Getting There

Saturday, April 8, 2012

We flew to Miami today for an overnight stay in preparation for our early Sunday morning flight to Havana.  Having read that the best Cuban food is actually in Miami, we walked a few blocks from our motel to a Cuban restaurant located next to a gas station in a liquor store.  There were a few tables on the sidewalk outside the store as well as a few inside, between shelves of gin, rum, vodka, and wine.  Everyone in the place seemed to be a Spanish speaker, so we declared our Cuban adventure started.  The special of the day was fried fish, served whole, with yellow rice.  Delicious! 

Sunday, April 9 (Easter)

Up at 3:30 a.m. to catch the shuttle to the airport for our “be at the airport four hours ahead of your charter flight” wait.  It took some doing, but we finally located the correct check in location and waited amid a group of Cubans and others. Turns out there were only 36 passengers on our flight, and we were all checked in and through security by 5:30.  (Our flight didn't leave until 8:30.)

There were luggage shrinkwrapping stations throughout the Miami airport, including one near our ticket counter.  We watched a man wrap several large suitcases and other packages before they went on the airplane.  This is evidently a popular way to prevent things from disappearing from checked luggage. The result was large green lumps of things going into the cargo hold and emerging in Havana on the luggage belt. (We didn’t have our bags wrapped and nothing went missing, for which we were grateful.) 

Luggage shrink wrapped in green.

We arrived in Cuba about 9:30 a.m.   It took an hour or so to get through customs and collect our bags. The terminal was small.  Two flights arrived about the same time, so there was quite a crowd, and things were very disorganized.  We weren’t really sure what we were required to do and ultimately just walked out the door into a waiting throng of other people’s relatives and friends.  The company that was supposed to meet us and provide transportation to the hotel wasn’t anywhere we could find, so one of our group members arranged a taxi van ride for 8 of us into town.

We weren’t able to get into our rooms until after 3:00 so we left our luggage with a porter and went in search of food. We walked a few blocks along this road, the Melacon, and enjoyed the roar and smell of the ocean.

We found a seaside tent structure with a few tables and a grill where we had a delicious lunch of grilled fish or chicken served with rice and black beans, salad, and fries. 

Bottled water is in short supply so we drank the local beer “Bucanero.”

When the bill came, we discovered that no one in our party had any Cuban Convertible (CUC) Pesos (known as “kooks”), and the waiter, of course, would not accept anything else.  So, a few of us stayed while some others went in search of a place to change money.

We stayed at the Melia Cohiba Hotel.  Here are the views of the hotel and of Havana as seen from our room.

Hotel Lobby

View of Havana from our hotel room

Hotel where we stayed

Morning mist over ocean and city

For dinner, we went to a paladare--a small family-owned restaurant located inside a house that is part of the new Cuban entrepreneural economy.  Our group was seated on the front porch and had a delightful evening of food, drink, and conversation.  

The dinner began with an appetizer plate of cold cuts, cheese, and olives.  Entrees were a choice of pork, shrimp, or fish; a salad of cucumbers, cabbage, and tomatoes; and rice with black beans.  We also tried  fried plantains and some had ice cream for dessert.  

For drinks we were offered either a mijoto (lime juice, mint leaves, and rum) or “Cuba Libra” (rum and coke).  We have discovered that these are the standard offerings for both food and drink in Cuba.