Not everyone knows that there is not a single supermarket in Cuba (in the usual understanding for us),
Most of the products are sold in coupons, the famous Havana Club rum drink beggars, and the most beautiful beaches are not in Varadero, but in Maria La Gorde. And this is far from all.
Currency
There are two types of currency in a cube: Cooks (CUC) and Cuban pesos or cups (CUP). Cooks – for tourists, cups – for Cubans. The Cook Cook is united throughout the country and is approximately equal to one dollar. It makes sense to buy cookies in large hotels, it will save from huge queues in city exchangers.
Kups just can’t buy, because they are not intended for tourists, but if you are lucky, they can give backs in the store with cups. One cook is approximately 25 cups. Outwardly, the currencies are very similar, only cuckoos are brighter, and swims are more turned pale.
It is convenient to pay for hotels, gasoline and restaurants with Cooks, but it is profitable for cups to buy bread, vegetables, fruits, as well as any products that are mainly not intended for tourists, but for the local population. When paying with CURKS, the price of goods can be four times higher!
Transport
Public transport in Cuba is quite poorly developed, Cubans themselves prefer to move to a hitchhiking, which is very popular here. A taxi mainly consists of retro kars, which are good not only in their direct purpose-to travel along Cuban roads, but also as a likes of likes on Instagram and Facebook.
You can take a retro car for rent only with the driver. It’s absolutely not necessary to go for such a machine to a special agency, the owners of rare cars offer their services everywhere. On average, a trip to a distance of 10 kilometers will cost 5 cookies (≈ 300 rubles). When traveling to a greater distance, it makes sense to bargain.
It is very difficult to rent an ordinary car, especially when it comes to a high season. The line behind the machine will be a week at best, so you should take care of the car in advance.
Internet and cellular communications
The Internet in Cuba is only in expensive hotels, finding it somewhere else is almost impossible. Therefore, when planning an independent trip to the island, you should not count on the help of the World Wide Web, it is better to draw up the route in advance.
About the wi-fay. In fact, there is an option to get it, quite specific. In large cities, for example, in Santiago or Havana, in some places you can see the crowd of youth. All of them are sitting on phones. If you stop next to them, after a while the Cuban will come to you and will quietly say: wi-fi. You can give him 10 cookies (600 rubles per 1 hour!), And he will connect the phone to the Internet. But the speed, of course, is terrible.
The situation with cell communications is no better. Only a cube can buy a SIM card in a cube, so it makes sense to connect a national operator convenient for traveling before traveling before the trip.
Food
In restaurants and cafes throughout the island there is an opportunity to try national Cuban cuisine, which is a special mix of Spanish, Chinese, African and Latin-American culinary traditions. The only problem of most good restaurants is that the dish will have to wait for a very long time.
There are no supermarkets in a cube, there are shops, for example, in a harbor where you can buy tomato paste, pasta, sunflower oil – and that’s all.
In the morning, always before lunch, in any city of Cuba, fresh bread is sold, but in order to purchase it you need to defend the queue. Meat products can only be bought by coupons; To persuade the seller to sell sausage for cookies is useless. Fresh cheese can be bought from hand on the highway. The seller of cheese is visible from afar. He stands in the middle of the road with a large piece of cheese. He will sell it to you for one Cook and will also give a small package of Jem. Cubans eat cheese, thumping in jam – it turns out quite tasty. You can also buy melons, bananas, huge cucumbers and tomatoes on the highway. Some gas stations are sold at canned food.
Drinks and cigars
Cuba is famous for its rum Havana Club. Depending on the exposure and volume, the price for it is from 1 to 8 cuishes – in a cube rum is cheaper than water! The poor, drinking Havana Club on the street directly from the bottles, give a special flavor to any Cuban city.
Rum is sold absolutely everywhere: in stores, tents, at gas stations and you can buy it at any time of the day.
Cigars are sold on tobacco plantations, tobacco plants and in many bars. The price for 20 cigars starts at 100 cookies.
On the street you can find a semblance of cigars in one kuk, but this is not cigars, but something like huge cigarillas, with the worst tobacco. The locals smoke them.
