another cliché
travel blog

After waking up at the obscene hour of 5am (and feeling amazing!) we got up and out and on the plane. Initially, we were turned away at the gate because our boarding pass didn’t have the proper stamps. Whatever, we made it.

I felt trepidatious arriving in Cuba, more so than Costa Rica, India, or even Thailand. Even though my Spanish is better than my non-existent Thai (or Hindi, or Punjabi), I felt exposed. Maybe because of my some-but-not-enough Spanish, I felt acutely aware of my incompetence. Or maybe because the guard-rails of American tourism were gone. Or maybe it’s because I’m going to a country that for most of my life I’ve been told is an enemy of the state. Maybe it was just knowing my cell phone wasn’t gonna work. It wasn’t the same near-panic I felt on the flight to Himachal Pradesh, but I was excited!

After landing, we made it through customs and border patrol very quickly, changed money, and got a taxi to the apartment. One of the neighbors was kind enough let us the gate, and we took a slow elevator to our floor. We found the room, rang, knocked, and waited stood outside, but to no avail. Figuring they had gone to breakfast, we left a note and went exploring.

We walked towards the malecon, then cut a loose circle back to the house, checking out a market on the way. Think farmers market with more interesting smells. We got back to the house and sat down outside to wait to meet up with the rest of the crew.

While we sat, the same man who let us in earlier came by and asked us what had happened. We explained we missed our friends and were just waiting for them. He introduced himself as Filiberto and struck up a conversation. He had recently moved to Havana to live in the place his daughter, a former anesthesiologist, had vacated. Several years earlier, she had met a man from Belgium vacationing in Cuba, and they had since married and she moved to be with him. The husband was able to support their entire family by running a grocery store. It was really heartening to hear how proud he was of his daughter for making bold moves, despite the life she had built here.

Eventually, Anand and Hanna showed up, so we headed up stairs. After getting water, talking story, explaining the cf of the past day, we got up and out and began wandering.

We grabbed lunch/breakfast at Paladar Santa Barbara. It was good, but didn’t compare to the Island Fusion Grill.

After, we stopped by the Hotel Nacional in a failed search for wifi, then successfully had a mojito. From there, we took a car to Habana Vieja to wander. True to recommendations, the iced chocolate beverage from the Museo de Chocolate was excellent, no matter how spoiled SF chocolatiers have made us. The drinking chocolate from Dandelion would still be my top recommendation, but when in Havana…

On the walk over, we wandered through a dense residential area, which was pretty interesting. People just hung out outside, talking with their neighbors, taking in the scene. The disparity between living conditions between the US and Cuba were obvious though, and we were approached by one person asking for money for his sons birthday. I guess when the average salary is US$20/month, asking obvious tourists for a buck or two is low risk/high reward.

After chocolate (and a coffee) we headed to El Bodegito de Midio. They had a live band playing, and Dina and I snuck in a dance! Afterward, we headed to dinner at Atelier. The food was fine, but better meals can be had for less money. Following, we walked by Gato Tuero, but the $5 cover was enough of a deterrent that we opted instead to head home, plan for tomorrow, and sleep.

Took off a little early from work to make it to the bank to pick up euros (Cuba charges a 10% fee converting USD to CUC, plus a 3% transaction fee, so depending on USD to EUR, it’s usually worth the extra conversion). Made it just in time, got dinner and took off for the airport.

Our flight from SF was delayed two hours, so we took off well after midnight. not at it mattered, but we had a five hour layover at FLL, so ere was plenty of time. After arriving at FLL, we got to our gate, got visas, and then got food. Once we got back to our gate, we checked the boards and found our flight delayed. then we got a torrent of emails telling us our flight was delayed further. then we missed our flight. I’m really not sure how that happened, but after scrambling and almost purchasing tickets to Havana on Spirit (and only seeing three people yelling at Spirit agents for their horrible service, we ended up working with JetBlue to get on the next flight out, at 8am the following morning.

Throughout all of this, we tried to get in contact with our friends in Cuba to tell them our plans had changed, but couldn’t get through. It’s going to be really interesting to see what not having reliable internet access is like.

With 20 hours to kill, we checked into our hotel, took showers and started looking for a place to eat. If you’re ever in Ft. Lauderdale, do yourself a favor and find a little hole in the wall called Island Fusion Grill. It might take a bit for your food to arrive, but it is more than worth it. I ordered the churrasco, Dina had brown stew, and all we could do was smile and eat. The owners, Diana and Jorge, are the sweetest people you could ever meet, and their ability to cook is remarkable.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and passed out at 8pm.

On the way home from climbing, there was a story on NPR about Fidel’s death and with Trump being elected, what it could mean for US-Cuba relations. I realized that, with Trump’s inauguration on January 20, this could be the last opportunity I have in my life to go to Cuba. So, I texted Dina asking if she had any interest in visiting Cuba. Uncharacteristically, she’d already gone to sleep for the night, but woke up the next morning and saw my text.

Turns out, Anand and Nadereh were just chatting her up about going. In fact, she almost texted me, but figured there was no way I would be able to get the time off. So uhh…Cuba.

edit: Tickets purchased. 11 days and counting.

