Cuba

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Lots of people have asked us to tell them about our recent trip to Cuba, so we've decided to put our thoughts into blog form; I've added headlines for each section so you can skip over the bits you're not interested in 😉 (The bits in italics are mine -Jan)

Why Cuba?

This year, as well as being our Silver Wedding anniversary, is the 50th anniversary of the revolution in Cuba. I've always been something of an admirer of Castro, if only because he's managed to stand up to being bullied by the Americans for so long; and when you look at what he has achieved for the Cuban people, its really quite impressive. So what has he achieved? Well, in 1959 only 50%!o(MISSING)f Cubans had been to school, an estimated 400 000 people died each year because they couldn't afford healthcare, most of the country's assets were American owned, and prostitution and vice were widespread (I could go on, but you get the picture). Post revolution? A 100%!l(MISSING)iteracy rate, free and excellent education, a free and excellent health service, no unemployment, no homelessness, one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world, and very low crime rates (I could go on, but you get the picture!) Is there a downside to this seeming political Utopia? Well, bloody great holes in the pavement for starters!

Money

Apparently finances had got into a bit of a mess a few years ago, and the American Dollar had become a sort of second currency. Now American dollars have completely disappeared, (although the Canadian dollar does appear quite frequently, usually in the form of tips) and there are two official currencies - the Peso, and the Convertible Peso (known as the CUC). One CUC is worth 24 Pesos or about 70p / 80 centimes at the time of writing. Why two currencies? Well, as the Yanks have done their best to prevent Cuba trading with the rest of the world, the country is hungry for foreign currency. It's an island with some natural resources (sugar, oil, tobacco etc) but they don't really finance the imports Cuba needs to function as a modern nation. The great saviour is therefore.... tourism. As a tourist, you bring your precious Euros, Pounds or whatever and swap them for CUCs (If you want to bring Dollars you can, but you pay an additional 10% tax when you change them).
So broadly, tourists use CUCs and locals use Pesos? Er, not quite, because on the whole only local products are sold in Pesos, so even locals have to buy imported goods in CUCs - which makes them very expensive for Cubans. The average monthly pay in Cuba is, I'm told, between 400 - 500 Pesos (about 20 CUC or say £15) so if you want to buy, for example, an air-conditioning unit, its probably going to cost you the equivalent of about two year's wages. So of course, it has become necessary to earn CUCs somehow, but more of that later.
The two currency system means that some things are very expensive (in CUCs for Cubans) or ridiculously cheap (for tourists in Pesos). Yes, tourists can use Pesos too. Broadly speaking, most essential foodstuffs are sold in Pesos (milk, bread, meat, fish, rice etc) and anything they don't manufacture in Cuba in CUCs, including stuff like toothpaste, shampoo etc; although there is one state produced lady's perfume, (which is why all Cuban women smell the same, as one of our hosts put it). So if you buy a takeaway pizza it costs 5 Pesos (about 15p), but a bottle of water (only sold in CUCs can be up to 2,5 CUC (about £2).

Tipping

Any Cuban who can speak a second language seems to want to work in the tourist idustry, (our tour guide was actually a professor of English at the University in Havana before he changed his job.... worth bearing in mind when you're tempted to whinge that « we've already paid a lot for this holiday, it's cheeky to expect a tip », as one group of North West ignoramuses did) as they will earn several times their normal wage in tips, and in CUCs to boot. I don't imagine its much fun for highly educated and cultured people to pass their days serving drinks to San & Tracy from Wigan on their annual booze-fest, but there you go. If you don't speak another language, or you're not presentable enough for bar or hotel work, you could try approaching people in the street in the hope of cadging soap, pens or whatever off them. (We took loads of mini soaps, « hotel size » bottles of shampoo and shower gel, as well as a big pack of pens - the Cubans seemed just as pleased to receive a gift of these as they were to accept cash. The look of gratitude on an old man's face when I gave him a couple of pens had to be seen to be believed. So if you go to Cuba, take stuff to give away, remember you can afford it....)

The organised holiday...

