Quite a familiar sight in Havana are buses stuffed full of people, smushed against each other so close you’d think they were sardines in a can – rumbling down the street. All hours of the day, every day. Roaring engines, lurching forward and screeching breaks. Black exhaust billowing behind, leaving the other cars and buses […]
money makes the world go ’round
In Cuba there are two currencies in Cuba’s monetary system: The Cuban peso also called Moneda Nacional or CUP. 1 CUP = $0.04. The CUP is what Cubans are paid in and it correctly reflects inflation since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 which led to a collapse in the Cuban economy, from […]
Food and Beer
Upon returning to the United States, one of the things I will be most interested in asking about will be tourists’ experience of Cuban food. Before coming, Elliott told me that the food in Cuba is shit. This is true. The food in Cuba is shit. On the other hand, it’s extremely cheap. I can […]
Being a woman in Cuba
Being a woman in Cuba can be annoying. Some have told me that my experience extends to all of Latin America, or at least the Caribbean, but I’ve only been to Cuba, so I won’t generalize. All American women know what it is to receive a catcall, how awful it can feel, how it can […]
Halfway, Time, the Bus
So here we are, at the halfway point. It doesn’t feel at all like a halfway point because we’re all still learning and growing so much, more and more every day, but the reality is that in no time at all we’ll be home. Soon we’ll be able to have all the things we constantly […]