About Cuba
Cuba was our final destination for this side of our globe-trot and, we must say, probably the highlight country of our trip. Just over 2 weeks in a country with so much to absorb. Arriving in Havana is so striking - all the architecture, the friendly people - a country where everyone can eat and sleep and read and be born under medical supervision... a land with so many contradictions and inconsistencies. Cuba is a dream that most people have woken up from ages ago but at the same time it is a game that everyone plays faithfully. But for all the 'no es facil' (it's not easy) that you hear - definitely the happiest country we have come across so far. August in Havana is the hottest and the most humid month. As one local responded to our question about whether is rains everyday - you wish it does! Here, we believe, the cockroaches lie dying on the streets due to the lack of hygiene and mosquitoes are absent, unable to survive the intense heat.
Money transacts in two parallel forms - the local currency (peso), supposedly the currency exclusive to Cubans, and the CUC (formerly the US$ but now called 'peso convertible') - the highly taxed currency that discriminates foreign tourists from locals. Exchange is roughly 24 pesos to 1 CUC and prices will often be similar in amount for locals and 'extranjeros' - but in different currencies - just to give an idea of how much more we often had to pay! Locals suffer too as many prices are now just set in CUC for everyone. They also are not allowed to make use of the hotels in Cuba - all state owned - reserved exclusively for tourists. In fact the government owns everything. It supervises a few joint ventures with foreign investment companies and local enterprise happens here only because communist Cuba was forced to legalise 150 types of businesses (mostly associated with tourism) to survive a period of intense depression (which they officially dubbed the 'special period') when Cuba's main sponsor, the former Soviet Union, collapsed a few pages back in history.
Cuba is like a movie in freeze-frame. Although Fidel and the crew pulled off their legendary coup about 50 years ago, by the talk, the show, the propaganda and the lives of the people it seems like it happened yesterday. The 'revolution' continues to this day and the greatest crime one can commit in Cuba is to oppose the revolution. Newspaper articles are all either about Fidel or 'that mad tyrant and terrorist' Bush. They seem to love talking about America. America owns a building (from ages past, called the US Interests Section) conspicuously positioned on the Malecon for all to see stirring messages of inspiration towards freedom. Two hours free internet per day is offered for Cuban citizens inside the complex - but no-one dare make use of it. To deal with this threat the Cuban government simply positioned a fleet of flags in front of the building - and recently there was apparently a huge billboard just next to the building depicting Bush with blood running out of his mouth...
One of the most interesting and compelling characters of Cuba's modern history is the legendary Ernesto (Che) Guevara. Being a very photogenic and adored individual - immortalized in early death - his image is EVERYWHERE - even the rest of South America - and the world. Almost all the postcards, billboards, murals, T-shirts display his image - he is like the eternal supermodel.
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