We wanted to see the faded grandeur of Cuba before Fidel Castro pops his clogs and there?s soon a MacDonalds on every corner. So, after doing fair amount of research (thanks HJ forum) SWMBO and I booked a flydrive holiday to Cuba.
If you haven?t got time to read further I?ll summarise my feelings here and now by saying DON?T DO IT.
We had learned that road signs were few and far between, sat navs banned and maps very difficult to source locally ? undeterred we bought maps here in London and bought a compass (thanks HJ forum again). We had just about every guidebook ever published including 3 editions of Lonely Planet ! I bought some Learn Spanish CDs and spent maybe 20 hours trying to learn the basics, as my knowledge of Spanish prior to this was limited to only the usual ?2 beers per favor?. The Virgin flight to Havana was very pleasant even though it was full (451 souls on board according to the purser) and we had 3 car free days in Havana itself. At check?in to the hotel we were told our floor in the hotel had had a water leak and we were upgraded to a better place for the night. We learned later that in fact one whole floor of our hotel was out of use and had been for weeks. No work was going on and I got the impression they needed to cannibalise that floor?s fittings for other rooms leading eventually I suppose to the closing-down of the place in years to come owing to the never ending shortage of materials and supplies. It goes without saying that in the 35 C heat the air conditioning didn?t work. We found this sort of dilapidated state in hotels time and time again all over the country.
The number and assorted types of old cars in the streets were far better and varied than I?d expected and the smell and dense fumes coming out of most of them was pretty bad. I guess they make up around 30% of all traffic in the country and are typically American 1950s and 1960s with a few Moskvitches and European makes represented too. The newer cars were Ladas, stretch limo Lada taxis and VW group modern ones. I?m no expert on old US cars but I guess they were all represented ? the problem was that usually where the original name had been spelt out in individual letters in chrome on the bonnet the letters had since fallen off and not been replaced. So you?d see a CHE - - - L - T , a HUD - ON, and a D- - GE. I drooled over one immaculate red Chevrolet Impala but its condition was the exception. There were plenty of 1950?s station wagons used as MPVs and they were usually crammed full with families. All the wood trim had usually gone and the cars re-sprayed all over in one colour. I didn?t see a single intact windscreen and a lot of quarter lights where replaced with solid plywood panels. Most tyres were bald and I picked up a thing or two about tyre construction too.
English cars were represented with a Ford Zephyr 6, 105E Ford Anglia, Austin Devon and a few Hillmans.
You?d see plenty of abandoned and cannibalised wrecks just parked by the road side where the owners had presumably just given up trying to keep them going. A lot of ex-Canadian yellow school buses were in use, but the broken windows, rust perforated bodies and bald tyres scared me. If you wanted to risk your life further you could try a Coco taxi ? a motorbike engine 3 wheeler with the driver out front wearing a crash helmet and the unbelted passengers in a pod at the back.
The car we picked up on Day 4 was a Seat Altea XL 1.6 litre poverty spec but with heavenly air con. I noticed plastic blanking plates in place of the side indicator repeaters and then found that no cars in Cuba had repeaters. This was clearly no problem as I soon found out that nobody bothers to indicate anyway. Just as we pulled away from the hire place SWMBO read to me from the guide book that if a driver is involved in an accident involving an injury he gets locked up as a matter of course until proven innocent ? just what I wanted to hear as we edged into the surprisingly busy Havana traffic !
Driving though a tunnel we learned that headlights aren?t used but hazard-warning lights are ? bizarre. Apparently it?s illegal to have your lights on during the day.
We got lost after 10 minutes and couldn?t find the way to the Autopista (M-Way) going south-west, so decided to do a 360 turn at the next roundabout. There are police on nearly every street corner (no exaggeration) and we got stopped by one. His English was worse than my near non-existent Spanish but it was clear we had done an illegal manoeuvre. Apparently roundabouts are only for turning off and not going around. He demanded my licence, car hire contract and passport, and after an age he got out his little book and I wondered if an on-the-spot-fine or a week in the nick were coming next. Thinking quickly I thought I?d maybe momentarily distract him by saying how lost we were in his beautiful city bla, bla, bla. He turned over his notebook and drew directions for us on the back of it and we were away ? phew ! We were maybe 5 miles from the start of the Autopista in the middle of Havana and saw only one sign to it at around the half-way point which was reassuring. We found the slip road leading to it by going past it and wondering what those crowds of people were nearly blocking the way down it ? hitch-hikers (more on them later).
