Sailing into Cuba

Havana

The sail-in to the port of Havana is pretty. There's a fairly narrow opening into the harbor with an old fort, lighthouse and a large statue of Christ on one side and city buildings on the other side. Along the city buildings side is a 5 mile malecon, or sea wall. 

As we got closer, I could see how run down and decrepit-looking many of the buildings were.  Peeling paint everywhere, broken windows, half-demolished buildings were regular sights. And that was just on the sail-in. 

We were to spend one full day and late into the evening in Havana, then a cruising day along the coast before reaching our second Cuban port of Cienfuegos. Those plans were changed, however, when, during dinner, after we'd spent our day in Havana, the captain announced that there had been an oil spill in the bay at Cienfuegos and our stop there had been cancelled due to safety reasons. Cienfuegos is a tender port which would make getting in to the dock on the small tenders a problem due to the spill. So. That meant another full day and evening in Havana!

It is a rare experience for an American citizen to get to visit Cuba directly from the United States. It used to be that you could go, but you had to go to another country first, then fly to Cuba. Obama changed that a few years ago. And now Trump has modified that. You can go direct now, but you have to sign an affidavit that you will engage in a "people to people" experience on an organized tour lasting from 5-8 hours. Those 10-page affidavits that you sign are required to be turned in before you can even sail on the ship from the original embarkation port, and then the papers are sent to someplace in Washington D.C. where some poor soul there organizes the papers, and the government can audit you at any time. You must keep a record of your tour for up to five years. Seriously. It's just the dumbest thing ever. I see absolutely no redeeming value in this whatsoever. 1,300 people on our ship. That's 13,000 pieces of paper. And that's just one ship, one cruise. Multiply that by dozens more trips and ships and you end up with mountains of paper. Good grief. 

On the flip side, though, if you visit here, you will almost certainly appreciate your home country even more. Because Cuba is a mess. A socialist mess. Yes, kids get free milk until they're 7 years old. Yes, education through university is free. Yes, healthcare is free. Yes, literacy is one of the highest in the world - 99.8%. But, and this is a big but - the government owns virtually everything. Until just a couple of years ago you couldn't own your home. Banks don't loan money to you. You earn very little money so to save to buy things takes a lot of time. Many people participate in a thriving but illegal black market. Everything here is old. There's no hardware stores around the corner. No dry cleaners. No dishwashers. No new parts to fix things. There are no McDonalds or other fast food chains. There are no Coca Colas, no Sprite, no A&W Root Beer. They have their own brand. Their Coke tastes nothing like our Coke. Same with Sprite. 

Their main exports are labor - they send doctors, nurses and dentists to disadvantaged countries - places worse than Cuba. They want to make sure their labor comes back after their 2-3 year assignments are up. They also export rum, tobacco (cigars) and coffee. And now tourism is starting to grow. 

There are two currencies. Local pesos for the people and convertible CUCs (pronounced like kooks) for tourists. They charge a 3% exchange rate for all countries except the U.S., where they charge an additional 10%. The conversion is about 1 to 1. The prices for tourists are terribly inflated. A local wants a mojito? It's $2.50 pesos. For a tourist, it's 7 CUCs. Most places won't take anything but CUCs. No credit cards exist. There's no phone service for our phones. If you press hard to have them accept the dollar, some might. But then they raise the price even more to cover their extra 10% they will have to pay at the bank to change to their peso. 

Many people are friendly. Some are not. Some are wary. Our guide said that people in Cuba think that Americans think they are bad people. And that makes them sad. They want us to come visit. They are hoping that by bringing our tourist dollars there, the government will begin to do more for them. Put air conditioning in their homes. Pay them more. Let more private businesses open. Fix the dilapidated buildings, make places safe to live in. 

Raul Castro has slowly been lessening the control. But only a little. I think there's a long way to go, still. 

I took a lot of pictures. It pains me to think that I can only post 4 at a time. I may wait to post the majority of them until I get home in a week, so that I can post directly from within my blog.  I need my computer for that - my iPhone won't cut it as I can't grab the photos. Technical stuff.