Accommodation
When you book accommodation on the Internet, make sure you call them to confirm as well. Generally casas don't have Internet and the booking you made was to a middle man (whose only function appears to be running a website advertising casas, and sending you "confirmation emails" that are not real confirmations). Calling ahead also protects casa owners against no-shows. If possible get them to pick you up from the station, as taxi or bicitaxis might try and take you to another casa (and earn a commission in the process). If you don't speak Spanish well enough to call ahead then just ask your current casa owner (or an amigo) to help.
Accommodation types are mainly casas or hotels. There are virtually no hostels outside Havana (even there it's few and far between). Casas usually have a double and a single bed, so if you're a couple, or in a group of three then it's much cheaper. If you're a lone traveller then here's no harm in bartering with your host, or suggesting you don't mind sharing if they have surplus demand.
Only casas with the blue anchor logo can host foreigners. Red ones are for locals.
Travelling around
Viazul bus tickets are best reserved online or at least a day or two in advanced in person at the bus station. If you reserved online make sure you print off the confirmation and have the paper copy on you - NOT just on your phone (which they won't accept). Get to the bus station at least half an hour before the scheduled departure to check in, otherwise you might be classified as a no-show and your ticket reallocated to someone else.
If you don't have a ticket reserved already, get to the station earlier and announce your request for a standby ticket. You'll have to wait until the bus arrives or is ready to leave as they need to ascertain how many tickets are available for sale. If there are none left then you can try and offer to stand up if you don't want to wait for the next one.
If you have the time to wait around for local buses, and know the routes, they are extremely cheap - usually 0.2 or 0.4 pesos (not CUC).
Money
The difference between CUC ($) and CUP (peso cubano) is 25 times! 1CUC=25CUP
Banks and Cadeca's (casa de cambiar) usually have the same FX rates. If you want local pesos then you need to change them at a Cadeca. A meal at a local peso restaurant will set you back anything between 40 to 120 pesos.
Lots of people rely on tipping so do it. 1 peso cubano for toilets. 10% in restaurants and tour groups (if you think the service is good).
Comms
The official WiFi network, available in many park squares in cities like Cienfuegos and Santa Clara, is called Etecsa. You need to get a WiFi scratch card ($2 for one hour) to sign on. For some reason my Google Nexus 4 doesn't like this WiFi network (something about weak ephemeral network) so I don't even get to the scratch card sign in page. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? I've tried restarting my phone, clearing cookies and cache, but to no avail. I've had to resort to standing outside hotels that have their own WiFi network (but still need the scratch cards).
The important stuff
Most public toilets, even those in a lot of restaurants, don't have (1) toilet seats and (2) toilet paper.
Conserve water. If there is a leak anywhere (e.g. toilet) let your host know straight away, the last thing you want is to empty your host's water tank!
Only foreigners buy bottled water and they are not available everywhere. Places might sell soft drinks, beer, rum but not bottled water (they have a good life here).
Get to the airport in good time. Just in case your booked flight is shown as 1 hour earlier with a different airline!
I made sure I made the most of my last day in Cuba. In the morning I went to visit Gran Caverna de Santo Thomas, the biggest cave system in Cuba and the second biggest in the Americas. It was organised through Paradiso ($21 including transfer, 9am-12pm). The best bit was probably the drive which lasted 30 minutes each way. The cave excursion itself was quite underwhelming and disappointing. The helmets we were given reeked of stale cheesy sweat from the hundreds of tourists before us, it almost made me sick but soon I added my share of sweat to it when we spent a good 15 minutes (out of 90 allotted minutes) climbing up to the entrance of the cave and another 15 back down at the end. The time inside the cave was short and we never went that deep into it - even though we had head torches we could see sunlight coming from somewhere throughout most of it. Again like the hiking tours there was a lot of stopping, waiting around for everyone and explanations about nothing particularly enlightening. I've seen way better stalactites and stalagmites and been inside easy cooler caves before (Cheddar Gorge being one). All in all it was disappointing and I wouldn't recommend anyone waste $21 on it. The view outside the cave was great though.
Three things I felt I had to do in Cuba but still hadn't done yet by the final afternoon: buy rum, buy cigars and go salsa dancing. The first two were easy to tick off - there was an official shop that sells both in the centre of town. I found out from my French roommate (guy from the sunset tour the day before who wasn't sharing with anyone and I got kicked out of my casa) was going to a salsa lesson so I was going to tag along. When I enquired about it at Paradiso they said the beginners class was 6-8pm, so I decided to rent a bike to kill a few hours.
Riding out to see the villages and valleys by yourself was fantastic and really enjoyable but hard work. I loved it and even overran timing a little. By the time I got back it was already 5.50 and I decayed whether to go home to change into a new t shirt first before salsa so as to not stink my partner out. It was the right decision to get changed - only when I looked in the mirror I realised I had loads of dead flies drowned on my sweaty neck and forehead, presumably from the speed of the cycling. Turning up to salsa like that would have been far worse than just being smelly!
All good things have to come to an end and Viñales, and Cuba, were no exception. It felt strange making my way to the airport the next morning - I couldn't believe that I was going and probably won't come back again. There was still a lot to see and experience here that 2-3 weeks just cannot do it justice. But part of me was also happy and ready to move on; the constant pollution, being touted and not speaking the language was tiring. Well, the rest of my destinations are all Spanish speaking countries, so I have no option but to improve the language!
Cuba wouldn't be Cuba if there wasn't last minute drama. On arrival to Havana airport (also in an illegal taxi not dissimilar to the one I took from Santa Clara), I could not find my flight on the departure board. I looked and looked but it just wasn't there. Was it the Toronto flight, which had the same time, but it just didn't say it's flying via Curaçao or Caracas? No it wasn't. The only use the information desk had was to send me to the ticket office, where an older and wiser guy knew who to call and give me the right advice. My 14:15 flight was actually shown as 13:15, flown by Inselair not Hahn Airlines (it was already 12:40 and I still hadn't checked in). Think I'll have to send some feedback to my booking agent. It was a mad rush through security but I made it in the end. We didn't actually board until 13:45 and took off at 14:05 so who knows what was the right time.
