Havana

[Saint]

Jaimito,

Thanks for the compliment. I did post some photos in the photo section. I'm sure the vast majority of guys aren't interested in seeing non-chica photos but Jackson can delete them if he sees fit. I won't be offended.

I like posting vivid details on places I go. I must be getting older because I haven't really felt like seeing 3-4 girls a day like I used to. I have been enjoying getting out and seeing the places I'm visiting and doing more touristy things.

Yes, I avoided Frank after that first bad experience. I don't like people like that. Plus we found him annoying and everytime we asked him to help us with something he seemed like he was going out of his way to do it. On the positive side he did speak English pretty good. For all I know he is a good guy but I didn't want to spend too much time with him after that bad experience. I'm sure he can be very helpful with helping get girls. I just prefer to do things on my own sometimes. To me, having a guide find all your girls takes away from the experience. I still laugh at the guys in Rio that basically have their hands held while a guide takes them from terma to terma. To each his own.

Cuba is actually a cheap destination. Much cheaper than other spots for things like housing, food and some other things but things like taxi's were higher at $5 or $6 for some destinations. Girls prices are about equal to some popular destinations for hot hot girls. You can get streetwalkers for much less I'm sure. I wouldn't know. The costs of renting a car can add up.

The funny thing is because you're forced to bring so much cash you are constantly worried you'll run out. I found myself counting my cash every couple of days even though I brought more than enough money. Bring double of what you budget just in case.

I still have yet to find a place as easy and wonderful as Buenos Aires, Argentina. BA has it all. Great apartments/hotels, great restaurants, great clubs, great architecture, good shopping, great nightlife and the costs of taxi's is very very cheap and plentiful. If you're going somewhere just for sex it's hard to beat Buenos Aires. Good luck.

[Jaimito Cartero]

Saint - That's one of the best reports I've ever seen. Some pictures would have rounded out the report, and made it perfect.

The best thing about the report is the full aspect of Cuba. Not just "find the chicas and bang them", but the downfalls to going to a repressive country, dealing with the cops and the pitfalls of dining too.

It seemed you treated Frank a bit too kindly. If I had hauled that much stuff, a genuine thank you would have been nice.

Cuba doesn't seem to be an economy destination. Given your report, I might try it for a week sometime, but I think for longer trips I'd stay in the more economical Thailand or Argentina.

[Sean 007]

Saint, China...excellent reads!

I've stumbled across this website several months ago and I love reading about everybodys experiences. I have been to Cuba many times in the last 7 years. I'm totally in love with this place. Last years visitation was one of my best, reason being is that we travelled to the south of the Island (Cienfuegos, Pinar Del Rio). We stayed at beautiful Casas (homes) and we had a personal chef that cooked us the best meals I or my budiies ever had. Salad, rice, potatoes, fish, lobster and home made ice cream, all for $10.00. I've had many, many home cooked meals (lobster) in Cuba and this chef was the best. Several years ago I went out with a girl down there for 1 year. I'm 36 yrs she was 26 yrs, total model material, but after some time I decided to let things go. But seeing and staying in her small town, was the life. I rented a house on the ocean for $15.00 a night My next door neighbour was this guy from Panama. He bought a 2 story home for $5,000. He married a Cuban girl and this allowed him to purchase this house. He is actually also married in Panama and spends 3 months a year in Cuba. Last year we had a whole bunch of us went down cause my buddy was marrying a girl down there, God what a party. One of the girls I met, begged me to put it in her ass! She wanted it in her ass more then her puss. We would at it then after about 2 minutes she would stop and place it in..God what a fantasy manifesting itself.

Anyways, we had no problems with anything. Everybody knows a private house where you can go, this last trip was the worst or best for the women. Worst in a cynical way of saying that they were everwhere and all over us. Since my friends and I have been down there so many times we make sure to treat these wonderfull people with respect and dignity. You show a Cuban girl a little class and be prepared. It's a total "mans" world down there. Every one of my Cuban male friends married or single have 2-3 girls. That's just the way it is and everbody knows it.

My friend who got married last year, after we all went back home he stayed on for another 2 more weeks. The girls 2 uncles took him out for a ride and brought him to an apartment with this nurse waiting for him. He said "what are you guys doing, are you nuts I just married your niece?" This is part of Cubas culture. The Cuban women hate it but there is nothing they can do about it, unless abstinence comes into play.

The culture is fantastic and I never seen people with so little yet so easy to smile. I'm from Canada so visiting this island is hassle free. At this moment, all inclusive for $370 cdn (plus tax) Check out www.sunholidaysca.com and www.itravel2000.com. All those Dominican Republic guys on the other board would go crazy to see the prices for all inclusive to go down there. Starts at around $400 cdn. Last year we rented a car for the week and stayed at the Casas $20 / night including a fresh breakfest. Were fortunate that we have made so many friends that everthing is taken care of regarding places to stay, eat, and the women, well thats never a problem.

We went to this great out doors club in a park in Cienfuegos. The entrance fee was $2.50 ea to get in and when you walked in you receive a bottle of rum and 4 cokes for each person! This is something that you will not find in Havana. As much as I love Havana, especially the "old" part the smaller towns are just to great. This club in the park (sorry, I forgot the name) had so many women and we were basically one of the few tourists there that night, (plenty of locals), that we all felt like one of the Beatles.

Another small town called Cardenas is where you'll get smothered with girls. After reading Saints posts, I know that if he experienced my trips that most of his impressions would be totally different. My opinion is to stay away fron the tourists spots, or use them (hotels) as a destination, rent a car and go exploring. Cuba is totally safe! It's one of the few places that no matter where you, find a small town, in a couple of hours you'll have a great group of friends...for life.

[Saint]

Havanaman,

No problems on the fibbing. I'm sorry if I slipped a little but I couldn't remember what I could/could not say. Good luck with whatever it is you are looking for. The key thing is being happy and if you are honestly happy then all the power to you. Just remember though that any relationship starting with lies probably will not survive long term. JMHO. Good luck though.

I honestly think the hottest Cuban girls don't live in Cuba anymore. Hot girls will find a way to either marry some Italian, Canadian or American dude or find a way to get out of Cuba on their own. Still plenty of gorgeous girls. Through all my adventures though it's hard to beat a Brasilera in bed. Those girls LOVE sex as much as any girl on the planet. The hobby scene in Cuba can't compare to Buenos Aires or Rio. It's like comparing night and day. Two totally different types of places. Just for the hobby itself I wouldn't consider Cuba to be comparable to places like Rio.

Regarding rental cars, it probably doesn't make much sense to the average guy only going for a few days. If you're staying in Havana Viejo or Vedado you probably don't need one but don't let people's comments about "an abundance of taxi's" fool you. Besides outside of major hotels Havana does not have an over abundance of taxi's. Even in Vedado I'd have a tough time sometimes getting a taxi. Good luck calling Panataxi on 555-555. The number was almost always busy. Other taxi numbers were busy too. If you're staying in Miramar which I'd highly recommend you simply must have a rental car to make things easy.

I ran into a lot of "budget" travelers that thought they could get by in Cuba for really cheap. You can get by cheaply here. No problems but if you blow it out and see a few girls a day, pay entrance fees of $10 - $15 per place, eat well once in a while at nice places, rent a car with full insurance and unlimited mileage you can still drop some money here.

[Organicgrowth]

saint,

i love your 'samuel peeps' style diary. excellent read.

i agree with all your points, including the age range and your conclusions about the hotter chicas being matrimonially bagged by rich tourists. beauty is in the eyes of the beholder at the end of the day, but i agree that ba has an exceptional supply of very beautiful chicas. however, i must confess that in terms of bedroom experiences: for me havana has yet to be beaten. these chicas are very well trained indeed, don’t as me how!

i still maintain my original views on the car-rental front: the abundance of taxis: both legal and particular is such that it makes the whole ‘rental-deal’ just not worth it… but again, its an individual thing.

sorry to have had to ask you to ‘fib’, that chica was and will remain a prize worth telling a ‘little white lie’ for… i’m planning another trip in a couple of months just to see her. omg, something is happening to the hunter / sportsman in me…. have i found “the one?”!!

regards, havanaman

[Saint]

** The daily diary is finished. I edited it to include all days now. Previously Days 8-11 were not completed. It's done now.***


I agree with China Monger about the ability of Cubans to find other ways to supplement their monthly salary from the government. I find it very hard to believe the average salary in Havana is only what the government gives them. Maybe it's that low in the small towns I went to but certainly not in Havana. It seemed like almost everyone in Havana had some side gig to make money. Also, remittances from family members living in the USA must be astronomical. I often wondered just how many millions of dollars a year flow into Cuba this way. It seemed like everyone had family living in the USA.

It's ironic but I didn't find the Cubans to be that "poor". They were one of the happiest groups of people I saw. Sometimes no matter how much money you have it doesn't equal happiness. The Cubans prove that. They just want to improve their lives and are waiting for Castro to die.

I do disagree with China Monger when he said that "Cuban girls are amongst the most beautiful in the world". Maybe a very small handful but in the overall population mix the super hot ones simply aren't there. I found much hotter girls in Buenos Aires and Brazil. We all have different tastes but I think it's fair to say overall there are much hotter girls in other places.

Another thing I noticed is the girls seem to be younger in Cuba than other places I've been to. Most of the girls you'll meet are between 17 and 20. It seemed like most of the hottie girls 21-27 either moved to another country or got married to some tourist and got out of Cuba. Still, I don't know where some of those young girls learned their moves in bed. Some of them were great. I guess it's like their ability to shake their bodies while dancing.

On the matter of rental cars. I would much rather prefer to have my own rental car. True, it's more expensive than hiring a guide with a car but remember that guide can't be with you 24/7. If you speak little to no Spanish definitely get a guide. If not, then just do it on your own. I loved the ability to do whatever I wanted and go wherever I wanted anytime I wanted. Good luck.

Saint

[China Monger]

Surfer

I've been going to Cuba for the past several yrs. I've never had a bad trip. I've made many terrific friends; in general I've found the ppl to be kind and generous.

The poverty is a bit overwhelming at first look. However, as I began to meet more ppl I soon realized that most ppl supplement their income on a secondary market. Whether it’s the cop looking for a bribe to let you off the ticket, the Taxi driver pocketing the cash cab fare, Prostitution, even medical care goes more smoothly if you grease the Doctor for the operation, the nurse for better attention and so on. But for sure these bribes are expected of tourists and Cubans alike. It’s the secondary or black market if you will, and it’s the only way most ppl make ends meet. In fact many ppl are so proficient in the secondary market that they manage not only the necessities but a few luxuries too, like cell phones and such, I even know a couple very industrious individuals who drive Mercedes. Now a Cuban is very limited on what the government allows them to own. In general they are not even allowed to own a cell phone or car, but the meet foreigners who will allow the Cuban to use their name for registration. Very creative.

As for the “Sporting Life”, To some extent it will depend on which city and when you happen to visit. The government periodically will crackdown on prostitution in a particular area. They’ve made such a crackdown in Veradero lately. They’ve been as successful there as anywhere. Since Veradero is one of Cuba’s crown tourist destinations they want to “clean it up”. Even in Veradero however Capitalism prevails, and if your diligent you can find purveyors of nocturnal entertainment. Nonetheless, if your primary objective is the “hobby’ you’d have better results in another City, If you show up in Cuba and find that the pressure is on in your location, just ask around and you will find another City that is wide open. It’s an easy matter to relocate for the betterment of you vacation.

That having been said, Habana (Havana) is generally a safe bet. Its all there, ST, LT or GFE and just about anything else to satisfy you personal proclivity. You’ll find an abundance of SW and Disco/Bar, pro, simi and amateur action. Cuban women are arguably among the most beautiful in the world. However, over the past year or so it seems to me that the quality of the average pro/semi has declined substantially – IMHO. Don’t get me wrong; the true beauties are still available. It’s just that it has been taking longer to find them. They’re almost becoming needles in a haystack. While in times past it may have taken a matter of minutes to find my dream GF, recently it’s been taking a matter of hours. On the bright side, even though it has taken some time, I haven’t ended up empty handed yet.

I don’t think ill get too deep into the pricing because it’s accurately available in prior posts. Here’s just a basic guideline.
ST - US$50.00-US$100.00 (pro/semi)
LT – US$100.00 and up (pro/semi 24 hrs)
GFE = Dinner and up
This is just a general guideline. As usual your cost will depend on negotiation and (never to be under estimated) your chemistry with your date.

IMHO the GFE is Cuba’s real attraction for the monger. In my experience my GF du jour “almost” never asks for $. But we generally spend a few days together. Maybe travel to another City for the weekend, of course dinning, drinking and dancing. The same stuff you’d probably do with any other GF.

In the final analysis, I really love Cuba and Cubans. I will be returning there for the rest of my life. Great food, drink, cigars and of course the women. I do believe that Cuba is getting more commercialized and will continue to do so. The prices are going up, fast. And the beautiful women are either getting out of the business or getting snapped up by foreigners IMHO. As Cuba continues to change, one day it will be known as a family tourist destination. Which is fine and I will visit then too for the drink and cigars.

That being the case I’m looking for some new monger grounds. I’ve found lots of great posts on WSG. So I’ll be checking out Colombia, Peru and Brazil among others this year. I hope to hook up with some fellow “Sportsmen” share some tales and cocktails.

If you need details like casa particular, driver or guide, pm me for the local tel numbers.

CM

[DownUnder]

Saint the best report on Cuba ever posted on WSG. Just one thing, I guess you must have loved the adventure of exploring Cuba in a rental car. I found it easier for to haggle for a flat rate from a taxis driver. I paid about $30 per day including gas as long as I stayed in Havana. That way I got a guide as well.

[Peterman]

Hi Saint,

Excellent report! Best I have ever read!
Although, I have not been to Havana for a couple of years you brought back some very fond memories. You are very correct, "it is the people". I hope to get back to Havana in the next 6 months or so. I have been spending all my time and energy in putting together something in Gambia. There again, also it is "the people". I really love the place. If you haven't experienced Africa yet Gambia is the place to try.
It is a shame that you did not review ALL the post about Havana. Back on 9-25-02 I posted about some great paladars. Like I said earlier I have not been there for a couple of years, the good paladars will still be there. The bad ones will go away. These should all still be there. I have been to Havana maybe 100 times, but usually only for one night at a time because of my job. You are correct, for the first three years of going there I found the food in the government establishments to be really bad. It took me some time to find the good paladars.
Once again, excellent report.