Beaches
Varadero is considered one of the best resorts of the entire Caribbean thanks to developed infrastructure, snow -white beaches and transparent sea water. But there is a place in Cuba, no worse than Varadero, it is called Maria La Gorda and is located in the western part of Cuba, 300 kilometers from Havana, on the guanacabibes peninsula.
Maria La Gorda is a beach and an international diving center located on the territory of the Peninsul de Guanacabibes Peninsula National Park. Here you can sunbathe on desert snow -white beaches and diving. In ancient times, the pirates chose the guanacabibes peninsula, as a result of which a large number of artifacts and the remains of sunken ships were preserved in the coastal waters of Maria La. The cost of one immersion is 35 euros.
Population
Cubans are surprisingly beautiful, cheerful and kind people. They are great about tourists, and especially to Russian tourists. Cuba is more than a friendly country. But Cubans do not like to work at all. With the sunset, all the work stops, Cubans go for a walk, dance, drink rum and enjoy life.
It can be assumed that dislike of work is associated not only with the mentality, but also with a very low wage, which is about 15-20 Cook (900-1180 rubles) per month. Even if the Cuban has his own business, for example, renting an apartment or a private taxi, he is obliged to report to the state about his income, so most of the money earned in the state treasury.
What is worth visiting
Havana – the heart of Cuba
A city that cannot leave anyone indifferent. A special impression is made at home. Bright, colored with huge columns, but at the same time in dilapidated state. Closer to the center of the house, they look more or less decent, but the farther from the center, the worse. But even in such dilapidated houses, light burns in some windows.
And also Havana … smells. This is due to the lack of toilets and the rare garbage collection, but this smell cannot be called irritating. Early in the morning, irrigation cars drive through the streets of the city, washing off the dirt remaining from the night.
All day on the avenues of Havana, Koletes Retro-Kara, transporting tourists, jazz plays in the bars in the evenings, and the best Havana bartenders are preparing the most famous cocktail-Cuba Libra.
Vignali Vignales – a colorful valley among the mountains in the west of Cuba
The Vignacles Valley is located 170 kilometers from Havana, in the western part of Cuba. You can get there by a rented car, taxi, hitchhiking or by public transport. Buses along the route “Havana – Vignales” go daily at 9:00, and then at 14:00. The trip lasts more than three hours, the ticket costs 15 cookies (890 rubles). Buses along the route “Vignacles – Havana” make two flights daily: at 7:30, and then at 14:00.
The valley is surrounded by the mountain massif of Sierra de-Vignacles, beautiful not only with landscapes, but also with a huge fresco carved on one of the rocks of the valley, the whereabouts of which is better to clarify from local residents-there are no obvious pointers to it.
Vignacles was a favorite place for Fidel Castro. There are many walking paths through the valley, and it doesn’t matter which one to follow, the eyes will delight bright landscapes. In the mountains you can find many caves, and in the valley itself to meet a bright red sunset. Surprisingly, in such a beautiful place there are not many tourists.
The valley can be moved like on foot, so on horses or bicycles. You can also use the services of the guide. You can get here for free. You can visit tobacco plantations located in the valley for free.
Trinidad
Trinidad, a city with more than 500 years of history, is located 300 kilometers from Havana, in the south of the Cuban province of St. Petersburg. You can get there by car, taxi or hitchhiking.
The main attraction of the city is the central square of Plaza Mayor. On the square there are a large number of buildings of the colonial era, as well as the largest church of Cuba – the Church of the Holy Trinity. All houses in Trinidad are old, in some of them there are cafes and restaurants. I would like to note that it is in Trinidad that the most impeccable service in restaurants, the most delicious cuisine and the lowest prices in cube.
National Park Topes de-Koliants
The huge picturesque Topes-de-Ko-Kolantstes park is located only 14 kilometers from Trinidad-you can get to it by a rented car, taxi or bicycle. The cost of the input ticket to the reserve is 10 cookies (600 rubles). The main interest in the park is the Salto-del Kaburny waterfall, which can be reached on foot along the path through the jungle, on the way admiring the flowering orchids, tradescants, listening to birds and the sounds of the forest.
The author of the text: Olga Krylova
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