Cuban Blog Day #3- Find Pesos

I arrived about 8 am at the Santiago de Cuba bus terminal. I was immediately accosted by touts trying to get me to go to their casa. One succeeded as I had no idea which way to go to get to any of the casas in the Lonely Planet.

I met Teresa, la dueña and was shown to a room. I was quite pleased with it as it was a whole apartment with a sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and separate bedroom. I was not expecting this, nor would I get it at any casa after.

I ate breakfast at the casa after checking out the view from the ‘terrace’, which was simply a roof with various pipes and wood with which to hurt oneself.  The view showed an incredibly packed city with buildings on top of one another. I could not see the sea.

I set off walking with the Museo de Ron as my ultimate destination. I found the Museo de Baccardi which was closed for renovation, near it was the Museo de Ron. I paid the $1 CUC entrance, and I splurged the extra $1 CUC for the English speaking guide.  The tour was perhaps 10 minutes and detailed the process of making rum from sugar cane and aguardientes.  It had several old barrels and other antiquated equipment. It also had old labels through the years of Havana Club and Ron de Santiago De Cuba.

The tour ended in the speakeasy -esqu bar below the museum where I had my first Cuba Libre in Cuba!!! It was 10 am. I paid $5 CUC for the Cuba Libres and the rest of the liter bottle of Havana Club, which I then carried with me the rest of the day.

The rum was quite smooth and the drinks were made with pure lime juice that came out of a plastic water bottle with a straw through the lid. I usually do not like lime in my drink, but these were good. I decided from now on I too would keep such a bottle of lime juice for my drinks at home.  I tried the rum solo, but as I do not normally drink it this way I’ve no way to tell if it is better than other rums. There was also no way to tell if simply being in the land of rum made it taste all that much better.

I went walking again. This time with little destination, simply hoping to pass a few key spots listed in the guide. I found a scenic overview where I was able to see the sea. I passed a few of the plazas in the guide. These are always disappointing to me after the description in the guide. I often wonder why they are touted as worthy of visiting when they are simply parks with benches. None of these even had men playing dominos or chess, nor any vendors of food.

I found a great little restaurant with a beautiful rooftop terrace. They had two menus- one in pesos national and one in CUC (convertible peso.) There was a huge mark up for the CUC. I went to leave to find a cheaper place. The waiter stopped me and told me he would give me the correct exchange, so I stayed. I had the fish. At the end I paid with CUC with the hope of getting pesos for change. I did and now I had about $20 US in pesos national.

I left and stumbled more or less on the path in the guide and was headed to the Museo de Carnaval but was told by a young guy in the street that it was closed until four. He suggested and then joined me at a bar across from it where we drank mojitos and watched a few people dancing salsa.  He was quite nice, and though the whole time I thought he would eventually ask something of me, he never did.

He took me across to the museo once it opened, and I supposed this is what he’d been waiting for, his commission for ‘taking’ me to it. There we watched traditional dancing which included dances for all the saints, including a jester of sorts. The music was live and at the end we had a chance to join them dancing.

I walked around a bit more and made my way back to the casa and showered and found a place for dinner on the plaza I now realized was quite close. I went back to the casa and made Cuba Libres with the rum I’d been carrying on my smaller more accommodating terrace just outside the room in the evening.

 

Traveling in Cuba tip #3 Find a place like the restaurant where you can pay in CUC and get pesos back. I am not sure how easy this is to do, and believe I was quite lucky. You cannot simply exchange CUC for pesos in the money exchanges or, cadecas and therefore this is about the only way you can get pesos. You can then use pesos for the street food and various bicitaxis etc. Do this early in your trip because it will save you a lot of money whenever you can use pesos versus CUC.

It took me quite a while to figure out why there was always a line outside the cadecas and why it always seemed to be full of Cubans. What I learned through talking with people throughout the trip was that along with the meager rations Cubans receive, the average Cuban makes the equivalent of about $30 CUC per month in pesos national. Mind you, the CUC is a 1 to 1 exchange with the US dollar.  Cubans then exchange their pesos for CUC in the cadeca for whatever other necessities they need. It does not work the other way around. Cubans then take their CUCs to the various shops that sell shampoo and toothpaste and the like.