Peterman

[El Cubanito]

Saint,

That is an excellent report.

El Cubanito

[First Out]

Great Report Saint,

Although I have never been or probably never will visit Cuba, but I did enjoy the report and read every word of it. Almost felt like being there. Good writing and good info on mongering as well as the place.

[Monger22]

Saint What a great Cuba report. It will really help me next week on my first trip. From Cancun airport to Havana. How are you finding the girls in Cancun?

[Saint]

i just got done having a great steak dinner with a good friend. (thanks starfe!) he encouraged me to post my daily diary of my trip. i didn't get a chance to write in my journal every day. i have
an excellent memory though and reconstructed the days i didn't type in my journal.

if you've been thinking about going to cuba than bite the bullet and do it. don't let people scare you or tell you it's dangerous. it was easily the safest country i've been to. most of the guys that advise against it or warn against things have never even been to cuba. listen to guys that have been there a few times that can give you the flavor of this country. i'm no expert on cuba this being my first trip. i never claim to know everything and certainly don't. all of what i write no matter what city/country i'm reporting on is my personal observations. i always try to be objective and subjective with everything that i post.

as i posted before, don't come to cuba only if you are looking to hobby. there are girls everywhere but the sad reality is if you're looking for hot girls my personal opinion is there aren't that many hot girls. buenos aires and rio have a bigger pool of talent and it's easier to hobby in. come to cuba for the experience and not to hobby.

my diary and thoughts are below:

i will preface this report by saying i’ve always wanted to go to cuba. last year i almost bit the bullet and went. i even tried getting a legitimate visa just in case anything happened. no dice. it’s a long and tedious process and i just gave up and kept going to south america. south america is a long haul but there is no risk or hassle (besides the long flight). the flights are long but the time zone change is only 2 hours and the flights are at night so it’s not too tough. cuba was never far from my mind though.

i always take a 2-3+ week vacation in december/january. (last year i spent over a month in buenos aires and rio). i was thinking about going back down to south america and traveling through brazil with my buddy seaman. there were no award tickets for the dates that i wanted. a coach ticket was $1,700+. i started to think about it. i have visited south america over a dozen times in less than 2 years. i decided i’d go to cuba. i started my planning.

i could have used an award ticket on american to go through nassau, bahamas. i held the ticket. i heard there was some increased pressure from the government watching people going to cuba. i decided it was safer to go through cancun (which i’ve been to many times). no award tickets on american. i had to buy a ticket to cancun. probably better to save my miles since i’ve burned almost 250,000 mile this year alone.

i went ahead and contacted a travel agency in canada. nash travel. http://www.nashtravel.com there are several agencies but i liked them because they spelled everything out on their website. no hidden fees or gimmicks. they seemed to be straight shooters. i emailed them and martha emailed me back. martha@anashtravel.com or you can email jury@nashtravel.com or do both for quicker response. she told me the fees which matched the website. i gave her the dates and she said she would call back the next day to make sure the flights were available. next day she called and i gave her my credit card information and voila. the cost of the ticket was good at about $235 including the taxes and fees. also, important to note is that i had to change my ticket to extend it and paid a $50 change fee to nash travel. if you have to change dates at least you know it's an option. about a week later i received a confirmation in the mail along with a voucher to give to the air cubana ticket counter in cancun. very easy. however, i will point out that at times the emails from nash travel could be slow. they do have an 800 # though so you can call them and get ahold of them that way. i can't complain as they came through for me and for seaman.

next i wanted to book a casa particular since you can’t bring girls into hotel rooms. i would have preferred a nice hotel room but didn’t want to go through the hassles of bribes to get girls in. there are several people that said they had friends that could get rooms or recommended rooms but there were no pictures. i decided to do it on my own. there are tons of websites out there. so far this seemed easier than people make it out to be. beware that many say that you can bring girls only to say later after you book that you can’t. always only pay one day in arrears or at the end of your stay. never pay upfront. it is not required and is actually stupid to do.

one of the guys i met in rio and that have been to cuba several times gave me some good tips and advice. to be honest i didn’t really read all the trip reports of cuba but i did read a few. dongringo was good enough to call me and give me his take on the island. he gave me the email/phone number of his cuban friend, frank, that could pick me up and help me around havana if i needed it. i’m not big into using guides in places that are very easy to get around like rio. i planned on having him at least pick me up from the airport.

i emailed frank and he emailed me back within 2 days. he seemed to be a friendly guy that speaks/writes pretty good english. i emailed with him in english and spanish. he told me with my level i’d have zero problems there. i asked him if there was something i could bring from the usa for him. he told me it was unnecessary but if i had any old clothes or old shoes that would definitely be great. i was already bringing a ton of stuff and worried because the ticket voucher said there is a 40 lb. limit on air cubana and every additional lb. was like $1 or $2. still, i had a ton of nice clothing that i don’t wear anymore. i brought him some nice clothes. i highly recommend everyone that goes down to cuba bring an extra bag of clothes they don’t wear anymore. (not rags. give them good stuff. most of mine was really nice clothes that i barely wore. – ralph lauren polo shirts, blue jeans, etc.).

i’m conversational in spanish and i’d recommend everyone learn some before going to any spanish speaking destination. a good audio lesson program is the pimsleur series. there are no books involved. you just listen to 30 minute lessons in your home or car. there are 4 levels. levels 1,2 and 3 are 30 lessons. level 4 is 10 lessons. it’s not cheap at over $1,000 for the complete series but you can buy mp3 versions from various places for much cheaper.

before going down i bought several books on cuba. it is kind of hard to fathom how these cubans make it through life down there. it’s unbelievable that the amount some of us executives and professionals earn in 2, 3 or 4 hours the average cuban makes in a year!

down to the trip. i flew to cancun and partied there one night before flying to havana. cancun is a fun city that i’ve always loved. at the airport surprisingly there is no one at the air cubana desk until less than two hours before the flight. my flight was leaving at 4 pm so i got there at 1:30 pm since i didn’t know how bad the cubans are with organization. i’m glad i got there early. there was a long line forming and there was some worry some wouldn’t get on since yesterday the flight got cancelled for some reason.

while waiting in line i met a cool guy that lived in the us. he was relatively my age and we quickly found out we were both headed to cuba out of a desire to see the country and see some girls. let’s call him tad (took a day). we quickly learned you have to be alert 24/7 with cubans. they will try to extract money whenever they can. the guy in line that was giving the tickets looked shady and actually was. tad only had a fax confirmation that he paid for his ticket. the guy at the counter said that he didn’t pay for the visa yet and the security tax. tad thought he did but he said what i heard so many times on this trip. “what can i do, i have to pay”. then the ticket counter asked him how long he has been in cancun. i bumped tad to tell him something but he already answered. “yesterday”. the agent asks, “what time”. tad says 1 pm. the guy then says tad owes another $25 us. hint: always say you just got in today in the morning. if you’re in cancun more than 24 hours you have to pay an additional $25 security tax. they do not verify this and i think the guy keeps the money for himself.

in fact, when it was my turn i knew what to do. i also had my travel agent include that i paid all security taxes and for my tourist card. i recommend this because you can charge it on your credit card. pay for as much as you can with you credit card before so you can conserve the cash with you. he asked me the same thing about what time i arrived. i said i just got in earlier that day. he still tried to scam me. he gets on the phone and pretends to call someone about my tourist card. i just told him in spanish, “look! read the letter, i paid for everything. please issue my ticket, my friend is waiting”. you have to be firm with these people.

so you get in another line to actually get your boarding ticket and drop off your luggage. this was a long ass line. slow process. we literally were in line until 3:30 pm and the plane was originally supposed to leave at 4 pm. i knew my bags would be overweight since i was bringing a ton of stuff. tad was cool and didn’t have that much stuff. he offered to put one bag on his ticket. we did that and i was still over. you can have up to 30 kg. (66 lbs). anything over that is $2 per kg. then they give you a ticket that you have to go pay in cash to the other window where you got the tickets. they keep your passports and you don’t get it until you give the receipt. the guys tried scamming us with the security tax thing again but i said, “hey! you already tried getting us and i told you we already paid it. hell, they tried collecting it again from tad who just paid it.

predictably the flight was an hour late. before the flight, i called frank from cancun to tell him the plane was delayed and not to go to the airport. his sister answered and said she would tell him.

the flight was uneventful but i joked to tad that this was actually the one airline you want to pay attention to the flight attendant about how the flotation device works. it was funny during the flight the overhead bin drawers kept popping open. they were old planes that look like they have had their better days. still, it was a short flight at around one hour.

so you arrive. get in another long line and wait. i’m not sure why they are so slow into letting tourists come in and spend their money but they are. took a while to wait in line as another iberia flight arrived at the same time. definitely get the vip service that is available. ask at the ticket counter when you get your ticket issued. i asked some people if it was worth it. some said yes and most said no. don’t always listen to people. sometimes people let costs dictate their advice. definitely get the vip service option from cancun or nassau. seaman did it and didn't have to wait in any lines, had a few cuba libres free while waiting and they even got his bags for him. i would have gladly paid $25 for that. there might not be a time savings but who cares?! you don't have to stand around which is worth it for me.


customs let me right in. didn’t even ask what hotel i’m staying in. got the bags and were on our way. i told tad that we’d hook up that night at hotel havana libre at 11 and we both saw our drivers.

i meet frank and he seems nice. he does complain that he has been waiting 3 hours. i’m like huh??? i took the time and expense to call him from the airport in cancun to let him know the flight was delayed but he said that he left before then? huh? i called at around 4:30 pm that afternoon. i told him in multiple emails not to come to the airport earlier than 6:45 pm or so since my flight didn’t get in till 6 pm and it would take time to go through customs yet he still decided to come at 5 pm. it didn’t make sense to me but oh well. also, he didn’t help me with my bags and i had 3. apparently he hurt his leg or something. i’m not sure. a few times he forgot his cane and seemed to walk around just fine. it was no big deal but after flying and arriving with 3 bags it would be nice to get some assistance. especially when one of the bags was needed to carry his gifts in.

we get to my apartment and even though i asked ahead of time to the lady booking my apartment she said it was an “official casa particular”. it was not because there was no blue triangle on the door as the guide books said there should be. i didn’t care. it was clean but basically just a room. the bathroom was very small. also, believe it or not it didn’t have a toilet seat. many of the restrooms didn’t have a toilet seat. i’m glad i expected the worse before coming. whatever expectations you have about your casa cut it in half.

frank came up to the apartment and i gave him all the clothes, some socks that i bought that dongringo said he would like, and about 5 lbs of chocolate, gum and candy for his daughter. it really surprised me that he didn’t really even thank me for all that stuff. maybe he was busy, maybe his mind was preoccupied. good guy or not when someone goes out of the way to bring you a gift you say thank you and make sure the other person knows you appreciate it. he told me if i needed him to call him. i thanked him and told him i might call him tomorrow although this experience with him soured my opinion of him. oh yeah, i also paid him $15 for the ride which i'm told is the normal fee and later was confirmed when i took a taxi back to the airport.

the only reason i used him to pick me up was because this dude i met in rio said he was a good guy. frank's english was good and he probably was a nice guy but the bitching about waiting for me for 3 hours, mixed with no help with my bags, mixed with him not even saying thanks for the gifts i brought seriously soured my impression of him. i had to even pay extra on my bags because i was overweight. if i had to do it again i wouldn't have brought anything for a stranger. also, in the car i could tell he was disappointed that i spoke spanish as that probably meant i would be less reliant on him. he also called my last day bitching and yelling at me on my cellphone how i "forgot about him and why i wasn't using him".

i showered and met up with tad. i couldn’t reach a taxi or flag one down but i looked at a map and it didn’t seem far away. i just walked and asked people along the way. i cannot emphasize enough to learn some spanish before coming. personally i wouldn’t come to a country like cuba if i didn’t know any spanish. i met him at the hotel and he said up at the bar there wasn’t anything that early. we were both hungry. we didn’t have any of our notes or trip reports. all i could remember was “johnny’s rio club” was posted to have some hot girls.

we flagged down a taxi and told him to find us a restaurant or paladar close to johnny’s. he drops us off at a place that looked closed. i told him it’s closed and he tells me that it’s open to go in. hint: never trust people completely.. most don’t know what they are talking about. go with your best instinct. of course it was closed and we had to walk all the way around back to johnny’s i ask the front door guy if they have food in the place. he says no then directs me to ask some girls standing around. they tell me no and that the only food is a food stand around the corner in the park. hint: don’t eat food from those little places in the middle of nowhere. the food was truly horrible. hint: whatever low expectations you have about the food in cuba multiply it by 10. we ate quickly and i regretted eating that pollo “chicken”. oh well.

back to johnny’s. $10 us entrance. first drink was $5. there were many girls. some were hot. many 7’s, solid 8’s and a few 9’s. i saw one that i’d consider close to 10. immediately girls were all over us. i told them that we needed to relax a little. again, i can’t imagine not speaking spanish or be regulated to “si, no, $40, etc.”. tad couldn’t speak much spanish but he knew a couple phrases and seemed to understand quite well. i liked the scene here until i got some quotes of $100 us! all the super hot chicks were asking for $100 but you could counter down to $50 where you could take it or leave it. some hotties wouldn’t accept less than $100. this would be like the equivalent to the barbarella’s in rio. higher end girls that charged more than the other places. the 7’s and 8’s i think you could get down to $40 if you had good communication skills, the girl was somewhat attracted to you and the girl needed money. i talked to one that first asked for $100 then went to $80 then went to $50 all in the span of 5 minutes. i passed as she wasn’t up to my standards. many girls were around giving you the eye. i spotted one super hottie but she was the type that was hot and knew it. she was targeting all the dudes with money that were older or dressed nice. we made eye contact several times but i decided not to approach her. she looked like penelope cruz’s younger, hotter sister.

johnny’s closes at 2 am during the week and 3 am on the weekends. i thought if we waited till close to 2 am it would be better since the girls would be ready to deal. tad was a little unprepared as he booked his first night in hotel. it’s funny. one of the first questions the girls ask you even before your name is, “are you staying in a casa or hotel?” ha, ha! i told him he could go to a short term casa but he was on a budget. i think i gave him a scare in cancun when we were comparing budgets. my chica budget per day was more than his budget for everything. oops. i told him not to compare though since i kind of like to do things in extreme measures sometimes.

