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

You are not on the list. You can't fly to Cuba today.

We almost didn't make it to Cuba. After arriving at Cancun airport we were told our names for not on the list of passengers for the flight. The fact that we had the confirmation email and reservation number didn't appear to make any difference. Their computer said we weren't on the flight so we weren't going to fly. It was all a bit strange, they seemed to think we'd just accept it and leave. After 5 or 10 minutes of Spanglish they got the message that we felt it was their problem and that they needed to sort it out. 20 minutes before the flight was due to leave they said we could fly. We just had to make it through security and get to the boarding gate. This itself was an adventure especially when their machine mistakenly found traces of explosives on Seamus's bag but we made it.

Once we arrived in Havana airport we had some questions as to why we were there and what we were doing, then passport control, then more questions. Then when we were waiting for our luggage another official came over and asked the same questions then he took our passports. He returned 5 minutes later and said once we got our luggage we had to go with him for interviews. He watched us while we watched for our luggage then he returned our passports and told us to enjoy our time in Cuba. No interview required, pity because at this stage we were looking forward to the interview.

The taxi journey from the airport to the center of Havana was surreal. Its difficult to describe but looking out the window it felt like we'd had gone back in time or were on the set of an 1950's movie. I had read lots about Cuba before coming here so I knew what to expect but it still didn't prepare me for this. Its difficult to explain and also difficult to capture on camera.

I think its the mixture of the old american cars from the 1950's, old Russian built Ladas from the 1970's and 1980's, horse drawn carriages, old bicycles, lots of people just hanging around, some playing dominos, some just watching the world go by, old decayed buildings, roads and footpaths all in serious need of repair, propeganda murals combined with the complete lack of advertising, the lack of shops, restaurants and businesses. All of this together gives an erie weird yet calm feeling.