161 Cuba the revolution is decaying

161 Cuba the revolution is decaying

Hey a got a ticket to Cuba 148 quid premier class all inclusuve tax visa etc plus one night in a all inclusive resort major culture shock.. In many ways it's like a time warp many buildings still decaying from the state there were in 44 years ago before the revolution. The Communist system seems to be falling apart theyvé gone for this stupid two tier currency system so there all these shops and bars which only take dollars. Like a beer costs 10 times there as in a peso shop which is incredibly cheap. The culture shock that does my head in is the shops and bars are full of Cubans ! Where do they get the money from if they only earn $20 a month and why do they waste it on luxuries ? travelled through more than 30 towns Hago botella (hitch hiking) on the back of trucks etc down to Santiago in the South East corner. Was hoping for some work opportunities to come up but it's not as easy or as flexible as in other countries cos everything is bureaucratic and decided centrally. I'll spend 2 more weeks travelling up to Havana then fly out to Cancun I guess. The Cubans are kind and it's very safe tho I'm not completely bowled over I just put up a couple of pages to help you Cuba Tips, Good Places to Stay

Photos

I took some photos with the digital camera but most of them didn't come out cos of bad batteries. Anyway you can view a few at http://www.geocities.com/peacam/cuba/

If people don't have confidence in a system then it won't work

You can't say the revolution failed or that it wasn't needed. People lives are not so different from Europe they have houses food electricity etc. They think they are poor, but in reality compared with most countries in the world they are fairly well off, better than most of Africa but not as affluent as the US or Western Europe. The key thing is they think that they are poor cos the exchange rate is so unreal it makes there salaries appear very low eg $10-$20 a month and $4 for pensioners. Another reason why this is not a fair comparison is that many things are free here ..houses, health, education, other things like basic food stuffs are inceredibly subsidised so that they are almost free. What is true is that it's difficult to get enough pesos to by material goodies at dollar shops like TVs. But enough cubans seem to have them "everyone steals from the state" someone said. And they are not free to travel etc 2 classes of people... It's so surprising there is not so much obvious theft and corruption like on other Latin countries ..IT feels pretty safe

Off to Mexico

too much bureaucracy...can{t work here so will go to Merida in Mexico Friday November 1st

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