he ended up leaving alone the first night in cuba! hence the name (tad –took a day). tad was a very likable guy. we had a good time. he left me sitting with a new amiga i just met. she had a good body but it was hard to see her face since it’s dark upstairs. she was 19 years old. friendly. she asked for $100 and i only laughed telling her that i think she is sick. she laughed so hard she spilled her drink. i could comfortably communicate in and out of the clubs. i had no problems. i finally countered with $50 to which she accepted. she did ask for $3 so she could follow me since she was scared to go in the same taxi. no problem. her driver followed me and away we went.

the session was good. not great but good. bbbj and the usual that we’ve come to love and expect. she let me take some pictures of her with her clothes and bra and panties. i haven’t been taking pictures lately but i just bought a new digital camera and thought i’d break it in. while she was bbbj’ing the camera was laying there and she said i could take some without her face showing so i did. she was pretty enthusiastic but after a while she kept saying, “dame su leche –give me your milk” over and over. it was getting annoying. we finish up and then she starts asking if she can have a granola bar from the box i brought with me. . she starts collecting all this stuff i brought. (pack of gum, granola bar, fruit roll up, chocolate, pop tart, etc.) i had to limit what she could take. overall it was a good session.

i know people might question going to a place like johnny’s. keep in mind that i’m super picky and have never picked up a girl off the street. you might ask, “then why go to cuba???”. i didn’t just come here to hobby. i came to “experience” cuba. i’ve wanted to come here for a while.


day 2


tad and i decided to meet the next day where i was renting my rental car. as i posted above, i lost my wallet at the airport with my driver’s license before the trip. i figured it wouldn’t be a problem as long as i had my passport. wrong. hint: make sure if you rent a car you have your driver’s license. i prepaid with my travel agent and you can guess no refunds. i told him i’ll just have tad rent it. he looked a little hesitant at first but i said i already paid and he agreed. we put both are names on the contract.

in the meantime i thought i’d go activate my phone. i went to the cubacel office in vedado. it was closed. the guy at the door said the one in miramar is open in the melia havana hotel. this taxi driver is making a fortune carting me around. the taxi fares can add up. the guy was wrong. not only is there not a cubacel office in melia havana hotel (it’s across the street) but it was also closed. i had no choice but to go back to havana and wait for tad. another taxi fare. i spent $21 in taxi’s that morning.

i went to the hotel ingleterra and their internet was down. i went next door to the telegrafo hotel and their internet was also down. i had a sandwich at the café next to the ingleterra. there was some eye candy along the prado (the main street that has the hotels on it) but i had to go meet tad so i didn’t partake. it’s a beautiful part of town near the capitol. definitely walk around. havana is actually a pretty good walking city and if you speak some basic spanish you can ask directions. (of course, half the time the people don’t exactly know where a place is or they just give you a wrong answer).

i met up with tad and he agreed to put the car under his name. no biggie. i paid for the entire rental car, insurance, etc. he said he would pay for some gas which was fine. we got along very well as he was very laid back too. we decided to go to the airport to activate my cell phone. if you rent a car note that there are virtually no signs anywhere. you would think going to the airport there would be some signs on the road but there was not even one sign until we got very close to the airport. many streets don’t have signs. some have markers near the bottom of the intersection in stone. as long as you are comfortable driving in traffic or have rented a car in a foreign country you will be fine. some guy posted that he would never rent a car. if you’re used to traffic it’s very easy except for the no signs. keep in mind a car rental with full insurance during high season for a mid-size car is about $90 per day with full insurance and unlimited milage . it would take a lot of taxis to equal that amount. however, you have the freedom to go wherever you want whenever you want. i really enjoyed renting a car and had no problems whatsoever getting around. i’d highly recommend renting a car. taxi’s proved to be problematic finding other than the main touristy places like hotels.

we finally made it to the airport after asking about 4 people on the side of the road. you will notice tons of people hitchhiking. it boggles my mind how long and how far some of these people have to walk. use your discretion if you should pick them up or not. personally i wouldn’t pick up anyone except for a hot chic that needs a ride. there is no upside to drive some strange dude except the feeling to help him which could backfire on you. oh yeah, on the way a police obviously pulled us over because we had a t (license plate – tourist). we were following traffic yet he said we were speeding. it was obvious he wanted money. there is no radar that i noticed anywhere. how would he know if we were speeding? i told him i was following traffic. then he discovered that i didn’t have my driver’s license. he immediately dropped the speeding and all of a sudden driving in cuba without a driver’s license become a $40 us offense. no way in hell i was going to pay $40 us and i told him that. i told him that whatever fine i paid i was going to take a copy of a license after i got it to their version of city hall and get a refund. he acted like he didn’t know what i was talking about. then he said he could let us go for $10. i didn’t feel like arguing so i gave it to him but told him it just wasn’t right. he had me sign some ticket but he wouldn’t give me a copy. he kept it. of course, it was so obvious he was keeping it. he immediately becomes very nice and helpful after i paid the money. asshole. there wasn’t anything i could do since i was driving without a license. oh well.

i was irritated because i travel around internationally very often. i never let myself get scammed. i’ve been to rio seven times in the past year and not once have i been scammed.

the cubacel office is not located in the airport in terminal 2 where we were at. there is a small office near the cubacar rental office. i would highly suggest you activate your phone while you’re at the airport. the office hours were long at the airport. it turns out there is a cubacel office downstairs in the airport in terminal 3 where you would arrive. i was told it was free if you brought your own phone. wrong information. if you get the cheapest activation with no contract it’s $3 a day. if you rent the phone i think it was $5 a day. luckily the dude that rented me my car told me if you rent a car with cubacar they will give you a free phone (but you still pay the $3 a day. since i had my phone the nice girl waived the $3 and $5 a day fee. you just pay for your airtime which is highway robbery. it’s 75 cents a minute with no contract. this is what most guys will do unless you come to cuba a lot. even then it’s 50 cents a minute to call locally or receive incoming calls. you can deposit how much you want and they will activate your time asap. you get whatever you don’t use at any cubacel office before you leave cuba. that part is a good deal. however, i had a few dollars left and went downstairs to get a refund. the line was about 7 people deep and it wasn’t worth it.

we were on our way. we ended up taking a different way home but made it to vedado fine. again, no signs to tell you where you are going, so buy a good city map of havana. we decided to have a daiquiri at el floridita. it’s a cool spot to have a drink in. drinks were $6 us each. there are girls everywhere giving you the eye and the option is definitely there if you want it.

the ironic thing is that i wasn’t as pumped to pick up girls as i thought i would be. i guess after all these international trips it takes more to get me excited. still, i was enjoying havana. the weather was chillier than i would have liked. i didn’t pack warm clothes and it gets chilly at night. i emailed seaman and told him to bring warm clothes.

tad and i decided to meet in front of the ingleterra at 9:30 pm. wow. there was tons of action. several pretty girls but most weren’t my type. i had a coffee while waiting and many came to my table to talk. many girls also make a “hissing” noise to try to get your attention. it’s kind of funny. tons of jineteros everywhere. just ignore them and don’t even make eye contact or they will keep following you.

we hook up and i am tempted to leave him and go session in my casa. i decide to wait. price seems very negotiable although some hot girls were asking for $50 to start and i’m sure they would take much less than that if they knew you’d leave with them. we walked around the area for a while. we decided to go to casa de la musica in miramar. we passed it and some kids needed a ride so they agreed to show us where it was. at first we were thinking they were just conning us for a ride. nope. we took them to a concert in the park and they were exactly correct where it was located. we went to casa de la musica. it was dead. it was early so we left and were going to come back. the management said no problem. cover was $15 us.

we decided to go to the concert. there were tons of people. all locals. no foreigners that we spotted. there were maybe 900 people. i was surprised there were only about 3 police officers for such a scene. tad commented that there were no tourists to “protect”. he was right. still, i can see where a group that size drinking alcohol and possibly doing drugs can get out of hand. it was nice to see the locals so happy. there were listening to music and dancing around. they didn’t have a care in the world. what they lack for financially they make up for in spirit. cubans might not have traditional “freedom” but they have their own sort of freedom. most aren’t a slave to their job. they can do whatever they want for the most part. they sure seemed happier than the people i see going up and down the elevators making tons of money in the usa. people were always friendly. it was nice to be in an area with no jineteros. no one bothered us at the concert. a few guys asked if were we were going to casa de musica.

we left and went back to cdm. it was dead! i was seriously regretting coming here. i thought it would pick up but it was nothing like people previously posted. there was barely anyone there. to make things worse they only would make like 3 drinks. they couldn’t even make a mojito! what the *?+*!!?? tad ordered a jameson as it’s his drink and it was horrible. it was clear they poured something else in the bottle. they give you a drink menu then tell you they only have rum and coke’s or beer. horrible! hint: do not come here. this place has gone downhill which chicas confirmed to us later.

we decided to go back to the ingleterra area but by this time it was late. maybe 1 am. there was some action but nothing i’d pay for. we went to the habana libre hotel which has a disco on top. it was a $15 cover and we asked if we could look. he gave us 2 minutes to look. it was mostly couples or people staying at the hotel. the girls looked older. it was maybe 1:30 am at this point. maybe later. tad was going to go home and i told him there was no way in hell he was going to go two nights in a row and not see any girls. tad was easygoing. i don’t think he specifically came here to see girls but he did plan on seeing some. i told him if he wanted to go home fine but i’m going back to johnny’s. the only place i knew there would be some hotties. i know there was other places but it was late and i was horny. i was going to go look for the hot girl i saw the night earlier.

he relents and comes with me. we valet for the normal $1 that everyplace charges to watch your car. a nice surprise is they close at 3 am on the weekends. plenty of hotties. the girl i saw from the night before came over and said hello. tons of girls were all over us. i see the totally hot girl. this girl is 19 and looks like penelope cruz’s younger, hotter sister. totally beautiful and she knows it. i knew she would be horrible in bed but i kind of didn’t care. i call her over and we are joking around a lot. she is funny. she asks for $100 and of course that is too much. i counter with $50 knowing she won’t accept it. she said her minimum is $70 and she would rather go home alone and does many nights. i don’t doubt her for a second. i just wanted to have her. we stuck around a while. i bought her and her friend a drink and tad was going to go home alone because all the girls were “out of his budget”. but my girl, jenny, talked her friend into leaving for $50.

we all left together. i drove tad to his place with his girl and i went to mine. my girl was actually sweet but i think doing what she is doing jaded her. maybe i’m getting soft as i get older but i wouldn’t wish this job on any girls i personally know. probably not what you guys want to hear but i don’t care. we get to my casa and i give her one of the 18 toothbrushes i bought to go brush her teeth. she also showered. she wouldn’t let me take any pictures of her face or any good shots of her body. i got a few pictures from the side but they don’t show how beautiful she is. the session was mediocre at best and compared to some of the sessions i’ve had the session was very bad. at first she didn’t want to give me a bbbj. she says that this is her work. she asks me if i’m not careful at my job. i just bs and tell her, “amor, but i’m not your client. i’m your amor” and she just laughed and gave me a not so good bbbj. i have a lot of stamina and after about 25 minutes going at it she is complaining to “dame tu leche”. she says that i’m too big and that she hurts. then i tell her that i may not be sloppy in my job but i don’t complain to my clients while i’m working and asked her to shut her mouth in a nice way. that kind of put her in her place and although she did mumble to cum again she was clear i’d finish when i was ready. afterwards, she hung around and we talked. i still think she is a sweet girl masked behind a jaded attitude.

oh well. cuba is a totally different mongering destination. those that are looking to monger somewhere for the first time i would seriously talk you out of coming here. go to buenos aires, rio or sao paulo. and if you speak no spanish at all you can still get around but i just think you won’t have as much fun. keep in mind this is only my opinion. if you’re really into picking up street girls then havana probably is heaven for you. it’s not my cup of tea. no one is right or wrong. just not really my thing.

again i’ll mention that the food here really is horrible. i like going on vacation and eating well. do not come here expecting to eat well. the food really sucks. say that over and over and over again before coming. i heard it was bad but expected better. also, the funny thing is that many restaurants will have this extensive menu. i'd ask for something and they'd say, "we don't have that". i'd ask for something else. "we don't have that". finally i'd just ask what they had and it inevitably was chicken and pork.

many times we were in an area where we snacked in and almost every place had bocaditos (little ham and cheese sandwiches). we all got so tired of ham and cheese sandwiches by the first few days into the trip. one night we were driving around and in an area with not too many restaurants. we finally had to eat dinner in a gas station getting.... you guessed it -- bocaditos!

the city of havana is beautiful but could be so much more beautiful. it’s a shame that the government doesn’t invest in the upkeep of the building. it literally looks like a nuclear bomb went off decades ago and the buildings survived and they are in same condition. either that or there was a huge dust storm that blanketed the city and it's buildings with dust and soot. i was happy to hear an italian company has been hired to restore the malecon.

day 3

i woke up late and tad and i had talked about maybe going to cienfuegos and trinidad today since we would spend several more days in havana. i had to pick up seaman on the 24th so i agreed. i told my casa that i was leaving for a few days. they seemed ok with it and i left ½ of my stuff there. before coming tad puts an american girl on the phone and she asks if we will give her a ride. i wasn’t too thrilled but i thought why not? i picked them up and off we went.

of course we got lost on the way there. as usual there was no signs. and the one time there was a sign for cienfuegos i guess it was for a different cienfuegos. (there are two?). a guy offered to show us the way and got in the car. he went quite a long way with us. i gave him $2 at the end of the journey and he wanted more. the girl with us took it upon herself to give him all these magazines i had that i was going to read on the beach. i would have rather given him more money. oh well.

if you drive outside of havana, make sure you ask directions every 20 minutes or so to make sure you are going the right direction. there are a lot of forks in the road and there is no signage so it’s easy to get lost. none of these people speak english in the countryside so don’t even attempt to drive unless you are the adventurous type.

we stopped in cienfuegos and i bought lunch for the 3 of us. there was a really scenic restaurant at the end of the main throughway of town. there is a view of the water surrounding the restaurant. it sucked they only had 2 dishes though and they weren’t that good so we didn’t eat that much of it. the girl with us was an american “backpack” type. i don’t know how she was going to survive on her meager budget. she planned on seeing a lot of different cities. i guess one of the ways was by mooching free rides from city to city?? she was a nice enough girl though. she slept most of the way.