Clover leaf junctions are rare and so after we did a perfectly acceptable U-turn (must have been as we copied others) on the dual carriageway we drove past our slip road which was now on the wrong side. Another U-turn later and we were on the right road. No signs, 3 lanes each way, plenty of potholes and pretty much deserted until we came to an over-bridge, where again there were hordes of Cubans sheltering from the sun in its shadow looking for a lift. I slowed down from my 70kph to walking pace trying not to kill or maim anybody and caught sight of the government appointed yellow uniformed hitch-hiking marshal. Ours was a hire car with a tourist red numberplate and we weren?t stopped. The marshal, who I saw was equipped with a clipboard with destination lists, has the power to stop all state vehicles and force the drivers to give lifts. A lot were empty trucks with people standing in the back and the crowd happily gave help to the aged and infirm to get onto the trucks. On our travels we saw all sorts of vehicles crammed with hitchers.
The Autopista presented another difficulty ? it may have had 3 lanes, naturally with no lane markings ? so ?3 lane width? is more accurate, because the slow lane often had horses and carts, bicycles and pedestrians in it coming toward us going the wrong way. Sticking to the fast lane was not on either because we found it to be used as a hard shoulder more than once with vehicles stopped in it having wheels changed. U-turns through gaps in the central reservation hedge were often done too.
Turning off the Autopista was easier because there was always one sign, no countdown markers, no repeaters just one sign before the slip road. If it was a major turn off you?d know by the crowds hitching at that point, though you?d have to decide for yourself if you were going left or right afterwards.
In maybe 800 km ? 1000 km we got stopped maybe 3 or 4 times by police checks and I didn?t see a single sales or repair garage, only the odd filling station where petrol was 95c per litre (54p at 1.77 CUC to the £).
A small comfort was that even dual-band mobile phones worked and the signal strength was excellent absolutely everywhere.
I didn?t run over anybody, the car was returned in one piece, and we got our deposit back ? what a relief.
Never, ever again.
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Great post
We were there 8 years ago - those who hired cars complained of bits going "missing" each time they parked....
MVP
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So let's get this straight. You visited a second world, communist, embargoed country to see the 'faded grandeur'. Fair enough, and I wouldnt mind visiting myself. Nice account of your visit by the way.
However, you then seemed outraged that the roads were not identical to those back home. I can only assume you fully expected driving down the autopista to be indistinguishable from pootling along the M4!
What on *earth* did you expect? I don't know if you go abroad much. If not I can well understand a certain degree of culture shock. However, if you wanted things to be the same as here, you could have saved yourself the bother and stayed at home.
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I think you're out of order, ddr. I found the OP's post highly entertaining and informative and not at all "outraged" - I felt he was just expressing the kind of culture shock we'd all experience in that situation.
What puzzled me a bit, though, was a certain ambivalence of tone - the post was so full of joie de vivre surely there must be a feeling of satisfaction in a challenge successfully met, yet we are advised against trying it for ourselves.
A marvellous read!
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I too enjoyed that report, thankyou DE.
Its a country we thought about visiting, and its refreshing to read what a normal (as anyone in the BR could be) person found, makes a change from the endless drivel some professional travel writers come up with.
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Thanks for the kind comments, I wanted to "give something back" to the forum...... I could have typed a post 3 times longer but thought I'd better keep it to a manageable length and try to limit it to motoring.
But I'm afraid there's always one not in tune....and this time it's you ddr.
ddr, my post was a simple and personal view of what I experienced and how different it was to the UK. I thought some might want to read it and I thought it might be relevant to anyone planning a trip to non-Varadero non-package Cuba.
Your slight is not appreciated - as I said there's always one.
When I have time I'll post about me crossing the border into East Germany, driving on the excellent then (but poorer now) motorways and being stopped 3 or 4 times by gun toting soldiers standing in the slow lane. Then I shall write about the German Shepherd dogs sniffing me and the brutes in uniform searching me on a train on another crossing to the East. Maybe I could tell you about the black market petrol buying with US dollars when I was driving in Poland in the early 1980's - shame you didn't see the hotels there then.
Another time I'll post about the state of the toilets in China and the dentist's surgery when I was there 25 years ago or maybe the squalid conditions I saw in what was called Yugoslavia when SWMBO and I drove around it in 1983 in our brand new Escort XR3i.
No. I won't bother and I'll just remember the relaxing and countless times I've been to the Caribbean and the thousands and thousands of miles I've driven to my house in France.
There you go - I feel much, much better now.
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DE, good response to ddr. All of your other experiences soundsfascinating - I for one would love to hear about them.
There is a fine line between different but fantastic and different and awful. We've just got back from Morocco and Marrakech. Most of the time was spent trekking, but we had a couple of memorable days in Marrakech, which was hectic but great, and a couple of crap days in Oukaimden, when I felt ill and it wasn't good.
One highlight was seeing a line of five kids on rollerblades, in a line hanging onto hips, with the front kid hanging on to the wheel arch of a mercedes taxi doing about 30 mph, the back kid doing tricks. At night. On the busiest street in the city. Was quite a sight.
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DE, a suggestion, i should imagine many of us would be very interested in hearing of these experiences, i certainly would.
Would you please consider writing a blog, with comments etc enabled and maybe posting a link to it on here.