..is not really our thing, but for some strange reason it was cheaper to buy an « All-inclusive » package than flight only, and this gave us the advantage of guaranteed food & accommodation when the money ran out. So we used the hotel for the first night and for a few nights at the end. The rest of the time we stayed with Cuban families in what are called « casa particulares », sort of B&B if you like. Here's where we went:

Varadero

Varadero is a long thin peninsula that sticks off the Northern part of Cuba. In essence, it looks like holiday paradise - white sandy beaches, clear turquoise sea, palm trees.... and about 40 massive concrete hotels. I suppose it makes sense from a logistical point of view to dump all the tourists in one place, but you don't see much of Cuba here. The hotels are well enough appointed, I suppose, but its all a bit prison-camp-ish, being stuck with a bunch of other foreigners in one corner of the island. We got out as soon as possible! (I'll never understand why people pay so much, and travel for so long, to stay for two weeks in a hotel in Cuba, when they could do the same thing, for less money - and a lot less flight-time - in Spain!)

Havana

Havana is another world. Stepping off the bus in the old town, Jan remarked « Christ, it's like Oradour! ». True, you negotiate the narrow streets stepping around piles of rubble, much of which has recently fallen off the surrounding buildings. We stayed with a couple in their flat on Calle Havana, and talked (and talked, and talked!) into the night about Cuba and its problems. Old enough to remember pre-revolutionary days, they were both grateful to Castro for what he has done, but well-educated and realistic enough to know that Cuba can't exist in a vacuum in world terms.
Pepe told us a nice story about Fidel (everyone calls him just by his first name). Apparently he turned up unexpectedly on Pepe's ship one day (Pepe was a captain in the merchant navy).
Having looked around, Fidel talked with each of the men about what was good or not so good on the ship and in Cuba generally. One of the men remarked that the pasta they ate was a bit boring, so Fidel went down to the kitchen (I should probably say galley or something), prepared and cooked a pasta meal for the entire ship's crew. Apparently, it was delicious. (They had pasta every week after that!) Can you imagine Gordon Brown or Sarkozy doing that? No wonder the guy was popular.

Old Havana by night is something else - basically there are few street lights, so you negotiate your way by the bits of light that spill from people's open doors and windows, avoiding the dogshit as best as possible. Visually, it looks like a scene just before the victim gets mugged in the worst part of town; but strangely you feel perfectly safe*, and indeed you are, and your fellow street users are often young children or women alone. ( *This could be explained by the fact that there are pairs of « peacekeepers » on almost every corner -one in blue uniform, one in green - all terribly young - what's that phrase about « when the policemen look young....?)
The buildings in the old town are really quite amazing, a few having been restored to their former colonial glory, the rest.... waiting. The exterior often belies what is within - you step through an anonymous door to find yourself in a Moorish palace with marble floors and vaulted ceilings - and a bunch of wires that come through a broken window and stretch across the ceiling.....
I asked Pepe about the building projects going on on Calle Havana - how come his building wasn't being repaired? The project facing is to provide warden-monitored flats for the elderly, he told me, and the other project up the street was to provide specialised accommodation for Altzheimers sufferers. Fair enough, then.

Trinidad

Not as in « and Tobago », but the Cuban town of the same name. Famous for its multicoloured colonial-era terraced houses (if that's the right term), Trinidad would be a bit twee if it weren't for the general delapidation and the huge holes in the pavement (guess who fell into one and wrecked her knee!) (and the local maternity home which looks like someone set up a very comfortable, well equipped, waiting room for the local mums-to-be, in their living room!) . We stayed a couple of nights with Teresa and her extended family (it looked like both sets of grandparents and various offspring) in a house that appeared tiny from the front but expanded Tardis-like into something the size of a small town once you passed through the door. ( The courtyard was surrounded by walls covered in plants, with exotic blue and yellow lizards peering out at us)
One of the family did all our washing and was overjoyed to the point of embracing Jan when she gave her 4 CUC. We went to listen to Cuban music in the bar by the church, but Jan reckons there wasn't any rum in the Daiquiri ( I swear it was just bitter lemon!AND it was 5 CUC, and the service was naff, don't give them your custom! -)!

Cienfuegos
(However you pronounce it will be wrong!)

To be honest, we weren't expecting much of Cienfuegos, we stopped there more or less because it was on the bus route to Santa Clara.( and I liked the name...) However, the « Pearl of the South » as the Cubans call it turns out to deserve its sobriquet, as it really is a charming and pretty town, with a striking colonial-era central square featuring the Terry Tomàs Theatre (probably not the guy who was in the Carry-On films, I suspect). We ventured out at night and were surprised to find all sorts of cultural happenings, including a very arty bit of street theatre involving a bathtub, a number of girls in (eventually wet, see bathtub) diaphanous costumes, ( himself was much impressed...) and a figure dressed as Bacchus (music provided by a live band!) although, I have to admit our Spanish was too basic to really understand what was going on. Later, another band played to a large crowd on a stage set up on a traffic junction (well, there aren't that many cars, and driving at night is not really a good idea as you never know what you'll bump into on the unlit roads (goats, dogs, cows, whatever..). A mixture of Salsa and drum'n'bass - somehow it works, very up-to-date but well rooted in tradition at the same time .Interestingly, each performance had a brief political speech at the beginning (or end) - « Up the Revolution! », that kind of thing - and the most vocal supporters seemed to be the youngest. (This was where we tried, for the first time, the huge bowls of delicious, cheap ice cream mentioned below! The « Ice cream parlour » is vaguely reminiscent of a Salvation Army soup kitchen)