cienfuegos looked too small for us so we decided to go ahead and drive to trinidad. the view on the way there was very serene and scenic. there are tons of people hitchhgiking. i still can’t imagine what they do if they can’t hitch a ride. you forget how lucky you are until you come to cuba and experience everything we have that they don’t.

the drive only took about an hour from cienfuegos to trinidad. it’s about 75 km. like dumbasses none of us thought to make a reservation anywhere. trinidad is a very small town so many of the places were already booked. to make things worse, now we needed 3 rooms. we had this guy show us some places. i asked to be near the ocean. we couldn’t find a place with 3 rooms. i only asked that there be hot water for the shower and a good bed. we arrive to this casa and there is only two rooms. we reluctantly agreed as tad agreed to share a room with hitchhgiker girl (hhg). then i asked the casa owner if i could have chicas over and he immediately says no. then to make matters worse they tell us we must eat breakfast and dinner there or we couldn’t stay. that broke the camels back. too many restrictions. even if it was only for one night. we head back and i decided to ask another casa i saw. they had two rooms. it was a quaint place with hot water which sealed the deal. they also said we had to eat there but i didn’t care at this point. it was dark and the last thing i wanted to do was go through town and try to find a place to stay.

hhg was making phone calls trying to find a place but everywhere was booked. round about this time i knew it was a mistake to bring her. we couldn’t leave her hanging now. i told her to go back to the original casa that we refused. i drove her back there and i’m damn glad we didn’t book there. there was a baby crying and screaming and it was just chaotic. plus she was bitching about how havana is so much cheaper than trinidad. huh??? i told her to call me tomorrow and i’d drive her back into town to a casa particular that she booked on the phone. i asked her how much it was going to be and she had a worried look on her face since she didn’t ask. the casas are only like $25 a night in this town. i’m not used to traveling with people that think that is too much for a room. it was starting to get annoying so i’m glad we ditched her.

tad and i took hot showers and he rested while i typed all of this. we went to casa de la musica here in trinidad and it was open air outdoor music and dancing. mostly tourists. we were told there would be some girls but i sure as hell didn’t see any worth talking to. then we went to casa de la tropa. same story there with uglier tourists. we read about this cool disco that was in a cave. it’s called disco ayala or “la cueva”. we went there and it was a cool set up. us$10 admission which included any drink. it wasn’t that crowded with mostly drunk tourists and a few local girls but nothing to write home about. everyone kept saying it would pick up but we waited until 1 am and nada so we split. we drove around the street and not much action. i never thought i’d have a night in cuba that i didn’t hook up. first time for everything i guess. i actually don’t mind. i’ve only been sleeping like 3 hours a night and starting to hit the wall a little. especially with all the driving and not eating that often or well. did i mention the food here sucks? i’m going to bed. it’s about 2:20 am and i’m already in bed alone. how sad is that?

cuba might be cool for anyone that has only been to tijuana or a border town but i would no where consider it the major leagues of other world class monger destinations. plain and simple it can’t compare to the likes of buenos aires or rio. you shouldn’t even compare the two. totally different worlds.

i consider myself to have pretty good “game” with the chicas and i’m finding myself not even that motivated. i’m still having a good time enjoying cuba but the sex scene is totally overrated. whatever glory days cuba had i think are gone. i guess when we get back to havana i’ll see how the street scene is and also maybe get some phone numbers from frank. he called the other day but i wasn’t home. i don’t find that i need his guide services. i just need those phone numbers. more tomorrow.

day 4

tad and i had talked about going scuba diving so it was ironic when we were eating breakfast and the friend of our casa owner had a scuba shop. he waited for us to finish breakfast and then we went scuba diving. i had never been scuba diving before but he gave me an introductory course and then allowed me to scuba dive for about 45 minutes with him. it was nice and relaxing. there were some colorful fish but nothing compared to other places i’ve been to like curacao or hawaii.

cuba is a beautiful place. some people might think of coming for the girls but you might find yourself occupied by the people and the other things cuba has to offer. trinidad is a very small town but we were always doing something and keeping busy. we went into the city near the historic center. there is not much there but still a quaint and beautiful place to visit. it even had an internet café. we decided to go to playa ancon which is about 9 km from la boca where we were staying. we stayed just a hundred yards from the sea. it was nice and the people we stayed with were wonderful.

after the beach we came home and we sat in the patio and talked to the owner of the casa. he was such an intelligent guy. his kids are living in the united states and spain. he is very well spoken. my spanish is getting better and better to the point of being able to have detailed conversations about politics. it was funny whenever we talked about castro he wouldn’t say his name but would just make a “beard motion” with his hands. he explained life pre and post russian assistance, talked in details about the laws there and how he longed for change. people should note that things will change. i firmly believe things will change within the next 3 to 4 years and so did the owner. change is inevitable. i’m glad i got to experience life here before it does.

he also told me that casa particulars have to pay $400 us a month to operate their casas. that is such a high price and it boggles my mind. he said every few months the government makes it more and more difficult for casa particular owners as they are trying to drive tourists into the state run hotels so they can profit from tourism. now, the government only makes the $400 per month from the casa particular owner as opposed to the $100 a night from the nice hotels and the expensive meals.

i’m sitting here in my casa particular just relaxing and updating my report. this is one of the few downtimes i’ve had. i’ve brought about 7 paperback books and only am halfway through one of them.

i really am anxious to find some action now. i don’t know if i’ve ever been on vacation the past two years and not hobbied two consecutive days in a row. i hope this isn’t a first. stay tuned….

later that night – what an adventurous night. hhgg called us to see if we would meet her at casa de la musica. we met her for a drink and then we watched some dancing. we were determined to find chicas tonight. we went to a few places that the locals said were good. casa arte and a bar called chocolate. both were completely dead so we went back to cdm. we were getting a little frustrated on how difficult the scene here is. we even talked to this guy from mexico city that spoke english. he told us he has been to cuba 4 times and never had this much trouble in any town. he was leaving in the morning for las tunes. he was complaining how expensive trinidad was but i thought it was cheap. i’m not sure how you can expect it to get cheaper than $20 - $30 for a place to sleep. food isn’t that expensive. anyway cdm was still hopping.

when we arrived there we immediately ran into hhg. she was with two cubanas. one was really cute and had a nice body. she was just my type and was latina looking rather than darker. the other girl was black. hhg told me that she was coming to find tad and i to party with these girls. (i kept telling hhg i wanted to hook up with cubanas). then the cute girl says she can’t talk to me here in public. i tell her ok let’s go talk somewhere in private. she was a little surprised. i think she thought i might be the wholesome good innocent tourist type. nope. i tell her it would be even better if she had a place to go since she couldn’t come to our casa particular. trinidad is very very strict. she tells me that the apartment is $15 and she and her friend wanted $35@. i tell her that is too much and she lowers it to $25 @ for them. i was in no mood to negotiate. i was horny and it was hard enough to find action. i agreed. she went on to tell me that we need to follow them but keep a very good distance. we would eventually come to a private casa where we rent a room for an hour or so.

tad and i were now learning how things worked. earlier that night we noticed a girl starring at us but she wouldn’t talk to us. she kept looking back waiting for us to follow her. that is how it is done here. the girls will stare at you or hiss at you then you need to follow her if you’re interested so you can talk in private and negotiate. we arrive to a very dark street and the girls tell us to wait outside. a cubano let’s us in and they are all scared out of their minds. they keep peering out the door for a few minutes before relaxing. all the lights were off. i was never nervous but i just couldn’t believe the fear these people have. my girl later told me they get 4 years in jail if they are caught. yikes!

i went upstairs to a bedroom and tad stayed downstairs with his girl. believe it or not the girl’s don’t carry condoms for fear the police might find it on them so you better have some with you. thank god tad gave me one as i left mine at home. i had a great session. very gfe and dfk, bbbj and she just kept going on and on. 22 years old with a spinner body. her breasts were a little small but she was fine. afterwards i showered in very cold water. she told me she only works one or two times a week and that is enough to get by.

i waited for tad and he was happy with his girl too. he even commented how he was bummed we had no more condoms. (you should have seen his face when he muttered those words, "she might not be beautiful but she put her heart into it". ) ha, ha! i told him we can bum some condoms from the mexican guy i met. some norwegian guy gave us some and we were happy. we went around looking for some action. we went to fresca chocolate where there was not much action. there were a bunch of gay guys so we left.

when we walked out we bumped into our girls from earlier that night. i was surprised when my girl asked me for a ride home. she said she lived several miles away and didn’t have money for a taxi. i asked her why she was so worried before and now didn’t seem to be. i told her it might be dangerous for her and her friend but she didn’t seem worried. i asked her again and got the same answer. they got into our car and i told them i was hungry. she asked if i would buy them something to eat too. i told them sure but maybe it wasn’t a good idea to be seen with tourists. she said as long as we weren’t in the historic center it was fine. i was doubtful but i asked her about 3 times and she kept saying it was ok.

we get to this rapido (fast food joint) that is open 24/7. we order some sandwiches and we are joking around having a good time. tad and i are laughing about how trinidad has a big learning curve but we were happy to have figured it out. right around this time a cop outside motions for the girls to come out. the girls look scared. i’m thinking this might happen and that’s why i asked them 3 times if it was ok. the cop takes their id’s. i ask them if it will help if i talk to the police officer. she said maybe. unbeknownst to me the cop is not there. i figure out that there is a police station around the corner. i guess the cops told the girls to stop by the police station.

i go into the police station and explain to them that we were dumb lost americans that needed something to eat and they showed us. then the girls were hungry so we offered them something to eat. the cop clearly didn’t want to deal with me. his only words to me were, “are you her husband”? there was nothing i could do. the girls motioned to leave. tad and i felt terrible but i did ask the girls about 3 times if this was ok. the girls were stupid to do this. i think the police were just shaking them down. we talked to several girls throughout the trip that said the cops just wanted $5 or $10 whenever they can get it. horrible. the cops here suck.

i went to bed that night wondering if the girls were ok and hoping the cops didn’t search them because they would surely find the money we “donated” to them. i’ve never felt guilty for spending time with a girl and this wasn’t a good feeling.

day 5

tad and i were both sleeping horrible. the beds here pretty much all suck and the pillows are pretty bad too. i’m not used to “roughing it”. our casa owners were great though. nelson and narcisa were great people. narcisa was a great cook and her meals were the best food in cuba. we never had a bad meal in her house. anyone that is in trinidad should at least eat dinner/breakfast everyday there.

we decided to go to ancon early since it was sunny. the beaches are pretty good there. there were no cubans there except some selling pizzas on the beach and the one’s working at the hotel. tad took a brief salsa lesson. after a few hours we ran into hhg. she seemed to be everywhere we were. trinidad is small so you can expect to bump into people you see. i guess she shared a ride to ancon with some other backpacker types to save on taxi fare. she said taxi fare from trinidad to ancon was $8.

we thought about avoiding hhg but i had a plan to use her to help us tonight with hooking up with girls again. it’s easy for a female to talk to the locals but problematic for the male tourist. hhg wanted to bum a ride back to town. tad and i planned to shower then head to topes de collantes for a side day trip. we heard good things about it. hhg asked if she could go with us. sure. why not? the road there was dangerously curvy but not too bad. we did see one car that went over the cliff and an ambulance was at the side of the road.

there is a little rest stop on the way to topes. definitely stop here and walk up the stairs. there is an area where you can see the entire area. it had breathtaking views. we arrived at topes and most of the hiking trails were closed since it was getting dark. i noticed the general population here was ligher skinned and more euro looking. there were tons of kids walking home from school. everyone looked happy. we headed back to trinidad.

that night tad and i had the best dinners of our trip. the dessert was fabulous too. we headed to casa de la musica to listen to the live music and scope out the action. there were a lot more tourists out since it was a little warmer. the girls really didn’t do too much for me. a few cuties but few and far between. tad spotted a cute blonde with a great body. tad made eye contact with her but then she danced with someone. tad and i were wondering if girls just come here to dance. the answer is no. the majority of the girls that are here are here to work. it might not be obvious and you may even think for sure a girl isn’t working. some have good covers. one girl that was there said she was a professional dancer. she was an awesome dancer and in fact might have been. she was there with her “brother” who also danced. she was here every night and he always escorted her. we always would see them come and go and then later saw them in fresca chocolate looking for tourists. just make eye contact with a girl and motion for her to follow you and you’ll be set.

tad’s blondie was dancing and tad and i decided to just walk around. before you knew it the blonde was behind us a few blocks down. she was with a very ugly girl. the downside was we would often see a hot girl with an ugly girl. many times they weren’t willing to separate. this was one of those cases. this blonde girl was a total rookie “farm girl”. she had no clue where to go. i inquired about prices and she just told me that she “isn’t one of those type of girls”. then i asked her if she knew of a private place we could go to “talk”. she told me no. i made it clear that tad wanted to see her but she kept trying to talk to me. she wouldn’t leave her ugly friend and tad was getting frustrated and just wanted to leave. i was more patient and saw a more fruitful outcome. i found a nice guy on the street and asked him if he knew of a private place to rent. he said yes. he was super cool and never asked for anything.

the girl was still difficult and wouldn’t leave her friend. finally tad and i drove away. we went to fresca chocolate and when we came out she was there waiting with her friend. she was crying though. the cubano guy helped us talk to her. the police came and parked right in front of the girls. i told the cubano to tell the girls to meet us 2 blocks down around the corner. we waited and the blondie showed up. tad was still frustrated but i told him we could make it work. there was no way i was going to session with her ugly friend but i offered to wait with her. we couldn’t bring the girls back to our casa so i suggested we just stop by our casa and grab some blankets and go to the beach.

we went to the beach where i explained to the ugly friend that i didn’t want to session with her but we should let our friends have their fun. the funny thing is tad’s girl tried giving me a note with her full name, address, phone number, etc. i asked her why i needed this since she was tad’s girl. it was clear that she wanted to start some sort of long distance relationship with a tourist. the ugly girl was very offended that i shunned her. she wouldn’t even get out of the car. there was no way in hell i was going to wait 1 hour or more in the car so i grabbed my blanket and layed it on the beach and rested while tad and his girl had their fun.

it was funny because tad’s girl came over to me at first. i told her to go back over to tad. i’m not sure if she thought we were going to both expect action. i couldn’t fall asleep and the sad thing is that the rocky beach didn’t feel much different than my bed in my casa. it was awesome on the beach. it was so dark and the stars were so bright and you could hear the ocean waves crashing on the rocks. i was a real trooper. i waited until tad yelled that he was done. i think we were there at least an hour or so. it was late by the time he was done. maybe 3:30 am.

