Rosie thinks in order to best understand the commentary of her up and coming observations as her and the The Operator travel around Cuba, you may need a bit of perspective on the daily lives of the average Cuban and a bit of background as to why the country is like this.
Cuba is a Communist country run by the government. Back in the 50s, the Castro’s and other like minded individuals felt the rich were getting way too rich and the social divide between rich and poor was too wide. The old government was overthrown by them, in a revolution in favour of Communism, as a result, the government gives everyone a job and a wage averaging $30US dollars per month, yes, you read that right, no, its not a Rosie typo. If you are a school Teacher you would get $40 and doctors on average get $50 per month. The government pays for all healthcare and all education to every level. If you are good at sports, you will selected for regional baseball teams, the most famous sport in Cuba, you may become a national hero….all on $30 per month. No endorsements and sponsorship deals here. If you are super brainy and your school grades are top level you will be selected to go to medical school or become a school teacher.
The government gives everyone a home to live in, there are no homeless people, or rough sleepers anywhere. There were no beggars anywhere we went. The government also gives you extra allowances per family size for the basic foodstuffs, rice, vegetables, meat etc. Now you kind of understand why the city is decaying and falling down around everyone’s ears….Rosie can pretty much guarantee that no renovations or maintenance has been done on any of these buildings since the revolution and the socialist regime took over in 1961. There literally is no extra money in anyone’s pockets for anything other than subsistence living.
In the early sixties America tried to overthrow the Castro’s with ‘The Bay of Pigs’ invasion and failed. Cuba then became good friends with the Russians, they agreed during the height of the Cold War that the Russians could put nuclear weapons on Cuba pointing at America. This meant that Russia, for the first time ever, could bomb the whole of mainland America in the blink of an eye. On the brink of WW3 President Kennedy did some swifty negotiations, the missiles were withdrawn, a promise was made to not invade Cuba, however, America decided to ‘quarantine’ Cuba from the rest of the world.
This quarantine has resulted in the time capsule that is Cuba today, the country has basically not changed or progressed since the early 1960s and America told its ‘friends’ not to support Cuba with imports etc. Trade embargoes, coupled with Communism……talk about a combination that has made it tough on the people who live here.
Technically there is no real ‘High Street’ shopping in Cuba, there are no goods coming in to fill shops…all of the houses we stayed in have antique/retro furniture from the 60s and older. This is why there are so many 60s style American cars…..nothing new has come in since the embargo. It gets grimmer here when one goes grocery shopping. The stores have one counter in them, some two…old fashioned glass fronted shop counters with a wooden top. These images below are of the biggest stores we encountered when in Cuba.
In the shop there will be half a dozen things they are selling, for example cooking oil, crackers and pot brushes, rum, beer and water….the next shop six doors down will have rice, pasta, engine oil, rum, beer and water….the next shop had 4 kinds of vegetables, rum, beer and water….the butchers shop was an open window, the butcher was hacking up this and that and the ques of people waiting to buy meat went around the block. You asked for your cut, he butchered it and plopped it in a plastic bag that you bought with you and held open. The shop selling eggs had ques twenty people long.
This is shopping in Cuba…they only have small shops selling certain things and you traipse all over town, sometimes waiting in long ques buying the items you need…our supermarket lives are so easy in comparison….I would love to see the looks on these peoples faces if they were dropped into Countdown! Rosie will never complain again when Countdown dosn’t have the brand she wants and needs to go to Pak n Save as well…in Cuba there are no brand choices, 10 shops to visit and half the city to cover to do your basic weekly shop.
There are two currencies in Cuba, the first is the National Peso, this is the currency the locals spend and the currency they get paid in.
Then there is the Convertable Peso, this is the exclusive currency that the tourists use, it is normally abbreviated to CUC.
$1CUC = $1US.
$1CUC = $25 NP
Everybody in Cuba wants to earn CUC from the tourists as this is the only way to increase their own wealth….think about it….1 tourist dollar spent is the equivalent of their monthly income! More on that later in the journey……
Considering how much a Cuban earns, and how little they have in the way of the material and how much in comparison a tourist has…. Rosie and The Operator can honestly say they have never felt unsafe or threatened in any way throughout their journey. We have only ever encountered genuine, helpful, friendly people with a generosity that is overwhelming from peoples who have so little.
Were we ever ripped off…..nearly, possibly, maybe…..Rosie will tell those tales and you can decide. Rosie can say she has eased back a little on the hard core bargaining….now it is time to get out and about in Havana!
