Some Cuban Realities

Today we spent walking the city again, touring spots we hadn’t run across yet.  Instead of boring you with the details, I thought I’d explain some of the things we’ve learned in our last two weeks on the island.

Dogs: The streets are filled with dogs, most of them mixed breed.  They don’t really appear to belong to anyone and roam the streets looking for scraps.  Some look healthier than others.  Occasionally you’ll see a full bred dog on a leash.  There are a lot of dachshunds, with other various breeds mixed in.  We even saw someone selling puppies in a park.  There are cats but they seem to be a little rarer, perhaps hiding out of main view. 

Housing: As you walk down the streets, you can peer into the open doors of people’s houses.  They all appear to have a small living room, kitchen and probably a bedroom or two.  I assume they mostly don’t have air conditioning since their doors are wide open.  The government provides the housing for the people and the utilities are nominal.  A lottery is held after the construction of a new apartment building where one lucky construction worker will get a new apartment.  They consider it an incentive to build quality housing.

Food: The Cuban food is pretty simple.  We found out in the countryside the restaurants would often have just one menu.  It quickly became apparent that the same menu items are available everywhere: rice, beans, ropa vieja, roast chicken, shrimp and lobster in a tomato sauce and maybe some pork.  The other thing you find almost everywhere is some kind of pasta with marinara or pesto sauce.  Drink choices are bottled water and beer, Cristal being the national brand.  In Havana, you find a wider variety of food although it is still pretty basic.  We ate at one restaurant, 361 Lamperella which appears to be new and catering to tourist.  The menu had a lot more variety and the presentation was very upscale.  I expect to see more of these kinds of places with the loosening of tourist restrictions in the US.

Grocery Stores: I use this term loosely.  There are stores that have some food items but they are very basic.  You have the standard variety of the local soda, occasionally finding the diet version, rum, maybe some sweets, rice and beans.  There’s only one brand available.  There are bakeries with bread on street corners around the city.  There are usually lines at them.

Food Safety:  We had been warned to not trust the water.  That usually means not to eat anything fresh like a salad too.  We quickly gave in to having drinks with ice which didn’t seem to cause any problems.  I also ate tomatoes and cucumbers without difficulty.  We did use bottled water to brush our teeth, but in general we found everything to ok on our American stomachs.

Bathrooms: Well, you see everything here.  Toilet seats are definitely optional with some of our group not having one in their hotel room even.  Toilet paper was also sometimes there, sometimes not.  A lot of places had a bathroom attendant that provided paper for 10 cents (or whatever change you have) and those bathrooms were the cleanest.  Showers usually lacked either hot water or water pressure.  That’s probably the thing I will enjoy the most when returning home – a hot shower with plenty of water.

Religion: Communism and religion usually don’t mix so a lot of the old churches were converted for other uses after 1-1-59.  However, there is still Catholicism.  We have also walked by a Baptist church and a Methodist church (with a very lively congregation on Sunday morning).  Santarien (an African based religion) dressed in all white from head to toe can be seen on the streets.  They have different gods they worship which also involves sacrificing chickens, which accounts for the headless chickens you might find on the streets or in the cemetery.

Wages: We had been told the average Cuban makes an average of $12/month.  Our bartender friend said he makes about $90/month and our writer friend with the National newspaper makes $30/month.  He told us there are some professions that earn good wages such and doctors and nurses.  In general though, the wages here are far below those in America.

Economic Reforms: When Raul Castro took over as President, he ushered in sweeping economic reforms.  It’s now possible for the people to own property and businesses.  Cubans are now free to travel if they have the funds (or jobs) that allow them to do so.  There also appears to be a healthy black-market economy.  We were told there’s marijuana and cocaine here but no synthetic drugs like meth.  The people here desperately want to reestablish relationships with the US because they need the influx of capital.  I hope they don’t regret the change in lifestyle once this happens.

Urban Renewal:  In Havana, there appears to be a lot of renovation work going on.  The city Historian has found a way through tourist dollars to start making real progress on restoring historic parts of the city while also provided social services for the citizens such as schools and retirement homes.  However, it would take years to return this city to its former glory.

Scams: Whenever tourists come to a city scams start turning up.  You should always ask how much a taxi costs before getting in.  Pregnant women roam the square asking you for money to buy milk for their children, or they will take you to a store where you can buy milk and give it to them (probably only to find its way back to the shelves to be sold again).  Men hawk cigars on street corners or offer to take you to a friend’s house to sell you cigars at factory direct prices. 

Money: the tourist dollars are called cuc’s.  You can convert money at banks or exchange locations.  There’s a 13% surcharge on exchanges US dollars, so it may make sense to convert your money to Eurus before arriving.  There’s not a lot to buy here other than cigars and rum, so you can judge how much you need to bring with you.  At present time, American issued credit cards do not work here and most places don’t take credit cards anyway.  Cash is king!  The service people work for tips, so 10% of your bill is a good starting point.

Cars:  Cuba is frozen at 1959.  Vintage American cars are everywhere (60,000) although few have their original motors (or anything else for that matter).  If you want a ride in a classic convertible like you see in photos, head down to the Capital where they line up hustling rides.  They also have more modern cars that have been imported from places other than the US.  Russian Latas are plentiful here.  You also see the random Mercedes, etc. that are probably foreign diplomats’ cars.  Yellow cabs are owned by the government.

That’s enough for random information for now. 

Tomorrow: Lunch with a Legend