Busses in Cuba

During my 3 weeks in Cuba I traveled around a lot. After a few days adjusting to life Havana I took an overnight bus to Santiago de Cuba and from there took a 6 hour bus to Baracoa. Baracoa is a sleepy village on the far east of the island. After a few nights here I went back to Santiago de Cuba for one night and then another night bus to Trinidad. After a few nights in Trinidad I took a bus to Santa Clara specifically to visit the Che Guevara Museum and Mausoilim but disappointingly it was closed for renovations. After one night in Santa Clara I took a 5 hour taxi to Havana, I'll explain how this came about later. Luckily I made it in time to catch the bus to Vinales. My intention was to go to Maria le gorda but once I arrived in Vinales I decided to spend the remainder of my time and my last night in Havana.

Vinales

There are buses and bus stations specifically for tourists in Cuba. The standard of the tourist buses is significantly better than the buses locals use but the price is significantly higher also. For me the buses were extremely uncomfortable, especially the night buses. The buses are relatively new buses from China. Leg room is very limited and even more so when the seats are reclined. When I tried to buy a bus ticket in Baracoa I was told all tickets were sold. I tried get a ticket for the next day and she said the same. After a few minutes of Spanglish she told me to call back at 8am the next day. I did this and she put my name on a list and told me to come back one hour before the bus was due to leave. I called back, got our tickets and got on a bus that was half full. I never quite figured out why this was but I encountered it throughout the trip. It appeared that they could only sell a limited number of tickets in advance. I've no idea what the reasoning is for this but then it is Cuba so who knows. So when I was in Santa Clara I took a horse and cart taxi from the bus station to my casa particular.

Taxi in Santa Clara

I spoke some Spanish with the driver and he said his friend was driving 2 Italian tourists to Havana the following day. He said they would take me for the same price as the bus. I decided to go with it and it worked out quite well. We left at 9am in an old american car and arrived in Havana in time for me to take a bus to Vinales. The Italians were paying considerably more for the taxi then I was so I was curious as to why they didn't just take the bus. The said they tried to buy a bus ticket but they were told it was sold out.

View from inside the taxi

Riga to St Petersburg

My original plan was to take a train from Riga to St Petersburg but various people that I spoke to in the hostel recommended that I took a Eurolines bus instead as it was much cheaper and more comfortable. I paid a little extra so I'd have a more comfortable seat and a table so I could make use of the wifi on the bus.

The journey to Tallinn was comfortable but after that it got a little messy. I had to wait for one hour at 12am in the bus station for a connecting bus. I couldn't use the bathroom facilities as I didn't have any currency for Estonia and they would not accept Lat or Rubles. The bus from Tallinn to St Petersburg was not a eurolines bus, it was some type of old Russian bus and was not very comfortable.


I had to hand over my passport when leaving Latvia and again when leaving Estonia and then at 4am we got to the Russian border. I was the only person who spoke English on the bus so it was difficult to find out what was going on. At 4am everyone got off the bus and took all their luggage with them. It was pretty cold out, snowing and very dark. There were lots of guys with military uniforms and weapons walking around. It was a bit unnerving going through customs and passport control when they did not speak English and I did not speak Russian. There was some problem with my documentation but I didn't know what or why and she couldn't explain, eventually she was happy and let me through. So back on the bus and in about 4 hours we got to St Petersburg.


It was a bit of a shock when I got off the bus in St Petersburg, firstly it was very very cold, I had no idea where I was when I got off the bus, no one spoke english and there were no signs in english. I found the metro pretty quickly but I couldn't buy a ticket.  They would not take any large notes. I found a shop, bought some chewing gum and got some change. The lady in the shop wasn't happy but she gave me change anyhow.


It was rush hour so it was very busy and I had a rucksack and a hand luggage bag also. It took me over an hour to find the hostel even though it was less than a 5 minute walk from the metro station.  The metro stations are impressive and are very far under ground.

Escalator to the underground

Impressive underground corridors

They do not have any sign for the hostel except for a small sticker on the apartment door and anyone that I asked either could not speak english or else they did not know where the hostel was.


I finally found it by asking in a clothes shop. The girl who worked there put on her jacket and walked out with me to show me the street that it was on. She didn't know the hostel but said that was the street that I was looking for. This was the same street that I'd found myself about a half hour ago. Luckily one of the hostel staff was on her way to the hostel and spotted me and showed me the entrance. Speaking to the other guests in the hostel I realised I wasn't the only person who had trouble finding it.