On our last day, we see souvenir markets filled with Cuban musical instruments, colorful art, children painting in the old town, a rock concert on the main square, and walk by the Havana Bay. We also manage to see Lisandra once more. We head toward her second-hand goods stall, but instead she and her boss meet us on the street. A brief farewell — and then, we leave. One last look at Plaza Vieja — and then we leave. While waiting for our flight, we meet two English girls, Chlo

Our last evening in Havana before flying home. At 6 p.m., we meet Lisandra (26) and her friend Mayo (27) in front of Hotel Inglaterra. We first met Lisandra on the beach in Varadero on our very first day. When we returned to Havana yesterday, I called her. It’s pouring rain. Lisandra and Mayo wave down two bicycle taxis and negotiate the ride to a nearby pub for about 3 CUC total — a fair price. But when we arrive, each driver demands 3 CUC. Although I suggest we split the di

We return to Havana and this time find accommodation in the old town. Narrow streets, worn facades, balconies hanging low above cobblestones — Habana Vieja feels both crumbling and majestic at the same time. Marek is determined to visit Casa de la Música, located near our previous place in the city center. Last time we skipped it — we had been told that in the evenings it’s expensive and mostly full of tourists. Turns out, both are true. The entrance fee is high by Cuban stan

We wake up to discover that the sun has disappeared. Dark clouds roll in, rain begins to fall, and the wind picks up. A storm settles over Varadero — and refuses to leave. Marek decides to head out anyway and walks toward the tip of the peninsula. There, in a park area, he stumbles upon a pile of bones. Ancient ones. Human bones. Stacked together. Nearby, he also visits an impressive cave — apparently Cuba’s oldest tourist attraction, open to visitors since the 1860s. In the

We’re lying on the beach when I notice a local girl some distance away — darker skin, light blue bikini, quietly sunbathing. After a while, she walks into the sea and stands there. I follow, step into the water nearby, and after a moment of silence, start a conversation. I invite her to join us for a card game on the beach. We choose “Turakas” — a classic Estonian card game — and attempt to teach it to her. She never quite fully understands the rules, keeps playing the wrong

We take a bus to Varadero — a resort town stretched along a 10-kilometer strip of beach. For the first time on the trip, we arrive without having booked accommodation in advance. At the bus station, we expect to be surrounded by locals offering rooms, as has happened elsewhere in Cuba. Instead, only one young woman approaches us. In polite English, she offers accommodation at a reasonable price. We follow her to take a look — and it turns out her family home is just near the

Che Guevara was an Argentine revolutionary and committed leftist who, through guerrilla warfare tactics, helped overthrow the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 — ultimately replacing him with the Castro regime (or, more precisely, the rule of the Castro brothers). Santa Clara is the city where Guevara achieved one of the decisive victories of the revolution. Here, together with his small guerrilla unit, he famously derailed an armored train carrying hundreds of Batista

We have some doubts about our next destination, but in the end we stick to our original plan: visiting Santa Clara , a city of about 250,000 people and home to one of Cuba’s largest universities. Our hesitation comes from the fact that, apart from monuments connected to Che Guevara, there isn’t a huge amount to see there. Still, we’ve heard that the city has a youthful atmosphere thanks to its large student population — something a bit like the vibe in Tartu back home in Est

Since Trinidad has turned out to be such a pleasant place, we decide to extend our stay by two more days. Another beach day feels like the right way to enjoy it. On our way back from the beach, we meet an American couple, and the four of us share a taxi back to town. Americans are actually quite rare in Cuba. Without special permission, visiting the country is still technically prohibited for them. During the Obama administration the enforcement became more relaxed — the enor

During the day we take the guitar we had borrowed two days earlier and head to the park and the main square to play a few songs. Fortunately, we don’t attract too much attention. Unlike on our first day, when someone immediately suggested that we perform in a restaurant that very evening — without even hearing us play first. In almost every restaurant where a band performs, the musicians go around collecting tips from the audience and offering their CDs for sale. It’s quite p

The Dutch girls Sanne and Eline manage to negotiate us a taxi to a nearby nature park, where we set off on a roughly four-hour hike to a waterfall. The trail takes us through lush countryside and quiet hills before finally reaching the waterfall — a perfect place to cool down after the long walk. Of course, none of us can resist the chance to jump into the water and swim beneath the falls. After the hike we are completely exhausted. Still, as has become our nightly routine in

After briefly exploring the city, Marek decides to rent a guitar from the local cultural center for two days. The rental costs 20 CUC, while buying a new guitar would cost 55 CUC. Carrying a guitar around all the time would be inconvenient, but even walking through the streets with it creates quite a stir and attracts plenty of attention. Later, Marek asks our hosts Luis and Yise if it would be possible to arrange a private salsa lesson. They say yes — a teacher will arrive a

Since Trinidad lies on the other side of Havana, our route takes us back through the capital. The journey ends up being even longer than expected — almost ten hours in total. Fortunately, the bus makes a proper lunch stop along the way at a surprisingly Western-style restaurant. For 10 CUC, you can help yourself to as much food as you like from a Cuban-style buffet. One older Englishman who started the journey with us and shared our table finishes his meal and returns to the

In the morning we find a Lada taxi whose driver agrees to take us to a beach about 60 kilometers away, wait there for several hours, and then drive us back. The roads along the way are rough in many places — about as bumpy as some streets in Tallinn — but we still manage to get there and back without any problems. Later that evening we take another taxi a few kilometers outside the city to attend a party held in a cave, which one of the locals had recommended to us the day be

On our hostess’s recommendation, we book a three-hour horseback tour through the countryside. My horse is named Alejandro. The ride takes us to a tobacco farm, where we are offered the full local experience: smoking a cigar, tasting a drink made with freshly pressed sugarcane and rum, and watching how cigars are rolled by hand. Since the horses know the trail by heart, the ride itself is wonderfully relaxed. We can simply lean back in the saddle and enjoy the scenery while th

A few minutes after waking up in the morning, I receive a text message from Sonja:“Where are you?” Earlier we had already noticed that Marek’s phone clock had jumped one hour ahead after connecting to the Cuban mobile network. I reply that we have just woken up and that they should go to the beach without us. Soon we realize what actually happened: both my phone and Marek’s phone have now jumped one hour behind the real time. An unfortunate mix-up — we completely missed the a

We leave Havana behind and take a four-hour bus ride to Viñales, a small town located in the famous valley known for its tobacco fields and distinctive rounded limestone hills. At the bus stop we are greeted by the elderly lady who runs the accommodation arranged for us by our Havana hostess. When we arrive at her house, we are welcomed with a glass of fresh mango juice. For dinner we go to a restaurant she recommended. As in nearly every respectable dining place in Cuba, the