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Published: March 13th 2010
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Rues de la Habana
The streets and old cars Videos se trouvent sur un lien au milieu de photos. For videos use the link below with the next photos.
Ah! Sacree Cuba!!
Autant dire que les debuts n’etaient pas faciles pour s’acclimater au systeme cubain et puis a la fin on a trouve ca genial.
On a commence par 4 jours a la Havane dans l’idee de faire une semaine de cours de salsa… Avec Couch surfing (site internet ou les voyageurs se rencontrent pour s’heberger) on a rencontre Lisa qui vit a la Havane. Elle nous a clairement explique qu’elle n’etait pas qutorisee a heberger des etrangers chez elle mais qu’elle pouvait nous donner des adresses ou dormir chez les cubains. C’est le systeme de “casa particular” tres courant qui sont en quelque sorte des chqmbres d’hotes. Ces cubains qui sont autorises de recevoir les touristes paient une taxe au gouvernement.
Du coup le 1er on arrive chez Ines. Une chambre et salle de bain assez basique mais un lit pour dormir (avec des ressorts pointus) et des cubains tres disponibles pour toi. La nuit est a 25 CUC, petit dej offert car on restait 4 nuits (apres negociation). Si l’on voulait manger le soir c’etait environ de
5 a 7 CUC selon si tu penais poulet porc ou boeuf… et de toute facon ce sera accompagne de riz, ingredient que nous avons mange pendnt 15 jours.
Il faut savoir qu’il y a 2 monnaies :
Le peso cubain ou monnaie nationale avec laquelle les cubains sont payes
Et le CUC monnaie introduite en 1990 pour developper le tourisme.
A savoir qu’un CUC = 0,82€ et25 pesos cubains.
Tres peu d’endroit peuvent etre payes en monnaie nationale, et quand il y a un magasin il faut generalement faire la queue. Pour changer la monnaie de CUC en peso cubain il faut aussi faire la queue. Le plus dur pour un touriste est d’arrive a payer en peso cubain ou de rentrer dans les endroits ou l’on peut payer en peso cubain.
C’est possible que pour un meme café, tu paies un CUC quaund cubain le paiera 2 pesos. Et ca a un moment donne il faut l’accepter…
Mais les cubains doivent aussi payer tout ce qui est extra en CUC. Ils ont des rations de nourritures par mois qu’ils peuvent acheter a tres bas prix (par exemple 2 pesos pour un kilo de riz). Mais beaucoup disent que
tu tiens 15 jours a 3 semaines avec ces rations. Ils ont la “libreta” qui est le livre pour pointer les rations. Et apres ils doivent acheter comme nous la nourriture au supermarche ( entre nous il ya une 50aine de produits dans la superette).
1,5 L d’eau 0,70 CUC, un paquet de pates : 1CUC, une sauce tomate 1CUC… En effet au final il mange beaucoup de riz. Et les pates deviennent du luxe…
Au final avec ce systeme, si tu vas au restaurant (et c’est pas tres bon, mieux vaut manger dans les casa particular) tu ne trouveras que des touristes. Les cubains ne peuvent pas y acceder. On est sorti a la casa de la musica, l’entree coute 10 CUC le soir, donc c’est pareil. En revanche les cubains sortent l’apres midi de 5h a 9h car l’entree est a 60 pesos.
On a quand meme fait des cours de salsa, qui coutaient 8 CUC chaucun par heure ( au mexique 2€ chacun). Mais aussi 2 profs pour les 2 qui etaient aux taquets sur tous les details. Pas hanches poignets et surtout le torse. Car la salsa ne se dance pas avec les fesses ¡!
Bref
Une boutique
S'il n'y a pas de vitrine, c'est que tu peux payer en peso cubain
One of their fancier shops...only kidding this was a ration shop au final on a quand meme apprecie la Havane, avec ses quartiers renoves et les autres delabres, des gens sympas dans l’ensemble et des hauts et des bas sur ces 4 premiers jours.
^^^^^
Cuba. Its Crazy.
Im not sure where to begin. The first few days in Cuba were extremely confusing. In havana we stayed in a Casa particular (like a Bed and Breakfast). Tourists are generally herded to the government run resorts, hostels and restaurants and in general there seems to be a wall between tourists and the locals. There are two currencies in cuba, one designed for tourists and the other designed for locals. The CUC (tourist) peso is worth 25times more that the local peso. And when locals pay 1 local peso for something tourists are often expected to pay 1 CUC for the same service (i.e. 25 times as much as the locals).
The two currency system is used by the Communist government for tourists. It is a way of bringing foriegn money into the country and keeping it there but charging the tourists a lot more than the locals. Ideally all your CUC would be spent in Government run resorts, restaurants
and hotels i.e. going directly to the government but in reality this is not always the case. Recently Castro has allowed some private run businesses to operate in the tourist industry, namely bed and breakfasts and restaurants. These businesses have to pay large taxes, hece the government get a lot of the money anyways but they are able to make a profit and keep some of that valuable CUC which is worth 25 times thier own local currency.
The ideal situation for a cuban is therefore to get some of your CUC without having to pay the taxes, by selling cigars on the streets (most cigars are sold by the government in official shops), illegal taxis, etc. So after a few days you have this feeling that they all want your money and you are being ripped off as you pay 25 times more than the locals for the same thing.
It takes a few days to get into this system which is utterly confusing even as i re read what ive just read but after you learn that an average cubans salary is about 35 euros a month you start to accept the system and understand that
you should be paying more for the services as you are not working in their system. And you also see that your tourist (capitalist) money is required to keep the communist system operational. All seems a bit hypocritical but for the moment it is working however talking to the average cuban, once you have somehow managed to cross the wall the government has put between locals and tourists you hear whispered discontent (down with castro and the likes) and longings to go to america the old enemy.
There is one official government chanel and internet access is 6 euro per hour so on a salary of 35 euro a month you are not goint to spend 6 euro on the net. Hence cubans are restricted in their access to the outside world.
Anyways as I said we stayed in one of these Casa Particulars (B&B) hence we stayed with a cuban family. And this Casa particular system allows tourist to see the real Cuba, at least a little bit. Most restaurants in cuba are state run and since the chef gets his small salary no matter what he puts on your plate the food is totally crap. The
Serviette coupee en 2 pour economiser...
The towels in our 1st B&B were cut in two and we got half a towel each....communism best option for eating is to ask your Casa particular family to feed you. Then you get decent home cooked food. It took us a while to accept this, when travelling you have a tendency to search for restaurants but once we gave up on restaurants and just ate "at home" it wasnt all that bad.
We spent four days in Havana, strugling to understand the system, visiting the old colonial city, doing some salsa dancing and drinking rum with some norwegians that were staying in the same house as us. Walkking the streets is different here, there are no advertisements, only pictures of Castro and Che Guevara painted on the walls, and very few shops. Half the buildings are falling down and lots of people sit on their front step listening to salsa music on the radio with not an awful lot to do. The streets are full of old 1950s american cars and old ladas, the american embargo on cuba since 1959 has stopped them getting in a lot of new cars. The museum of revolution presented from Castros point of view was also interesting but complete propaganda.
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