Day 1: Arrival

When we landed in Havana, immigration was interesting. There were two older gals who didn't speak a lick of English. With the help of Declan we did get in to the country. There are a number of things that you need to do prior to your arrival in Cuba. They include registering with the Cuban government among many other forms that you are unable to make any spelling errors on. If you do, you have to buy another form.

In the airport, there were dogs running around. They were running in and out of the airport without a care in the world. The Cubans did not seem to mind them at all. This was very foreign to us. Once we got to our luggage we waited and we waited. We were the last to get our bags. We were also pulled in to a screening area and had to explain what was in our luggage. We left in August and planned to be gone for 2 months. This means we brought all of the kids school supplies with us in a suitcase. We had about $1,000 worth of books and school supplies. Homeschooling is illegal in Cuba and they were Christian books. Thankfully, a worker from Southwest Air helped me communicate with security and they did let us through. It was the first difficult experience in the airport for us. The first of many!

We took a taxi from the airport to our AirBnb. I booked the AirBnb ahead of time and picked it due to its location in a quieter neighborhood in Havana. When we we got to the AirBnb I instantly regretted coming to Cuba. I could not stop sweating. Our “Luxury Apartment” was a far cry from the many things we took for granted in the USA. Long story short we did fall in love with Cuba but make no mistake it was really HOT. The two bedrooms each had a mini split air conditioner in it. The rest of the apartment was not air conditioned. A relatively small percentage of Cubans of air conditioning so the city comes to life when the sun goes down!

Once the crew was settled, Declan and I ventured out in to the city in search for water! We stumbled on a national grocery store. Every Cuban family has a ration card and are given a set number of food based on the number of people in their family. They are assigned a grocery store and that is the only place they can get groceries. We waited in line to go in and then they said this is not for you and made us leave.

Cuba is very much a communist country but there are some capitalist stores in Havana. They are much more expensive since virtually everything in or out is controlled by the government and the United States doesn’t allow trade with Cuba. Resources are in short supply. We saw this time and time again while we were in Cuba.