Cuba had been calling to me for a long time. Perhaps it was my memory of being a six-year-old in Miami and going to the beach with my dad to watch giant navy warships glide southward to engage in what became known as the Bay of Pigs, a disatrous attempt to overthrow Castro and his alliance with the USSR. Soon after, my family moved to New York and Cuba became a long way away, except for the Cold War propaganda railing against the evils of communist Cuba. I always suspected there was much more to the story, but with the exception of the incomprehensible embargo, exposure to fabulous Cuban music, and more-recent documentaries on Cuba’s high-quality medical care and education, I still knew next-to-nothing when I recently landed at José Marti International Airport in Havana.

To view “Images of Cuba” – Havana, Viñales and Las Terrazas, click here!

First Impressions

Well-preserved big fender Chevys, Plymouths, Packards cruise the paved stone streets in an almost ghostly parade, images of Che abound, the music of drums and horns seeps from uncovered windows in decrepit buildings, roosters crow, and construction hammers pound in relentless renovation efforts to restore the city to former and future glories. Were it not for the hoards of international tourists and the ubiquitous use of recently legalized cell phones, it would be easy to feel one had entered a 1960’s Twilight Zone.

Contrasts and complexity – a bustling, museum-rich, arts culture vibrant Havana with serious air pollution problems; an island ringed by pristine golden-sand beaches and filled with verdant countryside; hip restaurants and near-empty grocery store shelves; new hope and old despair. It is also a country enshrouded in mystery, especially for most U.S. citizens who know little of the archipelago nation just 90 miles south across the Strait of Florida.

People
Cuban people are renowned for their friendliness, but it’s not so much a smiling open effusiveness – as in Mexico where nearly everyone acknowledges each other with a “Buenos Dias!” – it’s more a willingness to help if you ask, and even if you don’t. For despite genuine concern and kindness, there is a hustle that visitors need to understand.

The first question you will be asked by every Cuban you meet is: “Where are you from?” No matter how you respond, it will start a conversation, and that’s the point. From there, your local inquirer will ingratiate himself by sharing his own knowledge of your country – in the case of the U.S., everyone has at least one relation there, usually in Miami. He will show more interest: “How long are you here? Are you staying at a casa? Have you eaten at a palador? Have you seen [fill in the blank]?” With sincerity and charm (and surprisingly good English), he will suggest places, offer to guide you or otherwise advise on all matters related to your enjoyment of Habana – all in the hope of a commission from his recommendations, a free drink or meal, or a tip for his service. It’s hard not to admire this hyper-entreprenurialism, word-of-mouth marketing and savvy networking that businesspeople elsewhere pay big bucks to learn!

With recent loosening of regulations that allow Cubans to register rooms in their home for rent (called a Casas Particulares), their cars as taxis, their kitchen as restaurants (Paladores) or their expertise as one of 200+ categories of businessperson, many Cubans seem like kids in the candy shop of capitalism. Intoxicated by the prospect of access to convertible currency (CUCs), as never before, you’ll meet many a hustler. You will be “taken advantage of’,” in the sense of paying much more than locals. But, as Chris Turner writes in The Walrus, “It’s not just that you’re visibly foreign and rich; you’re a sort of modern vassal, the only readily accessible emissary of a metropole that has never been seen but is generally understood to be bounteous and benevolent.”

This is due in large part to a crazy two currency system that no one seems to know how to get rid of. Upon arrival in Cuba, you exchange Canadian dollars, Euros, Swiss Francs, etc. at the going exchange rate (U.S. dollars are charged an extra 10% premium) for CUCs. Each CUC is roughly worth $1 Canadian. Foreigners are expected to use CUCs for all transactions, and you will not find the cost of most anything particularly “cheap.”

Meanwhile, Cubans receive the equivalent of $25 U.S. in monthly salaries in the local Cuban peso currency (CUPs), each CUP is worth about 1/25th of a CUC. One slice of pizza a day from the popular street stands would exhaust a month’s pay. The “peso stores” in which citizens shop for basic goods have little on the shelves and, as one Cuban friend explained, “Nothing lasts here. The coffee you bought last week and liked, you’ll never find again. The quality of the beer or dried milk varies each time. Forget the laws that change regularly and our monetary system that makes no sense. It’s the basic daily household things that are unpredictable at best and unavailable at worst.”

So it’s no surprise that Cubans are trying very hard to accommodate the huge influx of tourists – and the freedom to quickly acquire some CUCs – so as to buy themselves some of the basics we take for granted… before laws might change again for the worse. In my eight days in Cuba, I observed a precarious balance between cooperation and competition in a historic landscape of distrust and suspicion. But economics aside, it’s a magnificent country full of smart, ambitous, genuinely kind and beautiful people. As the Lonely Planet guide to Cuba puts it, “Life in Cuba is anything but easy but, defying all logic it’s perennially colorful and rarely dull.”

Once you understand the realities of life in Cuba, you will no doubt feel like Mr. Turner and myself: “The next time we go to Cuba, we’ll bring much more [to give away], and I’ll remind myself to tip better.” Personally, I can’t wait to return!

In my next posts about Cuba, I’ll write more anecdotes and provide resources should you plan to visit. If you’re not already, please subscribe to this blog, and pass it along to friends. Muchas gracias!

To view “Images of Cuba” – Havana, Viñales and Las Terrazas, click here!