Separated in Cuba | Our Hilariously Bad Shared Taxi Experience | Havana to Vinales

What's on your head?

Are you not black?

No.

Everybody in our car is just filthy black.

Good morning. It is our third day in Cuba, and today we are leaving Havana and going to Vinales, where they grow the famous Cuban diet back.

However, if you're here during high season, maybe don't wait till the very last second to book your transportation. We're riding in a shared taxi, but since we booked at the last second, we're in separate taxis for two and a half hours. Apparently there's, like, two families going, and they each have one seat left in the car. The taxis are traveling together, but just. Yeah, we each have one seat in each car.

I have major separation issues.

The other. The other, like, potential issue here is if the cars get separated, we have no Internet, no cell phone. How did people, like, find each other in the old days?

I guess you just had nothing else to do. You just wander until you found your way. Goodbye. Goodbye, miss you.

See you, Vinales.

Okay, this is what I get to ride in.

Check out our.

Okay, we are about two hours into the drive, and our driver just pulled over onto this tobacco plantation. There are a few other tour groups here, but Nate's car is not here. I have no idea where he is. This very nice man is offering us coffee and a cigar. I'm not really sure. I didn't know this was included in this drive. So we'll see what happens.

We're about an hour into the trip. So far, we have yet to leave the city of Havana, and I feel like everything that I've heard about travel in Cuba is coming true. We've packed five people into the car. We're all sitting with the luggage in our lap. And right as we were about to leave the city, the car has completely broken down.

You can touch the leaf. If you touch the leaf, it's so great.

This is so strange. They did not tell us that this tour was a part of our ride, but I'm kind of enjoying it. I just wonder where Nate is.

Okay, we are back on the road, and we'll see how far we make it this time.

Sam.

I think this is Kara's car.

Okay. We just made a pit stop at one of those places that I think is like a bit of a tourist trap where you're supposed to buy something. And apparently our car has some kind of issue, so we're switching to another car. And maybe this is the car that Carrie got in. I was wondering if we would ever be reunited. Maybe you continue with car. Maybe, maybe. But I still don't know where my wife is, so. Because we got delayed in Havana for an hour, I figured she would probably already be in Vinales. The thing I remembered was I have all of the money, so I don't know how she was gonna pay for the taxi. Maybe she'll. She'll show up.

Late.

I did not want to ever see you again.

Where are you dining?

Our car broke down.

Oh, no.

Before I even got out of her.

What's on your head?

Are you not black?

No.

Everybody in our car is just filthy black. Am I? I haven't even looked at it.

Do I look like you?

No, you're not dirty at all. Have the windows been rolled up in your car?

No, we got them down.

I thought it was like the exhaust from all the other cars.

That is so weird.

They were like, yeah, yeah, you'll be together. You'll be together all day. The cars will drive together. Literally, as soon as we got in the cars, they just split directions.

I was so nervous, and I just have this piece of paper with our address on it. I knew nothing else. I have no money. I have no piece.

I thought about the money. I need to give money. Yeah.

And then we pull over at this farm.

Did you? This is the wife that I just cleaned my face with. Apparently, the exhaust tube that sits in the front of the car broke, and so we've just been sitting in the car breathing in exhaust. Few years off my life there.

The away bag breaks. We'll know why. I don't know about it.

Okay.

It's okay.

Do we think they fixed the exhaust on the car? Yeah. Okay. Vominos to vignales. We think the car has been fixed, so hopefully we won't be breathing exhaust for the next hour.

Okay. I just got dropped off. I have no money, no phone, and the place where we're staying is not accessible by car because of this little bridge here.

And Nate is in the other car. So I'm just gonna walk and hope that someone nice can tell me where to go. Oh, man.

I think this is it. Hola. Mi nombre es kara. Kara.

Mi esposo in otro.

See?

All right.

All right. This is almost 2pm we have finally made it to the town of Vinales. We've dropped off the other four people who were in the car with me, and now we just have to find my casa, which involves a lot of showing this little green paper to people around town. That's what people did before Google Maps. They just asked a lot of questions like, stop every 10ft.

Well, I made it to our casa particular. No problem. Our hosts are very sweet that speak zero English. A beat Nate here. Hopefully their car didn't break down again. And I guess I'll just wait here.

I just have to wonder if Kira's had as hard a time finding this place as I have. First, we have. We're in this together.

