Sports and outdoor activities in Cuba
Cuba has an unusually high proportion of world-class sportsmen and women but its sporting facilities, for both participatory and spectator sports, lag some way behind the standards set by its athletes. Nevertheless, you can catch a game in the national baseball, basketball and soccer leagues for next to nothing, while Cuba is endowed with countless outstanding scuba-diving and fishing sites. Hiking and cycling are both popular outdoor activities for foreign visitors but access to either requires some advance planning.
Baseball
For some outsiders, the national Cuban baseball league, the Serie Nacional de Béisbol, isn’t just one of the best leagues outside of the US to see world class players, but represents a nostalgic version of the game, harking back to a time when the sport elsewhere – particularly in the US – wasn’t awash with money and spoiled by celebrity and commercialism. Every province has a team and every provincial capital a stadium, most of which were built in the 1960s or early 1970s, and are relatively intimate affairs, with the exception of Havana’s 55,000 capacity Estadio Latinoamericano. Free of mascots, cheerleaders, obtrusive music blasted through PA systems and any form of commercial distraction, all the attention is instead on the game.
The national league adopted a new season structure in 2012. The first half of the season begins in late summer or autumn depending on the year (in recent years start months have ranged from August to November), as the 16 teams play the first of their 45 regular season games in an all against all contest. In March the top eight teams play a further 42 games to qualify for play-offs, semifinals and finals in May. Traditionally, games start around 8pm during the week, though in recent years there have been plenty of 2pm and 3pm start times, both throughout the week and at weekends. Some stadiums now have special seating areas and higher admission costs for non-Cubans.
Dominant teams over the last decade have included Ciego de Ávila, Industriales of Havana, Villa Clara and Santiago de Cuba. By far the best resource for anything relating to Cuban baseball, including season schedules and tournament information, is the website baseballdecuba.com.
Other spectator sports
The national basketball league, the Liga Superior de Baloncesto, generates some exciting clashes, even though most of the arenas are on the small side. There are only eight teams in the league, with Ciego de Ávila the dominant force over the last decade. The timing of the basketball season, played over a 28-round regular season followed by semi-finals and finals, is inconsistent from year to year but most recently has taken place between January and April.
There is a national football (soccer) league as well, with its season running from October to February, followed by play-offs and finals in March. Pinar del Río, Villa Clara and Cienfuegos have been the most consistently strong teams over the last three decades. There are very few custom-built football stadiums, with many games taking place in baseball stadiums or on scrappy pitches with very little enclosure.
Scuba diving
Cuba is a scuba-diving paradise. Most of the major beach resorts, including Varadero, Cayo Coco, Santa Lucía and Guardalavaca, have at least one dive centre, with numerous others all over the island, including several in Havana. The most reliable dive sites are generally off the south coast where the waters tend to be clearer, away from the churning waves of the Atlantic Ocean, which affect visibility off Cuba’s northern shores. For the top dive spots head for María La Gorda in southwestern Pinar del Río, Punta Francés on the southwestern tip of the Isla de la Juventud, and the Jardines de la Reina off the southern coastlines of Ciego de Ávila. All three have been declared National Marine Parks by the Cuban government and as a result are protected from man-made abuses, particularly commercial fishing.
Diving in Cuba is worthwhile in any season, but during the hurricane season (June to November) and particularly in September and October, there is a higher chance that the weather will interfere and affect visibility. Among the marine life you can expect to see in Cuban waters are nurse sharks, parrotfish, turtles, stingrays, barracuda, tarpon, moray eels, bonefish, snapper and tuna. The best time to see whale sharks, arguably the highlight of any diving trip to the island, is in November, while in the spring the fish are in greater abundance. On the other hand, from late April to late May there is an increased chance of swimming into what Cubans call el caribé, invisible jellyfish with a severe sting, found predominantly off the southern coast of the island. To counter this you can either wear a full wetsuit or simply make sure you dive off the northern coastline at this time of year.
The principal dive operator in Cuba is Marlin, which runs most of the dive centres and many of the marinas. The only other significant players are Gaviota, Cubanacán and Cubamar Viajes. Most dive centres are ACUC certified, but a few are SSI or SNSI certified, and all offer courses accredited to one or more of these diving associations. There are countless opportunities for all levels of diving, from absolute beginners to hardened professionals, but the best place to start is in a hotel-based diving resort, where you can take your first lesson in the safety of a swimming pool.
