cuba

fui a cuba! what an experience... i spent two days and one night in cuba and most of my time was dealing with immigration and at the airport. but despite all the drama, it was worth it. habana vieja was amazing. the music, the dance, the people, the architecture, the old cars... i'm so glad i went.

mi viaje was full of craziness... going out with a bang. i went to habana with two other spanish students. one of them did not get up in time and missed our flight, but the flight was full anyways. all cubana airlinea flights are overbooked and you will most likely not get on your flight. at the airport i ran into immigration problems. it seems that when i crossed the border from belice into chetumel, mexico they did not stamp my passport. without proof of when i arrived into mexico, i was basically screwed. i had no proof that i was not an illegal immigrant. to make a long story short, when the immigration official said "cerra la puerta or close the door" i knew what was going to happen. i had to pay off an immigration officer over $50 to leave mexico. thank goodness this happened early, when trying to enter cuba, instead of today when returning to the us.
after that experience, the cubana airlinea avion, (i forgot the word airplane! just now) was falling apart which was no big deal except that i read that they don't have the best flight record!

i thought all my immigration problems were over after bribing the mexican official, but i ran into problems in cuba as well. the friend i was with had absolutely no problems passing through the immigration check right before me. it took me an hour. and then more questions in customs, where again my friend did not get any questions. it was funny because at one point when they were finally starting to be cool with me, they had a good laugh passing around my passport to show all the officials. here i am- this obviously pilipina/asian, with an american passport, that says i was born in spain, i am speaking to them completely in spanish, and i am staying in cuba for only about 24 hours. 20 minutes was spent explaining why my classmate, nick, was not my boyfriend, whether he could understand the spanish we were speaking, and if i wanted a cubano boyfriend. depues, while in a taxi ride to the hotel our taxi driver crashes into the curb! will this drama ever end? no because when returning to mexico my flight was overbooked and i had to take another flight on another airline in order to get to cancun before my flight today. i had to take a flight to mexico city and fly back to cancun from mexico city. i spent over 14 hours at the airport/airplane! but i made it back in time for my flight today back to san diego. it was another 9 hours of traveling today.

cuba... i had dinner at this beautiful restaurant in this cathedral plaza. there was a cuban band playing, there was a wedding going on in the plaza. after i walked around taking in all the statues and buildings in habana vieja. visited the capitola building, basically a replica of the white house. drank pina coladas, mojitos, cuba libres... went to a dance, music joint... watched the stars and lighthouse from the embarcadero... slept for two hours to wake up and eat breakfast, return to old vieja for an hour to quickly see what i had just seen a few hours before, but during daylight. i went straight to the airport to spend most of my time waiting for my new flight and figuring out what type of cigars to buy at the airport.

cuba....