The classic thing to do in Havana is to hire a classic car. On this day we went to Cueva De Saturno and Varadero beach. In Havana, you smell a lot of exhaust. You also see a lot of public buses broken down on the side of the road. It was a 3 hour trip to the cave and to the beach. We spend $200 USD for the round trip ride. The entire family was nursing a stomach bug. I don't know if we drank or ate something that did not agree with us but it was not fun. I was being very cheap the first week and boiling water and then drinking it. This took a long time and it did not taste very good. We were all hurting a little bit and toilets were in short supply on this day.
We were able to see smaller towns on the drive. There was a lot of Fidel Castro propaganda throughout Cuba. When we got to the Cave we came in our own vehicle before the resorts started busing people here. There was only a handful of people there while we were. When we were leaving, it got packed in a hurry. We really enjoyed the crystal clear water although it was cold.
After the cave we drove to Varadero and were introduced to our second scam attempt. Luckily, we were prepared for it. Our driver said he was going to take us to a nice place where the prices were not bad. He had to pull over and ask for directions on how to get to the restaurant. That was flag one. He was definitely getting a kick back. Once we arrived, I asked for a menu before sitting down saw the prices and told the driver we were leaving now. Another slightly uncomfortable moment but we were not going to spend 5 days food budget on one meal! I had him drive us back to the beach and drop us off. We snagged hot dogs and ham sandwiches for a few bucks.
Varadero is a nice beach but highly overrated for my crew. There was a lot of people and everything was way too expensive. There was also no place to rent beach chairs. Since everyone was sick, we needed toilets. There was one public toilet a ten minute walk away and it was so disgusting. It also cost money to use it! We may not have universal healthcare in the United States but at least you can use a toilet for free! After a few hours we decided that we would stick to the beaches in Havana. They were much closer and the food there was sooo good. We made it home and walked to our favorite restaurant.