I'm already in love with our host. She made me this mango smoothie which is absolutely delicious. I still have no idea where Nate is. And I think she told me to sit out here and enjoy my drink and wait for my husband. Husband. I'm not too good at Spanish, but I'm pretty sure that's what she said. This is lovely. She has a great little patio. I hope Nate gets here soon to enjoy this with me. She handed me this notebook that is full of reviews from the last three years that they have been a casa particular. And there were so many reviews that she had to start a new notebook. I was reading through a few of the English ones and they were all so nice, saying that they're the best cooks and the most loving host. I'm really looking forward to this. As long as Nate gets here.

This.

Could be the end for me.

Wow.

Without exaggeration, this is the 15th person we pass. People keep pointing in in different directions. The last lady we asked pointed this way. This guy's pointing back that way.

Oh.

No.

No.

I was just worried about being late. Now. Now it's whether we're going to make it.

Yes.

He's here.

I spotted him from the roof.

Gracias. Has luego.

Hola, mi amor.

I told him it could be.

Mucho minutos. No se.

How long have you been here?

I've been here at least an hour. I've been trying to tell our hosts, like, what happened to you? And they had no idea. I was like, he has black on his face and the car is.

And they were like, oh.

I'm so glad you made it. They're amazing. I love this house and I never want to leave. I've also already booked us a lobster dinner at our house tonight.

At 8 o'. Clock. The bed is actually. It feels like a tempur pedic. It's like memory foam. And I love it. It's so much better than all the beds we've been in the last few weeks. They even made little. Little swan towels.

We've regrouped. I've washed my face with a cold towel. And now we are heading into the center of town because we need to figure out how to exchange Some money. Need to figure out how we can get to the tobacco farm tomorrow, and we're going to try to find a good place to watch the sunset. Need to make it worth it for this journey out here.

Sam.

Well, this afternoon's to do list just kind of completely fell apart. We weren't able to get money because the bank closed at 3. We didn't book a tour, and now we've ended up back on the roof of our house for sunset, which isn't all that bad, just not what we had planned.

We were successful in doing one thing, though, which was avoiding our very first scam.

So we needed to get bus tickets to go to Trinidad in a couple days. We'd heard the bus filled up quick, so we went to the bus station, try to buy the tickets, and it's.

Just like a mini scam and they weren't successful. So we got to the bus station, this guy was sitting outside, and on our way in, he stood up and he's like, where are you going? What do you need? And so we told him, like, you work there? Yeah. We're like, we need bus tickets to Trinidad on Sunday. And he's like, oh, okay. So he takes us over to the desk where the guy books buses, and he says something to the guy and he said, what day do you need him? And we said, Sunday. And he immediately said, oh, it's full.

Full.

And we're like, oh, darn.

And then he took us over to the desk where this other guy was selling a more expensive taxi. And it just all kind of felt weird.

Yeah. So the taxi was available on Sunday. And then Nate was. Was, I guess, curious about the other days and went back to the first guy, the.

The, like the official guy sitting behind the counter selling the bus tickets. And I was like, well, do you have tickets for Monday? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, well, what about Friday? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, well, what about Saturday when we need to wait? And he's like. Like it was a secret. Like, the guy at the door obviously either, like, paid him a commission if we took the taxi or I don't know, it was.

It was.

It was weird.

So we just left because we didn't have any money and we couldn't book it anyways. And I just felt like we needed to include this in this video. If you are coming to Cuba, just know that that happened to us. We didn't want to act like it didn't. And I'm very sad.

I would just caution you if you're coming here to just kind of take everything that people say with a grain of salt if it feels like a little off to you. And we wouldn't just bring this up if this was, was kind of a one time thing, but one kind of underlying theme of our trip. So far, we've had an incredible time, but at the same time, we've just, we've heard a lot of different things.

From different people, like, about the same subject. So our tour guide will tell us one thing, who is awesome? And we had the best time with them. But then, like, we go home to our casa and hear a different story about the same subject. And so it was just kind of. It would just be confusing. And we don't have Internet to look anything up, like, what's real? And I don't know, it's just been interesting. Like, nothing really bad, just interesting.

We've just found ourselves three days into our Cuba trip, having a hard time figuring out who we can trust. Yeah. And again, like, I, I don't want to sit here and like, say this because we don't like being negative, but at the same time, we want to be kind of real with what's going on. So if any of you are planning your trips based off our video, you'll have a little bit better idea of, of what to expect.

We're still having a fantastic time and cannot wait to spend tomorrow in Vinales. It seems like an awesome place.

And with all that said, if it doesn't get any better, our casa owner is cooking us a lobster dinner tonight. We're sitting up on top of the roof watching the sunset.

She's making his mojitos.

There's so many beautiful parts about Cuba, but that's not the full story, which is why we wanted to do this. Okay, rant over. Tomorrow will be a great day exploring things.

Yeah, we're going to enjoy the sunset. Timeline.