Cuba Bound

So last summer my best friend Tim and I decided we wanted to go to Cuba. We had been watching the news and seeing that it was allowable now and that direct flights would start happening in the fall. There is something alluring about going to a place that you have been told your entire life that you cannot go. So we kept watching the news and trying to figure out what the process would look like. Finally in December we pulled the trigger and bought tickets from American Airlines that went direct to Havana, Cuba from Charlotte. By this time our group had grown to include my Dad and my sister Julie. Lyn had graciously agreed to stay back this time and watch our International students. I told her I would take her at a later date if it seemed like a place worth going back to. (Spoiler alert...It is!) Tim and my Dad let Julie and I work out all of the details so we got busy researching what the trip would look like. The more we researched the more we saw conflicting information. If you do a google search most of the information that comes back is pre-2016 when you had to have guides and you also had to arrive in Cuba from another country so we kept searching and after a few weeks we had a room through Air BnB and a general plan for our trip.  You can see the listing here. (Our Room) We really wanted to stay in an Air BnB instead of a hotel. We had heard that the hotels were expensive and sometimes a little rundown. The hotel near our room was about $300 a night. Our reservation gave us an entire house with 4 bedrooms for $150 a night. Each bedroom had its own bathroom, fridge and air conditioner. Plus it included a host that turned out to be very helpful. The more we researched we quickly learned that this trip was going to be different from any other trip we had taken. In Cuba at least right now there are no US Businesses which means you cannot use credit cards or atm cards. This means you have to guess how much money you will need and be prepared to carry it around with you. Not ideal for sure. We also learned that you get a better exchange rate if you take Euros instead of US dollars. So we decided to take about $1000 a piece and hope for the best. It was more than was needed but since we were our own bank it seemed like the right amount. We all were not looking forward to carrying that much money around on a daily basis. We also learned that the water was not drinkable for us and to watch out for ice in your drinks as well. Finally the internet in Cuba is slow, scarce and a bit on the iffy side so contacting our loved ones back in the states would be iffy at best. So we are about to head to a country where we would have no access to extra money with little to no way to contact anyone back in the US. What could go wrong Ha Ha! Lets get this party started!