Life in Havana
There’s lots to like about what the Cuban government has done for its people. Cubans get the basics ie housing, food, healthcare, education for free and for life. But Cuba is not a rich country and after the economic depression of the Period Especiale when the Soviet bloc basically fell apart the Cuban economy took a hammering. Cubans took the brunt and the economy is still slowly recovering. Even in Havana it’s like the stories one reads about the old Eastern bloc shops where there’s constant shortages of everything, the economy involves around trade/barter and there’s lineups for just about everything. There’s quite the remarkable contrast between the tourist economy of, for example Calle O’Reilly (the main E-W street of Havana Vieja) and just a few blocks north, the locals’ shopping street of Boulevard San Rafael – where empty shelves and industrial looking clothing and shoes abound.
Yet there’s a unifying theme despite the contrast of the tourist streets vs the locals streets and that seems to be the general sense of safeness. Even while strolling from Centro to Vieja along Blvd San Rafael or Salud (another E-W connector) at night when the streets are dark I did not feel unsafe. The women walking on the streets did not look over their shoulders running from sparse streetlight to sparse streetlight. You don’t get the same prickly feeling between your shoulders as you do in some other cities (say many US cities) where one feels like you have to constantly be on the lookout for personal safety. One local told me that part of the reason is that there a lot of CCTV cameras around. Also crime is apparently treated with seriousness here with robbers and muggers quickly found and shipped off to jail. The take-home message for both of us was that, despite the general air of street decrepitude walking around Havana seemed to be quite safe.
One other observation we had was that the Cubans really do feel like they’re all in it (“it” meaning life generally) together hence the big family “gran familia” attitude. Despite having basics taken care of, Cubans seem to have to be very creative to get some essentials like construction materials, car parts, bike parts, or email access. What seems to happen is that there’s a lively underground economy of barter and trade where goods and services are exchanged. To me, Cuban relaxed and can-do attitudes were most apparent in the way they treat slower moving traffic like bikes, or bike taxis or the horse carts. There’s often separate lanes and the lanes are usually respected.
No one seems to be too stressed even when in traffic (although they do use their horns a lot).
Another way it showed was in the network of contacts that Casa Particulares (basically they are B & B’s) owners have. It would have been a pity to have missed out on staying with the warm wonderful hostesses and owners of the two Casas where we stayed in Havana (Hostal Diana’s) and Trinidad (Casa Sta Domingo). If one casa is busy they’ll refer you to another and it will be good. The Casa owner called to make dinner reservations for us, found us taxis, found us a remarkable tour guide (Havana Tours Solymar) and went above and beyond to make us feel welcome and at home. It seems that personal recommendations and relationships go a long way in Cuba
Havana Vieja – March 2015 from Lee Lau on Vimeo.
Mural at La Mimosa Restaurant in Havana.
Mimosa on Salud. Dark streets but one doesn’t feel unsafe
HUGE portions of greasy pizza! We had some as takeaway. About 6 CUC per pizza
Flor de Loto Restaurant on Salud. Right next to Mimosa. A huge menu
Again, HUGE portions at Flor de Loto. Totally reasonable – About 6 CUC per entree
I taught this guy some Chinese. He taught me some Cuban Spanish
Street-life on Salud. Streets are full of people going about their business and socializing, talking, buying stuff (flowers)
Street work done by hand due to a shortage of heavy equipment. One guy with a small pneumatic drill takes care of the initial work. The rest is hand tools
Typical street at night on Zanja. The buildings might look dingy but everyone walking around looks comfortably relaxed and safe
More food – this from Nerei Restaurant in Havana Vedado. Good food but pricey! 25 CUC entrees
One gotcha is the Viazul bus system. Price would be about 25 CUC apiece to go from Havana to Triniidad. But its a government employee running the ticket system and I believe the goal is to be surly and uncommunicative. We were told by some people that they were 1 hour early to the bus departure and asked if there was space on the bus and confirmed there was plenty of space. Then they would line up, as requested, only 1/2 hour before departure to buy tickets upon which magically there were suddenly no more tickets! One doesn’t need that kind of surprise. We ended up sharing a cab from Havana to Trinidad with another couple which was both faster, more predictable and the same price as the Viazul. We did the same for Trinidad to Varadero..
Havana skyline from the East Bay