you posted...or Jag will...:D

Buenas Noches,
Shyama.

Part 1- Touch down in Santiago

(Photo of me trying a local Chillian drink/dessert called "Mote con Huesillo Rico". It's a refreshing peach flavoured drink with pieces of peach and wheat/rice at the bottom).

Hi guys, please excuse my entry today. Everything is in spanish so it´s kinda difficult to navigate. I will try and make this a quick one. Don´t know if it will actually get posted coz I don´t know spanish.


All i can say is - it is great to know that over 60% of communication is non-verbal- we are relying on a lot of sign language here as most people can´t seem to speak english and the others simply don´t want to. We figured the other 40% of communication is necessary in order not to get ripped off as we realised today upon entering santiago.


As soon as we stepped out of the airport, we were bombarded by "official" taxi drivers. We were looking lost (tip for travellers - never look lost...lol) so we were approached by one innocent looking rather handsome young tall dark...sorry i´m losing my concentration- where was i- yes we were approached by a taxi driver who i negotiated the payment withto reach our hostel. Luckily i had the booking details which mentioned that we shud pay 10000 or max 15000 pesos to reach the hostel. after the driver agreed he rushed away with my trolley and me chasing behind him while shyama´s trolley was being pushed by another. To cut a long story short - after reaching the hostel he says that it is 10000 pesos per person not per taxi...which we knew was a load of crap. Oh well we didn´t have any option but to pay after some argument as our stuff was on the street and we didn´t have a chance to call for assistance from the hostel concierge.

Anyway- we are safe and happy. I have also realised that i may have a real chance at losing some weight since vegeteriano food is not available. i had steamed vegies and mashed potato for dinner with a bottle of mineral water con gas (fizzy) which i can´t stand. I was meant to orger Agua mineral SIN gas (still). u live and learn i guess.

Shyama and i are planning to master 4 useful sentences per day... "por favor nos trae la cuenta¨ "can we have the bill please".

P.S. I delayed my plane in Auckland as I seemed to have lost my passport and given myself and shyama a minor heart attack. after searching all our bags and seats, and getting 3 or 4 security officials to search, i finally found it between my and shyama´s chair. (tip 2- ok i knew this already but we all make mistakes- ¨don´t put important documents in open trouser pockets, they are likely to fall out).

P.S. photos won´t come until shyama gets back to Aus in feb. We dont know how to upload them-no software.

over and out till later.
ciao (this time i can say it and mean it).
Jag.

Jag's First Entry

Well im off to see the world in a few days - hope you all can join me on my adventure by visiting this blog as often as possible....i will do my best to keep the posts interesting (and if i can) figure out how to even upload photos! Thanks Dev for helping me set this up!

Cheers,
Jag