We didn't expect our all-inclusive vacation in Varadero, Cuba to be very 4 }$ ]0 z0 A# k' q: D! F7 ^interesting, but we never had a sunshine vacation before and also we: ^. r; _' X3 k I7 h$ l8 a4 c
wanted to see and learn a bit about Cuba, if possible. : y$ \4 d. S# N% \1 t6 \ 2 W! g# `3 U1 _( v$ q IIt was a mixed bag of people on our plane and in the resort: 20% young,8 h0 O4 Y, p) A
30% old, and 50% in between, also quite a few single men. People are in # N- B) O( p; W( |3 ~a very different mode in the resort, lots of them dress as little as, t4 T3 k$ K- f5 `! U
possible and drink as much as they can, stay up very late (resort' J' V w3 I8 N$ O! R4 x
show/dance music is very loud and runs into 1am daily), and sleep 6 n6 B/ Y# [! W9 s4 Zbetween the meals on the beach, beside the swimming pool, and in the! f/ `, K7 c% L' S8 J! s! U ^3 @
lobby. The resort lobby is really used as a family/living room for all, $ B' ^3 N! r$ `2 u6 O2 D9 Uwith people doing all sorts of things and nothing is too strange there.' K3 p# n- `" S
People on vacation are even more friendly then they are in Canada, but* u! l: K, M: c
names (especially the last name) seems to be one thing that not2 F0 A# y# L0 L4 w$ e
exchanged much. It is interesting to see people change color in our ! G( ]0 L7 }6 V0 gflight at the beginning and at the end of our trip, like peanuts through7 l! n3 m/ N5 L! f& E# p& y
a roast oven - white before and roasted afterwards.+ {. u6 Z+ a( _' T( [
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The weather was beautiful during our stay: mid to high 20s in the day," s/ R/ b& I! j" p5 }
low 20s in the night. We did sea kayak, swam in the ocean and the pool % U. d( X7 c8 j( |" ^8 C- n7 n# f+ @(when it was too windy), went to town by bike, and saw the island on top # {! B ]9 }/ @/ K! k9 |) ?of the hop-on/off double-decker bus, walked along the beach, watched the & \4 d7 C( v2 xstars (note the sky at 23 degree latitude looks quite different from % F/ ~, \( T4 o% z49), played ping-pong everyday after lunch. Em even tried 20 minutes 5 b( i9 H1 A* a/ a; E! ICuba neck-back massage that felt like intensive cha-cha dancing with 3 [$ F6 b. q- n a- ^9 F2 @" ~# Ffingers, palms and fists; very different from what we have in Canada. $ F0 t/ H% X6 D1 c( L/ \( ^8 r4 [9 \; P+ e( Q( G/ K& h2 O
The resort staff are mostly very good, some do so for tips, but some are ! Z2 M$ u1 I1 D1 n9 vjust very nice, like our room maid (see the pictures of the bed she made . z0 S. E+ H H1 g2 I9 @) xfor us). The resort looks to be owned by the government, as Cuba 0 p! z6 ?: \- i8 ctourist industry and most other things in general. Watching them having * @" i2 M5 D H$ Ya staff meeting with the Cuba flag up, made Em think about China8 |4 I* u) \" p" J9 b! E
daily political studies. 作者: freedom_2008 时间: 2011-1-15 13:28 标题: 我们2006年的古巴游记 (二)
Cuba in general, looks a lot like China in late 1970s and early 1980s, living- s0 a8 b. X/ g
standard and government control wise. To see and know it more, we went% s! J. m. X7 c5 k# }& \1 w$ T, _) l
on a day trip to Havana ("La Habana" in Spanish). Our tour guide,8 `6 z. \8 P7 o' k4 B5 u& F5 F
"George" seems to be very knowledgeable and, as we pushed, he did give - I3 r: f* v$ _& c G; s: x- J4 G4 x: Yanswers to our pointed questions.5 L5 p$ m! n; M9 [
; ~# S. \* D- p1 Q4 J3 V/ I, S
The racial mix in Cuba is very diverse, with about 40% white, 15% black,/ s/ @1 B- @- v
45% mixed (aka mulatto), even about 1% Chinese, so no one would stand+ Q9 Z- E* D' v. z
