I guess I went to Cuba because I could. While Americans could theoretically finagle their way to Cuba by going through other countries, it suddenly became much more straightforward with Obama’s normalization of relations (Thanks Obama). However, commercial flights had only been going for a few months before Trump started tweeting about wanting a better deal or the truce was off. At the beginning of December, I was greeted by a NYT article titled “Weighing a Last Minute Trip to Cuba” that discussed options in a new, uncertain future for travel to the country. I had no real other strong pull to go — I speak no Spanish and live in south Florida and as such had no cold weather to escape. But the fleeting possibility of it suddenly becoming more difficult was motivation enough for me to whimsically book travel two weeks out for four nights in Havana. Of the numerous airlines flying down, I chose JetBlue from Ft. Lauderdale for the very reasonable price of $208 and went the week before Christmas.

I began the ritualistic pre-travel preparation and anticipation that some argue can be better than the trips themselves: researching the neighborhoods for the best place to stay (I chose the pricier Habana Vieja for $46 a night on Airbnb), places to eat, drink and go and everything else I could consume. Frommer’s Cuba was a good start, and the new local’s guides on the Airbnb app were a good planning tool. I also had the prescience to download the entire city data of Havana on the TripAdvisor app for offline use, though this would get me into trouble later. With a vague idea of an itinerary, I woke up Monday and headed to the airport for my 12:15 flight, arriving to the terminal at 9:15. I showed up at the international terminal only to realize I was at the wrong one, but I felt lucky I was not waiting in the enormous Cuba lines under the Spirit flights as I went to the correct place. Unfortunately, I arrived at the correct JetBlue terminal to find the line for check-in for Cuba flights snaking far out the terminal into the already-hot Florida sun.

Two hours, a soaking-wet shirt and a regrettable decision to wear pants instead of shorts later, I had checked in and gotten to the security line, where I dashed through to the gate and arrived precisely at the boarding time only to have a delay because the flight crew was late getting off another flight. I was a bit worried that I seemed to be the only one checking a bag that wasn’t wrapped entirely in what appeared to be Saran Wrap, but there was nothing of importance in there.

The flight was uneventful, though I did experience my first Latino tradition of clapping when the wheels touched the runway upon landing. I, for one, would prefer to wait until the thrusters are off to celebrate, but I appreciated their enthusiasm. I exited the plane and suddenly found myself in a very foreign world only 300 miles from home.

Before getting to baggage, I went to the bathroom to change into shorts and found there was no latch on the stall to lock it. When I was waiting an unbelievably long time for my bag, there was a man in front of me inexplicably wearing a puffy winter jacket and holding a wrapped toilet seat.

Upon finally getting my bag, I walked out into the masses of people waiting, an even larger throng than at most American airports and stood in the line outside for a currency exchange to get enough for a taxi. The Cuban currency system is not exactly straightforward: they use two different ones, CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos) and CUP (Cuban Pesos). Unofficially, CUC are for tourists or luxury purchases and CUP are for the Cuban people and both use the general $ sign. At the time of writing, 1 CUC = 26.5 CUP. You generally cannot exchange foreign currency for CUP, but will occasionally get it back as change when paying in CUC. In speaking, “pesos” generally refers to CUP while CUC are referred to mostly as “couk” or “say-oo-say.” The “couk” pronunciation amusingly sounded a little like a Spanish accented “cuck” term popular among Donald Trump supporters. The conversion rates to CUC are somewhat opaque since you can exchange for it only in Cuba. I had read that the CUC was intended to convert 1 to 1 to the USD but that they instituted a 10% exchange fee on top of this, which was only partially true. The following were the only posted rates I could find, at the Hotel Nacional.

This means you get roughly $87 CUC for every $100 USD — a pretty lousy deal. Alternately, if you exchange your $100 USD before you leave for any of the other currencies listed, you get about $96 CUC. So already, us ugly Americans are getting gypped just by having greenbacks. I tried to exchange before I left at the airport, but the crappy kiosk at Ft. Lauderdale was out of every currency I requested. Next time, I will come with all my money in Pounds or Euros and not get screwed out of a couple of bucks off the bat. I had also read you might get a better exchange rate if you exchanged at a bank in town rather than at the airport or a hotel. I tried all of them and got the exact same .87, so I recommend doing all of it at the airport or doing any extra at a hotel where there isn’t the huge bank line.

The scene outside while waiting in line for some sweet sweet Cuban currency.

Speaking of getting screwed, it was time to get a taxi in to town. I read taxis should be about $20 or $25 (prices hereon will be in CUC unless noted). I finally let one of the many taxi barkers know I was interested, and he immediately found a driver, and they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries in Spanish, saying what I could only assume to be “thank you for getting me this gringo who will surely overpay.” I finally mustered enough Spanish to ask “Cuanto Queste?” (how much is it) and was greeted with usually it is $35, but for me, $30. I foolishly continued in English, meekly suggesting $20 to have him rapidly tell me $30 was the cheapest I would get and we needed to go now. I knew this was not true but it had been a long day and saw he was driving a new car with A/C, so I acquiesced. Only when I got in did I realized that not only was I sharing the cab with someone else, but we also had two other passengers squeeze in the back with me that needed to first be shuttled to another terminal. My haggling ability was off to a good start.