Kitesurfing
Kitesurfing is new to Cuba but is growing quickly. The last few years have seen the country’s first clutch of kitesurfing schools and centres set up in the sport’s hotspots, Varadero, Cayo Guillermo and Playas del Este in Havana , all on the northern coast where you’ll get the best winds (commonly 14-20 knots). Equipment rental in general is scarce but possible in all three of these places and easiest in Varadero where there are two schools. The best months for wind are between November and April.
Fishing
Cuba is now firmly established as one of the best fishing destinations in the Caribbean, if not the world. Largely free from the voracious appetite of the huge US fishing market and discovered only relatively recently by the rest of the world, Cuba’s lakes, reservoirs and coastal areas offer all kinds of outstanding fishing opportunities.
Inland, bass are particularly abundant, especially at Embalse Hanabanilla in Villa Clara, Embalse Zaza in Sancti Spíritus and lakes in Ciego de Ávila province, which between them provide the best locations for freshwater fishing. The top Cuban destination for fly-fishing lies south of the Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey coastlines at the Jardines de la Reina archipelago. This group of some 250 uninhabited cays, stretching for 200km at a distance fluctuating between 50km and 80km from the mainland, is regarded by some experts as offering the finest light-tackle fishing in the world. With commercial fishing illegal here since 1996, other than around the outer extremities, there are virtually untapped sources of bonefish and tarpon as well as an abundance of grouper and snapper. To get a look-in at the Jardines de la Reina archipelago, you will most likely have to go through Avalon, a specialist foreign operator granted exclusive rights of the specialist foreign operators which have attained exclusive rights to regulate and organize the fishing here, in conjunction with the Cuban authorities. Fly-fishing is also excellent at the Peninsula de Zapata. There are numerous other opportunities for saltwater fishing around Cuba, with deep-sea fishing popular off the northern coastlines of Havana, Varadero and Ciego de Ávila, where blue marlin, sail fish, white marlin, barracuda and tuna are among the most dramatic potential catches.
There is no bad time for fishing in Cuban waters, but for the biggest blue marlin, July, August and September are the most rewarding months, while April, May and June attract greater numbers of white marlin and sail fish. The best bass catches usually occur during the winter months, when the average water temperature drops to 22°C.
Equipment for fishing, particularly fly-fishing, is low on the ground in Cuba, and what does exist is almost exclusively the property of the tour operators. Buying anything connected to fishing is all but impossible, so it makes sense to bring as much of your own equipment as you can.
Golf
Its associations with the pre-1959 ruling classes made golf something of a frowned-upon sport in Cuba once Fidel Castro took power. The advent of mass tourism, however, has brought it back, and though currently there are only two courses on the island there are plans for more. The biggest, best-equipped and most expensive is the eighteen-hole course run by the Varadero Golf Club, established in 1998. Less taxing are the nine holes of the Club de Golf Habana, just outside the capital, the only course in the country that survived the Revolution.
Hiking
All three of Cuba’s mountain ranges feature resorts geared toward hikers, from where hiking routes offer a wonderful way to enjoy some of the most breathtaking of Cuban landscapes. Designated hikes tend to be quite short – rarely more than 5km – and trails are often unmarked and difficult to follow without a guide, while going off-trail is largely prohibited. Furthermore, orienteering maps are all but nonexistent. This may be all part of the appeal for some, but it is generally recommended, and sometimes obligatory, that you hire a guide, especially in adverse weather conditions. In the Cordillerra de Guaniguanico in Pinar del Río and Artemisa the place to head for is Las Terrazas, where there is a series of gentle hikes organized mostly for groups. The Topes de Collantes resort in the Escambray Mountains offers a similar programme, while serious hikers should head for the Gran Parque Nacional Sierra Maestra, host to the tallest peak in Cuba, Pico Turquino. To get the most out of hiking opportunities at these resorts you should make bookings in advance or, in the case of the Sierra Maestra, turn up early enough to be allocated a guide, as independent hiking is severely restricted.
Cycling
Though cycling isn’t particularly popular among Cubans, many tourists take to the saddle to explore cities and travel long distances across the country.
