Cuba
Cuba: unique, frustrating, inspiring, unexpected, special, cheap, expensive, and everything all at once
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 26 June 2024
Updated on 26 June 2024
Cuba is like no other place - it’s unique, frustrating, inspiring, unexpected, special, cheap, expensive, and everything all at once. Now the challenge is to somehow make sense of it on paper.
Extending my visa: yeah, that always gives me plenty to write about, and Cuba didn’t disappoint in that regard. I was prepared, so I knew I needed about 20-30 euros worth of stamps, which you can only buy at the bank, to extend my visa. I assumed the bank would know exactly how many I needed. Unfortunately, that was a letdown. After the usual hour of waiting, I had to go to the immigration office 1.5 km away. It was too short to wait for the bus and too long to walk back and forth four times, so I had to come up with a combo deal. Some walking, some bus if it happened to pass by. The first leg was just walking. After waiting for half an hour at the immigration office, I found out that the line was for applying for a Cuban passport. That’s cool too, but today I only needed a visa extension. And that line turned out to be considerably shorter. I quickly got my turn and wanted to satisfy my efficiency craving by asking how many stamps I needed because I still had to buy them first. Unfortunately, that went against the guidelines, so we started from the beginning as we should, and the stamps would only come at the end. All my personal information and the details of my fake return ticket I made that morning were typed and checked letter by letter (yup, letter by letter). After half an hour of typing, checking, and rewriting, we finally got to the stamps part, which I still didn’t have. Surprised, she covered her mouth and said that I really needed them. I mentioned that I had tried to make that clear at the beginning of the conversation. She said she didn’t understand that I didn’t have them yet and thought I just wanted to know how many I needed, as if everyone always carries around 30 euros worth of visa stamps. I was told three times that I needed 25 euros worth of stamps, which I could get at the bank I already knew. The bank also passed the bureaucracy exam with flying colors because for buying 5 stamps worth 5 euros each, my passport details and the address of the hostel where I was staying that night were meticulously retyped. WHY? I’m just paying. Back at the immigration office, she asked in surprise if there were no people at the bank, since I was back in a little over an hour. I did get lucky with only half an hour of waiting time and a bus that happened to stop as I walked out of the bank. After all the previously entered information was double-checked with my papers (presumably to prevent me from swapping my passport in the meantime), I finally got a sticker on the back of my visa, sealing the extension. I get to stay in Cuba a bit longer!
That night, a boy sat next to me on the central square. He looked 14, was 16, and acted like he was 24. He sold internet cards, dinners at restaurants, taxi rides, and/or women, whatever you felt like at the moment. I found it particularly interesting how such a young boy had this as a job, so I started chatting with him. While he whistled and hissed at passing tourists, asking if they wanted to buy something, he explained that he went to school every day from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm and sold stuff in the evenings, but always in a different place because the police would arrest him otherwise. Still, he got caught about once a month on average and had to spend a day in jail and pay a fine of 70 euros (which is 3.5 times the average Cuban monthly salary). But that was no big deal because he sold about 5 internet cards every night with a 1 euro profit (a profit margin of 50%), plus some restaurant, taxi, or woman referrals.
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Traveled route: Havana, Parque Nacional Viñales, Cueva del Indio, Valle de Ancón, Playa Larga, Playa Giron, Cienfuegos, Valle de los Ingenios, Trinidad, Gran Parque Natural Topes de Collantes, Guachinango, Ciego de Avila, Bayamo, Bartolomé Masó, Pico Turquino, Las Cuevas, Santiago de Cuba, San Antonio Del Sur, Baracoa, Parque el Junque, Loma del Yunque, Santa Clara
next country: India
Ultimate chaos, burning bodies for €400 a piece
After four weeks on crutches and two weeks in a cast, I was finally free. The doctor said I needed six months of recovery time, but when I asked if I could continue my world trip during that time, he could only mutter a surprised “yes”. A day lat
Cuba
Did this story inspire you to go to Cuba? Read more on what Cuba has to offer, what the best months are for visiting and check the handy links for backpacking there.
