Cuba

After a very long silence, I've decided to start blogging again. Easy explanation for the long silence, after my return to the old continent, I just didn't take the time anymore, plain lazyness in other words. But now I'm starting to miss my blog.
Since I'm no longer living in the Carribean I got rid of the fancy schmancy coloured layout but besides that, not much will change. I'm still not planning to write a typical travel-blog with a full recommendation and must-see list, as I find these travelblogs myself deadly boring. I hope by telling you my adventures, I'll pass on my impression of the countries I see and the people I meet instead of copying some Lonely Planet columns.

I owe you all a report on my travels through Cuba, even though it's already been over 2 months that I went there. The lazy part, remember. I flew from the Dominican Republic, with Cubana Aviacion. Most dominican and Cuban people warned me for the airline, but they're not used to Ryanair, I guess, cause Cubana Aviacion was simply great.
A lot of nervous Cubans in the plane, all very talkative however. When we hit ground, a guy told me the struggle to get out of the airport was about to begin. He estimated it to 2 hours which resulted in my face forming a big question mark.. 2 horas? Que? Y eso? Which in return resulted in all cubanos looking at me with "aaah, poor unknowing, innocent Western girl"
In the airport of La Habana, we were all separated in 2 lines, cubans and non-cubans. As a foreigner, it didn't take me 2 hours to get out, but I did get a quite thorough questioning. Who are you, How long do you plan to stay in Cuba, What did you study, Where do you work? How long do you plan to stay in Cuba, What profession do you exercise (I said engineer), What kind of engineering, How long do you plan to stay in Cuba, What did you do in Dominican Republic (I said engineering) What type of engineering? etc etc. Quite a contrast with all my entries in the Dominican Republic where they were always very happy to see me arrive and didn't bother too much with the length of my stay.


Fortunately, non-official Cuban people are actually very pleased to see foreigners arrive. Some of them because of the dollars we carry, others (and I do believe most of them) because they are just open people and some might feel isolated on their beautiful yet small island which they are not allowed to leave and they 're eager to learn about other cultures.
Walking around as a girl alone, does strike attention even more. I forced myself to be cautious and to let somewhat go of my "trust everyone" attitude.
But still, one of the main reasons I was traveling alone, is that I really wanted to meet Cubans, tryin to understand a bit more of the way they live.
Thank god for couchsurfing... My first night I met up with one of my contacts, David. We had been emailing for some weeks and we spoke a few times on the phone. He lives in a tiny, tiny appartment with his girlfriend and some other friend gathered at his place.

Couchsurfing in Cuba is great, for exactly the reason I mentioned above. People love foreigners but because of the poverty a lot of people are also kinda desperate and some of them don't see a person but a walking dollar sign on the street. CS makes it safer to get to know Cuban people and vice-versa. Young CS'ers in Cuba see hosting foreigners as a way to travel since it's almost impossile for them to actually leave the island. Even hosting is illegal for them, so most of them prefer to meet up for a coffee or a drink.

Anyway, David took me to a birthday party and I met so many funny cuban and international people and "by accident" we only went home at 6 in the morning. All my nights in la Habana I spent with these guys and I thank them for that.

Additionally, on the street when I was wandering around looking for an internet connection, I met this one Cuban guy on crutches who showed me around town the entire day and we met up for a coffee the day after. He is an engineer and really interested in all technologies. I showed him my iPod and I couldn't have made him happier.

Another day I also ran into a girl who helped me find a decent pharmacy (new flipflops cause blisters!) and an exchange office. She ended up spending her entire free afternoon with me as bandages are not easy to find. Only the "tourist" pharmacy had them and at a "tourist" price. I kinda felt extremely spoilt here.

On the currency. Cuba has probably the weirdest system in the world. In 2004, Cuba banned the American dollar from circulation and restricted the amount that Cubans living abroad could bring into the country. A family member living abroad gave too much advantage to the family at home, hereby violating the all-are-equal thought of communism. They now have two currencies, a first one (peso convertible= CUC) is more or less equal to the dollar (but they tax the exchange by 10%) and the second currency is the "local" one, el peso cubano (CUP). One CUC is about 24 CUP. The beauty of it all is, that everyone needs both CUC as CUP. Some items are only priced in CUC even though it is supposed to be the "foreigners' currency" and prices are completely unpredictable. Shampoo for example will cost 2 CUC while a decent meal will vary from 20CUP (less than 1 CUC) on the street up untill 20 CUC in a restaurant. An average wage will vary from 25 CUC en La Habana to 18 CUC in smaller towns. Most people I met had never been to a restaurant. If you're lucky enough to be able to work in tourism, you'll see a lot more CUC's (including tips) which results in a complete misfit system in my humble opinion.

