Staying in Havana
Internet locations in Havana can be counted on your fingers and at US$6 an hour locals are pretty effectively excluded from the practice - especially considering the minimum monthly wage (which counts for pretty much everyone here, from cigar-roller to dentist) is about 250 pesos (about US$11). There is nothing to buy either! Shops have the basics - arts and crafts are not legal trade opportunities for locals and in a country where everyone is supposed to have equal tiny amounts of the essentials there is nothing remotely close to variety. Rum seems to be the most widely available commodity for purchase. Literature topics and variety is obviously very limited too. Our host family's favourite topic of conversation was how expensive everything is in Cuba. These homestay businesses (called casa particulars) were begrudgingly legalized post special period and the government works hard to prevent indiscriminate gain in wealth by taxing the owners of such businesses heavily - about US$130 a month (regardless of occupancy) for the most basic rooms (like ours), US$30 extra to serve breakfast (per room) above and beyond fiscal tax at the end. We had an interesting moment because the inspector arrived on his monthly rounds while we were moving from the non-aircon room (US$15 per night + breakfast) to the aircon room (works out to US$26 with the breakfasts). We were out so the family quickly moved our stuff over as they only have one room registered with the government. If both rooms are full they just close up all the windows and pretend no one is home. Our first taste of government law evasion tactics and tensions - the first of many we would experience.
Food can also be divided up into expensive restaurants (government owned) and paladares (government owned buildings with heavily taxed tenants trying to make a business with a restricion of 12 seats per paladare) - quite a bit cheaper. Sea food is readily available and the very reasonably priced lobsters are enormous! Paladares are not allowed to serve this delicacy but they all do somehow - and we ate like kings!
Cuba is famous for their old cars - well nurtured pontiacs, chevrolets, plymouths and more abound and this really does give cuba a special feel - but there are also many modern cars as well. These cars are bought overseas by musicians and sports players who manage to get the rare permission to travel. The government also owns a nationwide fleet mainly for tourism purposes. There is also the option of horse-drawn carriage and little motos called 'cocos'.
Although most people still receive money from relatives that managed to defect to Miami (US$ taxed with 10% exchange tax - just so that the government can also be part of the fun) the system that operates here in Cuba has, to our opinion, largely created a national culture of lying and thieving - all white lies and petty crimes, of course. Prostitution in Cuba is also very lucrative and the stigma in this culture has been sufficiently down-adjusted so that people condone and even esteem prostitutes selling their bodies here in much the same way our western cultures esteem models selling their bodies for all sorts of seductive ploys in our media back home. Speaking of which - there does not seem to be something like that here because there is no advertising - yes, the city of Havana is beautiful largely because the city is free of advertising - not even the casa particulars and paladeras advertise (that would cost an extra US$40 a month) and pornography is illegal (a far cry from the continent of South America). There is just the government tabloid - the Granma (named after the boat Fidel Castro used in the great takeover attempt of 1956 - Cuba's most holy relic on display) and that is it! For all the Cubans that long for the allure of capitalism (and that really does not include everyone) - they really can't appreciate what they will have to lose to gain it.
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