Cuba
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2006
1
8
34
Trip End
Ongoing
Havana,
Cuba
Saturday, August 26, 2006
A monthly salary of 200 local pesos (around USD7) is suplimented by various 'mercado negro' activities, in order to survive, which leads to a huge gap between the haves and have-nots. (The haves are the officially unemployed, whereas the have-nots are the loyal, nationalistic workers - show me the logic??)
It seems even the most patriotic and loyal socalists are fully prepared to sacrifice their morals for a quick buck, and everything has it's price (one kindly young gentleman did try selling his girlfriend to me at one point - her thoughts on the proposed transaction were unrecorded)
Cliche! - but it's actually like this!
. Second only to india in their persistance to rip you off, finding genuine locals to chat to is a tough ask (i've finally discovered my thousand-yard stare to discurage molestation. P is lagging on that front somewhat).Despite this (i see its putting a hugely negative slant on the whole place) it's a beautiful place, and hugely rich history, which was great to learn about there, rather than from afar.. An 'official' taxi (!), ('if anyone asks, i'm not a taxi, we're amigos!') to Trinidad (4 hrs) was great, and trinidad was really nice. The small town-ness of it made it a damn sight easier, and a wee break in the middle of Havana-crazyness was somewhat necessary!
Coming back via Santa Clara, we visited the Che mueseum and mausoleum (he's massive there - bigger than fidel), and back to Havana.
Sadly lacking in the cool old-man music, good coffee (it's all exported), and nice places in general, Havana is hard work, but facinating nonetheless.
So after eight days, i think best summed up by 'i'm glad we went, but by god, am i glad we're back!'