Santa Clara

Probably most famous as the final resting place of « Che », Santa Clara (confusingly, also known as Villa Clara..) is otherwise your provincial Cuban town, (I was amazed at how big it was) but not displeasing for that. Queues form outside the ice-cream shop/soup kitchen where 3 large blobs of ice-cream served in a bowl the size of a salad-dish are to be had for 1,5 Pesos (about 5p). As elswhere in Cuba, once night falls everyone gathers in the main town square to see and be seen. (It's an opportunity for teenagers to flaunt their charms at each other, proud parents to show off their offspring, old people to watch and wonder at the younger generation, dogs to argue idly over whose bit of leftover meat that REALLY is, and kids to meet up and make as much noise as they can - it goes on 'til LATE)
Entertainment is on hand - on one side of the square a giant screen shows videos of rock artists such as Linkin Park and Amy Winehouse; facing that, a PA is set up so that local rap artists (and you haven't heard anything if you haven't heard Cuban rap - Salsa-rap! I hate rap, but somehow, this works...) can try their talent; a third side of the square is set aside for a live band playing traditional Cuban music. Meanwhile, a pony-and-trap affair, pulled by a large goat (with the kind of huge horns that would have European parents screaming about safety issues...) transports small children around the square.
We retire to a nearby bar where the salsa band's average age must be at least 80, and their amplifiers and (some obviously home-made) instruments collector's pieces anywhere else. ( and where, by the way, they do a mean Margarita!)
Back in the square, a most disreputable (elderly looking) character accosts us and asks if we are English. I deny it, of course, despite appearances. (no escaping that Brit look) What language do we speak then? Er.. Français, I reply. We are then drawn into a complex and involved discussion (in perfect French) about the development of French films from 1950 to date, most of which I haven't seen, but our interlocutor obviously has. (He tells us that we are too young to remember most of them - we are too ashamed to admit that it's more to do with our inferior knowledge of the French film industry) There may be such a thing as over-education. (Amazingly, we discover that his looks belie his age, and that he's actually 15 years younger than he appears to be!)
The Che memorial (no bags or cameras allowed) is as you would expect, grandiose, solemn, and with a curious little museum housing many of his personal effects - the famous beret, lots of guns, his medical kit (and some great natural photos of Che. I hadn't realised what a great looking bloke he was, no wonder he became the Cuban teenager's « heart-throb » A sort of Cuban Elvis. Although, come to think of it, he probably wouldn't appreciate the sentiment...) I read somewhere recently that Raul Castro said that great revolutionary that Che was, as a doctor he wouldn't have trusted him to give him an injection. He made a great tee-shirt, though.

Varadero, again.

We managed to get a late bus back to Varadero, and persuaded the driver of an empty local bus (for a few pesos) to take us back to the hotel. He dropped us on the approach road, and I remarked jovially to Jan, that the place, unlit as it was, appeared to be closed down, (ha ha! I said)
The security guard at the gatehouse stopped us and asked where we were going. « Er... to the hotel » I replied... « Hotel is closed! » he responded. It turned out that the hotel had indeed closed its doors several days before, due to alleged problems with the air conditioning. We explained that we still had suitcases, clothes, visas etc therein. After a phonecall we were allowed access - imagine a huge hotel completely empty, no lights, lifts not working (Steven King, eat your heart out!).... eventually we found our room, and of course the electronic keycard didn't work. (although, oddly, the air conditioning did...) As we came out of the building, a figure emerged from the swimming pool, dark skin glistening in the moonlight. « Senor Ball? «  she enquired, deftly wrapping herself in a towel « We have been waiting for you... » (again, a thrilling moment for himself...) A real James Bond moment.
I'll draw a veil over the rest of our time in Varadero, consisting as it did of multiple hotel moves (we went to the wrong one, apparently), salmonella poisoning, and general malaise. I don't know if you've ever experienced an « all inclusive » hotel, but it's not a pretty sight - basically a load of tourists ( an embarrassingly large proprtion of them English)trying to drink as much as they can because its « free » and barfing it up at night. No wonder they water the drinks.