he called me over and i asked him how it was. at first he said, “not good”. then he explained it was fine but that he couldn’t concentrate. i guess the girl was lactating. she claimed to have a 2 year old but i guess she was still breast feeding. he said at first it was a novelty but it just kept gushing out and i think it freaked him out. he had milk all over him. i was dying laughing. we had to drive the girls back to the ugly girl’s house in trinidad. it was funny because the girl now gave tad the note with her info on it. i wondered to myself how many times she gave out this information. she never asked for any money. tad gave her about $25 and she never even looked at it. she simply said for him to write her and she walked away. we were cracking up the whole way back to la boca. i was calling him the milk man. the first thing tad did when we got back home was take a shower.

day 6

we woke up early. we both liked trinidad and could have stayed longer but i had to come back to havana to pick up seaman who was arriving later that afternoon. we had an uneventful trip back to havana. i really enjoyed driving through cuba. we took turns driving and had some good conversations about cuba. i think tad was falling in love with cuba just as i was.

we arrived in havana and i had to rush around and do some errands. i dropped tad off so he could find a place to stay. i had to rush home and then meet havanaman. he was in buenos aires staying at my apartment and brought some money for me. it was extremely nice of him to do that. i met him at the ingleterra and he was with his amiga friend. she was a pretty girl that seemed intelligent. havanaman asked me to fib and tell her that i was a colleague from the states. no big deal to me. i hope he had fun with her.

i had to rush and pick up seaman. as i was nearing the airport i got pulled over yet again by another police. i wasn’t doing anything wrong but he asked to see my driver’s license. of course i didn’t have it. remember to always have your driver’s license with you if you rent a car. i think this is one of the easiest ways for cops to make money. i told him i wasn’t going to pay a fine. we sat there arguing for at least 20 minutes. he wanted a $30 fine. i told him i didn’t have that much anyway. i told him that i was going to be late and i was starting to get pissed. he said that he would have the car towed away. i knew he was lying but i now running late picking up seaman. i offered him $10 and told him to take it or leave it. he immediately started being nice and i called him a ladron (thief) to his face as i was pulling away.

i picked up seaman and he wasn’t ready. he was up at the vip lounge finishing his drinks. it was good to see him again. we last saw each other in rio just a few months ago. he activated his cellphone service and we were on our way.


of course we had to ask for directions on the way back to havana. i think seaman got a sense of what cuba was like when we asked this group for directions when we were on the road for only about 15 minutes. he forgot to lock the back doors and this group of drunken guys and one girl gets in. they were obviously drinking all day as it was christmas eve. believe it or not, 4 of them fit in the backseat along with their 2 big bottles of rum. seaman and i were ok with it at first until after about 3 minutes they were obnoxious and i kicked them out.

we make it to havana and seaman gets checked in to the same apartment as me. we both showered and headed out and met tad at the ingleterra hotel. we had a few mojitos then headed to casa de la musica near there. there are two cdm’s. the cover was $15 but there were plenty of girls outside. i told them i just planned on hooking up with one of them outside of the club. tons of girls were asking to pay for them to enter. i told them i wasn’t here to listen to music. i was here to hook up. i went to the restaurant next door with a cutie but she wanted like $70 or so. i took a pass as her attitude seemed too pro. i hooked up with this girl. she seemed nice. seaman also hooked up and we drove to our apartment.

back at the apartment i start sessioning with the girl. first sign of trouble is she wants the money up front. we negotiated for $50 since they knew we were saving $15 from entering so it was more like $35. i told her that i wasn’t going to pay and she could leave. i didn’t want to ruin the moment so i told her half now and half later. the start of the session was ok but only after about 30 minutes she is saying to finish. i tell her to be quiet. then she tries this routine of saying she is ****. yeah right. she says i could get in trouble with the police. i told her to call them and kept going. then i told her she was free to leave with ½ her money. she quickly shut up. she actually started getting into it and we finished but i noticed that the condom broke at some point. we both freaked out a little. i took a shower and so did she. she kept bitching and it was actually her fault since she used one of her shitty condoms. i asked to see the condoms and they were shitty condoms that looked a few months past their expiration date.

she kept bitching how she wasn’t on the pill. i just wanted her to leave at this point. it was about one hour after she arrived. i gave her the other half of the money. she said she was leaving with seaman’s girl and i told her to just leave alone. she went and got the other girl and we were all sitting in my room for a while. it was kind of awkward since the two old ladies we were staying with couldn’t sleep and they were in the other room watching tv at about 2:30 am. they tried to call for a taxi but no dice. they just left.

seaman and i joked around for a while after that in my room but we both decided to find a new place the next day.

day 7

seaman and i did our best to sleep in. he succeeded. i didn’t. the traffic noise from the street on linea was a little too much to handle for me. seaman had a guy from the uk staying next to his room and i guess seaman accidentally locked the bathroom door they shared so i had to wake him up to open it.

we ended up all having breakfast together. “m” from the uk was a really cool guy. this was his first trip and he had never hobbied before. he assumed cuba was this easy place where model quality girls were willing to sleep with you from the clubs for pocket change. everyone makes cuba sound like this easy place with tons of hotties but it simply is not. “m” had the same opinion as i did that the quality of the general population of girls here isn’t that great. he was dating a brasilera in the uk so he was used to hot girls. he was also a younger good looking dude. i showed him some trip reports and told him about wsg and ch. he was amazed and was studying them like a good novel. seaman and i were laughing. i told him maybe we’d hook up later in the trip and he did call a few times but i was always busy with a chica. (if you’re reading this “m”, sorry we couldn’t hook up).

seaman and i hooked up with frank and took him to ingleterra for a few drinks. i kept telling frank i wanted to move to miramar but he said everything was full. after drinks i told him that i just wanted to go to miramar and we would find something. tad bumped into while we were having drinks so we all went together. we ended up talking to a guy that knew a guy that had a place. that is usually how it is when you’re looking for a place. all of the casa particular owners help each other with referrals. it’s a nice system of you scratch my back and i’ll scratch yours.

we saw several nice apartments and we all decided to book our places. tad had the nicest apartment but he was sharing it with a fruity looking gay italian guy. my casa owners were by far the coolest. i was super happy with my place. we were going to travel in a few days and we negotiated a deal where we wanted them to hold our casas while we were gone. we paid about $35 a day while we were there and $25 a day while we weren’t. it was a good insurance policy for me. we were planning on traveling 3 nights and then coming back for nye.

at the ingleterra we tried calling some girls but couldn’t get through to many of them. i think i left a message at one of the girls place because she called me back. i asked her to bring a friend for seaman and they arrived shortly afterwards. my girl was a hottie and seaman’s girl was cute too. his girl had an awesome personality. she was funny as hell. i stayed in my apartment and seaman went over to his place a block away. tad decided to take it easy and wait till the night.

seaman and i had killer sessions. after about 2 or 3 hours we called each other and decided to eat with our girls. i told seaman to walk over to my apartment. after a few minutes seaman calls me to tell me there is a problem. he was walking with his girl when they spotted a cop and they did something that probably wasn’t too smart. he walked away from the girl which probably signaled to the cop they were scared. seaman tells me the cop is talking to her and he asked seaman to go back and get his passport. i tell him to call me back in a few minutes with a progress report. he calls me back and tells me the cop says he is radioing for a car. i figure it’s all bullshit and tell him to wait there. tad comes over to my apartment and i tell him what’s going on. he hangs out with my girl while i grab my passport and head to talk to the cop.

i arrive with seaman looking frazzled. i go over to the cop and ask him what the problem is and why he is harassing my friend. i told him seaman flew here to spend nye with his novia of 6 months. the funny thing is he was probably like me and couldn’t remember our “novia’s” names. seaman tells me that he offered the cop a $10 bribe which he didn’t accept. then the cop plays hardball with me asking me where i’m staying. i tell him the street but not the apartment # but he starts naming all the addresses on calle 28 that rent rooms. i immediately call tad and have him get my girl out of there as she didn’t have an id on her and there was some question on her real age.

the cop asks who i’m calling and i whip out a business card of a lawyer i had met. i told him i have friends in cuba that are lawyers. at this point i could sense he just wanted to get the hell out of there too. the last thing these cops want is attention or to get in trouble. he tells seaman and i to go stand away while he talks to seaman’s girl. i guess he demanded the $10 from seaman’s girl and not us. he didn’t want us to know he was doing that. asshole.

we all walked off together and got in my car and went to my place. tad was alone and we drove around to find my girl. we found her walking home alone a few blocks away. we all were in the car laughing and joking. the girls wanted to eat with us. my girl suggests this restaurant but she was shaking on where it was so we end up driving around a good bit. it turns out it is right near our casas. it wasn’t a cheap place but we had a great time. it was hilarious in the restaurant because seaman and i were convincing tad to ask one of the flute players to sit down and join us. tad thought she was cute.

we are the only ones in the restaurant and the singers are serenading us and making up songs about us. it was funny. then i ask the head waiter to ask the girl to join us. i think she was shy and another couple walked in around this time so she had to continue playing her flute. i would have loved to see tad score with her. the bill wasn’t cheap as me and my date had steak and lobster. i think my portion with tip was around $90 or $100 that included several drinks, appetizers, dinner, dessert and coffee.

during dessert i ask seaman’s girl if she has any friends for tad. she says of course. she goes on to say that the girl lives far away. i tell her if it’s a problem we can just forget it and hook him up later. i thought she said it was too far but we ended up driving all the way to this girl’s house which was a good 25 ride towards the airport. it was comical. picture this. we drop the girls off. they tell us to wait. we are waiting outside for a good 15 minutes. i guess the girl was sleeping. they woke her up and got her dolled up and all walk up to the car. i saw the girl’s mom in the doorway and i wondered what she thought about all of this. i later found out by asking several girls and their mothers knew what they did and didn’t question it. many of these girls support their families this way so it’s a don’t ask don’t tell policy with their families.

tad’s girl was cute and had a killer body. he was very pleased. at this point it’s after 1 am and we decide to head to our apartments. i had another great great session with my girl and she fell asleep in my arms. seaman’s girl claimed to have to wake up early at 6 am but around 10 am i get a call saying she had to leave and we rounded up the girls. i had to wake tad up with a phone call and he and his girl came over.

i was kind of in a difficult situation because at dinner my girl who was a total non pro was asking me why i gave her money earlier. when tad was rushing her out i told him to give her some money. so she was asking why i was giving her money. i’m not sure if she was playing a game or being serious but she didn’t seem happy. i told her it was taxi fare but taxi’s didn’t cost $35. the next morning i didn’t know if i should have given her more but i stuck another $10 in her purse. she never mentioned money to me. i wanted to leave more but didn’t want to offend her.

we found out later that tad gave his girl $35 or so and a few days later the girls told us the girl wouldn’t repeat for that little money again.

day 8


after the girls left we all showered and agreed to meet back at my place. we were going to do some sightseeing. we went down to havana viejo and walked around a good bit. we went to the street vendors with all their old books. it was really fascinating to see all the old relics that they were selling.

i seemed to always be hungry this trip. i think part of it is that the food isn’t really that filling there. i eat very well in the usa and when i travel so my body wasn’t used to these shitty smaller sized meals. seaman and tad joked throughout the trip how i was always hungry or eating. we had some drinks in plaza de san francisco and i of course had a salad, fries and a pork sandwich which was actually pretty good.

we ended up driving around a bit. my mind is a little fuzzy for some reason on day 8 during the day. one thing i do remember is the day after i saw the girl from casa de la musica somehow she got my cellphone number. i think she was playing with my phone and dialed her cellphone so she had it on caller id. i never gave it to her. she ended up calling me and asking if i wanted to see her again. she had a “y” name too and at first i thought it was another girl. when i figured out it was her i hung up on her. seaman and tad were laughing. i went on to see her later in the trip and she asked me why i hung up on her. my only response was she was the devil.

that night i think we went to la chorrera which was where i had the best luck. there were several cute girls that night. the funny thing is there are several girls in the parking lot hanging out. when we were getting in our car a group came over. one girl had a very pretty face and amazing eyes. her body seemed pretty good but hard to tell. i think her name was correlia or something like that. she seemed really shy. she said she was 22 years old. she was wearing jeans and this aqua blue shirt. she later became known as bsg (blue shirt girl) because every single day she wore the same shirt. poor girl.  seaman was deciding if he should session with her or not. i told him the classic line, “if you don’t i will” which usually always does the trick.

bsg got in our car and we were going to drop seaman off at his place with his girl. she was really nervous and her hands were shaking. i was sitting in the backseat with her and trying to put her at ease. i can imagine how nervous she was sitting in a car alone with for all she knew were 3 perverts. there was another cute girl there that tad liked but when he inquired her age she was only 17. he took a pass. we saw that girl too several other nights. she was always usually drunk but always had a smile on her face.

we dropped off seaman and tad and i decided to try going to macumba. it was very difficult to find but we finally arrive. it was funny along the way a white mercedes pulls up to us asking if the girls can enter with us. we tell them we don’t even know if we are going to go in. i kind of just wanted to see it. we get there and i tell the girls i don’t think we are going to go in. i went in to look at it looked dead so we took a pass. the girls were bummed because they can’t enter with out a male escort. they get in our car and we drop them off where they can flag a taxi. it was funny because tad remembered one girl from two nights before when he was at casa de la musica in havana. tad ended up picking up a girl that night from that place. i think he paid like $40.

so it’s late maybe around 2:30 am or so. i’m not too tired but tad is so i drop him off at his apartment and i go back to la chorrera. i didn’t even have to go in as there were girls mulling about the parking lot. i flirted with one and we were off. she was really pretty and a little shy at first. she stayed several hours and she ended up falling asleep there. it was maybe 5:30 or so when she left and i slept very bad that morning. we were leaving for our little side just a few hours later so i had to get a few hours sleep. i think i paid her $40 + taxi fare home.

day 9

we had to renew the car rental that day and figured we would go early and get a good start on driving to viñales. we get to the rental car place and there are 5 guys sitting around not doing much of anything. such is life in cuba. people are employed by the government even if they have no primary functions or responsibilities. rental cars were impossible to find this time of year. i got lucky into getting the week long rental i had and my travel agent said that was only due to a cancellation. the guy i rented it from told me no problem getting it renewed on december 27th. i trusted him.

