Crumbling Cuba

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A few things to understand about Cuba before reading our blog, it´s a communist society (albeit not 100%, in fact there are many instances of commercialism & westernisation , just none of it is American driven), they have a fantastic education system & health system, one of their claims to fame is that the life expectancy of a Cuban is greater than that in the US. The average monthly wage is the region of US$15 but they do get rations, cheap transport & free health, education etc. etc. Castro´s plan is to grow tourism revenue to deliver 50% of the country´s total income by 2015. We reckon, his plan doesn´t cater for tourists coming to Cuba and doing it on the cheap like Siobhan and I, the main man wouol prefer them to come & go to the very large resorts to spend huge amounts of money and not to see the ´real´ Cuba & if possible not meet too many Cubans. At the beaches we went to, most tourist had wrist bands to signify what all inclusive resort they were staying at. There are two currencies in Cuba - ´moneda nacional´for the locals and ´convertible pesos´ for the tourists. The locals are mad to get their hands on convertible pesos so that they can purchase ´luxuries´such as soap, washing powder, milk. Some people knock communism and the regime in Cuba but we felt it has it´s good points and bad points.

Good points:
*The education system
*The health system
*There are no homeless on the streets, it seems that everyone has a home.
*Everyone has sufficient food to eat & most people look healthy.
*There are little or no drugs in the country.
*There is very little crime in the country.

Bad points:
*There is a highly educated society but with very few jobs to offer.
*The wages are so low - even doctors only earn about US$40 per month
*Everyone is desperate for money - they will do absolutely anything just to get a few pesos - 90%!o(MISSING)f the time we were overcharged in restaurants.
*We were told that everyone is under scrutiny in the country, with one Casa owner closing the door & whispering to us when we asked something about Government & pay rates.
*Everyone is so cagy about talking about their Government - they close all windows and doors before saying anything.
*There is a huge black market - locals who manage to make a few pesos doing something like for example teaching salsa dancing on the black market are wealthier than doctors.

HAVANA (Cuba's capital) - Wed 25/10 to Sat 28/10

We arrived in Havana early enough in the day after a 2 & 1/2 hour flight from Caracas. We were met by Alberto. He had a room (in a Casa Particulares, a normal family house that rents a room, kind of like a B&B, they pay a substantial tax to the government for the privilege). We had emailed a woman via a hotmail address a few days earlier & reserved a room in her house, she came back very enthusiastically saying she would get a friend to meet us at the airport We never did get to meet the woman & stayed with Alberto for both our stints in Havana. Despite our poor Spanish we hit it off with Alberto & he helped us plan our trip around Cuba listing out various Casa Ps that he knew in each place we intended to visit, the way it works is that he recomends them & they in return will give his name to folks travelling to Havana, you scratch my back, I´ll scratch yours....

We slept for that afternoon as we had been up at 4ish to get our flight from Puerto Ordaz & that night headed to the Chinese district, seemingly Castro thought differently of Chinese people & allowed them to set up private restaurants shortly after the revolution. So Barrio Chino is Havana´s China Town & consists of about 20 restaurants, we dined in style that night & managed a few beers afterwards, our 1st taste of Cristal. The following day we had our 1st b´fast with Alberto. It was a fine spread consisting of fruit, scrambled eggs, bread, coffee, more than enough. We walked Havana all that day & the next, taking in most of the hotspots including a walk by the sea which borders Havana to the north, its a beautiful walk along the sea & plenty of people are swimming or lounging on the seawall. We met our 1st "Hi, where are you from ?" couple. Any new arrival to Havana will be greeted by these well dressed couples who have a fine array of stories all designed to take a few $s from you. They have a standard answer for most countries - for example for ´Ireland´ the standard answer was ´ah nice country, nice people but alot of rain´. After the introductions we got the "Buena Vista Salsa festival" line & trapsed off with our new Cuban friends to find this festival that seemingly was in full swing that very morning at 11am. Funny enough, we never did get to see the Salsa but paid handsomely for 4 mojitos which were ordered very quickly in a local bar. We also got the sob story about how they needed money to buy milk for their babies, lucky enough at that stage the penny had dropped that they weren´t just friendly Cubans and were actually scammers. We parted company quickly after that & regarded it as a cheap lesson learned and later in our trip heard many similar stories from other travellers who were also scammed. Our guess is that the bar (or barman) & these couples split the proceeds of the overpriced Mojitos. Many more Cuban couples approached us after that but we could pick them out quite easily after a day or 2. After getting the standard Ireland answer on many occasions, we decided that we would tell them that we were from Zimbabwe to see what the standard answer to that one was. Strangely enough, they didn´t have one so it usually shut them up quite quickly.

Anyway, getting back to the city, Havana has the potential to be a Paris or Rome but with very little money in Cuba, the city is quite run down, many buildings are literally crumbling away & every year about 300 buildings collapse. The paths are in poor repair & you have to watch out for holes, missing manholes etc etc. The old cars are fantastic though, some of which are meticuously restored while most are barely kept together. The colours are amazing. We didn´t get on one, but the buses (which are like homemade boxes dragged along by trucks) are jammed packed. Most of the tourist bars have music during the day & it was in Havana that we got our 1st glimpse of the famous Cuban Salsa - really fantastic to watch. We visited the "John Lennon Memorial Park" & had our picture taken by an old man with a very shaky hand, who makes his living out of producing John´s glasses everytime a tourists happens by. Our trip to a supermarket was an eye opener, they were very small with little choice & the shelves were very sparse. We warmed quickly to Havana but the contrasts are amazing, it really is a case of ´the haves and the have nots´- the 5* Hotels alongside crumbling buildings, flash tourist taxis beside local bici-taxis. We stayed with Alberto for 3 nights, Wed, Thu & Fri & on Saturday night got a 12 hr overnight bus to the east & Santiago de Cuba.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA & BARACOA (Eastern Cuba) - Sun 29/10 to Thu 02/11