Mosquitoes

Well, I'd read on the internet that mosquitoes were a real peril in Cuba, (they are supposed to carry dengue fever, but the Cubans we spoke to about it just gave us amused looks.....) so we went equipped with loads of Deet and applied it religiously.
Travelling around Cuba, however, I don't think we saw (or felt) a single insect. (apart from the huge orange beetley thing that crawled into himself's sandal,in the bus station in Havana, and was given the salsa-dance-step treatment pretty rapido!)
This may be because of the agressive anti-mozzie measures being taken by the government - when we were in Trinidad, a team came round to where we were staying and treated every nook and cranny with an amazing gadget; petrol-driven, it looked a bit like a flame-thrower, but gave off huge clouds of (presumably) mosquito killing insecticide. (Whole streets of Trinidad were covered in a mozzie-destroying cloud!) Not a bite then, until we got back to Varadero, where waiting for a taxi in the abandoned reception area of the hotel we were bitten 30 or 40 times each. Seemingly all the mosquitoes holiday in Varadero, too.

Transport

Well, I'd read on the internet that transport of every sort is a complete nightmare in Cuba. Don't believe everything you read. I can't speak for other means of transport, but the buses (Viazul, Transtur and Astro) were without exception on-time, clean, air-conditioned, often more comfortable than European buses, and, by European standards, reasonably priced. (Although himself did regret wearing shorts, on occasion, as the air conditioning can be, like many Cuban things, super-efficient)

Food

Well, I'd read on the internet that Cuba was « not a gastronomic destination ». For some reason, I'd presumed that this was for reasons of shortages or something like that - nothing could be further from the truth. Food is copious and varied here (everybody receives a ration of all the basic foodstuffs in Cuba, so nobody starves or goes without). Unfortunately, the simple truth is that most Cubans don't seem to have mastered the art of cooking (especially restaurant chefs - Gordon Ramsey - get out there now! Or maybe, on second thoughts, Jamie Oliver might be a more diplomatic choice...).
Quantity seems to be the watchword, which is perhaps a reaction to the privation of recent times - seemingly during the « special period » ie just after the collapse of the Soviet Union, (Cuba's major trading partner at the time) food was not so plentiful. Nowadays, a Cuban meal seems to consist of meat (usually pork or chicken) with vast amounts of carbohydrates. One meal we were served included pasta, rice ,beans, chips and bread, as well as tons of meat and the usual token salad.
Ah salad. I can honestly say I've never tasted worse. When I was a kid, I didn't really like tomatoes, 'cos they were acid and thin and watery (tomatoes grown under glass either from Blackpool or imported from Holland - yuck!). When I first tasted a mediterranean tomato,- I can't remember where it was, France or Italy or Spain - I was astounded, I couldn't believe it was the same fruit! That taste of pure sunshine.... anyway, on an island where it is sunny and hot virtually all year round, the tomatoes should be good, eh? No. Somehow, the Cubans have developed a tomato that is anaemic orange, has at best 5mm of flesh, and the rest is snotty water and seeds. How do they do this? Do they grow them in cellars or something? The rest of your salad will be acid cucumber ( with the most enormous seeds ever!) and tasteless white cabbage. ( often fermented...beurk!) Don't bother. (and beetroot - even I, a confirmed beetroot lover, couldn't eat it. Imagine mud, made into a solid ball and tinted dark red...)
We tried to eat in a variety of places to get a real picture of how people eat. The best food is undoubtedly served by the family in your « casa » (the B&B), - fish - fresh, simply cooked, and copious (6 fillets for two people!) prawns, (fresh, huge, juicy), pork (can be anything from truly yummy to shoe sole tough) and the ubiquitous tortilla - fresh eggs, usually served as a part of your breakfast, cooked as an omelette in butter - sinfully fattening, but, hey, you're on holiday, right?) presented all at once in the Greek fashion, so your main course has gone cold by the time you've finished the starter. (And how many people do they think they're serving? You could feed half of Africa with the stuff they dish up!) Otherwise, there are State-run restaurants, and family-run restaurants (Paladares), where, in all honesty, the menu and prices are virtually the same anyway, ie mediocre and overpriced for what it is. The only exception are the state-run Peso restaurants which are ridiculously cheap, but you take your chance on what they have available (and how it's cooked) We had a meal of chicken-and -rice and pork-steak in one such establishment in Villa Clara (and it was ok) which cost 31 Pesos (about 90p for the two of us) excluding a bottle of wine which was an additional 40 Pesos, (about a quid and , incidentally, quite drinkable!
On the other hand, we ate at « Los Nardos », one of Cuba's most famous restaurants, facing « La Capitole » (the parliament building in Havana.) As far as ambience goes this place scores 100%!i(MISSING)t's weird enough to be interesting, ( at lunchtimes you have to queue.) By the way, at transport stops, the Cubans have a weird queuing system, the most recent person to arrive calls out « who was last? » the last person makes him/herself known, and everyone carries on circulating/nattering/drinking coffee, until the bus/train/ whatever arrives, then everyone boards in order! Is that civilised, or is that civilised?) though with candle-only lighting, so dark I couldn't read the menu. We managed to order with the assistance of additional candles, (how about a menu in Braille?) but my roast lamb in rosemary and wine sauce turned out to be bits of old dog stewed in glutinous paint-stripper, and Jan's curry wasn't any better. ( But their house Sangria was wonderful! It was made with white wine, white rum and lemonade, with fresh mangoes sliced up and chucked in,a bit steep at 8,50 CUC, but wonderful after the 30° heat! )
The 5 Peso pizza you order at a hole in the wall isn't that bad, actually. (Pizza Express would have it's work cut out if some of those boys decided to challenge them...)


