Took a trip to CUBA for Christmas

I spent some time in CUBA during Christmas break and certainly saw some interesting cars. I asked almost every taxi to pop the trunk and looked under most of the cars. It's a hodgepodge of honda, mercedes, and hyundai parts. All transmissions are manual. There are actually some cars with original engines. The lada 240 clone is by far the most popular car and apparently even in 400k mile condition they cost about $30,000. Gas was nearly $5 a gallon. Every car accelerated in a plume of black smoke and walking around was sometimes troublesome due to the pollution. Riding in the back of a vintage chevy with no seatbelts and rusted out windows during the night was terrifying.

Some cell phone shots-

Wow, it's like they're stuck in an automotive time warp.

Cool.

I'm interested to hear more about the logistics of travel there, how it was to visit, etc

Sonic wrote: I'm interested to hear more about the logistics of travel there, how it was to visit, etc

+1

Not sure what's going on with that green beetle, but I like it. Except the wheel choice.

Sonic wrote: I'm interested to hear more about the logistics of travel there, how it was to visit, etc

My flight was $80 from Miami and beforehand I got a Visa for $100 from Cuba Travel services. It's still illegal to travel to Cuba for tourism but there's 12 reasons you can go there and one of them is "people to people exchange", I checked off that one and went on my merry way. I didn't know I was going to be let into the country until I landed in Cuba, went through border guards with a bit of blundered spanish and they opened they doors and said "Welcome to Cuba". We were the only Americans there pretty much but there were ton of international tourists. The Cuban people have caught onto tourism and are making their money off it, everything in the tourists areas is expensive and a rip off. It wasn't until we got into central Havana and away from tourism where the vacation really opened up. We spent most our time walking through villages and cities. The Cuban people were extremely friendly, helpful, and respectful.

I so want to go there before there is a Starbucks on every corner.

Joe Gearin wrote: I so want to go there before there is a Starbucks on every corner.

Yes, I would really recommend it. Its already extremely crowded and street hustlers in the tourists areas. Has the potential to get worse.

Would you mind sharing your experience with the food/cuisine at all? Not sure if you're a foodie or not, but Cuba has always struck me as one of those places with just an amazingly diverse food culture. I'm curious if that's actually the case, or if it's just my perception.

Would also love to visit there before it turns into every other destination in the Caribbean.

golfduke wrote: Would you mind sharing your experience with the food/cuisine at all? Not sure if you're a foodie or not, but Cuba has always struck me as one of those places with just an amazingly diverse food culture. I'm curious if that's actually the case, or if it's just my perception.

I mostly ate spanish / cuban dishes while there. Although I did have a large street pizza which costed me 8 cents, it was amazing but It was also 3 am and I was really drunk. I had some great paella my third night there and that was definitely a highlight. I had some meals where you can still see the soviet influence, very very plain. Last night we were exploring in central cuba and stumbled across a younger area of the town with art galleries. They had a restaurant on top of an old smoke stack and it was very nice, I had the traditional cuban dish ropa vieja and it was excellent. The prices ranged alot, a really good restaurant would set you back about $10 a meal while if you ate at local dives it would be about $4.

edit: and it was really diverse. ranging from traditional cuban, soviet style food, European, french, spanish, and even cheeseburgers. Oh and I went to a beer brewery which was awesome!

I thought it was recently legal to visit now? regardless, look awesome.

Grtechguy wrote: I thought it was recently legal to visit now? regardless, look awesome.

Legal under 12 categories -

1. Family visits

2. Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations

3. Journalistic activity

4. Professional research and professional meetings

5. Educational activities

6. Religious activities

7. Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions

8. Support for the Cuban people

9. Humanitarian projects

10. Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes

11. Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials

12. Certain export transactions that may be considered for authorization under existing regulations and guidelines.

I tried to go there in the summer and was told Cuba still wasn't open to Americans. What is this people to people exchange thing. I didn't see it on the list.

I wonder what you have to do to show "Support for the Cuban people"?

Tell us about lodging options and how do we find out about them.

Education is easy. learning a new community

carguy123 wrote: I tried to go there in the summer and was told Cuba still wasn't open to Americans. What is this people to people exchange thing. I didn't see it on the list. I wonder what you have to do to show "Support for the Cuban people"? Tell us about lodging options and how do we find out about them.

"Support for cuban people" is what we did. We just talked to a lot of cuban people. All accommodations were booked through Air B n B surprisingly easy.

The Americans we've met, while visiting Cuba, have mostly flown from up here or Mexico. They just ask the Cuban passport control people to not stamp their passport. I understand this minimizes questions when the drive back to the States.

Cuba is a cool place to visit if you get out of the all inclusive resorts. The resorts are basically the same as any other Caribbean resort. Beach, booze and sun. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

if anyone is into fishing, I strongly recommend that you go before the US tourism boom. I got the chance to go in 99 and again in 00 and it was the best salt water fishing that I ever had the pleasure of enjoying, and that was in the off season each year.

What an awesome thread! Thanks for sharing!!

I don't usually post these, but...

Back to fried bananas and black beans...

Back to Havana

Awesome! I get to do a fair bit of travel for work but this far much of Latin America has evaded me. The pictures, food, and people looked pretty warm and inviting.

Dr. Hess wrote: I don't usually post these, but... Back to fried bananas and black beans... Back to Havana

Haha, this is great!

A coworker just spent their honeymoon there. They are Mexican but told the us people they were going to visit family and it worked. Excellent pictures from them.

My son got me this book on Cuba's cars for Christmas. Interesting, imagine having a brandy new 1959 something, driving on bad roads with ruts and pot hole and NOT having even the most basic replacement parts. Tie rod ends, brakes, nothing. A lot of those classics are powered by four cylinder diesels.

I watched a show on the cars of Cuba. One could probably fund a vacation with a few suitcases of old car parts.

In reply to akylekoz:

A Year One catalog and your email and phone number on what to bring next trip.