out too much here (especially after you got a sun tan). Education is) S; L0 @* ]$ {
free all the way up to University level (need to pass competition exams" l1 x X! t% \ c
to get in), and it sounds like close to half of the Universities are ( }/ N% [; T, E9 e! Lmedical schools. 5 A2 r& {5 ]! j! L5 B - [( ]. ? c7 W: Y0 UEvery university graduate needs to do 3 years service assigned by the 0 W$ ^/ s2 f) L" m" S& \government before moving to the job/place they want, and if anyone wants ) H. _* l. O, x5 Q! c" f5 c0 hto go abroad afterwards, he/she needs to do an additional 3 years' K% q- @6 p4 ]% ]" ?- q7 r; D
assigned service before leaving the country. The salary range in Cuba ) e$ x7 `0 [+ h; p' nis from $200 Cuba Peso (~$11 CAD) per month (minimum state wage) to ! J% v' w; j) tover $600 Cuba Peso (~$32.5 CAD) per month (for medical doctors). There' v6 X( p$ W$ d5 k5 _( Z
seems to be no big issue with food, as most basic foods are cheap and 5 r7 l5 K8 q S1 j: H. rmostly supplied/rationed by government. Though they do have a milk # ]. a0 u' ?; bshortage which the government is addressing by converting some( ~; n# S" _1 m2 D6 W. {
sugar-cane farm lands into cattle lands.$ z6 N7 z& r$ c. l
6 w, Q$ S: q9 V! E$ cThe main issues are housing, transportation, and clothing. There is no ; b: m5 P! a, I, }private real estate in Cuba, as all the housing is controlled and9 M \3 r' `8 X/ j% M: B& S
supplied by the government, and the supply is so tight that young people; D6 ?+ _ ?, M) h) ]
have to stay with their family even after they are married. The good+ C7 H# f0 r0 G2 M1 Y& i
thing about this is that there is always someone in the house to do baby; |5 E9 Q. {% m+ q9 H$ a: ~
sitting and care for older/sick people, but bad impacts include a high 5 E6 E' z( i& _% n; ^divorce rate: over 50% newlyweds go separate ways within two years. ' W0 y O! @8 e2 `Divorce is very easy: 15 days waiting period and $4 Cuba Peso fee. When2 a2 Q' k# |6 V9 P3 A
a lawyer is involved, the fee is $15 Cuba Peso, as lawyer can only 2 W) d; h. `% {1 tcharge the fee defined by the state.+ {7 D5 W1 V* P( k" J" P- W
% s. p. D/ e. L$ NThere are three main types of transportation: taxi ($20 Cuba Peso to get 5 w; Q8 ~" P% T1 }0 mon), bus similar like what we have but made in China, and a special type 3 C! V& z K5 w: m. {of bus called Camel (see picture) which has two "humps" and the big / ~3 K3 O9 U' a: etruck head of the bus comes from NFLD (used as we were told). The Camel / s! a0 p# q) X7 i$ q6 H( g( xseems to be the main transportation for most Cubans, especially the + m0 {9 u: K0 d, ~- ~8 ] s+ _working class people, 20 cents per ride, but it is often not on 8 y/ R7 J6 b( i& L7 j' H+ |8 a; Gschedule. No one knows when the Camel will come to a bus stop, so if $ ~& n+ z. ?4 U8 Cyou ask, people say "maybe today, maybe tomorrow". We saw some people: K/ V1 T1 [+ {; k4 D
trying to hitch a ride in quite a few places. George mentioned hitch$ r! \( h( G& c& y" a2 z8 `' C7 r' [
hiking is very common in Cuba due to transportation shortage and that6 { E+ ?: z" l* }
people have developed a sign language to indicate cities where they want 9 H" m& m' Y; Mto go. There are places that government officials would stop cars or3 \9 k0 ^8 |4 r
buses owned by the state and order them to take hitch hikers if there# _3 u) m6 _( S3 C8 }9 |- L
