Cuba

My trip to Cuba was actually a slight accident—wait, let me explain. It was a friend of mine's birthday, and we had big plans to travel to the "Travel Instagram Hot Spot" Tulum, Mexico. After getting conformations from both of our jobs, pet sitters, and bank accounts, we realized we were not in the position to pay $966 Roundtrip to go to TULUM! I mean come on, $966 to fly into Cancun sounds crazy. I had to think on my feet where to next? It's one of my best friends birthday's and I realized she needed a break from regular life. Between me and her, there weren't many places we had both never been. After spending two hours looking at a globe sitting on my desk, I realized we had both never been to Cuba. After a quick search on google ( to make sure we were still allowed to go there), I realized this might be an option and she agreed. A week and half before the departure date we booked a extended weekend trip to Havana, Cuba. A roundtrip flight for $360 and an Airbnb for $260 left us a lot of money left over for some fun. We quickly googled, spoke to friends and used youtube to figure out all the things we needed before the trip. We came up with an excuse on why we were traveling to Cuba (Support of the Cuban people—that's why we staid in an Airbnb vs. Hotel). From Atlanta, we had to make a layover at either New York or Florida in order to get our visas (In the airport) to travel into Cuba. Our layover in Florida was quick and easy as well as the visa process.

We landed in Cuba it was HOT—not Atlanta hot or even Miami hot, but sticky, humid, frizzy hair hot. As soon as we landed we converted our money in the airport and hopped in an old school yellow taxi to our AirBnB. The ride from the airport to the hotel was a bumpy scenic route. So much history in just a car ride. We arrived in Havana, the beautiful city with a slight view of the ocean and rocky waves. There was also an insane amount of people waiting for what it seemed like to be the public bus transportation system. After a quick right turn onto a alley way, we were there. A bakery, a tattoo shop, some afro-latinos playing dominos and our Airbnb. We get buzzed upstairs and meet our host, a semi-young man with lots of style and suave denominator. He gives us a tour of the apartment—STUNNING; Ocean views, open concept, views of the oat dock and handmade art from the host (who is a famous cuban artist).

Now look we will be here all day if I break down the whole trip, plus me and my friend had some girl time and broke down a couple of times—no need to hear those stories. However, we walked around a lot! As former New Yorkers, we both was scared we were going to get lost but we didn't! We looked up some bars and restaurants before hand, which I would suggest because we only had WiFi for probably 30 mins per day. We had good drinks, which came along with good music and great hookah. Everyone was super friendly especially the cab drivers at night and people who worked at the bars.We went to a few historic sight, which humbled us, we needed that. The food however was mediocre MINUS La Guarida! It probably was the best food I had in a while, or was I just comparing it to everything else we had on the trip? We weren't able to go to the beach, the weather was hot but very strong winds and occasionally rain.

Cuba was a a trip in a time travel hot tub machine. At the time it was the exact trip we both needed. Relaxation, drinks, men who don't speak the same language as us and sites that would humble us. In other words one would recommend to see it while you can still get its authentic self.