Light Bulbs

Everywhere in Cuba, the light bulbs are those economy jobs - they must have had a blitz and changed the whole lot at one go. Very commendable environmentally, but it does mean that everywhere is gloomy as hell and its almost impossible to read a restaurant menu.

Dogs

They seem to be everywhere... mangy ones scrounging, most of them based on the sausage model, short with squat legs. Every town square scene seems to have its contingent of short dogs, who belong to nobody, squabbling (if that word can be used for the sort of, « I-can't-really-be-arsed-but-there's-nothing-else-to-do-and-anyway-this-is-Cuba-and-it's-too-bloody-HOT-so-I-might-bark-at-you-or-something » attitude most Cuban dogs seem to have with each other. Cats, on the other hand, are rarely seen during the day. They emerge at night, sleek and well fed, or can be seen deep in the cool of their owners' houses. You can probably tell a lot about a society from that.

Politics

Well, allegedly you shouldn't talk about politics as a visitor to Cuba, if you believe what you read. However, once you start talking to Cubans, its difficult to steer the conversation to anything else. No, its not a democracy in the American sense of the word (ie where the leader represents, by definition, a minority). And indeed, in the recent « elections » that « chose » Raul Castro as President, we were assured that several of our hosts knew of people who had not voted for Raul, despite his « 100%! (MISSING)» victory. Incidentally, Raul was a genuine hero of the revolution, having commanded a guerilla unit of his own at the tender age of 15, so his position is not due to nepotism or some kind of dynastic wish. He doesn't have the charisma of his brother, though, according to several wistful Cubans we met.

Perfect tits

I'm not being sexist here, but you can't help but notice that so many Cuban women are... perfectly formed. Another illusion shattered. The girl upstairs (in one of the places we stayed) had had breast enhancement surgery. Her girlfriends were so impressed, they all had it done too. « Its cheaper than buying bras » (only available in CUCs) explained our hostess... « er... how much does it cost then? » I asked. She looked shocked. Well, its free, of course, all medical interventions are free in Cuba (it's to do with the fact that they may have bugger all, but they have pride in themselves - personally and as a nation - so it's encouraged... I'm starting to weigh up the pro's and cons of changing my nationality....Foreigners have to pay......)

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Photos

Jan & Tank
I'm the one in the stripey t-shirt....

Train
The building in the background is the Capitole.. good place for a scrapyard, eh?

Chinatown
The entry to Havana's Chinatown, where bizarrely there aren't any Chinese at all.

Varadero
View from (one of the hotel's) window

Comments

[Hans-Joerg]

Really nice blog entry!
Hello! Thank you for the nice blog entry. The description is really well done!! I am going to Cuba on Thursdat and I am really excited about it! Really cool to get an interesting information like that in advance! Greets HenC www.mytb.org/henc

[ash]

hellloooooo
hey nice! who the hell is hans anyway?

[andy]

nice one
Nice one Chris, You should have tried taking an internal flight......if it existed when you got to the airport, as ours didn't!! Regards, Your Bro. Andy