are spaces. 6 U& P) i a$ D, u) ^ $ M: v/ X9 R. ^4 [There are private car owners, and some of them use their car as a taxi " e# E( H6 o0 z6 ]6 s) w+ b* Sto make some money, people call them "the thinkers" (that is why they ! _( S i8 n& }- l J o( uown a car). Due to US blockade, most American cars here are from the $ y# f1 O3 ]: ^$ h( n6 n1 S40s and 50s, but most of them had lots work done inside (all different6 C$ o: n7 @/ w8 E3 M3 b
parts including homemade) to keep them running, so Cuba probably has the7 F+ l* [+ a) n% R8 f2 I) ~
best and most innovative auto mechanics in the world. We also saw a few& O% T) r/ Z ?4 Q4 U6 S& o* K
nice new Japanese and Korean cars. We asked George about the color of3 r1 k4 e! c; m* y. ]- Q& w
car license plate when we saw a nice new Audi - he said the red means it , U1 f- o. H9 m" L3 ^is a rental, the yellow ones are private, the blue ones are state owned. + z1 c) z% W- H) I We then went to check our bus, sure enough, it has a blue plate. 作者: freedom_2008 时间: 2011-1-15 13:29 标题: 我们2006年的古巴游记 (三)
Havana seems to be a lively city, with lots people and some beautiful ( u( `: {0 d6 A7 {; ~' v8 a- C1 rspots. But in general, it is quite run down. We felt very sorry for all 3 x" T9 ^ \( M4 u4 i. j. Fthe nice colonial style buildings near the ocean front. With very # W" ]1 h2 |: g& Z8 Qlimited resources, especially still recovering from early 90's deep 6 j j: ~9 h# Q5 J+ t2 ]; vrecession after Soviet Union collapse (Cuba lost its $30 million per day/ g8 M# t# `' w- @4 t1 A, T
supplement), little has been done to maintain/restore them, and some of1 ^3 E$ O- r/ m* ? H1 D5 K
them are already gone. Shops have very limited goods, public bathrooms $ \& v9 ]" w$ I! ~' V* c0 Phave no running water (and you pay for paper of course), even in the o9 c6 ^, Q) s9 w" s" }( Stourist area. 2 z3 @+ C7 [+ R% N & A3 r! N8 ~1 m" {2 ?One thing quite interesting is that we couldn't find much of Castro's - i* @% x' ^, gpictures or statues in Havana at all (although lots of Che Guevara). 5 y5 a+ h+ Y* N( H+ RCompared to China in 60s and 70s, Mao's pictures and statues were 1 `; M* e I) f4 K* Weverywhere. So although Cuba is very poor, it seems more open and perhaps 5 _* @' O W/ Pless leader-religious.+ ^0 s' N; R4 N8 Q1 u' f
6 M9 G- V) J e# }5 u6 z# p/ ~About 6 months ago, the old US embassy building put up some anti-Cuba8 b1 \* R8 Q0 V! w$ k: F
government slogans in their top floor window. Cuba then put up 138 big r+ l* f. z7 N; }( Cblack flags in front of the embassy to block them. As the result, US; k; h4 G! \$ e1 f* f# D
embassy lost their nice ocean view (see picture). / O2 |' e( r2 ?' [ N: z 7 [4 `0 |) x, P* IWe did have a nice vacation and felt very relaxed. But we only saw the) C8 o/ Z( k- u2 A5 r
parts of Cuba as what we could, even the money we used in Cuba is not2 j; m: y! F @- o k. R
the normal Cuba Peso used by Cubans, but a convertible Peso ((like 外汇卷 in China before) $1 * x% X; a, i+ @; Lconvertible Peso = $24 Cuba Peso = $1.3 CAD = $1.25 US), and things for) f7 j" H; c" T9 u' ] b3 s8 p
foreigners are in similar price as in Canada, except Rum and Cigars z$ f7 X& L' L9 E- N& I# a0 |* I(less than half). If we could speak Spanish and could stay longer, we 9 \7 |. i; s' Sprobably could wander around and talk to locals to know more about the 3 \0 K# o w0 H6 j5 jreal Cuba, as ordinary people here seem friendly and very easy going. ! I% c' Z& @0 }4 _$ W' ?And it seems the tropical weather can really make people happier, local0 u, \3 R3 ^4 \" z9 u7 S
or visitors. E+ x- r& q/ a C 4 O0 X$ d4 H) ~* W-- The End -- 作者: sinclair 时间: 2011-1-26 12:02 标题: zt from wenxuecity blogs