Culture and etiquette in Cuba
Tipping
Many Cubans take jobs in the tourist and service industries for the tips that so significantly top up their salaries (the average state wage is equivalent to around $18CUC a month). In general, it’s appropriate to tip waiters, hotel cleaners and baggage carriers, car park attendants, toilet attendants and tour guides, but be aware of the differences between people who own their own business and those who work for the state. For example, a taxi on the meter means the driver works for the state and a tip is appropriate; most taxis don’t have a meter as they are privately owned and paying your fare is enough. Similarly, the hosts at a casa particular wouldn’t expect a tip, though if they employ cleaning staff a tip for them is always a nice gesture. Service charges of 10-12% are now fairly common in state restaurants and in smarter paladars.
LGBT travellers
Homosexuality is legal in Cuba and the age of consent is 16, though same-sex marriage remains illegal. Despite a very poor overall record on gay rights since the Revolution, there has been marked progress in the social standing and acceptance of gay men and women in Cuba since the early 1990s. That said, police harassment of gay men and particularly of transvestites is still quite common. Despite this, there are now significant numbers of openly gay men in Cuba, though gay women are far less visible. There is still a strong stigma attached to same-sex hand-holding or similar displays of sexuality, but freedom of expression for gay people is greater now than at any point since 1959. There are no official gay clubs and bars as such in Cuba but there are a few gay-friendly venues, particularly in Havana and Santa Clara.
Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raúl, has emerged as a champion for gay rights in Cuba in recent years. As director of Cenesex, the National Centre for Sex Education, she has been instrumental in a number of initiatives designed to increase tolerance and awareness of gay issues. In 2007 Cenesex was behind the country’s first official recognition and celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia.
There is no pink press in Cuba. The only magazine in which gay issues are regularly discussed is the rather academic Sexología y Sociedad, the quarterly magazine published by Cenesex.
Though the range of consumer products available in Cuba’s shops is slowly expanding, quality and choice are still generally poor – cigars, rum, music and arts and crafts remain the really worthwhile purchases here. The late 1990s saw the first modern shopping malls emerge, predominantly in Havana, but outside of these and a few of the grandest hotels, shopping comes with none of the convenience and choice you’re probably used to. Almost all shops actually carrying any stock now operate in convertible pesos, but a pocketful of national pesos allows you the slim chance of picking up a bargain.
National-peso shops are often poorly lit and badly maintained, and some understandably won’t allow foreign customers, giving priority to the national-peso-earning public. Though they are often half-empty, it’s still possible to unearth the odd antique camera or long-since-deleted record, while others specialize in imported secondhand clothes. The most worthwhile are the casas comisionistas, the Cuban equivalent of a pawnbroker. These can be delightful places to poke around, frequently selling vintage and sometimes antique items, from furniture to pocket watches and transistor radios.
Cigars
With the price of the world’s finest tobacco at half what you would pay for it outside Cuba, it’s crazy not to consider buying some habanos (the term for Cuban cigars) while on the island. The national chain of La Casa del Habano stores accounts for most of the cigars sold in Cuba, with around 10 outlets in Havana and lots more around the country, often in classy hotels; cigars are also sold in airports, gift shops and a lot of the less classy hotels, too. The industry standard is for cigars to be sold in boxes of 25, though you can find them in boxes of ten or fifteen, and miniatures in small tins too.
There are currently around 30 different brands of Cuban cigar. The biggest names and generally the most coveted: expect to pay upwards of $75CUC for a box of Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagás, Romeo y Julieta, H. Upmann and Hoyo de Monterrey cigars – and for the top dogs or rarest smokes, like Cohiba Esplendidos or Montecristo A, don’t expect much change from $500CUC. Like most habanos brands, these are all hand-made, but if you’re buying cigars as souvenirs or for a novelty smoke, you’d do just as well with one of the less expensive, machine-made brands. The most widely available are Guantanameras – though connoisseurs wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole, at between $20CUC and $30CUC a box you can at least make a purchase without having to ring your bank manager. First-time smokers should start with a mild cigar and take it from there; it makes sense to try a machine-made brand given the lower cost, but of the hand-made brands Hoyo de Monterrey are relatively light.
The biggest business on the black market is selling cigars to foreign visitors, with the average price of a box representing at least as much as the average monthly wage. If you spend any time at all in a Cuban town or city you will inevitably be offered a box of cigars on the street. You can find boxes for as little as $10CUC, but no self-respecting salesman is likely to sell the genuine article at that price and they will almost certainly be fakes.
If you leave Cuba with more than 50 cigars, you’re theoretically required to make a customs declaration; and must also be able to show receipts for your purchases. Sometimes you may be asked to show receipts even for fewer than 50 cigars; if you can’t, you risk having them confiscated. Although most travellers are not checked when leaving, you’re obviously more at risk of having cigars confiscated if you’ve bought them on the black market.
