Alexander Zhidchenko - Havana – Varadero. 2 cities in 1 weekend

Option two – you are an independent traveler. And here the main thing is not to get lost. At the information desk, enterprising young women bred you on a trip to your hotel in Varadero in the group at the best price – 40 CUC (for convenience – 40 euros, a little later I will explain). In general, the information desk is the first thing that was very memorable. She reminds the bar from the film of the 1970s, like the movie “Unlucky” with Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu. They are there, by the way, many times visited the Latin American airports. Colorful women without computers and with cigarettes in their hands added an atmosphere of scented candles burning here.

Women on the info sheet explained to me that the cost of my trip to Varadero alone will be much more expensive. It’s 25 euros by taxi to the bus station and 25 euros by bus to Varadero, and there’s also a taxi to the hotel somehow. Well, in general, the prices in their arguments were greatly exaggerated.

Mentally, I almost refused to venture with them, and went to ask how much a taxi costs, but asked me to hold a place for me for 5 minutes.

Currency exchange is an important point of any trip.

In Cuba, this story is complex, but it is easy to understand. There are two currencies in circulation in the country – one for tourists – convertible peso (CUC) and the second for local – pesos. Therefore, prices can often be seen on the shelves double – and in pesos and in CUC. But for pesos you, except in some cases (for example, in public transport), no one will sell anything. There are few places in Varadero and Havana where you can buy anything for local pesos, since these are the most popular places for tourists. But in the rural outback it is quite possible to bargain and for the CUC in the markets, in the shops and so on.

The difference in prices between these two currencies is already 25 (!) Times. That is, for what the local will pay only 1 dollar, you will lay out 25 bucks.

But there is nothing to be done, probably this is a big plus for the Cuban economy and the development of tourist infrastructure.

All taxi in Cuba are state. Therefore, the prices for travel for tourists here are determined not by the whims of drivers, but again – by the state.

I walked to the first taxi driver – 25 euro. – It was very expensive. Probably it’s “bombs”, we’ll ask the others. How many? – 25. And the union 25. And then a whole crowd of taxi drivers approached and said that they have all 25. Such, sort of like, the tariff. As proof that they did not take this amount out of their heads, the taxi driver opened the front door of his car and showed a table glued on the door with prices for the road to the city center, to the bus station and to other areas of Havana.

The only one way to save money is to look for other travelers, and take one car for 4—5 people. So you will pay 5 euros instead of 25.

The most instructive in this story is that instead of 25 euros (CUC) I paid only 5.

Первое знакомство с Гаваной и с Кубой было по дороге от аэропорта к автовокзалу.

A traveler without a long experience of voyages in Latin America, Asia and Africa, immediately shocking such revelry of emotions, like here. But cars on 60% from an epoch of the middle – second half of the XX-th century, therefore from time to time all “is decorous and noble” as in the left millennium.

Immediately give a few tips – long-distance traffic on the island are serviced by the state company Viazul. Therefore, if you need to take a taxi here, you can safely say “Viazul” to me. The bus schedule to Varadero and other cities in Cuba can be found on the website https://www.viazul.com/.

Special thanks to my traveling companion for orienting me at this bus station. I had only euros with me, and there was nowhere to exchange them nearby-it’s not often that foreigners come here at the Havana intercity bus station. So, she agreed in Spanish that I should change money right there at the rate of one to one. The ticket cost 10 CUC, but not 25, as the women promised on the info sheet.

The building of the bus station is two-story, and judging by how many Cubans here just sit and look around, taking off their shoes and spreading their legs to the neighboring seats, it seems that many here come every day just as they do to work, and to spend time talking together. And those who pass rare visitors of European appearance are asked for a little money.

Tickets are issued by hand, fly flies fly everywhere, the fire is unbearable.

Coloring! I like!)

And the bus left only a couple of hours. There was nothing to do – I had to go to the zoo on the contrary, in order to pass the time.

This is the first landmark of Cuba I visited. The ticket price was 4 CUC (4 euros). It seems that there is not much for the capital. But honestly, the zoo of this money is a stretch. If you have a little more time than I had, and you want to see the animal world of the island in the “habitat”, go to the Cuban National Zoo (Zulodzhiko Nasional Park), which by the way is located near the airport of José Martí. You can get to it either by taxi – if certainly for the entrance, or by the P12 bus, if you are not afraid to get lost and you want to search a few more kilometers for it.

At the entrance to the zoo you will be met by figures of deer.

The main question along the way was one – where to leave things? At the bus station I did not find any storage room, but if I asked the staff, I immediately wondered how much they could claim for this service. So I decided to go straight with the bag to the zoo, but asked to leave things with the guards. They agreed and in the small brick lodge opened an iron safe, where I left things. After two hours of walking around the park, of course, they started asking me for money. I gave a coin of 50 centavos (half of one euro) – it seems like not a little. The loud woman, the guard in a light brown uniform, answered my question about how to get to Park Lenin, and squeezed this coin tightly in her hand.