After a lazy morning, we returned the snorkel gear and hiked the Sleeping Giant. It was gorgeous, but the heat had me struggle busing hardcore.

Woke up early, got some nosh and coffee from Java Kai, and then headed to Hanalei for a boat tour of the north shore and some snorkeling.

The trip along the north shore was beautiful, saw some spinner dolphins and the terrain Amy and I had hiked a few days previous. Seeing the remainder of the trail that we didn’t hike was an inspiration. If I ever come back, getting a permit and hiking the rest of the Kalalau is definitely on the list.

When we reached the end, we snorkeled for about an hour where we saw all manner of fish and a white tipped reef shark.

The boat was rigged up with a great sound system and the guide, Red, or the captain, Don, had great taste in classic rock. So that was cool.

Coming back from the boat tour, we hit up The Green Pig for lunch (solid food), checked out the Kapa’a farmer’s market, then killed time in Java Kai before heading to dinner at Hamura’s.

Following dinner, we drove along the south shore out to Salt Pond park in Hanapepe to stargaze. It’s amazing how many stars are drowned out by light pollution! Saw a bunch of shooting stars and identified a few different constellations. We did notice one puzzling thing I’m still working on figuring out. In Sagittarius, there was a still object that blinked once every 30 seconds. Not sure.

Slow morning. Woke up, made breakfast. We made ‘plans’ to get coffee and wait for The Green Pig to open up for lunch, then head to the north shore to check out the Kiluea Lighthouse, play a quick 18 holes of minigolf, and get some time in the water at Secrets.

So, we got coffee, lounged around Java Kai for a while. Stumps was still there, joined by the same chicken and an adorable little kitten on its way to the vet. Neither of us were particularly hungry, so we passed the Pig and headed straight to the lighthouse.

Post lighthouse, we stopped at the mini golf/botanical garden for a round. We learned that the Japanese immigrants to the islands were the ones to bring with the shave ice. So, woo fore bearers. Also, shout out to ze germans for bringing the fried meat and gravy.

Post golf, we headed out to Secrets. It was beautiful, but the break and currents looked pretty bad, so we contented ourselves with reading and, for a short while, feeding the mosquitoes. We then walked the beach (which despite being a nude beach, had more than just naked old men), and saw many other people with boards reach the same conclusion we had: maybe another time.

Still wanting to get some swimming in, we headed up towards Hanalei and did a bit of body surfing, followed by pizza.

We were home by 8 and happy about it.

After hiking the trail the previous day, we thought it’d be best to kick back. So we took it easy. Coffee in the morning from Java Kai, a bit of shopping around Kapa’a, lunch from Anatta’s, then lounging on the beach. Really good burgers from the Kalapaki beach hut, then home.

When we got home, just for shits an giggles, we went for a short run along the beach. Much to my surprise, it felt great! After dinner we did origami and drank the sparkling rosé Amy brought with her to toast her promotion.

Hiked two miles along the Kalalau trail to Hanakapi’ai beach, then two miles inland to Hanakapi’ai falls. The only other place on Earth that’s as pretty is the gorge we rafted through in Costa Rica. Absolutely remarkable.

Ate lunch (BLATs with Hawaian kings bread!), swam in the pool under the falls (Lepto be damned!), then hiked out. The heat was bad by the end of it and we were both ready to be done, but a few more miles wouldn’t have been the worst.

We got back to the house, showered, changed, and grabbed a nice dinner at Bar Acuda. Nice, but what you’re paying for is a nice meal while on vacation.

After lazing around for a bit, we went for a short run along the beach, then decided that today, we’d go stand up paddle boarding in the Hanalei River. We stopped for coffee at this place called Art Cafe Hemingway in Kapa’a. Ok coffee, but the food smelled great. I’m ambivalent about it’s existence. After driving up to Hanalei, we picked up the boards and launched right from the “Dock Dynasty”, that the outfitters had. Went up past the bridge into the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, and somewhere around the big bend found a nice little hole in the vegetation to have lunch in. We busted out the snacks, and promptly were snacked on by a whole cloud of mosquitoes. We beat a hasty retreat.

On our way back down river, it started to rain, which felt amazing! After talking about doing yoga on the beach, we felt inspired and started doing some on the paddle boards, to varying degrees of success. Right as we passed some people dining out on the shore, I attained a super stable tree pose, that eventually became less stable and ended with a loud “shit!” and the slap of my back against the water.

After stopping at the cars for water, we continued down towards Hanalei bay. The rain picked up again (still felt great), but we packed it in. Tomorrow we’re hiking some portion of the Kalalau trail, and today was supposed to be a rest day.

Went for a short run in the morning, then headed out to the Waimea Canyon for a hike. Traffic was terrible (it’s worse than I remember). Hiked the out-and-back two mile trail to the falls, for which we were woefully over prepared. 7.5L water between us, about 18,000 calories, head lamp, first aid kit….

After we got shave ice, (not as good as Hee Fat) the read on Russian Fort, until a bit before sundown.

We drove from there out to RumFire in Poipu and had poke and a drink as we watched the sunset. Grabbed dinner at Tortilla Republic (nothing special), then called it a night.

I read. Amy adorably curled up next to me and passed out cold.