Rum
Along with cigars, rum is one of the longest-established Cuban exports and comes with a worldwide reputation. Although there are a few specialist rum shops around the island, you can pick up most of the recognized brands in any large supermarket without fear of paying over the odds. Rum is available in several different strengths, according to how long it was distilled; the most renowned name is Havana Club, whose least expensive type is the light but smooth Añejo Blanco, which will set you back $3–5CUC. The other, darker types increase in strength and quality in the following order: Añejo 3 Años, Añejo Especial, Añejo Reserva, Añejo 7 Años, Cuban Barrel Proof and the potent Máximo Extra Añejo. Other brands to look out for include Caney, Mulata and a number of regional rums like Guayabita del Pinar, from Pinar del Río, and the excellent Santiago de Cuba. The maximum number of bottles permitted by Cuban customs is six.
Coffee
First introduced to the island by French plantation owners fleeing the 1798 Haitian revolution, coffee is one of Cuba’s lesser-known traditional products. It’s easy to find and excellent quality, mostly grown and cultivated without the use of chemicals in the rich soils and under the forest canopies of the three principal mountain ranges. Supermarkets are as good as anywhere to find it, but there are a few specialist shops in Havana and elsewhere. The top name is Cubita, but there are plenty of others like Turquino, from the east of the country, Serrano, and even a couple produced under cigar brand names Montecristo and Cohiba.
Books and music
The Cuban publishing industry is still recovering from the shortages of the Special Period, and bookshops here are generally disappointing, with a very narrow range of titles. Stock is often characterized by nationalist and regime-propping political texts, from the prolific works of the 19th-century independence-fighter José Martí to the speeches of Fidel Castro, and other titles unwavering in their support of the Revolution. Perhaps more universally appealing are the coffee-table photography books covering all aspects of life in one of the most photogenic countries in the world. There are both CUC and national-peso bookshops; the latter often stock academic texts as well as Cuban fiction, and are a good bet for back issues of Cuban magazines at bargain prices.
English-language books are few and far between, but two or three bookshops in Havana and at least one in Varadero and Santiago de Cuba have a handful of foreign-language titles, usually crime novels and pulp fiction.
Some of the most comprehensive catalogues of CDs are found in Artex stores, the chain responsible for promoting culture-based Cuban products. Most provincial capitals now have a branch, and there are several in Havana. Look out also for Egrem stores, run by one of the country’s most prolific record labels and sometimes stocking titles hard to find elsewhere.
Arts and crafts
One of the most rewarding Cuban shopping experiences is a browse around the arts and crafts – or artesanía – markets. Cuba has its own selection of tacky tailored-to-tourism items, but if you want something a bit more highbrow there are plenty of alternatives, like expressive African-style wood carvings, a wide choice of jewellery, handmade shoes and everything from ceramics to textiles. Haggling is par for the course and often pays dividends, but shopping around won’t reveal any significant differences in price or product.
Look out also for the BfC logo, a seal of above-average quality and the trademark of the Fondos Cubanos de Bienes Culturales, shops selling the work of officially recognized local artisans. Artex shops also make a good port of call for crafts, though they tend to have more mass-produced items.
Antiques and vintage memorabilia
In recent years, with the expansion of private enterprise, Cuba’s immensely rich bounty of antique and vintage furniture and memorabilia has come onto the open market. Though still quite hard to track down, the rewards for doing so are some extraordinary collections of books, maps, ceramics, glassware and jewellery, as well as Art Deco furniture and all sorts of 1950s memorabilia, from postcards and magazines to cabaret coasters, glasses and swizzle sticks. Look out also for 1970s revolutionary posters and collectable 1990s Cuban baseball cards. You’ll find the richest vintage pickings in Havana and Trinidad.
All types of media in Cuba are tightly censored and closely controlled by the state. While this means that the range of information and opinion is severely restricted and biased, it has also produced media geared to producing (what the government deems to be) socially valuable content, refreshingly free of any significant concern for high ratings and commercial success.
Newspapers and magazines
There are very few international newspapers available in Cuba, and your only hope of finding any is to look in the upmarket hotels. Tracking down an English-language newspaper of any description, even in the hotels, is an arduous, usually unrewarding task and you’re far better off looking online.
