Cuba in a month today! Any tips?...

[cbob]

In my quiet times alone, I was thinking about oil, water supplies, etc, being the investment priorities (and cons). I think it would be great for Cuba to attain that level of investment without the fast-food outlets, too.

Almost everyone was frightened off, especially in the two BUSH eras by the threats from the USA. This included the UK, with Tony in the "Yumas" pocket. Canada thumbed its nose and continued to trade but it's a drop in the bucket since Cuba exports very little. France was an early investor (15 years ago they installed state of the art phone systems with smart cards) but soon backed off. The Italians have been supportive -many of the appliances that Cubans with CUCs can buy are from Italy. Korea also has been supportive which is why you see so many Kias and Hyundais and LG TVs but they do not build roads and fix buildings. Venezuela sells oil to Cuba but then there is no love lost between Chavez and the USA.

One of my favorite things about Cuba is the lack of "American" culture -no KFC, no MacDonalds, no Starbucks, no Burger King and especially, althought it is not American, no 7-11.

Friends came round last night and we couldn't work out how the power system is maintained. Are the Police vicious behind the scenes, for example? The people we saw were not unhappy. My tales of street hassle did not brew up into physical threats or violence towards us other visitors.

Mostly, the power system is not maintained. Things are better now than 15 years ago but there are still regular brownouts and during the summer they shut the power off completely in various parts of Havana on a regular basis-sometimes announced, sometimes not.

There are several levels of police and the PNR (the grey tunics you see doing traffic patrol in their LADAS) are generally despised. Most of the cops in the PNR are "palestinos", imports from the western provinces who have no interest or appreciation for locals in the cities. Many, if not most of them are black and despite the claims of "the revolution", racism is rife in Cuba.

I sat in very comfortable tourist state-owned coaches (I think from Korea) and crossed my part of the island. The Cuban public - in Havana - waited for cross-city buses which were RAMMED, and I phone-video'd a normal bus draw up outside the Capitolo (sic?) where an absolute horde of city dwellers were trying to get on their service bus. It seemed third-worldly.

Of course it's "third worldly" Bryan. When news media talk about countries where people live on $1/day or $2/day, remember your visit with the people of Cuba who live on perhaps 10 pesos/ day -at 24 CUP/ CUC that is less than 50 US cents/day. What's that in GBP? That's a tragedy.
If it was not for heavy government subsidization of housing (rent can be $1/month) food (although the monthly ration-card items run out in about 2 weeks) and transport, folks would be starving. As it is, they are merely hungry. many Cubans make a "fortune" working in the tourist industry where they can earn more in tips in a day than a professional (doctor, lawyer, engineer) makes in a month. There is also a fair amount of "hard currency" coming in from family living abroad but despite the 'trickle down" from these relatively wealthy Cubans, the majority of working folk are dirt poor.

China (not Korea) sold Cuba (at a good discount) several thousand of those new Yutong buses you saw and they replaced most of the really decrepit buses that used to run (or not) throughout Cuba. There are not many of the old "camel" buses left. They kept a few and painted them bright colours -pink, blue, yellow- for tourists to photograph. The "guagua" (bus) costs 50 centavos (that's 1/2 of 1/24 of a CUC) to ride because the government subsidizes the transport. They just don't provide enough of it. Lobby your MP to donate some new bendy-buses to Cuba!
The cost of a Viazul tourist bus from Havana to Trinidad is less than the price of my cab ride to the airport but it's a month's wages for a Cuban.

If this situation - the preference to the tourist - were to be mine in Kent, UK, I'd start objecting somehow, and eventually I would start shouting about it. Do folk not object in Cuba because they will be locked up? Or shot? (Only a bit of a joke, that).

Folks do protest in Cuba. But it's a socialist dictatorship-nobody listens. If you "shout about it" too much, you get hassled. Jailed. Outcast.
They can't phone up their local MP and rant. There is no MP. The only local representative is the CDR member who monitors every move in the neighborhood and reports "Un-revolutionary" behavior to the government.
MININT (Ministry of the Interior -Secret Police) members are everywhere (they are the cars with the green license plates) and I seldom wear a Guyabera (that iconic Cuban shirt) in Havana because it is well known that MININT detectives wear Guyaberas and shiny shoes and dark glasses.
Tourists don't see this.

I do not know why the tourist vs populace disparity continues. Or how/why the locals tolerate it.

Tourists have money. Locals have none. Tolerance is the only option. It's not a "free country". See above,

I had my hair cut in town today and the chat at the barber's was all about the blocked drain in the pedestrian precinct.

The same conversation could be had at your Cuban barber shop. The difference would be that nothing could be done about the drains and your haircut would cost about $20 pesos - less than $1 US. (Haircuts are subsidized)

I really enjoy Bryan's keen and insight-provoking observations of the Cuban scene and I hope he and you all will forgive my extensive commentary. The reality of Cuba has very little to do with rum and cigars. Most Cubans know nothing about cigars, except that tourists want them, and they drink home-brew rum that they buy from a neighbor (if they bring an empty bottle).