We arrived in Santiago very early on Sunday morning. The bus trip was fine, we even got a small meal/snack when we boarded but 12 hours took its toll on the knees & my *rse. The bus was modern, Cuba operates one bus company for locals & another almost exclusively for tourists & they are quite expensive. We were met at the bus station by our Casa owner´s brother & he taxi´d us in his Fiat 127 to our home for the next few days. The weather in Santiago was sticky & hot, we spent the next 2 days listening to music & walking the streets. One afternoon we went into a bar for a drink, there was live music playing and next to us were a group of men dripping with gold and crocodile skin shoes - the best of everything. They looked Cuban in every way except the fact that they obviously had a lot of money. We got talking to them and we found out that they were Cubans ´who got away´ - they lived in Miami and had obviously done well for themselves. They had come back to Cuba to visit family or flaunt their goods as it seemed to us to start with. They sure could dance though & we had a great time with them, interestingly some of them who had been in the US for years & years spoke little or no English, they told us that the Cuban community in Miami is quite large & really it isn't necessary to speak English to get by.

All in all, we weren´t overly impressed with Santiago & decided that we needed to get to the beach & so took a 5hr bus to Baracoa on the Tuesday. Baracoa is at the very eastern part of Cuba & was the 1st spot visited by Columbus on his 1st trip to Cuba (on one of his later voyages). It is a beautiful setting but really there wasn´t too much in the town itself & the beach was a real dark brown sand & the water didn´t look too clean - We didn´t bother with a swim. We stayed in another Casa for the 2 nights for $15 a night. So 4 nights in the east didn´t really do it for us & we decided to cut our losses & head back west. We did a 17hr journey to Trinidad leaving at 2 PM on the Thursday & arriving in Trinidad very early on Friday. Luckily the bus was almost empty & we got 2 seats each which made sleeping a little easier however, we were absolutely starving, we thought that somewhere along the bus journey we would get something to eat - wrong - every bus stop we came to had absolutely no food so we made the 17 hour journey on empty stomachs.

TRINIDAD (South Western Cuba) - Fri 03/11 to Sat 11/11

Beautiful ! Trinidad really is, all colonial buildings with cobbled streets, Ok as per Havana it´s not in great order & could do with a good lick of paint but behind all that, it really is beautiful. We split our time between the town & the beach (Playa Ancon) about 10 K outside. We ate Peso Pizza on the beach, read, swam & had the odd Bucanero. It was great to have a fantastic beach so close aswell as having the town to wander around at night. We met an English lad Donal who was taking salsa dancing lessons & we decided we better give it a lash so we did 5 hrs of the 1,2,3...5,6,7 with a few basic turns. After limited success , her lack of enthusiasm & her unconvincing comments as to my great ability & potential, we realised that our Cuban teacher wasn´t really made for teaching & decided to cut our losses & head for the beach again. There is a famous spot called Casa de La Musica in town & most nights we went up there to watch salsa dancing & listen to a plethora of bands & musicians. A lot of specialist salsa holiday groups come to Trinidad to practice & it was fantastic to watch, we didn´t join in. We also discovered another place which had great music & almost every night split our time between the 2. We liked Trinidad & in total stayed 8 nights 4 more than planned which meant we missed out on other spots but we were enjoying it. On the Saturday, we got a 5 hr bus north back to Havana.

HAVANA again - Sat 11/11 to Mon 13/11

Back with Alberto again. That night we decided to take in a cabaret as seemingly you can´t come to Havana without seeing one. It was a great show with feathers, kicking dancers & the like. We spent Sunday wrapping up things and had one final dinner in Barrio Chino with the usual overcharging. Monday morning was an early start 5ish, Alberto was up & about to say goodbye to us, Ciao Cuba, Ciao Castro!

CUBA SUMMARY

Currency: 2, Convertible Peso & Cuban Peso
Time Zone: Ireland -5 hours
People: To start with, we didn´t have much Spanish & consequently the people we met were those that chose to speak to us in bars, restaurants or on the street, so in that way we only met a certain sub-section. In general we found those people we did meet to be all out for money & not truely friendly as we had heard they would be (Alberto aside). They do love their music & dancing though, oh & their rum
Beer(s): Bucanero & Cristal for $1 to $2 or more in the fancy spots.
Interesting: A visit to a supermercado is an eye opener. The workings of 2 currencies and how important getting your hands on some Convertible Pesos is to the man on the street.
Highlights: La Havana, Trinidad & Playa Ancon were fabulous.
Lowlights: Wrong totalling of bills, extra things on bills, short changing (9 out of 10 times something was wrong with our bill). Scammer couples ("Hi, where you from ?"). Cuba is quite expensive compared to other countries in the region. Internet was $6/hr, phone call home was $6 per minute, Accomodation $15 - $20 a night.

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Photos

Tough life.
Taking in the sea air,Havana.

"Imagine" Maurice, Siobhan & John
Lennon Park, Havana. A local entrepreneur rented us John´s glasses for a photo (& took the photo).

Look at those cars
The real Habana - really old cars as expected

Hard to believe it was 2006 in Habana
They don´t sell too many new cars around here.

Necessity is the mother of invention
A novel idea from Castro - to use old trucks to transport people in Cuba.

It was hard to drag Siobhan away from Havana
Immersing herself in the local culture - Siobhan enjoyed a few too many cuba libres!

So hard to resist ringing that bell
View from a bell tower, Trinidad

Playa Ancon, near Trinidad
A beautiful white sandy beach with turquoise sea - warm water and no visible fish - perfect for Siobhan.

Beautiful
Oh and the sunset is nice too!