so we are in the office and these clowns said no way we can extend it. i say to get the main guy on the phone. he says he needs to talk to his manager then says it’s impossible. i refuse to take no for an answer. in the meantime we are calling all these other agencies. there is not even one car available to rent in all of havana. i finally get him back on the phone and now he is saying it’s possible but to come back at 2 pm. this shot our plans as we wanted to leave early.

we decided to go to chinatown and eat. there really is no real chinatown. it’s all of 3 blocks or so and there aren’t any asians there. we only saw one guy that was the manager of the restaurant. it’s not real chinese food but kind of a hodgepodge of ingredients. we all got the same thing and the order was huge.

we get back to the car rental agency and now it’s possible. yeah! we extend it and add seaman’s name to the contract. now, all three names were on the car contract. we blow out of there and head to viñales. we are on the highway and seaman and i want to take the backroads as the view from the autopista is not that great.

we drove through bahia honda – la palma – vinales. seaman missed his calling. he could have been an indy car driver. the problem is that these roads weren’t made for racecar drivers. they are windy and the roads in certain spots are in very poor condition. a few times we were airborne and one time we lost some tread on the tires. i think tad and i were kind of wondering to ourselves if we were going to get into an accident. i was sitting in the front seat and decided to put on my seat belt.

the views were breathtaking and amazing. i wanted to take pictures and so did seaman but tad was very nervous about it getting dark. i had never seen him get nervous. i kept saying we’d be fine, no worries. seaman didn’t seem to be too worried either but that was part of the reason he was driving so fast. we didn’t want to be on this shitty road when it got dark.

i would highly recommend driving along this route. it was amazing some of the things we saw. there were mountains in the background nestled with palm trees and sugar cane fields. certain parts of the drive approaching bahia honda there were great views of the bay.

we made it to viñales and it’s a very very small town. we had to drive around looking for enough rooms for 3 people. we all wanted our own rooms. we finally managed to find 3 places. i kept asking people about the chica scene and they kept saying there were girls. let me tell you something…. there are not any girls in viñales.

we showered then met at the only restaurant in town. it was decent. then we began exploring. the town like most towns in cuba had a casa de la musica. we went and it was filled with teenagers. we left and went to two bars that were packed with tourists but no locals. we then went to the caves where they had a bar but it also was dead. we got one drink then left. i asked a few guys there were all the action was and they told me café “arta”. turns out it was café artex and that was the shitty bar that we already went to. we were in disbelief. we kept walking around the main stretch but there were only very young kids out. it was like an alfred hitchcock movie where all the adults in town were eliminated. i only saw young kids. we were all in disbelief. seaman and i wanted to hobby. i would have been fine if i didn’t but i would at least like the option to. there was zero action in this town and we decided to leave the next day.

day 10


we decided the night before to meet at 10 am after breakfast and head to piñar del rio. first we drove around viñales a little and snapped some photos. my casa owner was pretty and probably would have been a site to see ten years earlier. it was a shame she was married and her husband was home when i came back home. she was sweet and gave her the name of her friend in piñar del rio.

we arrived in town and went straight to zoima. she was this spunky 28 year old with a pretty good body. i was flirting with her but she too was married. her room was booked but she went all over helping us find 3 rooms. she was great. we kept confirming that we could bring chicas home and each place said no problem. we were excited. this town seemed like it had a life and it was bigger.

instead of giving zoima some money we decided to eat dinner at her house that night so she could make some money that way. i flirted some more with her and she was taking things well joking around. we went off exploring the city and taking some pictures. we spent several hours eating and drinking at a neighborhood outdoor bar. so far i wasn’t seeing any hot girl which was worrisome. i still held out for hope though. in the bar we saw this nerdy looking american with this big black lady. that was at least a good sign.

i needed some rest so i decided to just try to relax a few hours before we ate dinner. my casa owner was super cool but the problem is their neighbor had a loud dog that kept barking all afternoon. i wanted to kill that dog. i got zero rest. i knew i couldn’t stay there more than one night. the bed also sucked which was common in every place we stayed.

i walked up one flight of stairs to seaman’s pad. his casa owners were super cool. they had a cute daughter that lived in havana studying in university. we all speculated if she saw some tourists on the side but my guess is no. we had a few cocktails then headed to dinner. at dinner i joked around with zoima that we wanted to hook up. i asked her to set us up with her friends. she promised to the next day but said that at this late notice she couldn’t. we had a decent meal and joked around with her. it’s funny that many of these people have very little money but several places we went had these big ghetto blaster type stereos.

we were feeling good and decided to go to the place everyone said was good. café pinar was the name of it. it was predictably dead since it was still rather early. it might have been around 10 pm. here is where the story gets interesting. i see a lone girl in the street. it’s obvious she is “working”. she is cute so i go talk to her. i learned that you session when you can. i joke around with her and she kind of follows us as we walked down to the corner store to get some booze. i tell the fellas i’m going to go session with her. she gives me the scoop on pinar del rio. she tells me it’s extremely difficult to work here because the police are very strict. she told me all the girls are scared to work. then i asked why she wasn’t scared and she simply told me she wasn’t a working girl. yeah, ok. she went on to say that no girl would go to a casa particular because they write down their id # and the police regularly check the log books. no wonder all the casa owners were saying it’s ok to have girls. none would come over! i ask her how much for a room and she says $10 plus another $25 for her. no problem. then she tells me to wait while she tries to find a room. i see her walking down the street. she comes back after about 5 minutes saying she can’t find a room. she asked me to please wait there. she was going to check on another room. i waited around for a while but she never came back. seaman, tad and i were kind of flabbergasted. everything was set and i was ready to session and we wondered what happened to her. i was sure she didn’t get another tourist as there were none. i worried that something happened to her. she was very eager to work. the ironic thing was the next day as we were going to leave in our car we saw her. she walked by us without saying anything and she was crying. we speculated the night before the police saw her talking to me and they might have taken her for a night. after seeing her the next day i’m almost sure that is what happened.

so, after this we hear about another place that has girls. we were originally told it was 5 blocks away. we kept walking and walking and walking. we’d ask directions and they kept saying further and further. by this point we’d just killed about 35-45 minutes. it was about a mile away but we finally made it there. i just wanted to go to this disco that the girl from seaman’s casa was going to with her friends. she was all dressed up and looked pretty good. anyway, we’re at this hotel and it looks like a total tourist hang out and we didn’t see any girls so we don’t even pay the cover. i flagged a taxi and we went to the disco club.

we get to the disco and there is a very very long line and they are not letting many people in at a time. we waited but ended up leaving to check the street action again on that one street. it was dead! not a girl in sight. tad was getting tired but i told them there is no way in hell i was going home without at least trying. we took a taxi back to the disco and the line was still there. we waited and waited. we offered bribes to the doormen and believe it or not they didn’t accept it. there was cuban american from miami there visiting his friends and he was drunk but also annoyed they wouldn’t let him in either. cubans were climbing the fence to get in but that did little good because there was security at the front door. i couldn’t believe it. here we were in cuba and the doormen wouldn’t take a bribe to get in. ridiculous!

finally we gave up when they said they are definitely not letting anyone else in. at that point i didn’t even care about anything. i just wanted to see the inside of this place. i couldn’t believe it. we went back to the street and it was still dead. we agreed to leave the next day. there was some talk between tad and seaman about hitting some other city. i politely asked them to drop me off in havana on the way to wherever they were going.
it was about 2 am when i got home. i came home and finished one of the books i brought called the pilot’s wife. it was actually a good book but it was kind of surreal to believe i was in cuba at 2 am and reading a book.


day 11

we woke up semi early and got packed up. i went over to seaman’s place and the family he was staying with was talking to us. they were totally cool and their casa was nice with a nice balcony where you could sit and have drinks.

tad picks us up in the car and as we are waiting for seaman i happen to see the girl that i originally was going to see the night before. i just didn’t understand it what happened to her. she saw us and walked by and she was crying. i suspect that maybe she spent the night in jail or something along those lines. she clearly looked a little scared and didn’t even talk to us this time. just think that she got into trouble just for talking to us on the street. imagine what would have happened had she gotten caught after sessioning with me. this is the part of cuba i didn’t like. any guy can say what they want about how fun cuba is, how it has hot girls, yadda yadda yadda. the simple truth of the matter is that the police do have the right to arrest girls for prostitution. can you imagine a girl you just sessioned with getting 4 years hard labor for spending time with you?

we head back and seaman is deciding if he wants to go to matanzas with tad. i could give a rat’s ass what they did. i only requested they drop me off in havana on their way. seaman told me that he also wanted to head home to havana. that left tad stuck in havana as seaman and i were paying for the rental car.

we decided to take the same route we took to get here. it was a shame we couldn’t stop and take photos earlier on our way here so this would be our 'redeeming' chance. the views were amazing driving back once again and this time i took lots of pictures. i just got 5 rolls of film developed and almost every one is great. cuba is a very photogenic place. we stopped a few times to try to get bottled water but it was tough finding it. most places only had carbonated water in the small towns. we finally did find some in one town where tad and i went in. the funny thing was some cuban guy in line was apparently trying to impress us with the wad of cash he had. he must have had at least $500 on him. his clothes were soiled, he looked like he hadn’t showered in weeks, his hands and face had dirt on it but somehow he thought he would impress us with his wad. i found it interesting more than anything. he was getting two sodas and first pulled out a $100 bill. the cashier said he had no change so he pulls out a $50 then a $20. finally he ends up paying for it with two $1 bills. it was kind of comical.

we get outside and seaman is in the car talking to some cuban dudes. the guys are trying to ask us if we want girls but i told them i want a model hot girl that is skinny. one dude said that he knew some girls in a casa but they were a little on the bigger side. he said, “chicas son chicas”. (girls are girls). we were on our way to bahia honda.

we joked around on the way home. seaman and i have bonded on a few trips this year but it was nice that seaman and tad got along very well too. we were all pretty like minded individuals. different in our own ways but still had things in common.

we arrived at la palma to eat and have lunch. no restaurants were visible from the main road so we decided to have pizza which we saw everyone eating. there was a line for pizza because they were making it fresh. it’s not the same kind of pizza we have in the us. it’s more like bread made in cast iron skillets and had a little tomato paste smeared on with lots of cheese. it was actually pretty good. the cost was 5 pesos. (26 pesos = $1 us). i got two pizzas and told her to keep the change because i doubt she would have given me any. she clearly knew the exchange rate though as i told her in spanish 26:1 and she nodded yes.

we walked around a bit and the city had some cute girls. one thing i noticed here is many of the girls had green eyes and were lighter skinned. we went to a grocery store and got some water and some snacks. the people here are all friendly. we were a novelty as there were no tourists in town. this town is not on the main highway so i doubt many tourists come here. no one has any intention to scam that i noticed. even when we bought bananas on the street here there were no signs with prices. tad gave him a 50 centavo convertible coin which is equivalent to 50 cents us. we only grabbed a few bananas and they guy looked at the coin and kept trying to give us more bananas. it was funny.

another funny banana moment was in piñar de rio after dinner the lady didn’t have dessert but gave us bananas. when we weren’t hungry she tried giving us the bananas to take with us. i joked that we were going to the bar to meet girls and unless the girls liked bananas we had no use for them. we all started cracking up on that one. sometimes i crack myself up. is that so wrong? ha, ha.

we make it to havana and it felt good to get back here. we saw some sw’s on calle 5 in miramar as we were driving home. on the way home i called this girl that frank had given us the number for. i can’t remember if i posted it before but she came over another night with two friends. the problem was that one girl looked super young and when i asked her age she was only 17. the girl was totally cute. when i told her of the problem with the **** girl cosita was joking around. her english is decent. she was joking around saying, “illegally blonde 3”. her other friend looked of age but didn’t have an id which was suspicious and usually signals under 18. they gave us an all or non option which we passed on. the girl’s name was cosita and she was cute but not really my type. i had to pay $10 taxi fare for them to get there and i think seaman gave them $10 to leave.

anyway, i called cosita as we were approaching havana. i told her to come over with two friends but make sure both the girls are at least 18. she promised she would make sure. i also told her all the girls needed id’s.


we showered then met up at this place along 1st avenue along the beach for drinks and to grab something to eat. tad and i were deciding who would see whom. seaman was going to see the girl who cosita brought last time with no id. i was either going to see cosita or her friend. it was a gamble for me. we flipped a coin who would decide. i won. i could either pick cosita who was cute or take her friend. i decided to gamble and said i would take her friend.

we get to my apartment to meet them and i have to go pay the taxi $10. the girls weren’t using panataxi’s and it was more expensive. i see the girl and she has a booming body. her face is cute enough and i’m happy with my gamble. the problem starts back in my apartment. the one girl that came last time upon being carded isn’t 18 yet even though she claimed to be and didn't look like she was ****. seaman refused to see her. tad wasn’t willing to risk it either. we were told by another girl that you can see a 17 year old if there is less than a 15 year difference in age of the older guy. i never knew if this was true or not. tad wasn’t interested in seeing the new girl. i was the peacemaker and took it for the team. i wasn’t attracted to the younger girl but i just wanted to make things work. i would have seen seaman’s girl though if that kept things happy. prices were never discussed as frank told us the going rate for a short term session was about $30 to $40 max.

i had a really good session and she was very affectionate. i was contemplating another round when i get a knock on the door and it’s cosita who looks pissed. she asked me if i am done. my answer is, “i guess i am now”. i ask her what happened and she said that tad is crazy and only wants to pay $30. i ask her how much she wants and she says $100. i look at her as if she is crazy and told her she is crazy. my girl i’m with doesn’t ask me for any money. i had a good session so i’m not really bothered by things but i do feel bad for tad. i just wanted cosita out of my place. i called tad and he is surprised she is there as she told him she was going home. even after they disagreed on price he was a cool guy to keep her there so she wouldn’t bother my session. i think it was about an hour or so.

i took a quick shower to rinse off since i just sessioned. seaman calls and said that he had problems with his girl too. oops. i told him to come over and the girls needed to leave. cosita was a b*tch! seaman’s girl was a b*tch. my girl was just clueless and not a pro. my girl still never asked me for money and i gave her $40 and kissed her goodbye.