If you want a really alternative view (much tougher than my biased one) of the current situation before you visit the island, I can recommend several of the blogs published by some of those intolerant Cubans Bryan wonders about.

Links to several Blogs in English translation are included on this site:

http://octavocercoen.blogspot.com/

(list down on the right side of the page)

But be warned : these folks are banned in Cuba. They live there, but their Blogs are not viewable in Cuba. Yoani Sanchez is prevented from leaving the country to collect awards she has won for her work. They are militant, outspoken and from my own POV, they may be exaggerating for effect. I know that some of the "problems" they protest are not strictly in effect but who am I to protest their righteous indignation. Fascinating reading for those interested though!
.

[nicwing]

Bryan
Please do not stop your 'babble'. I can say that I love your straight to the point unfiltered and unedited thoughts. Raw but pure I would say.

Put with that Captain Bob's comments and this is turning into an incredible thread.

I would bet there is anything like this anywhere else on the web, it's thoughtful and thought provoking. It by passes all the tourist clap trap and get's to the roots and truth of Cuba.

Thanks-you both for some really great posts and keep in coming guys, This is the first thread I look for everytime I log in.

[Drewmidorn]

Wow!

D

[Robusto]

I did no preparation before going because my work is stressful currently, and because I wanted an adventure.

To say I found the trip interesting is an understatement. I'm sure what I'm writing is naive.

But so what?

I have more questions.

A musician friend tells me there is an American who collects things to ship to Havana. He sent over a load of second-hand unwanted pianos to Cuba and they were not allowed in. That's something dear to my heart - tinkling - and it seems a bit pathetic to stop joy coming in. Why does that sort of thing happen?

Also I kept thinking about my namesake George Orwell when I was out there. Especially parts of 1984. I'm thinking of the slogans about the revolution and the party. They seemed to be daubed and painted on some VERY run-down walls and houses to the extent that it was very funny. We will win the revolution... painted on a wreck of a property, or a delapidated house. I'm sorry, but my British irony red band coitus moved in my shorts. It was just like some of the positive sloganeering in 1984.

I wondered whether the people who had the most slogans were keeping in the political good books. Perhaps they'd get a surprise tin of Carnation from Fidel one day. (Apologies).

I dunno.

If a D4 is a month's or half a month's wages, should I give up cigars and just get 20 fags from up the BP garage? We loved our holiday, but I'm feeling a sort of existential guilt in a way. Certainly a guilt about the value of a cigar that coils away to nothing in the end. (I smoked some ripe beauties from the factory today so the guilt isn't quite taking over).

I will follow up those Blog references over time.

Bob - What exactly do you do / have you done Cuba-wise? Is this interest and knowledge coming solely from many years of visits to Cuba, or are you in Business or Politics, maybe?

[cbob]

Sadly, since I posted an obviously premature reading of the Cuban Bloggers as "exaggerating for effect" it appears that to prevent a couple of them from attending a demonstration today, they were kidnapped and badly beaten by plain-clothes police in an unmarked car then dumped on the street.

I'm on your side with all of your observations Bryan and I'm just a long-time cigar fan and Cuba visitor (more than 20 visits over almost 15 years) who quietly observes the scene. No political or business interests -I'm retired and spending as much time as I can afford on a Cuban beach with a fine Cuban cigar. I go to Cuba because it is a relatively short and affordable trip from Canada and I'm not paying those huge resort prices in Mexico or getting my ass mugged in Jamaica. When the embargo falls and the Americans arrive, pockets bulging with cash, and all the prices triple or quadruple, I'll probably be forced to stop visiting.

The Cubans are warm and hospitable and I really like the music. Unfortunately it is harder and harder to ignore all the problems I see every time I visit. My policy is "it's their country and not my place as a guest to criticize". That does not stop me reporting what I see.
Be sure that at least a portion of the money you spend on The island will assist in modernizing the infrastructure and raising the standard of living. Without tourist dollars they would have almost nothing.
I try to buy all my cigars in-country so that the money stays there. As a pensioner, I really can't afford to buy boutique non-Cuban smokes anyway.

About the pianos: this is unusual.
There must have been a breakdown in protocol somewhere in the donation process.
Canadians regularly collect and donate instruments for Cuba and they are much appreciated.
Canadian jazz musician Jane Bunnett has been traveling to Cuba for 20 years or so and has recorded several albums and videos with the band "Spirits of Havana" in Canada and in Cuba. She normally takes instruments and technicians with her to Cuba and they put on seminars and repair instruments for schools. If you are interested in some good music and "another" side of Cuba as it was just a few years ago, search out this documentary from the National Film Board of Canada.

http://www.allmovie.com/work/jane-bunnett-cuban-odyssey-spirit-of-havana-281927

No "Buena Vista Social Club" here but some great Cuba footage and amazing music.
.

[Robusto]

Sadly, since I posted an obviously premature reading of the Cuban Bloggers as "exaggerating for effect" it appears that to prevent a couple of them from attending a demonstration today, they were kidnapped and badly beaten by plain-clothes police in an unmarked car then dumped on the street.

