After a short rest, my alarm rung for me to catch a taxi that would drop me off at the bus station, for me to go to my second destination: Viñales. The hostel's receptionist had booked a taxi for me and the driver arriver sharply at 6am. I proceed to go in his cab and we take off. It is supposed to be a short drive, maybe 10 minutes by car, the streets were empty. We finally arrive at the bus stop, I pay the driver 2000CUP of my remaining 13.000CUP I need to finish this trip with. I enter a large room with many people waiting with their bags, I go to check in and am greeted by a lady who obviously had more interesting things to do than to help me. I tell her I need to go to Viñales, she just answers (in spanish):

I hand her my phone for fer to show me on google maps. Cellular data of course didn't work, it's Cuba after all... She writes down the address I need to be in 5 minutes ⁽¹⁾, not knowing if it's at a walking distance, or even which direction to take. I therefore take my large bags and head outside where I ask a local to show me the directions to there. I didn't understand how far it was but he called a friend of his from accross the room — a taxi driver (taxi is a stretch, it looked more like the indian tuk-tuk: a tricycle with a motor). After negociating a bit the price (I still paid 1000CUP ⁽²⁾ , only 10.000 left 🙂) we hop in and drive through the waking Havana. At this point, I was scared that I would not reach again the bus stop so I was more conservative at the time of payment, I made sure (to the best I could) that I was where I was supposed to be. Luckily I soon understood that this was in fact the good bus stop (20 minutes away from where the first taxi dropped me off). I was able to check in, drop my bag, wait for the bus and travel to Viñales, phew.

In itself, the story was a stressful situation: not being fluent in a country where you have problems is stress inducing, at least for me. However I haven't explained how to bus check in worked. I had bought my bus tickets online a few weeks ago and it is written on the ticket you receive that it's essential that you arrive and check in at least an hour before departure, or else your ticket is cancelled. I arrived only 40 minutes in advance, so I really tought I wouldn't be able to go. Luckily I was, and how it works is pretty funny: you can buy the tickets in advance online. However you can also show up at the counter and hope there is room in the bus for you. If someone with a ticket does not check in at least an hour before, other people already at the bus station can take their place. The bus was not full, thank god, so I didn't face this problem. It would have been a very very long day otherwise.

Notes

1. My bus was at 7:30am, and it was 6:25am. I technically still had a little more than an hour to get to the bus station. However it was my first time and I didn't how strict the check in were.
2. 1000CUP ≈ 10CAD