CUBAVISION
This week has been one to find our way around, establish contacts, and do a bit of location scouting. Havana is a lively town, but because we are basically confined to our host family’s place, we cannot party down.
A view from our window:
Currency is interesting here, in a country where the average salary is in the neighborhood of $24 dollars per month, and tourists routinely drop $4 for Mojitoes at the Bodeguita and $6 for daquiries at the Floridita – imagine as a waiter every drink you serve is ¼ of your monthly salary.
The biggest quirk is the duel currency. They have pesos for Cubans, and Cuban Convertables (cuc) for foreigners. Paying in pesos gets you a fifth or better of the convertible rate. Getting pesos is not easy for tourists, but if one can, and can pose as a local, they can pay something like 10 cents for a taxi ride costing tourists 5 Euros.
Cubans are such amazing salsa dancers that the only way for us to learn is to take lessons from this giant whose exaggerated limbs are easier to follow:
In our apartment we sit, drink rum, and watch propaganda TV. Most of the shows are educations, but we did watch a baseball game, which was odd due to the lack of commercials. They also play movies like the Shaggy Dog, and TV shows like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Dagessi High, and Bugs Bunny. In each case the bottom right corner was blocked, probably the channel logo from which it was recorded.
I’ll leave you with something sweet:
