Another day, another ferry, this time to Haida Gwaii

Today’s ferry wasn’t as early, or nearly as long as the last one, but it wasn’t such nice scenery either. The journey was fine, but there wasn’t much to look at most of the way, which I suppose was good in a way, as it gave us both a chance to catch up with some of our tasks, including getting a few more blog posts written. And this time, we did a better job of sticking to our meal plan too.

We arrived in Skidegate, collected our bags, and went to queue for a taxi, only to be met by a rather grumpy man, who told us that we should have booked a taxi, that he was waiting for someone who had booked, and various other unhelpful comments. We were trying to establish whether we could book a cab now, or put our name on a list or something, but he really wasn’t listening, so we were getting nowhere. Then just as we were considering going off to try to hitch our way to Queen Charlotte – hitching is apparently a vey common mode of transport here – he suddenly said, “OK, get in”. I have no idea what changed, but we didn’t argue, and hopped in.

I wish I could say that this was the end of his grumpiness, but no, it continued for the entirety of the journey. It wasn’t directed so much at us, but he grumbled his way about various other people. He also reckoned that the address we were going to didn’t exist. Now, Queen Charlotte isn’t a big place. We only stayed there six days, and by the end of that we were giving other new arrivals directions, so given that he reckons he’s been driving a cab here for 25 years, I just don’t believe that he didn’t know where it was.

But we went on a little mystery tour nonetheless, before suddenly and miraculously, he worked out where to find it. It wasn’t even a ploy to get more money, as he charged us the standard fare, so I can only assume that he just likes being cantankerous. We spoke to a local about him later, and they knew exactly who we were talking about and confirmed that this was his usual jolly self.

Anyhow, we arrived at our Airbnb, and were made very welcome by our host and her longer-term guest. We got ourselves settled in, and then tottered our way down the short but rather steep hill down towards the visitors’ centre, and to take a look around, before heading back to the house to make ourselves our dinner.

On the subject of food, if you do come here and plan to self cater, then if you have the opportunity, bring a few groceries with you. We had a bit of trouble getting to the supermarket around our day tours, and when you do get there, they don't have a great deal of choice and prices are fairly high. Thankfully, we had bought the first day's dinner with us. Of course, if you are happy to eat out, there are a few decent places around, which I will mention as we get to them later on.

Havana - and the first of two old cars

For our first two nights in Havana we met up with a couple of friends who are currently living and working just a short hop away on the Cayman Islands. They were staying around the old town so as our original plan to meet them at our conveniently located hotel had failed, we met them in Plaza Vieja instead.

We spotted a vacant outside table at the microbrewery called Taberna de Muralle, and grabbed it. With a nice view, a tower of reasonable locally brewed beer and some good music playing, we stayed to eat there and caught up on each others news.

After food we wandered around the streets nearby in search of a bar. We intended to try out Bodeguita del Medio, which was an old Ernest Hemmingway haunt and full of character, but unfortunately it was also very full of people already. But we found an alternative after a while and sat outside drinking our various drinks, most of which contained rum of some form or other.

At the end of the evening, as we needed a cab back to our distant hotel, we headed to the square where we were told the drivers loiter. We were soon offered a cab at the right price, and we followed the guy over to the cabs. He took us to one of the old style cars, where the driver promptly sought a high price because it was a vintage car. He didn't seem too bothered when we said no; we just wanted to get where we were going and didn't care what the car was.

And this car wasn't so much vintage as clapped out. It is hot enough in Cuba that you generally want the windows open, which was just as well in this car as there was no glass in the windows to close. The interior of the car was exactly that - the inside of the metal outside. The seat was there, but otherwise here was no upholstery inside, just the metal panels, with bits of wire to open the doors.

Half way there we reached a point where the road sloped upwards and came to an abrupt stop. The driver tried to restart with no joy, so got out and had a fiddle under the bonnet and tried again; still no luck. Two attempts later he got it going; we held our breath for the rest of the journey and when we made it there I think we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Havana - with no place to stay

From Santa Clara we made our final bus journey back to Havana. We had decided that for these last five nights we would treat ourselves to one of the not too pricey, but nice colonial hotels in the older part of the city.

We arrived on the bus and the driver offered to arrange a taxi to the hotel, which we agreed to. The 'taxi' turned out to be two plastic chairs strapped into the back of the mini van that was taking the post sacks from the bus to the sorting office. It looked like something out of a movie where we would be forced in at gunpoint and gagged until they found somewhere suitable to shoot us and dump our bodies! Thankfully nothing like that happened, and we arrived safely at our hotel.

Though as we were about to find out, it wasn't our hotel at all. We had booked through Hostelbookers, which we had used quite a lot in South America, and though that agency had sent us confirmation and taken our deposit, apparently the hotel itself doesn't work with them, and had no reservation for us. They also had no rooms available, so we couldn't stay there.

Of course by this time the Hostelbookers office was closed, so we couldn't contact them, and had to find somewhere to stay. That was not going to be easy, as we had reached tourist season, and places were full. With hard to find and interminably slow Internet, there was no way we were going to quickly find somewhere else, so after a few phone calls that came to nothing, we turned to the tour agent sat in the lobby.

She didn't look too optimistic either. She first found a very expensive place, which we weren't prepared to pay for. She phoned a few that we said we would be happy with but with no luck. Then she found us a place way out in the Miramar area that could do the first four nights. The price was OK, even though annoyingly we were paying for included dinners which we knew we would not use more than one night, so we agreed.

We left a message at the front desk for the friends that we were supposed to be meeting there later in case we couldn't contact them beforehand, and set off for the new hotel.

The hotel was OK, but is was definitely a resort style hotel, where many people don't really bother to leave the hotel area for the whole of their stay unless it is for an arranged tour. We have nothing against that, but it just doesn't suit us, so we never stay usually at these places.

But it was somewhere to stay, and we left the other guests to their morning poolside dancercise classes and went into town instead. We did eat there one night and the food was fine, but generally we ate in town.

Once we finally got access to Internet, we booked our last night at a hotel along the Malecon. It was quite cheap, and once we got there we knew why. The room was OK and was clean, but the lift took forever (and we were on the eleventh and top floor), the balcony door was held together with a screw and a prayer, and when we arrived the water wasn't working - though by the time we returned that evening it was fine.

The water problem in our room may have had some connection with a water problem in the lobby, where there was rather too much of it! Multiple buckets and other containers were catching the drips - or not. There was water everywhere, and it stayed like that until we left the next day. It wasn't even as if we'd had a lot of rain.

As for Hostelbookers, this is the third time that somewhere we booked through them has been a problem. You can't contact anyone at the time there is a problem and their site doesn't let you access accommodation for the same day, so when it goes wrong you're stuck and all they ever do is say sorry and refund the deposit. So we will in future be using Hostelworld instead, which we have never yet had a problem with.