Translation of Belag

The machine arrived in Cuba at nine and it was already dark. The border control was nothing like the one in Mexico. They were communist and one could see the strictness and uneasiness of them.
I tried to explain that I was preferring to eat with everybody together I that I preferred not to eat meat if they did not eat it either, for financial reasons. I thought that they understood my feelings.
As usually, we had problems with our hotel. At midnight we checked in to our place, and once seeing the room, my wife decided that she would not sleep there. She was right, it was a place with no atmosphere.