Mission Impossible

July 27th – Day 1

If you were to pick someone to sneak into an enemy country, I would probably be the last person you would choose. The problem is that I’m really not a good liar. I’m pretty bad at thinking quickly on my feet normally, and if you add in the fact that I am not a morning person and I only got 3.5 hours of sleep, things get even worse.

Caryn drops me off at the airport terminal. Queue mission impossible theme song. I walk into the airport feeling totally nervous and paranoid, thinking that any moment I will be apprehended. Walking up to the counter, the guy asks where I am traveling to today. My brain grinds to a complete halt. I stare at the guy for a while. I blink a few times. He stares back. Finally, I muster up the only response that comes into my head which is “huh?”. Phew, that’ll stall him for a bit. The second time he asks me where I’m going, I’m much more prepared and tell him that I’m going to cancun. Crisis averted.

Of course, this continues on for the rest of the day. Each time someone asks me a new question like “what hotel are you staying at in cancun?”, “how long will you be staying in cancun?”, “are you meeting anyone there?”, etc… my half-awake brain struggles to pump out an answer in a somewhat reasonable amount of time. On the plane, I’m trying to read my Lonely Planet Cuba guidebook discreetly and it even has a homemade book-cover on it so people sitting next to me don’t ask questions.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, I get to mexico. Going through Mexican immigration, I’m super nervous, even there’s not really a reason to be. They look at my citizenship papers without any problems. Now I have only 2 hours to clear customs and hopefully get a ticket to Havana for tonight, or else I’ll be stuck in cancun. The customs line takes ages because they have to scan the luggage of all passengers from Amsterdam. Finally I get through, run over to the ticket desk and by a stroke of luck, buy the *last* available spot on tonight’s flight.

The flight to cuba is uneventful, and finally I make it. Mission completed. By the time that I change money and get a cab into town, it’s been 18 hours from the time I got dropped off at SFO. What a day…. But my day isn’t over. It’s midnight in havana and I have no hotel. The cab driver drops me off at the place I want to stay, but they end up having no rooms. Crap, how am I gonna go looking for a place at this time of night. Luckily, the guy tells me he knows of a Casa Particular that I can stay at.

Basically, in cuba, some people rent out rooms in their home to make some extra money. This is usually a bit cheaper than staying in an actual hotel, and is also a great way of seeing how people here live. I agree, and soon some guys takes me through havana’s dark streets to his home. Havana has very few streetlights and walking around at night it was hella dark. It’s kind of an eerie introduction to a city you’ve never been to before. As we walked, I noticed that there were tons of people out and about. Little groups of people sat around on curbs, on their doorsteps, and elsewhere… which is kinda odd for past midnight. Oh, and it was HOT. Like about a billion degrees, maybe even more. Wow, if it’s like this at 1am, what’s it gonna be like during the day?

I drop my stuff off at the Casa which costs $25 a night, and then tell them that I’m starving. Anywhere to eat at this time of night? The guy then takes me outside to walk through havana’s dark streets and search. First few places we check are closed. Finally we get to a Paladare, which is basically a restaurant in someone’s house (another way some Cubans earn extra money). I get dropped off there, and then the waiter tells me what they have. My choices are: pork, chicken, or seafood… but they’re out of pork and chicken. Um… I guess I’ll take seafood. Well, turns out the shrimp are $20. $20!!!! Dude, that’s more expensive than many American places. But hell, it’s 1am, I’m starving and I have no other choice. Ugh. The shrimp end up being very so-so, with rice/beans, and a very sad salad. Man, if I keep buying 20$ meals, my money will be gone in no time!

After dinner, I somehow manage to find my way back to the casa without getting lost. I have a fistful of keys to access the 4 doors I need to open to get into the house. I flop down on the bed, utterly exhausted. It’s been a hell of a day. I cant wait to go out and explore tomorrow, but all I want to do now is pass out. I crank the fan on high, but even still it’s too hot to sleep. There’s nothing worse than desperately needing sleep but not being able to fall asleep. But finally, eventually i pass out…