Old American cars versus taxis.
Sometimes you travel to a place knowing the clichés and “must-dos” and you just do them anyways. Go to Paris for the first time and there’s an obligatory Eiffel Tower visit. Beijing – you’re renting a van to the Great Wall. Go to New York and you go to a hip, underground club in a formerly-shitty-now-trendy part of Brooklyn. It’s just standard stuff, ya know?
If you’ve read anything about modern Cuba, you know there are anywhere between ten to 15 million American-made classic cars on the island, depending on your drunken estimation. In the 60s after Cuba became isolated because of the US embargo, a lot of the American cars remained without replacement parts and no means to find them. As such, five thousand dozen of these cars remain.
I am not a motorhead. My knowledge of cars extends to knowing how to open the hood of the car and then calling Dad. But it’s pretty sweet to see 3,000 score of these classics vrooming along Habanera avenues.
Cash economy.
American bank cards will not work anywhere in Cuba, more or less. The hassle you’d have to go through to make that happen is worse than the annoyance of the alternative – just take out enough cash beforehand.
I was in Cuba for 5 days total, so I brought a grand in US dollars. It was clearly overboard, but I also didn’t want to be caught on the streets of Havana begging for bread. I gotta tell ya, it’s weird having a wad of cash in your wallet that makes your pocket bulge out, as if I didn’t stand out enough. El Gringo at the airport with his left pocket just packing ca$h.
But basically it requires a little more financial planning for each leg of the journey than I’m used to. I don’t just go into any ole trip without a budget. Far from it. But I usually don’t have to think I might straight up run out of cash.
Additionally, Cuba really isn’t all that cheap. There are ways to do it ultra cheap, I suppose. You can take the bus everywhere, you can eat entirely local in small joints, don’t stay in hotels, etc. If you take the comfy option, you’re paying New York prices. If you take the less familiar option, you’re paying Havana prices.
Of these constraints, some I could avoid and some I could not, given I was there for but five days. For instance, I stayed in a casa particular, which is essentially a homestay meets B&B. It was paid up front so I didn’t even have to worry about bringing cash in for that, which was $88 for four nights. Fancy hotels are easily three figures, likely $150 or more. Which again, isn’t egregious by NYC standards, just don’t expect Southeast Asia low.
If you want to take the local buses, it’s about a nickel. The issue with it as a tourist is timing. If you’re in Cuba for a week or longer and have time to kill and money to save, by all means, take the bus. It might take you a few extra hours, require a ton of patience, and in the summer months, mandate bricks of deodorant, but the bus is certainly an option. Otherwise you’re taking taxis or tourist buses ($5-10 for local Havana trips) or $30+ for anything longer. But even those aren’t habitually punctual. They are frequently delayed. I allotted a three-hour buffer to get back to my casa particular and made it back with 15 minutes to spare.
Essentially, if you have constraints of any kind, plan your contingencies carefully. And if you’re American whose bank cards are lock picks and nothing more, plan the finances carefully. Or don’t plan carefully and bring wayyy more than you need to.
I didn’t touch their currency at all.
I had this experience first in Nicaragua. They have their local currency, the córdoba, but many places also accept US dollars. Many of these places are touristy in nature (restaurants, hotels, etc.) but many places like the dollar just because it’s stable. If you give dollars, they generally give change in córdobas. However, I was with a buddy and generally he paid in cash and I in card or Venmo or whatever. Long and short: I was in Nicaragua for 10 days and not once did I use their money to pay. Weird.
Cuba was sorta (hard sorta) the same. They have two currencies, the CUC and CUP. There’s other places that explain the difference, so I’ll direct you to them. Essentially, the CUP is the Cuban peso that locals use and the CUC is the convertible peso that foreigners use. This isn’t exclusive. I can receive CUP in change and locals can receive CUC for whatever reason. The CUC is pegged to the dollar, minus a 10% fee and a 3% (other) fee. So 87 cents to the CUC effectively.
I tended to Yelp restaurants to go to, and was somewhat in a time crunch to get places, so long and short is that I never, ever used the CUP. Which is bizarre. The only time I received one was in the park. A random dude was explaining that I am not allowed to even touch CUP (he was lying) and gave me some so that I would give him some CUC. I yielded, not because I’m stupid but because I collect money. A numismatic I’ve been since state quarters were introduced in the US, and I even had my favorite coin exchange spot.
I suck at picking vacations.
I gotta stop going to places when the weather is at its worst. I went to Korea and Kazakhstan in the dead of winter. (It was fuck*** cold) I went to India during monsoon season. I went to Vietnam in the summer. And now I’ve gone and done Cuba in the summer. I basically have it set that I want to go to a place, and once I have the next chunk of time, I make it happen.
Like what you’re reading on Cuba? Check out some other related articles in: The Cuba Chronicles!
Links to the other parts in this series: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