I'm sure the mods would be as interested as any of us in your fascinating travels, and wouldn't mind the link?
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Thanks very much for the report DE.
A fascinating read. Glad you made it home without a spell in prison!
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No problem in a link, and certainly post your motoring related holidays or other trips here or abroad. Escapism from the daily diet of fuel and road tax moans and groans is very welcome !
Edited by Pugugly on 28/05/2008 at 21:31
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drove in Cuba 4 years ago . I would add to Dulwich Estate's account that driving at night is an absolute No - no . The main road heading East towards Guantanamo province was unmarked - and suddenly became a rutted dirt track - barely driveable in a brand new hired Yaris at 10 mph
I have a great picture taken on the Cuban motorway of a couple on a bicycle with their dog running next to them and a freshly - slaughered pig on the rear rack - on the actual ' motorway . If somebody can explain how to upload one easily I will attach it .
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Most enjoyable DE. I would also like to hear more from you and others who have had more unusual driving experiences. I think we could all benefit from a few moments distraction from the current realities of daily motoring life in Britain. If the notion takes you, please tell us more.
SS
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Thanks DE - an interesting account. LIke others I read it as a warts and all account without any of the overtones perceived by ddr
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A thoroughly interesting read. Please do write more about your driving experiences, I would be most pleased to read them.
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DE - I didn't say you shouldn't have made that post, Just something about what sounded like an bit of fun, followed by 'never again' gave me the impression of a disgusted package holidaymaker. If that's not you I apologise for the insinuation.
I remember driving a clapped out Oltcit in Romania. Fine out in the country but jostling amongst the trams in the towns on wide boulevards with no lane markings and lanes that end abruptly in a parked car, in something where the brakes need about 3 good pumps worth of notice before they work, a different experience altogether.
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Fascinating and really informative - thank you so much: and very well defended, especially in your reference to the Deutsche Demokratische Republik !!
I have always had a soft spot for the Austin A40 Devon - my parents had one from new in 1951 (when I was 3) and kept it for 8 years, so it was part of my childhood. With OHV, 4 gears and independent front suspension it was way ahead of equivalent Fords.Hillmans and Vauxhalls. Good to know that at least one survives in Havana.
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Come on DE, you've whetted our appetites now. You could be the new Growler, if you remember his postings from the Philippines.
Edited by nick on 29/05/2008 at 10:02
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Thoroughly good read, thanks for posting it.
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Yes an entertaining and informative read, DE.
Some aspects sound similar to Egypt, with regard to standards of driving and vehicle maintenance. Cairo is a place where I'd rather take a bus or taxi than drive myself!
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Excellent DE. Please write more of your earlier motoring travels.
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Thanks again all.
When I said ?Never, ever again? I suppose I meant it to mean that although a DIY tour of Cuba was a great and worthwhile experience, the anxiety about getting lost, running out of fuel and possibly being locked-up wore us out in the end and I wouldn?t really want to repeat it.
Up until now I?ve always put blogs in more or less the same category as those round robin letters you get at Christmas from those ever so busy friends who only have the time to personalise the greeting with a hand written name on the top. They can be pretty boring and full of self-interest. But now that it looks like I might have a willing (??) audience I?ll certainly think about getting the little grey cells working. The trouble is the old grey cells die off and don?t get renewed, so my memories of a lot I have done are fading. The fact that we only recently returned from Cuba made the write up pretty easy. It could be that I just end up with a few anecdotes but no real story. I?ll dig out the old photos and maps and give it some thought. But no way can I ever emulate The Growler ? his posts were superb.
By way of background, even though we had little money (can I hear those violins somewhere?) my parents were keen travellers and my Dad a keen motorist as well. So, over something like a 10-year period, we went camping in plenty of European countries very much on the cheap. I was navigator with my mum in the back very often asking us to slow down. The car (always a Ford) was packed with maps, a tent, and plenty of Vesta dried food packets and we often had jerry cans in the back because this foreign petrol was expensive too! Some of it, particularly in the East, was low grade causing lots of pinking so we mixed it with 5* from home.
When I finished University I no longer stayed with my parents but just followed on from where they left off and more or less finished off just about most countries in Europe. As the years have passed and the body became a tad weaker but the bank balance better we?ve taken to using hotels and often doing long haul fly drives.
A quick thought brings up some strong memories like driving through Death Valley (IMHO much more interesting than the boring Grand Canyon - seeing the pictures is good enough) and worrying that we had no mobile phone signal. Suddenly finding Geiranger Fjord in Norway by accident on a car ferry crossing sticks in the mind as does crossing the Alps using the mountain passes before all those fancy tunnels were built. Another more recent memory is driving 4-up in Barbados in a Hyundai Atoz and finding the car just wouldn?t climb some of the hills. The passengers had to get out and walk while I drove up the hills alone.
Give me some time and I might be back.
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