after we kicked them out we met up and compared notes. i guess seaman had a decent session but then the girl started asking about money and wasn’t happy with what seaman was going to give her. she demanded $50 and he gave it to her. at least he got to finish. these bitches tried taking all these snacks i had and i noticed that cosita stole all this change i had in a jar after they left. i hate carrying around change so i just put it in a cup every time i returned home. while i was showering she must have stolen it. it wasn’t a lot of money but more of the point of what she did.

tad was totally turned off by this whole process. i think he was expecting tons of beautiful model type girls that were all over and not jaded. that is not the case here. the guy from the uk that we met was expecting the same thing and he was severely disappointed too. one thing you have to remember is that normal girls don’t have the opportunity to go to nice places. there is usually a cover fee at most nice places. what girl that isn’t “working” can afford to pay the amount many people make in a month???

the rest of the night is kind of a blur but i think we went to la chorrera and i hooked up with a girl from there. i think seaman picked up a girl from the parking lot and so did tad.




day 12


went to playa del este and it wasn’t sunny but had a nice time joking around as usual. seaman and tad were good company. we tried picking up girls on the way home but it’s not as easy as you would think. i’ve personally never picked up street walkers and it’s not really my thing.

i called seaman’s girl and set him up for a session and he said it was greater than ever. (he even shaved her). tad didn’t session in about 3 days and seemed content. he didn’t really come here to hobby although he was expecting to hook up once a day if he could.

i think there are many guys out there that expect to hook up with some farm girl and buy them a few drinks and have the girl happily session with them. this might be possible but not in havana. the days of sessioning with a hot girl for a coke and a smile are over forever here.

my girl was supposed to hook up with me and i told her to bring a friend for tad. she said she was anxious to see me.. she wanted to come over earlier but i was at the beach. when i called back she seemed to be having family problems. i waited a while and seaman and tad went to eat. finally i just said enough of this. i walked to where they were eating (which was great by the way). y calls saying she wants to come over. i tell her to come to the restaurant and she says ok. 15 minutes. then when i get there she wants me to pick her up. it was just too much. i told her that we could do our own thing tonight and we were planning on going out for nye together.

we started at the parking lot of la chorrera which is at the end of the malecon. you don’t read much press about it but it is a solid lead for girls inside and outside waiting to hook up. seaman and myself both picked up girls in the parking lot as we were leaving. it’s hit or miss.

anyway, i left with them to casa de la musica near the prado and it sucked. i was going to go in with tad and seaman but the lines were long, the girls were aggressive and fowl, and i just didn’t feel the vive with anyone. i took my own taxi back to la chorrera. i felt good. got a drink and had to chase some girls away but one of them in a cool manner told me she thought i was attractive. we started to talk price and she just asked me to throw something out there. that’s what these girls do. they want to see how much of a moron you will be. some guys might through out $100 when a girl will go for $50 or less.

my goal that night was to see someone hot and get a great session. i accomplished both. this 22 year old blonde in great shape approached me. we both threw compliments at each other. i don’t care if a girl is lying or not. the important thing is that she makes me believe it. it all happened quickly after that. she told me to throw out an offer. i said $40 was fair for a few hours. she said $60 was the going rate for a professional hottie. we joked and we were having a fun time and agreed upon $50. that included that taxi fare home too so i didn’t have to pay anything extra.

she was excellent! she was from santa clara and was going home for the holidays the following morning. however, she did give me her phone number and invited me to call her in a few days when she returned.

day 13

we did some touristy stuff today. saw more of the city and took lots of pictures. havana is a great walking city. however, i would highly recommend renting a car. it isn’t a cheap option but you have the freedom to go wherever you want whenever you want. it’s an easy city to drive in since there are not too many cars on the road. the only problem is if you go outside of the city since there are virtually no signs to direct you where to go.

we walked on the malecon and decided to stop by a café. it turns out it was a chinese restaurant believe it or not. some young kid was pestering seaman. seaman was taking pictures and this 18 year old kid followed him down to the malecon. when he came back to the café he was asking us if we wanted girls. seaman and i decided there was no risk since i confirmed if the girls were ugly we would take a no risk pass. the kid agreed. shortly thereafter he brings up a really pretty mulatto girl named mariela. she claimed to have been 18 although she said she left her carnet at home which is never a good sign. the three of us encountered many girls that were really cute but either said they were 17 or told us they were 18 and we noticed on their carnets they were 18 and passed.

anyway, we bought the kid a cuba libre and seaman bought mariela lunch and drinks. she had a good attitude but we assumed she was a total pro when we saw her two gold teeth. it’s funny because you’ll see all these girls with two gold teeth. i asked mariela about it and she said it’s the current fashion trend among (working) girls.

one way we kind of goaded each other into sessioning is we would say, “if you don’t session with her i will”. it wasn’t said out of a dare it was more of a “threat” that if the guy didn’t decide then and there the other would pounce on her. she wanted $50 but i helped negotiate it down to $40 for a short time session. seaman left in a taxi with her.

tad and i walked around and took more pictures. we had a drink at the café next to the ingleterra. it was slow since it was nye. there were a couple girls mulling around but neither of us was really going to force anything. tad was a good influence on me as i never had the desire to see tons of girls. if i saw someone i really wanted i’d act on it.

i ended up talking to seaman and he was pleased with his session with mariela. he confirmed our suspicions that she was a pro. she wasn’t gfe but she knew what she was doing and aimed to please. which begs the question whether you would you rather have a gfe session with bad sex or a total porno type session that drains you dry with no gfe? when i posed the question to seaman our minds were thinking alike when he said why not have both that day. ha, ha.

the girl i was going to spend nye with was acting flaky and appeared to be having family problems. i guess what can you expect from someone that just got out of high school?? honestly i prefer girls a little older. i like 20, 21, 22, 23 year olds. havana seems to have a huge pool of talent that is in the 17-19 age range. most of the girls we asked were only 18. i talked to seaman’s girl and she confirmed her plans to show up and meet us at my apartment. i told her to bring 2 of her hot friends. she said no problem.

tad and i had to decide who would see who. we had this problem another night. i gave him the option to take the first or last girl that walked in. he chose the first. when the girls arrived i thought about just cutting them loose. we planned to spend nye at macumba for one of the hottest gigs in town. one of the hottest bands in cuba was playing. (charanga habanera). i figured worst case we could pay their entrance fee and then drink a little and leave. we were told it was a $20 cover to enter. when we got to macumba there was a line. i bs’ed and said we had reservations. they weren’t letting anyone without reservations in. many people were walking away. we made our way to the front of the line and i lied and said we had reservations. i guess it was impossible since they weren’t taking reservations just for the entrance. only if you had their nye dinner special you were allowed on the sacred list. in any case they told us to stand to the side and this rude bouncer told us to go back to the line. seaman was especially pissed but couldn’t really argue in spanish so kept telling me to. i tried a few times to talk to someone in authority but the bouncer wouldn’t let me in.

i figured money talks and bull shit walks. i had the telephone number and called the club on my cell phone. i told the lady that answered that i was in line with 5 of my friends and i had $100 to spend to get us in asap. seaman put in $50 and i put in $50 and we essentially bought our way into the hottest gig in town without reservations. the cover was $40 per person instead of the $20 that they advertised. so besides the $50 @ bribe it was $80 per couple to get in. oh well, like anything else in cuba…. what can you do??

unfortunately only seaman’s girl was cute. my girl had a cute face but her body was not my type. truth be told tad’s girl was downright scary. it turns out the two girls were cousin’s of seaman’s girl. tad and i thought if we drank heavily that would solve our problems. as predicted, it did not. my girl was session worthy but just had a bad attitude. i tried pulling out all the punches to butter her up but it wasn’t happening.

it was getting late and tad and i decided we must leave and look for girls. honestly i didn’t care if we hooked up or not. i just wanted to leave these girls. it wasn’t a good situation. seaman’s girl is bright and figured out we just weren’t interested. i told my girl that i had a stomach ache and had to leave. tad didn’t make any excuse. he barely talked to his girl as he didn’t want to give her any hope whatsoever. they just asked for taxi fare home. we each gave them $20 and i explained to seaman’s girl that there were many drunken italian dudes and i’m sure the girls could hook up if they put their hearts to it. (i was happy to hear the next day from seaman that both girls hooked up with drunken italians. i’m sure the guy that hooked up with tad’s girl woke up regretting coming to cuba).

by this point it was very late. it was 3:00 am on nye. the chances of hooking up were not in our favor but we took a taxi ride to la chorrera. predictably there were very few good girls left. i almost forced a session just to session but i came to my senses. i talked to a girl with a good body but a not so good face. i just threw out a $20 offer and i was surprised and kind of backed into a corner when she said yes. i politely told her that i was too tired and invited her to go find another dude. i gave her $1 and apologized. i did see a semi cute girl but she wanted something like $70 and i didn’t even have the energy to negotiate. tad and i decided to cut our losses and just go home. it was after 4 am at this point.

day 14


the gang all did the best we could to sleep in. we decided today would be a relaxing day. it was tad’s last night and we let him decide what we were going to do. tad was a great guy to hook up with. we spent over two weeks in cuba together and he was a good traveling companion. it felt good to know i made a new friend. he had never been on a “hobbying” trip and he really did a good job of turning this into more of a trip enjoying the country. i would probably have never gone to trinidad if he didn’t suggest we go. seaman was skeptical when i emailed him telling him i met a cool guy but seaman got along with him really well too.

we walked around havana viejo and then decided to walk the malecon for some sunset pictures. i got so many great photographs this trip of the city. i really started falling in love with havana. it’s a totally different destination that really takes some time to get to know but once you do it will get under your skin. i really will miss this place and don’t want to leave in a few days.

seaman’s girl from the day before called him and she was interested in a little session. she said she was with her friend. we happened to be in the area where she lived so i gave her our location and she said she would meet us. shortly thereafter she arrives with her friend. her friend was nothing to write home about. i originally was going to session with her hot friend but it turns out her hottie friend was stuck with family and couldn’t make it. i told mariela that no one wanted her friend. i asked seaman if he would repeat and then asked tad and both said they weren’t up for it. of course i was horny and she looked fantastic so we agreed upon the same $40 + $6 for taxi from miramar back to havana central.

i knew going in that she wouldn’t be super gfe. i didn’t care. she looked great and seaman said she was great in bed. we arrived and as predicted she wasn’t gfe but she was awesome in bed. that girl had some moves! she let me take lots of pictures. at first only with her clothes on. then i started showing her how great they looked and she asked me to take more with her clothes off. she was very photogenic. she stayed a while then showered and left.

i hooked up with the fellas and we went to dinner at this awesome restaurant next to la chorrera. you can’t miss it. it’s at the end of the malecon before you hit the tunnel to miramar. it’s not a cheap place and fancy but the food is good. tad was nice enough to pick up the tab for dinner, a bottle of wine and drinks. he said he appreciated all that seaman and i had done. i was sorry to see him go. it would end up being our last night together since seaman decided to drive to trinidad alone the following morning.

i should mention that seaman saw the bsg (blue shirt girl) as usual in her predictable spot. we grew to kind of feel sorry for her. she always had on the same blue shirt every single day that we were in havana. seaman saw her and wanted to give her a new year’s present. he stopped and gave her $10 at the side of road near the entrance to la chorrera. as he gave her the money some dude whistled to signal that the cops were behind in a car. she scurried away scared. we were right at the restaurant parking lot and parked. tad was driving. he didn’t have her driver’s license on him. the cops were looking for another bribe for not possessing a license. we all had had enough. we said we weren’t paying but the cops wouldn’t leave. my spanish is totally decent and i didn’t have problems communicating with the police. they asked for $30 and i told them that was ridiculous. finally i confidently told them i was a lawyer that did business in havana. i told them i had many coworker friends that were lawyers here. i said that tad would be happy to pay the fine but that i needed a receipt with both of their names on it. as soon as i said that they both got scared and said they would never demand money and that we didn’t understand them correctly. bastards. we laughed about it afterwards.

if you rent a car and stay in miramar and are in havana for any significant time you will get pulled over by the cops. just don’t show fear. that was the 6th skirmish with the police. i was getting good at avoiding shakedowns. seaman also got pulled once. he also was motioned to pull over by police on foot. we just ignored the police if they didn’t have a motorcycle or a car. there isn’t really anything they can do. sure they could radio ahead but they are just looking for a bribe. do not pay these as it will only encourage them to keep doing it. i’m sure many guys pay it as they can’t speak spanish or are scared. make sure in miramar you don’t make a turn anywhere you aren’t supposed to. for some stupid reason you can not make a turn on many of the streets. you have to wait for a major intersection or just go around the block and find a street with a light.

after dinner we went behind the restaurant to los jardines for a “fashion show” that was going on. it was horrible. some of the girls were hot but the clothes were hideous. we had one drink and left to go next door to la chorrera. in the parking lot tad saw the girl that we saw almost every night. most nights she was just drinking and hanging out. i never saw her leave with anyone. even last night when we were there around 4 am. we had to convince him to go with her but he finally did and we bid him farewell.

seaman and i entered la chorrera. there are many girls that ask you to pay for their way in. do not pay for them to get in. we always told them if they have their own money they could come in with us but the majority was looking to find some guy to pay their $5 entrance. i’m not entirely sure the girls couldn’t enter on their own. some places they couldn’t enter without a male escort but i don’t think this was one of them. if you want to be a nice guy and pay their cover that’s your prerogative but in essence you’re just paying their way to get in so they can hook up with someone else. if you want to score with her just negotiate and leave with her before you enter the club. you’ll save yourself the cover fee.

seaman and i walked around a bit. it was about 12:30 am and i was getting tired from a lack of sleep so i wanted to hook up. i decided to go with this cute girl. not a stunner model type but very cute and a good personality. she had a cute sister that i wanted seaman to hook up with but he was off chasing some other girl he said he saw on the malecon one day. i wished him good luck on his trip and we said goodbye. it was another great trip with seaman. this was our fifth international trip together in only one year. we had so many good laughs and good times this trip as usual.

i took a taxi particular home with my girl b. she was a nice girl. she made it a point to hold my hand on the way home in the taxi. nice touch. these girls can be very affectionate. i negotiated a $4 taxi ride home. the session was pretty good but her body wasn’t as good out of clothes as they were in them. still, i had a good session then sent her off. it was only about 2 am at this point so maybe she went back to the club. in the club before we left we negotiated $50 for a few hours plus i gave her $5 for a taxi. i’m sure she would have left for less but i didn’t feel like arguing over a few bucks. i asked for $40 and she wanted $60. she wasn’t a hottie quality to get $60 but i was getting tired and there were a lot of dudes so i’m sure she could have gotten it. i didn’t see too many great quality girls. as i posted before, it really was a struggle to find a hottie that was my type here.


