I also asked Alex to book a Casa for me in Vinales, my next destination, where I would go tomorrow. Booking a Casa is not like we do this at home these days. Alex had a little wooden box with 50 to 100 business cards of Casas all over the country. He suggested a particular place in Vinales and we rang them up, they accepted, I wrote down the details off the card and all was done. No internet required. It was like 1998... :-)
The new Casa was nice as well, again, I had my own room, with my own bathroom, a TV and an A/C. The apartment building, as well as the apartment itself was a little older and more traditionally decorated, but clean and Maria and her family were friendly. We didn't have any deep conversations, as she didn't speak English, though.
Maria was not at all opposed to the idea of me using a Maquina, so I asked her what was the best way to get into town (Havana Vieja). She told me where to grab a maquina and how much it should cost. About 10 CUP, she said.
To get a ride in a Maquina, you stand at the side of the road in the direction you want to go and look out for rusty old cars with loads of people in them and wave them down. Sometimes they stop and you tell them the destination you want to go... sometimes they just drive off, sometimes the say "no" but sometimes they nod their had and say "si". You squeeze in with and rattle about the street towards your destination, every now and then someone gets out or comes in.
It could easily be 7 people in the car at one point, plus all their bags.
When you get to the place you wanted to go (it might not be a direct route as the driver has to drop off people at different places along the way) you pay him and get out. - Easy as that.
After a bit of asking, I did get a Maquina, a Chrysler Windsor as well and the ride was brilliant, it really felt like I imagined Cuba, the door handle was replaced with a string, everything was rattling, but the chrome was shiny and the engine was working. Driving through the streets of Havana in one of those is just an incredible way to dive into the culture. Not to be missed.
In the end I ended up paying 80 CUP but it was still worth it and similar to what the other passengers paid that left the car before me.
I got out right next to the Capitol building in Havana Vieja. Just like yesterday, I immediately felt this essential Cuban feeling again, old colonial buildings, lovely cars and people going about their business.
I had no real plan what to visit, so I just walked around and explored the streets. It was just a little boring as I was exploring all of this on my own.
Near the Revolution Museum I saw a lonely girl with a camera taking photos, great I thought another single traveler (very rare here in Cuba). So, I asked here if we should walk together and it turned out she was from Columbia and visiting Cuba for a few days.
Later on she told me: at first she though I was just another sexual Cuban trying to chat her up and she was a bit hesitant at first. :-)
But luckily it turned out I was just looking for some company and we walked along together and soon fell for an actual Cuban scam, happy and encouraged we were not walking around alone any more we agreed to follow some local couple to a bar where they were having some sort of music fest (as they told us). Well we followed them and had a drink with the, that was very overpriced... They wanted us to pay for their drink as well as they didn't have money, so we paif for ours and left. Unfortunately, if you get too eager to experience something local you fall into a trap, but this should not keep you from just going with the flow. Sometimes you just fall for it, it's a gamble, that pays off when you really end up at a house party or have some other crazy local experience.
The Colombian girl and I went on and visited the Castillo de la real fuerza de la Habana, one of the old forts, protecting Havana from 1577 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castillo_de_la_Real_Fuerza).
It housed an interesting ship building exhibit and some ancient Artfacts that were found in the entry passage to the harbour.
We were hungry now and we started looking for some food. The Columbian girl only had Moneda Nacional (CUP) and it was hard to find a nice place where we could pay with them, but after 5 attempts we found a little place, that had no menu. We were cautious not to fall for another scam but ended up paying normal tourist prices in the end. They probably did get away well with it, but didn't rob us, so that was ok, since we were pretty hungry now.
After that I was a bit tired and the sun was very hot, so we decided to just head home each.
I took another Maquina back to Maria's place, rested a bit and had a little chat with her family, where the younger generation spoke good English.
From what I understood, her brother was originally from Italy, not sure if this is important, but I thought write it down, as it was in my notes.
For dinner I was not up for big experiments and decided to go back to "La Cathedral", where I ate yesterday. The family from Detroit with their kids were also there. I feasted on a large plate of pasta but didn't order a starter this time... easy enough to say: it still sufficed.
No comments:
Post a Comment