Famed for its steamy culture and forbidden-fruit status, Cuba is on the minds of countless U.S. vacationers thanks to relaxed travel restrictions and the introduction of direct flights. As the iron curtain lifts, the country stands in the spotlight like a faded starlet: magificently beautiful but her bright paint hardly masking the toll the years have taken on her. Nowhere is that more evident than Havana, Cuba's capital and the legendary playground of mobsters and movie stars before the Castro regime came to power. Today, its opulent architecture is equal parts grandeur and decay, with landmarks like the National Hotel and the restored Grand Theater bespeaking unimaginable wealth while, nearby, cheerfully colored facades feign gaiety even as they disintegrate away. Change is in the air, however, and, like a nation awaking from a slumber, Cuba is coming into its own as a travel destination, beckoning tourists with its emerging foodie culture, sultry salsa clubs, and lost-in-time persona.
But, still very much a Communist country, this is not a typical Caribbean destination, and anyone who goes expecting one may be in for an unpleasant surprise. It is tropical and beautiful like its Latin American neighbors, but Cuba must be navigated differently because the rules here, as well as the rules of engagement on the street, are, at best, complex. For uninformed visitors, those written and unwritten rules can be utterly mystifying, and, quite frankly, the unaware are liable to be rolled faster than a Cuban cigar. But for visitors armed well with information, it is a destination as glorious as its legend, and one that should be on the top of any traveler’s bucket list. Here, then, is a primer for hitting the streets of Havana like a pro.
The Bold and Beautiful
When Winston Churchill coined the phrase, "A riddle, wrapped in mystery, inside an enigma," he was speaking of Russia 78 years ago, but there are perhaps no truer words for Cuba today. Still Communist at its core thanks to Russian influence for 60 years, it is a country of stark contradictions, not the least of which being that violent crimes are virtually nonexistent in this police-ruled culture, but crimes of opportunity are brazenly abundant.
The first hint of this is in the baggage claim area of the Havana airport where a large volume of the luggage coming down the conveyer has been sealed in some fashion. Plastic bags circled with duct tape and entire suitcases entombed in cling wrap are de rigueur for veteran travelers because theft from luggage is a problem here.
Travelers are able to check luggage that has been sealed in this fashion at airports in the United States but should be aware that TSA will still open a bag if it alarms in their bomb detection process. In a handful of U.S. airports such as Miami International, George Bush International in Houston, and JFK in New York, service providers are on hand where travelers can have their bags wrapped in plastic, but it is essentially the same process that can be achieved at home with a $3.00 roll of cling wrap.
Locks on luggage are useless - mine have been almost defiantly removed by airport handlers on every visit to the airport coming or going. It is better to make a bag too much trouble to get into or to put nothing in it of any value at all. But the people in Cuba are desperately poor and have had little access to many things we take for granted in the outside world. As such, they have taken everything from toiletries to costume jewelry to clothing - even underwear - out of suitcases belonging to me or my traveling companions.
Getting Somewhere
With bags in hand, people must pass by a row of nurses stationed at the airport - they are there to ensure Cuba's public health and that arriving passengers aren't likely to be coming to avail themselves of Cuba's free medical services. People from the United States will be given a form on which they must write information about their health insurance policy to hand over to the nurses, but otherwise, these screeners seem largely uninterested in the passengers arriving on direct flights from the United States. Passengers of various nationalities arriving from other destinations, however, are scrutinized more carefully.
U.S. dollars can't be used anywhere in Cuba, so it's important to change a little money or get some from the ATM at the airport before getting into a taxi, as none accept credit cards. And to avoid taxi scams, travelers should seek out the yellow cab queue to the left outside of the arrivals doors. Alternately, if staying in a casa particulares (a private home such as those arranged through Airbnb), travelers can often arrange transportation with their host, who will usually be glad to send a friend in a car in exchange for the same 25 or 30 CUC (Cuban currency - roughly 1-1 to the U.S. dollar) that a taxi would charge.
