Sunday 9 October 2016

Things to know about Cuba

1. There are 2 currencies,  the Cuban pesos and the Cuc pronounced cook. 1 cuc=25 ish pesos.  Tourists are quoted prices in cuc but to add to the confusion they are often  called paeso or sometimes dollar. Restaurant bills can be in either.  Small private cafés often use  Mn (cuban pesos )  and when you pay in cuc will give change in pesos so you need to check your change.

2. Prices are negotiable.  It can be done in a quiet polite way where the first price does not have to be the final one. Decide what you want to pay and if that seller won't give it, another will.

3. Yellow taxis are the expensive ones. Taxis are generally expensive but if you get a local one they are more reasonable.  Local taxis tend to be the very old cars sometimes with a cardboard sign saying Taxi on the dash.  Again prices are negotiable.

4. You will get hustled. They are very good at it.

5. Prices make no sense.  A wonderful meal can be very cheap , a dreadful one very expensive. 

6 Mojitos cost around $3

7. A basic knowledge of Spanish is very useful.

8 Havana is more expensive than you expect. 

9 Unless you are staying in one of the big hotels, wifi is difficult to find. There are public hot spots. You buy a card from a post office for 1 hours connection. Then look out for groups of people hanging out on a street or in a square all looking at their phones, the odds are that's a hot spot.  The upload and download speeds are not very good. You will easily use your hour. This is difficult for an fb addict like me.

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