Day 6 - Sunday, December 8th, 2013 - Grand Cayman Island to Cuba

 Got up around 8am and had breakfast at the hotel. Nothing special, omelette, it was good. Packed our stuff and left some luggage at the hotel, so we didn't have any check bags in Cuba. Said goodbye to Liz and the Allens and took the car back to the airport dropoff, checked in for our flight and had a beer at the Cayman airport. Cayman is pronounced K-Man, not K-Men, as I had previously thought by the way. I saw a t-shirt with a chicken crossing the road and had to get it to commemorate our time here. We had a little bag of pistachios and another beer, then got on our flight. Met a nice lady from Oslo, Norway on our flight who told us to go to a town called Vinales, and also gave us some other travel advice. The flight was not long, just over an hour I think.

We arrived in Havana and went through immigration. It was very intimidating. They had footprints on the floor for you to stand on, and they video you as they are checking your passport. No problems though. They buzz you through the door and get into the receiving area of the airport. All the employees are wearing khaki, almost military looking outfits, and the women are all wearing skirts. It was a bit confusing navigating the airport, but luckily our hotel that we booked for the first night had set up a liaison for us. He met us outside the airport and led us to the currency exchange. My info said that CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos) and US dollars were equal, but the exchange rate / fees amounted to .87 USD to 1 CUC.

Our guide then led us to a van where we rode into Habana Viejo (Old Havana) and were dropped off at our hotel. Everything is very old. Colonial style buildings. U.S. cars from the 50s amounted to about ½ of the cars on the road. Mixed in were some Japanese and European cars as well. The buildings are run down, but beautiful. Habana Viejo is kinda dirty and the streets are in disrepair, you step over giant cracks and puddles everywhere. Most of the tourist district is blocked off from cars by old cannons stuck in the ground as barriers.

“Where you from” is constant, leading into a short conversation about getting money from you somehow. Our hotel is nice though. Old building with a 20 foot high wooden double door entrance with iron rivets and knockers. Everything is old, but would have been extremely nice when it was built and for awhile after that, and I guess still is to a point. It has a wonderful charm. There is a courtyard in the center of the hotel with a glass ceiling and three stories of rooms surround it. Our room has marble floors, a sitting area, vanity, TV, bed, and a great bathroom. I showered, and we headed out to check out the nightlife.

We looked in a few shops with some really nice things for cheap, then we started walking around looking for some music or dancing. 

A man and his daughter struck up a conversation, and he looked like, and jokingly referred to himself as, Obama's brother. He said he would lead us to a salsa club for dancing, etc. We started asking questions about Havana and what we could do and not do, and somehow weed came up. He shushed me in front of his daughter, but whispered, “Give me 5 minutes”. He took us to a small bar with only a couple people in it and a bar man carried a table and chairs for us to sit in the back. We intended on just getting a joint or two and going dancing. Obama ordered a round of drinks of something with rum, lime juice, and sugar.

We drank them and sat with his daughter while he ran outside. He insisted on being very hush hush in front of the kid, but got $40 from me, then another $30 later for cigars that Rachel only said maybe to. He hands me two wrapped packages and some cigars and says to hide them. “Here is weed, and some cocaine.” At this point, kinda freaking out. Getting ripped off, and in a country where you don't know what is what. I half expected some cops to come in and shake us down for some money as well and take everything. His daughter is playing with both of our iPhones, then we leave, and we have to pay the bill, which they say is $70...total rip. Way too much. They didn't offer change back. I checked the weed out in the bathroom and it was super sketchy. We go outside, he says he would like to do some weed with us and would drop his daughter off and meet us at our hotel in 5 minutes. He called a pedi-taxi and we get back to the hotel. I just wanted to get to a safe place, because at this point, we know we've been scammed and I don't know how elaborate it could get. Luckily, we're back in our room.

 Pretty much immediately, Rachel realizes she doesn't have her phone. The little girl was playing with it and she didn't get it back. We decide to get a beer in the hotel bar and wait outside just in case this dude comes back. He doesn't. We didn't expect it. Havana 1. Rachel and Matt 0. We have one more beer in the hotel bar with the singing bartender lady who was super nice, and go back to our room. Without even checking, we flushed the “coke” down the toilet and the weed soon followed because it was either super shitty or not weed at all. The cigars were actually legit, so we held onto those. We retired, beaten. 

For photos from this trip click here.