Cheval

25 April 2016 | Buena Vista Cay, Ragged Islands
16 April 2016 | Puerto Vita, CUBA
15 April 2016 | Banes (Cuba)
14 April 2016 | Cuba (ORIENTE )
13 April 2016 | Holguin (Cuba)
12 April 2016 | Holguin (Cuba)
11 April 2016 | Guardalavaca (Cuba)
10 April 2016 | Puerto de Vita, Cuba
09 April 2016 | Puerto de Vita, Cuba
08 April 2016 | Puerto Vita, CUBA
25 March 2016 | Georgetown, Great Exuma
23 March 2016 | Georgetown, Great Exuma
22 March 2016 | Georgetown, Great Exuma
21 March 2016 | Georgetown, Great Exuma
20 March 2016 | Georgetown, Great Exuma
19 March 2016 | Calabash Bay (Long Island)
18 March 2016 | Calabash Bay (Long Island)
13 March 2016

Rambling thoughts about Cuba

14 April 2016 | Cuba (ORIENTE )
Nathalie
Before you read this article, just be aware that it has not been written by an economist, nor a politician. It is a simple statement of observation and open ended questions of a person spending a few days in Cuba and not pretending to understand or present an accurate picture of the Cuban society. Ok, so now that we are done with the politically correct jargon, let’s talk about what I observed.
Money is a very confusing matter in Cuba. There is the CUC (Cuban Convertible Pesos) which is more or less equivalent to the dollar or euros, except that the exchange rate for the US dollar has a 10% penalty/commission (so for 1 US dollar you get 0.94 minus 10%= 0.87 CUC). All tourist attractions, renting a car, paying the marina, and not absolutely necessary items (like a stand-alone ventilator is 32CUC for example) are priced in CUC. In the other money, the national peso, 25 pesos = 1CUC and on a Saturday morning village open market, where you can buy veggies, meat, etc. , everything is priced in national pesos (for the locals). Small restaurants along the road are in national pesos but in tourist areas they are priced in CUC. It makes sense when you know that the monthly salary of a doctor for example was 20CUC until very recently (raised to 60CUC). So it seems to me that there is a two speed economy, one for the tourists and one for the locals. Except that even the Cubans themselves seem to be living on two different scales? The one who can speak English and live near the tourist centers are far better off than the other working in the field or just being an employee of the government without tourist interaction. Some Cubans (the one who can either by their education and location) left their government job to be freelance and make a lot more money as a taxi driver for example, and others complement their government job by the tourist tips which count for much more than their base salary (for example as a guide on a tourist snorkeling catamaran, they make 16CUC/month). Then the confusion adds up even more when you realize that most transaction that you are going to be involved with might have a third and /or fourth party involved who profit of the said transaction (your laundry being done, renting a car, etc…). This is not a problem for the tourist being here, you either come back or not if you did not like this, but what I am wondering is, how the Cuban family living in the middle of the country, (and there are a lot of them judging by the side trips we took on small dirt roads), are supposed to live on a more or less same standard (communist idea?). I saw a lot of difference in housing (we were invited in a Cuban’s house in Gibara, very beautiful , no A/C but very airy with high ceiling, multiple rooms in an old building and comparatively we saw one room shack with no window, just wood louvers along very dusty roads with no running water),the transportation (most Cubans do not have a car, some ride their bicycles, some have a cart pulled by a horse, most walk or take a public bus) and some kept the car that was in their family for three generations: our taxi driver’s car was given to him by his father who got it from his grandfather) . Cubans take pride in their physical appearance, they are clean, very well dressed, and you can see very modern and trendy teen-agers stepping out from wood shack to walk on the road! It is probably because lots of them have access to clothes coming from Florida through relatives (clothes are not taxed). Two great improvements from the revolution are that the whole population has universal healthcare as most of the developed countries around the world (except one. Can’t recall which one? Sorry, I could not miss this one! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the country I married but I never understood their point of view on this basic subject!)), and the Cuban population is now 99.2% literate (lots of people in Cuba were illiterate before the revolution.) However, you can see in the city’s streets people queuing outside the stores (or the bank, or the telephone company) and generally one man’s job is to organize and direct the queue from outside to inside. The grocery stores have very little choice, so people (if they can afford it) complement their monthly ratio allotted by the government with items purchased on the black market (particularly meat which is very prevalent in the Saturday open market we went to in Santa Lucia, mostly pork , goats, chicken and very little beef, the most expensive meat). The vegetables are plenty and cheap, plantain, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, yuccas, onions, loads of garlic stung together in an almost artistic way and fruits in season, lemon, pineapple, mangos, papayas, I did not see but heard about delicious avocados. Spices are very limited. The main starch is rice of course often accompanied by beans. I was slightly disappointed by the coffee, as I was expecting some of those delicious café Cubano like we have in Miami, it might be because we were on the country side but even the one I tried in Holguin were not great, I imagine you can get great Cuban coffee in Havana. Coming for a vacation stay, Cuba has so much to offer: it is a beautiful very big island, the landscapes are beautiful (for me especially the mountains, the waterfalls), the exotic multicolored old fashioned cars, the music , the cigars, the rum, the mojitos, the beautiful colonial buildings in cities like Havana, Camaguey, Trinidad, the splendid Unesco Vinales valley and by boat the islands of the south of Cuba as well as the “ Jardin de la reina “ islands. We were in the eastern side of Cuba ( the Oriente) and this short trip was more a short introduction and observation than a tourist trip per se ,as we were pretty far from Havana and the other tourist points of interest (beside the beach, diving, fishing, which we experience as cruisers or at home really so is not as interesting for us to discover, plenty of beaches near guardalavaca and all along the coast). I kept for last the people of Cuba. We had plenty of interaction, surprisingly open and genuine, and we really loved the Cuban people, they are kind, curious, funny and la familia for them is everything. They love to be well dressed and look beautiful (and they are) and romantism is as well displayed as in the street of Paris (remembering a young couple kissing romantically in a park in Holguin). Art galleries are present in each city and the art is very modern, colorful and original (we saw a school exposition of drawings and paintings in Gibara that was unbelievable in its originality) . I can’t speak for the music and party because I am not a night girl anymore but I can bet you that young people, particularly musicians and people who love to dance must have so much fun in Cuba in the evening.
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Vessel Name: Cheval
Vessel Make/Model: Outremer 50
Hailing Port: Tavernier, Florida, USA
Crew: David, Nathalie, Alec and Emilie
About: The old crew of O'Vive reunited on Cheval for new adventures.

Cheval

Who: David, Nathalie, Alec and Emilie
Port: Tavernier, Florida, USA