An example to illustrate. To get back to the airport, I arranged for an illegal taxi as tourist taxis are just very expensive and local taxis are not allowed to pick up foreigners. My driver told me he had been working as an engineer for about 8 years. After these 8 years, he had been given the right to buy a car which he did. And shortly after, he tranformed himself into a taxista clandestino, fot the simple fact that an illegal taxi driver earns more money (especially more CUC) than a legal engineer.

I found the governmnent tries to separate Cubans and foreign tourists as much as possible. I wasn't allowed to take public "Cuban" transport and my "tourist" busses were just too expensive for Cubans. Honestly, they're quite expensive for all travelers as is lodging and food. If you speak some spanish, it is however possible to convince the locals at the bus station to take you with them. For example, I bought these guys some smokes and spent some time with them and they took excellent care of me, getting me a ride on this truck, very uncomfortable but very cheap and they run more often as the tourist busses.
To some extent people can lodge foreigners but the monthly taxes in order to do so are quite high, so it's a risk they take. Ofcourse there are illegal lodgings as well, but actually not as much as I expected. Since no private initiative is supported, Cubans are not allowed to show foreigners around as guides. Ofcourse I always preferred a Cuban youngster above a tourist office. More fun as walking behind a guy holding up an umbrella, and I felt my money would be better spent... We did get caught once though in Baracoa... Some officers patrolling in the National Park where we were walking around, stopped us. He had to show face in the local police station, they let him off with a warning but he was quite disturbed anyway since he just lost his income as a guide for the coming months. The officers were very impolite, basically saying that we had no business talking to each other unless we were planning a wedding. This happened more often to me. Walking around with a Cuban guy is not cheered upon, unless you are coupling up.
Fortunately, even though the government doesn't encourage it, it is very easy to meet funny and open minded people if you are a bit open to it.

I had a lot of fun with the Baracoa-guide and his friends though. Two of them were cooks but their restaurant had been destroyed by the hurricane. I bought some fish and they made us a very nice meal.
In fact most of the villagers participated in reconstruction, although honestly there was always a bottle of rhum involved. Poverty all over but one way or another there was always money for a bottle of rhum. The picture shows what a huge water flood can do to a building.
Thanks to my guide, I was given the chance to drive this baby around. A 1952 jeep named Willy. Ofcourse I had to hide from the officials untill we reached some dirt track outside the village, leading to an amazing beach.



My conclusions about Cuba. It's probably one of the weirdest countries I've been to, full of contradictions. Some people might say I look at Cuba with my Western eyes, but I'm not pretentious enough to think I can look with different eyes then the only ones I've got. My intention is not to judge yet to understand and I think most Cubans were amused with the amount of questions I had for them (and the other way around, actually)
As a traveler, I feel for the Cubans as is it so difficult for them to leave their island. Most of them would ask me after my Spanish and then I had to explain to Barcelona-Madrid-Dominican Republic-Puerto Rico travels which made me feel very uncomfortable actually. I wonder why a government that feels so confident about its regime, makes it so hard for its people to start traveling and learn about other cultures, including the discouraging of contact between foreigners and Cubans. I heard just a little too many stories about people that had escaped by boat and whose whereabouts are unknown by their family.
On the other hand, I was honestly surprised by the knowledge most people have. I don't know where they get their information from since most newspapers I saw were kinda propaganda and international TV channels were banned but they certainly know about the world. Cuban education is said to be extremely good. Additionally, Cubans are amongst the most open, funny, helpfull and interesting people I've met so far. And certainly the best dancers! But I also remember walking around in Trinidad and getting annoyed because literally everyone would talk to me trying to get something from me or sell me something.
The people I met were proud to be Cuban, although the Castro-regime is questioned upon. People feel something should change, but nobody mentions capitalism or giving up communism. I guess this would be a very hard topic to cover and I won't go deeper into it. I don't think you can really value a regime unless you've lived in it and this applies to both Cubans as to myself. It's just something that struck my attention. People want and need a change but nobody seems to have concrete ideas.

I had a great time in Cuba, first time I traveled alone for so many days but I never felt lonely nor bored.