The main national newspaper, Granma openly declares itself the official mouthpiece of the Cuban Communist Party. The stories in its eight tabloid-size pages are largely of a dry political or economic nature with some arts and sport coverage. Raúl Castro’s speeches or Fidel Castro’s musings are often published in their entirety and the international news has a marked Latin American bias. Articles challenging the official party line do appear, but these are usually directed at specific events and policies rather than overall ideologies. Hotels are more likely to stock the weekly Granma Internacional. Printed in Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Turkish and Portuguese editions, it offers a roundup of the week’s stories, albeit with a very pro-Cuban government spin. There are two other national papers: Trabajadores, representing the workers’ unions, and Juventud Rebeldefounded in 1965 as the voice of Cuban youth. Content is similar, though Juventud Rebelde, in its Thursday edition, features weekly listings for cultural events and has more articles that regularly critique social issues.
Among the most cultured of Cuba’s magazines is Bohemia, the country’s oldest surviving periodical, founded in 1908, whose relatively broad focus offers a mix of current affairs, historical essays and regular spotlights on art, sport and technology. The best of the more specialized publications are the bimonthly Revolución y Cultura, concentrating on the arts and literature, and the tri-monthly Artecubano, a magazine of book-like proportions tracking the visual arts. There are a number of other worthy magazines, such as La Gaceta de Cuba, covering all forms of art, from music and painting to radio and television; Temas, whose scope includes political theory and contemporary society; and Clave, which focuses on music.
US-based On Cuba magazine and website, is one of the best resources for up-to-date impartial news and views on Cuba and particularly Cuban-US relations and cultural projects. Many journalists are Cuban-based and articles give a welcome insight into the intricacies, pleasures and anomalies of life on the island.
Havana Live website is a good resource for of-the-moment news stories about the capital and beyond, and listing and tourist information.
Radio
There are nine national radio stations in Cuba, but tuning into them isn’t always easy, as signal strength varies considerably from place to place. You’re most likely to hear broadcasts from
Radio Taíno, the official tourist station, and the only one on which any English is spoken, albeit sporadically. Playing predominantly mainstream pop and Cuban music, Radio Taíno can also a useful source of up-to-date tourist information such as the latest nightspots, forthcoming events and places to eat. Its FM frequency changes depending on where you are in the country.
Musically speaking, other than the ever-popular sounds of Cuban salsa, stations rarely stray away from safe-bet US, Latin and European pop and rock. The predominantly classical music content of Radio Musical Nacional is about as specialist as it gets; the frequency varies around the country.
Of the remaining stations there is little to distinguish one from the other. The exception is Radio Reloj, a 24-hour news station on air since 1947, with reports read out to the ceaseless sound of a ticking clock in the background, as the exact time is announced every minute on the minute; and Radio Rebelde, the station started in the Sierra Maestra by Che Guevara in 1958 to broadcast information about the rebel army’s progress.
Television
There are five national television channels in Cuba: Cubavisión, Telerebelde, Canal Educativo, Canal Educativo 2 and Multivisión, all commercial-free but with a profusion of public service broadcasts, revolutionary slogans and daily slots commemorating historical events and figures. Surprisingly, given the sour relationship between Cuba and the US, Hollywood films are a TV staple, sometimes preceded by a discussion of the film’s value and its central issues. The frequent use of Spanish subtitles as opposed to dubbing makes them watchable for non-Spanish speakers.
Cubavisión hosts a longstanding Cuban television tradition, the staggeringly popular telenovela soap operas, both homegrown and imported (usually from Brazil or Colombia). There are also several weekly music programmes showcasing the best of contemporary Cuban music as well as popular international artists. Saturday evenings are the best time to catch live-broadcast performances from the cream of the national salsa scene.
Telerebelde is the best channel for sports, with live national-league baseball games shown almost daily throughout the season, and basketball, volleyball and boxing making up the bulk of the rest. As the names suggest, both Canal Educativo channels are full of educational programmes, including courses in languages, cookery and various academic disciplines.
The newest channel, Multivisión, began broadcasting in 2008 with a schedule of predominantly foreign-made programmes, including films, Latin American soap operas, National Geographic documentaries and US cop shows and comedies. It has become enormously popular with Cubans.
Officially, satellite TV is the exclusive domain of the hotels, which come with a reasonable range of channels, though you won’t find BBC or VOA. Cuba’s international channel is Cubavisión Internacional, designed for tourists and showing a mixture of films, documentaries and music programmes.