The car that is arranged might not be very nice - I thought the carbon monoxide fumes inside the jalopy were going to kill me on my first such ride - but at least you're guaranteed to get to where you are supposed to be. An all-too-common scam on arriving visitors who don't already know the city, take an official taxi, or prearrange a ride is for the driver to bring them to a different lodging property owned by a friend, or to tell them that there must be some mistake because the address doesn't exist, but it's no problem because he knows a place... In fact, the hijacking of arriving guests has at times been so bold that people have stationed themselves outside of hotels as if they worked there, telling passengers arriving from the airport that the hotel is full so they need to bring them down the street to a sister property. It is, of course, not a sister property but a scam perpetrated against the unaware.
Money Matters
Cash machines are rare and unreliable in Cuba and only large hotels and restaurants will accept credit cards, meaning that traveling with a pocket full of cash is unfortunately essential. It is not legal for anyone to accept U.S. dollars as payment, however, and changing currency can be an exercise in frustration, so creating a plan in advance for handling money will alleviate a lot of headaches.
To wit, my friend and I changed money at the National Hotel on one occasion though we were not staying there. But then we were turned away a couple of days later, told that the service was only for guests. The reason, we learned, was that it was Friday afternoon and Monday was a holiday, meaning the hotel would not have access to a bank again until Tuesday. So, fearing it could run out of cash, it arbitrarily decided to reserve the funds on hand for its guests only. Most other hotels will never exchange money for people not staying there, but you should never count on the ones that do lest they unexpectedly change their policy. For us, the consequence was that we were about to spend the next 72 hours with no cash because banks and exchange houses were already closed, so we ended up having to beg a hotel guest we found in the bar to change our money for us.
There are a handful of money exchange offices sprinkled around Havana, but the queue starts forming an hour before they open and usually stretches down the street for the bulk of the day. Once, having stood in the slow-moving line for more than an hour, I was next up to be allowed inside the building by the door handler when I noticed a small sign that said the office closes from noon to 12:30 for lunch. It was 11:59, and, on cue, the door monitor locked up after the person in front of me came out. There were three stations changing money inside the small office and no fewer than 50 people standing in line, but staggering staff lunches to continue serving the people waiting is not a thing in Cuba.
Changing money in a bank is possible, though it is not necessarily a better solution. In one instance, I had been standing for an hour with at least 40 people in the lobby of a bank, all of our eyes trained on a wall monitor that was directing people holding numbered tickets to variously numbered bank tellers. In most banks there, tellers perform singular functions - some only handling checking accounts, some taking loan payments, some changing money, and so on. So when you enter the bank, you must tell a door monitor why you are there - they give you a numbered ticket and put you in a "digital queue" for the corresponding teller. No lines are allowed, you just stand along the wall and watch the screen until your number appears along with the stall number of a teller.
But in a culture where free thought has largely been stifled for decades, you can't imagine the chaos that unfolds when the computer system goes down. The system-error message appeared on the screen for all to see, and work in the entire room ground to a halt. Just like time stopped in Cuba for most of this century, time stopped in that bank for the better part of an hour as someone tried frantically to reboot the computer. The tellers stood idly, as the computer was no longer sending them people and the door worker, and every other worker in the bank for that matter, seemed mentally or emotionally unprepared to do so manually.
It is possible to change American dollars on the black market in Cuba for a better rate than banks and exchange houses and it's probably faster, but you shouldn't do it. This is not a culture that is forgiving of rule breakers.
Live Like Locals
While prices for everything in Cuba are surprisingly similar - if not more expensive - than the United States, the average monthly salary for a Cuban is $28, and that means the hustle is on everywhere as people try to come up with a few extra dollars to get them by. Humanitarian giving in the form of tips or gifts is appreciated deeply by restaurant servers, street musicians, and even honest panhandlers, but there are others who provide no service yet have come up with all manner of clever ways to bilk tourists out of cash.
Virtually every street scam in Cuba starts with the same two questions: Where are you from? How long have you been here?
Travelers who engage in this conversation are almost universally about to be taken for a ride. The scammer will then ask a couple of polite questions about how the visit has been so far, and may offer an interesting tidbit of information about the street or a building nearby or Cuba in general. Then comes the scam. One of the more popular rackets is to next tell the tourist that they don't want to beg, but they need to buy some milk for their baby. Some scam artists will even have the tourist walk into the store with them and pay the cashier for a bag of powdered milk. But once the tourist is out of sight, the milk goes back to the store and the clerk and the scammer split the money. The Cuban government provides milk to children until they reach kindergarten.