day 15

i tried sleeping in but woke up at a reasonable time. seaman and tad were both gone. i had various calls from other dudes that wanted to hook up throughout the trip. hopefully these guys understand my desire to kind of do my own thing. i haven’t been motivated to meet a ton of new guys and i’m content traveling with the good friends i’ve already made.

i tried getting a taxi on calle 5 in miramar to no avail. believe it or not it isn’t too easy to get a taxi unless you are in front of a big hotel or in a touristy area. even when you call the panataxi # of 555-555 it is usually busy or not available. if you’re staying in miramar it is essential that you have a rental car. it was a beautiful day so i decided to walk as far as i could down to the melia cohibe hotel. i assumed i’d be able to flag down a taxi but there simply were none that didn’t already have people in it. it was a little hike but manageable. i wanted to see what stores were in the galleria mall next to the hotel. there was nothing there that any tourist would need.

i decided to walk around havana viejo some more. i wanted to take some more pictures in the plaza de san francisco which i really liked. it was the most uncluttered area that i noticed. there is a good outdoor café with good food. i had lunch there and walked around the area for a few hours. something that i noticed is that instead of a bag or backpack i carried around my camera and stuff in a plain plastic bag that the convenient stores give out when you buy something. i didn’t even have one tout approach me for anything. maybe it was a coincidence.

i took a panataxi from the ingleterra hotel all the way to calle 28 in miramar and it was $6.14 so don’t ever negotiate to pay more than this. always round up and give them the change.

shortly thereafter one of the girls i hooked up from la chorrera called me and i had her come over to my apartment. it was very convenient since she lived in miramar. had a mind blowing session that was better than the first time. we showered together then she left. i really like my apartment here in miramar but i miss having the car here. seaman took it to trinidad. i tried renting a rental car today but they are all still sold out. after my girl left i went and checked email at an internet café at the corner of 28th and 3rd in miramar. i had to wait a little bit since they only have one working computer. it didn’t work that well. i only was on 20 minutes when i got tied of waiting for pages to load. there was a girl waiting and i gave her the rest of my card which had 40 minutes left. she was very happy. the cost of 1 hour access card is $5. this is the minimum time you can buy.

i walked down to this ocean front bar that the fellas and i frequented near our casas. i had a few mojitos then decided to come home and made a few phone calls. i was trying to reach one of the girls and i accidentally called stu’s girl that he hooked up with a few times. be careful storing numbers in your phone. 90% of the girls we met had names starting with y. it was kind of comical. even girls with names like jessie were spelled yeissy. anyway, since she answered i thought i might as well see if she was available. seaman said he wouldn’t repeat with her again so i didn’t see it as a problem. she wasn’t exactly my type but she had a great personality and was really funny.

she came over in a little more than an hour and stayed for several hours. i was going to try to hook up with one of the guys from ch. i didn’t talk to him till about 11 pm when seaman’s girl left. anyway, he said he would be at cheverre. i took a taxi there. the scene didn’t look that good and i couldn’t find this dude plus his cellphone didn’t work so i waited about 15 minutes then went to johnny’s. johnny’s was absolutely dead. about 40 italian dudes and only 10 girls and the girls were all bad. i decided to walk to la chorrera. the place was packed with guys but again not too many girls. it wasn’t looking too good. i told myself i’d go to the bathroom then leave. as i was walking this stunner grabbed me. she was definitely my type. she looked out of place because most of the girls in the place that night were darker and heavier. she had a booming body. we flirted some and then i said let’s go for $40. she laughed. she said, “let’s go for $60” and then i laughed. as others pointed out before, the money issue isn’t a huge deal. it sets the tone for the session and let’s them know you know what you’re doing. we settled for $45 but she was clear to tell me that some of the stupid italians would pay up to $100 but she said they are a pain in the ass to deal with. i told her that i have been to cuba many times and she didn’t doubt it. in fact, i knew havana better than her. she has only been here two weeks. she is from camaguey. i definitely want to hit this town as it seems to produce a lot of the stunners.

she wasn’t a hard core type. i really do think she has only been here two weeks. she didn’t know where my apartment was in miramar and most of the pros know calle 28 or calle 30 well. no tattoos, no piercings, no gold teeth, no cellphone. she was very affectionate and we made out for a long time before getting into bed. the session was outstanding. i loved her body. i prefer girls on the thin side. afterwards we showered together and i gave her my last toothbrush. she let me take before and after pictures. she looked hot in and out of her clothes. she was 19.

it was damn hard getting through to a taxi. the panataxi number never works from being overloaded. when she finally did get through they said it would take an hour and a half. i just told her to flag one down on calle 5. i offered to go with her but told her the cops might stop us. she seemed a bit clueless about this. i just told her to pretend we were boyfriend/girlfriend and let me do the talking if they stopped us. we saw one cop and i did the most instinctive thing i could think of. we started making out like mad lovers and the cop walked past us. i finally flagged a taxi down for her on calle 5 (the main throughway through miramar). we kissed and i wished her a happy new year.

i was literally drained of energy. 3 long sessions in a relatively short amount of time. it was 3:30 am by the time i got back home from walking s. you know what? i had a big smile on my face the entire walk back home. it was a great trip and tonight was just a great ending to a great 16 day trip.

i’m in cancun now. my room isn’t ready so i’m typing this in the lobby of the hotel.

final thoughts

no trip report or no guide book could have prepared me for what cuba was going to be like. some of the trip reports are a little misleading. cuba isn’t this totally easy place with tons of hotties that are willing to sleep with you for next to nothing. sure there is action everywhere but the very attractive girls have figured out they are a commodity that is valuable. also, the hassles and the fear the police command with the girls make hobbying here more problematic. i never did pick up a “true street walker”. call me old fashioned but i like to at least get to know the girl a little first. i like inviting them to have a drink, dinner, lunch, etc. here the girls are nervous to even talk with you on the street. i’ll never be a sw type of guy. i’m so not shy and love talking to girls but picking girls off the street just wasn’t my thing.

there were many european guys here. (mostly italian). i found most of the italians to be very obnoxious. they usually traveled in flocks and were very loud in the clubs. even on the malecon i noticed they are the ones that honk their horns making a big scene trying to pick up girls. they weren’t discreet and it looked like some of the girls were uncomfortable with the ruckus they were making. i’m not sure if they overpay or not. most of the girls told me that they didn’t like them but there were just so many of them that come to cuba so that is their main supply of funds. also, it’s important to note that several of the girls told me the only time they got ripped off was from italian guys. i have nothing against italians though as they didn’t affect my ability to pick up a girl.

i didn’t notice too many americans here. the ones that i did notice seemed to be rookies that had no clue about the scene here. some of them looked like the nerdy type that thought cuba might be an easy place to pick up girls. let me be the first to say that there are so many other easier places to go in the world if you only want to sleep with a hot girl. i would seriously advise not to come to cuba if you are only coming for sex. i know i keep pointing this out throughout my report but it’s important to note. it’s actually hard to believe that a guy would pick cuba as a place to come for a first time in the hobby. granted, the close proximity to the usa is a huge draw but unless you can speak spanish it will be more difficult than so many other places.

one thing i was very surprised at is that there is virtually no people begging for money or giving you the line that they have no food. it seems like no one is starving here. for those that travel to latin or south america you’ll notice many people begging for money for food. the entire trip i maybe had one person begging for money. the whole idea of socialism in theory is good but it just doesn’t work. the cuban people as a whole seem to be a very happy and proud group of people. music defines their society. there is music everywhere. it is in the streets, restaurants, cafes, and the beach. for example, in playa del este on a 50 meter stretch there were maybe 3 separate groups all playing music.

it was kind of interesting to see that the men aren’t the only ones that come to cuba to hobby. i saw several middle aged and older women with young cuban guys. hopefully these ladies aren’t deluding themselves into thinking these men really care for them. i saw many older men with young girls. it was interesting when i brought up this topic of conversation with several of the girls. many told me that they had many chances to marry middle aged or older italian or american men and they would rather live in cuba then be in a relationship where they had no attraction or love for the other person. almost all of the girls i saw had no interest in dating cuban guys. they are looking for an opportunity at a better life. all of them loved their country but what future does a girl have when the most she can make even in a professional job is $30 us a month.

i’m sure finding love in cuba is very possible but in the end you have to stay realistic. one day tad and i were having coffee at the café next to the ingleterra. an older guy that spoke almost no spanish was sitting with a girl. the girl didn’t speak english. i didn’t find her attractive but she seemed nice. she was holding hands with the guy and they were sitting with a tour guide. she told me that the guy was her fiancée and that she was going to be married in a few months. i guess the guy was supporting her. i’m not sure if he knew it or not but we saw the girl working and spending time with senior citizens almost every day the rest of our trip. i guess love is blind huh? remember that these girls are like monkeys swinging from tree limb to tree limb. they are content swinging on the branch but they won't swing over to the next tree until there is a steady branch to support them. we as men are the branches. once they get bored they swing to the other branch. i've literally met hundreds and hundreds of girls traveling around. many wanted to date. i only met one girl out of hundreds that i found was completely honest.

on the topic of cops. they are harmless. keep in mind it's their job and a good job at that. they make more than doctors. a cop isn't going to risk anything to do something stupid and lose their job. there are police everywhere and people are scared of them but to tourists i viewed them just like the mosquitos that i kept getting bitten by. more of a nuisance that you couldn't really avoid and not really going to hurt you.

most of these police are useless like many of the other "state" employees. kind of like the useless rental car agents that were useless. we went to the rental car place to renew our contract and there were 5 guys there that couldn't do anything. they literally told us to come back at 2 pm when the one guy that could make decisions came in. they were just trying to stay/look busy. they were watching the cable tv which was connected to the hotel and one guy was even sleeping in the back office in the middle of the day. the police are just on the streets trying to stay busy. i imagine they are one of the highest paid employees with the occassional shakedown of tourists.

be careful in the clubs. la chorrera gets packed and you are literally brushing against people to walk to the bathroom and in the other room. one of the last nights i had two piles of money in my jeans. one side had bigger bills like $10's and $20's. the other had a ton of $1 bills. i noticed when i got back home that night my $1's were gone. i thought maybe i was careless and it fell out but i'm usually careful. i now found out from seaman that that night he "lost" his wallet. i think someone stole it from his pocket. it's hard to imagine but you're brushing up against people and it wouldn't be too difficult for a skilled thief. just be careful at all times like you would anywhere else you would travel to.

i will miss cuba and everything i experienced. i could have done cuba alone but it was so much fun with seaman and tad. i made another great friend in tad and i’m sure i’ll see him somewhere in the world on another adventure.

life is good.

[El Colorado]

I have been asked to compare Cuba with Cali, Columbia. After having taken over 30 trips to Cuba, I recently visited Cali, Columbia. I noticed the following differences:
In Cuba, virtually every woman is for sale. However, many are
semi-pros or amateurs. A GFE therefore is very possible or even probable. The women want to stay all night. That is what is generally negotiated for. The hardest thing to do in Cuba is to get rid of a chica. They don’t want to leave.
Professionals in Cali are very easy to find. The city is full of casas, and there are plenty of SW’s along Ave Sexta in the evening. Semi-pros were there if you searched, but didn’t seem as plentiful. In the casas and with many of the SW’s, everything is by the hour. You have to talk them into staying the night. The rest of the women wanted relationships of some sort. Dates with non-pros were easy to get, but you weren’t going to get laid the first couple of dates.
Sex is expected from the start in Cuba. I’ve actually seen women insulted if you didn’t go to bed with them. Maybe it’s because Columbia is very Catholic and almost all of the hundreds of women I’ve dated in Cuba had no religion.
If you go with a woman for an hour or less, Cali is now cheaper than Cuba. All night with a SW or semi-pro was also somewhat less than Cuba. All night with a Cali casa girl was double what they cost in Cuba.
The average Columbian woman is far more beautiful than the average Cuban girl. However, Cuban women will aggressively come after you. The Columbians are more reserved. The Cuban girls are wilder in bed IMHO, although Columbian girls seem to want to make out more. They like more foreplay.
Prices for drinks, food and lodging seem about equal. However Columbia has everything you would want to buy, while things are far more limited in Cuba.
There’s the political thing, too. In Cali, the police and military were there to help you, while the goal of Cuban police is to extort you and try to put your girl in prison without trial. I wouldn’t want to be a policeman in Havana when Castro finally dies. Everyone hates them.
In Cali, you’re free to roam wherever is safe; in Havana, your chica takes a big chance being seen with you in public. This was one of the major reasons for my Cali visit. I’m tired of skulking around or staying in with a girl who doesn’t want to go out.
Street crime seems more prevalent in Cali than Havana. Cuba has no guns. You can buy a handgun in Cali for about $40. (US). Cali streets that can be walked during the day must be traversed by cab at night. I have never had this problem in Cuba. Yet, with my guide, I always felt safe in Cali.
If you’re looking for a lot of different (and beautiful) girls for short time and very inexpensive, Cali would be the choice. If you crave instant GFE with a semi-pro or amateur, Cuba would be better.
I’m returning to Cali next week for another two weeks. This time one of my US friends is coming along also. I think I got the lay of the land well enough to have a very good time. I also cultivated a girlfriend if I care to go that route some of the time.

[Caw199]

Re Saint: - Thanks for the info

I will be renting a car for 2 weeks and heading to Santiago from Havana with stops in Santa Clara, Camaguey and Holguin. I would like to make the turn around Baracoa but I will see how much time I have when I get to Santiago. I have heard a few good stories about the hitch-hickers but have also heard some horror stories about renting a car in Cuba. According to the Canadian travel advisory on Cuba, they say not to rent a car in Cuba. They say that the insurance they sell you is worthless and if you get into an accident, the government will not let you leave the country until everything is settled. Could cost you a lot of money, not counting lost income.

Anyway, "the Lord hates a coward" so I will still rent the car and see what happens. It may end up being my mobile casa.

Would still appreciate any added info on mongering on the road headed toward Santiago from Havana.

I have been to Cuba three times in the past, Cienfuegos once and Guanabo twice. I have always wanted to travel through the whole island. A little company on that lonely road would be enjoyable.

Thanks again
Caw199