That's terrible. I started reading some of the blogged stuff last night.Did that happen because you had linked something on here?...

If people fly in and out for a beach holiday at Varadero (for example), will they have an impression of paradise island with no complications?

[Drewmidorn]

It does make you wonder whether one should be buying cigars.

[nicwing]

The money from the cigar trade must trickle down to the people some how doesn't it? If this is a communist state, and the state owns the cigar production?

I appreciate that the US embargo cuts out a major export market which ultimately restrict the amount of money in the system.

So surely the problem is we are all smoking too few cigars!?!

What else generates money. Much of the tourist trade revolves around the cigar trade so smoke up chaps.

But them I did European/North American political geography and missed Economics at school so what the F"<$ do I know.

Answers on a post card please.

[Nuno Sa]

The problem with communism states is that stuff don?t really belong to the people, the party makes what they see fit with the money. Private property is not allowed, but the higher hierarchy members have access to many goods and property that simple people can?t.

[nicwing]

So what would be the result of stopping smoking Cuban Cigars, other than total miserableness and dismay??

[Robusto]

It does make you wonder whether one should be buying cigars.

That is what I have been thinking, too.

I watched my language when I typed some of this on my kitchen table and sofa.

When I said the sight of the horde of people getting on to the bus made me think of a sort of third World state... it actually DID make me think of a third World state. The coach drive from the airport to the Parque Central left me aghast on the first night, to be honest. There is a lot of squalor. The closest I've been to it in Europe is wandering all over Marseille back from the port.

My wife has worked in Uganda. When we compared and contrasted, she saw huge similarities between the two countries. The biggest difference was that ultra poor Ugandans have to make homes in bushes on streets. I'm guessing that the populace IS housed by the state... and I can tell you that the family where we stayed for three days explained to us that the money we put on the table was INVALUABLE to them and would conjure up much more than four lobster suppers...

We first went to Thomas Cook to enquire about Cuban holidays and were pointed at Varadero. Azure pools. Glorious beaches. I found the whole experience very Stepford Wives, to be frank, and we moved on.

No offence to anyone on here who has flown in and out of Varadero and stayed there - and I know several have because we have talked about destinations before - but that sort of hermetically sealed beach-based holiday is never what we look for when travelling abroad ANYWHERE.

I'm going to stop babbling very soon on this thread, but I do think knowing which Cuba you will see is vitally important before setting off.

[cohibaIV]

I'm going to stop babbling very soon on this thread, but I do think knowing which Cuba you will see is vitally important before setting off.

I bloody fecking HOPE not????

[cbob]

The money from the cigar trade must trickle down to the people some how doesn't it? If this is a communist state, and the state owns the cigar production?

That's very true Nic but it's one of Cuba's few exports and much of the actual trade/pricing etc. is controlled in part by Altadis, the Spanish/French consortium. Cuba gets only a small part of what you all buy from those online vendors.

I appreciate that the US embargo cuts out a major export market which ultimately restrict the amount of money in the system...What else generates money.

Not just the cigar market. Cuba has a large amount of nickle which is banned from import by the USA and those who they have intimidated.
Cuban sugar production has all but ceased after the Soviet market disappeared but the sugar producers in the US are still one of the major lobbies against dropping the embargo.
Cuban oil off the Matazas coast is high sulphur and of no vale but there are large high quality reserves off the North West coast that Cuba has no funds to develop. The Bolivians and the Chinese are presently in negotiations to exploit this oil but no dollars are flowing yet.

Much of the tourist trade revolves around the cigar trade so smoke up chaps.

Not so!
Because of our hobby and all this conversation about cigar travel, we get the impression that Cuba is crawling with cigar lovers but most of the tourist trade has nothing to do with cigars! You see very few cigar smokers at the resorts and my cigar companions and I are often the only ones smoking cigars in Havana. Most of the tourist trade was founded on Canadians, Germans and Italians flocking to all the newly-built resorts. Not so many Germans and Italians these days but more Scandinavians, Brits and Dutch. The flight from Europe is 10 hours long so not surprising that after the deadly 9/11 of 2001 the cross-ocean travel dried up in a major way.
Most of the folks who travel to the island expressly for cigars are a relatively small group that includes our friends Mitch from C-Gars, Simon Chase, Magali and other vendors, Nino and his wealthy (but very nice) Swiss friends and others we all know. You run into Naka-san (and James Sucking) wherever you go!
Still lots of Canadian money going to Cuba travel but in our small nation of 30-odd millions I probably know all the cigar smokers!
Most "tourons" buy fakes from the resort staff or street touts and then berate real cigar smokers for "paying too much from those ripoff government stores".

So surely the problem is we are all smoking too few cigars!?!

Truer words have seldom been spoken amigo!

I believe I feel a smoke coming on right now!
.

[cohibaIV]

Cbob...as with Robusto, please do not stop posting you fascinating personnel experiences and views....

I, like Nic - am loving this thread and the REAL views from out BOTL.

Many thanks mate.

[Deano]

Ditto. This stuff is awesome reading.