Another con is to convince tourists that they need to get into a cab (conveniently waiting nearby) and head to some not-to-be-missed local festival or event, which in most cases doesn't exist or isn't nearly what was promised, with the cab fare split later between the driver and the conman.
The sure way around this sham is to tell anyone who asks that you've been in Cuba for several weeks, as they will know it has all been tried on you before. The other way is to ignore the questions entirely regardless of how impolite that feels.
But perhaps the most nefarious swindle - and the one that nets the highest number of tourists - is the one that happens in bars when a friendly local or group of locals strike up a conversation with tourists, eventually joining them at their table and having drinks with them. The con artists typically speak unusually good English and like to have in-depth conversations about things like politics - or whatever subject will keep the drinks flowing, and they usually drink Cuba libres, or rum and coke with lime. When the tourist says they've had enough to drink and asks for the check, they will be given the tab for everyone at the table, and there is no way they are leaving that bar without paying it. A lot of travelers might think that paying the bill for such an interesting cultural exchange is a fair trade, but they might feel differently if they knew that none of the drinks had by the locals contained alcohol - those new friends will be splitting the tourist's money up with the barman after he or she is gone.
In fact, a friend and I were unwittingly swept up in this shakedown by a couple of locals one evening, and then they tried to sit down with us again the next time we went to the same bar. We told them not to sit down as one pulled up a chair, and then we tried to pay the barman for our tab just as one of the locals was ordering a drink. The bartender would not let us pay without paying for the drink the local was ordering. We refused and it created an enormous scene that did not end until we acquiesced. As sad as it is true, the only way to avoid this rip-off is to tell locals they cannot join you at your table or, if they do, to boldly tell them and the server before they've ordered that you will not be paying for their drinks under any circumstances. Even that approach, however, will likely land the tourist with the tab when the locals announce at the end of the conversation that they haven't got any money. And the truth is that they probably don't, but, however nice they seem, the only people who hang around a bar without having any money are the ones running a game on the tourists who come in.
People in Cuba live in incredible poverty, even if they often don't look it, and they have been required to devise myriad ways to survive under their current governmental structure. It is no wonder, then, that visitors are a valuable commodity and money is changing hands outside of a tourist's sight for any business one Cuban brings to another. On the street, people will offer to lead travelers to the best restaurants and bars, they will hail taxis for them, and guide them to the best tourist shops. It might actually be the best bar, shop, or restaurant, or it might not. But there is an unspoken transaction that occurs in every one of those situations, and cash will change hands between the business and the person who brought a tourist to it.
And speaking of restaurants and bars, travelers must be vigilant about reviewing the check as they are often wrong, especially where multiple people or multiple rounds of drinks are involved. The simplest ways to minimize issues are to insist on paying for rounds as they come and to review the check alongside a menu before paying.
Despite needing to navigate around potential scam artists, travelers to Cuba will find a country where most people are warm and sincerely welcoming. They are generally more loyal to their government than one might expect given their current situation, but they are earnest in the hope that tourists from the United States can help infuse society with some badly needed income. Cubans are proud of their culture and they are glad to share it with newcomers. Perhaps the most suspicious-sounding thing in Cuba that is the most sincere is when someone invites you to their home, and visitors should consider accepting that invitation. What awaits is probably a meager existence but one that is filled with music and laughter and can provide an intimate window into the life of the average Cuban. But if you go, bring a bag full of groceries and a Spanish translator, as they can barely afford to feed their families - much less dinner guests - and most likely no one will speak English. Russian is the second language taught in schools, and it will be some time before English is fluently used in Cuba, even in the tourist zones.
Even so, a Spanish dictionary, a sense of adventure, informed expectations, and a little insider information are all tourists really need to hit the ground running in Cuba and experience its sensuous culture, intriguing nuances, and beautiful, storied streets for themselves. By knowing in advance how to sidestep potential problems, visitors can rest assured that the only taste in their mouths will be from sweet mojitos, not a bitter pill from being had.
For those contemplating a visit, words could never suffice to describe what awaits. It is a story that is best told with photos. Click each thumbnail to see its full size image.
