Drinking water in Cuba

Drink water! You should be drinking water when in Cuba. It’s hot, and you probably are walking a lot more than usual. Water shortage Cuba has a planned economy and as that term already implies the supply chains don’t cope well with things that are not in the scheme. Those plans are five years old […]

Jineteros and Jineteras

How to handle Jineteros and Jineteras (street hustlers) Don’t avoid the Jineteros and Jineteras: they are fun, and you can’t avoid them anyway. Bad advice The whole Internet and all travel guides are full of warnings: Avoid the Jineteros and Jineteras because they are trouble! Beware! Warning! Run away! As you might have noticed, my […]

Cuba Wi-Fi. The manual.

Last update 01/20 How to use Wi-Fi in Cuba In 2015 Cuba started rolling out Wi-Fi zones. They are still at it, and every city has at least one. Simple Wi-Fi access The principle is simple. You find yourself a Wi-Fi zone by looking at the people. If they are browsing or talking with their […]

Cuba safety and dangers

Cuba is known for her safety and lack of dangers Cuba is very, very safe. Incredible safety! We can be very short about that. If you don’t do idiotic things, you will be safe. In Cuba, the police are very respected and not always visible (a lot of undercover agents keeping you safe.) Nobody will […]

Missing in Cuba

Things you don’t see in Cuba Of the things you don’t see, half might be there but out of sight. A friend of mine told me that you should never believe what you hear in Cuba and only believe half of what you see. Whining kids Walking through town, you will see a lot of […]

Time in Cuba

What time is it in Cuba? Officially the time in Cuba is GMT – 5. But since Cuba also applies daylight saving and is not very good in synchronizing its systems nor at communicating, in March and November time is an, even more, fluid concept than normal. Automatic time setting in Cuba: I’m the proud […]

Cuba Peso

Two Peso in Cuba The currency in Cuba is called Peso. Both of them are called Peso. So if people say Peso, then they are talking about CUC or Moneda Nacional (MN). Up to you to figure it out. CUC Peso The CUC is the Cuban ‘hard currency’, pegged roughly 1-1, to the US dollar. […]

Free Wifi in Havana

Yes, read that again: Free WiFi in Havana! The internet in Cuba Cuba has slowly opened up the Internet. First, there was the problem that all Internet communication should go via satellite and that made it slow and costly. Consequently, Internet access was slow and expensive. Fiber optics Then, in 2011 the optic fibre cable […]

How to book a Casa Particular in Cuba

Last update 02/2020 Do Book a Casa Particular! The best way to discover Cuba is book a Casa Particular. Sometimes this is confused with ‘staying at the home of real Cubans’ but you have to realize that most Casa owners are the elite Cubans because they have access to hard currency. The ‘real’ Cubans would […]

10 things about Cuba

Here are 10 things about Cuba your travel agent hides but you should know 1 Moneda Nacional. Everybody, including you as a tourist, is allowed to pay for stuff in Pesos. CUC is not tourist money, it is the Cuban equivalent of hard currency. You can buy Moneda Nacional at the Cadeca where you go […]