[4cal]

First of all, the bikes you can hire (rent) in Holguin province are often beaters. But maybe you'll find nice bikes (and a bike tour) in Havana. If you find a bike tour and go on it, let me know!


Not being able to drink the water (unless you'll be there for a month or so) has nothing to do with communism. It's the same in most countries of the world. It takes a few weeks to get used to much of the world’s drinking water, whatever their economic system.

Never said it did. It has everything to do with mismanagement, kleptocracy, official greed, and lack of infrastructure and economic development. All the previous adjectives are synonyms with Cuba.

And you CAN buy basic stuff. What you can’t find is luxury items and many plastic made-in-China products.

Okay. A few moments ago you wrote:

4. Bring everything you need with you because it's not easy to buy a lot of basic stufflike tire tubes, prepared food products, and other stuff that's made in China and/or by multinationals.

Which is it?

And there are just as many bilinguals in Cuba as there are in neighboring countries, or in the USA (as a percentage of the population). Probably more bilinguals than in most places in the USA.

Okay, A few moments ago, you wrote:

5. If you don’t speak basic Spanish, start cramming right now because the ordinary people outside the tourist areas are very kind, helpful, and friendly - but they generally speak Spanish only.

Again, which is it?

[jimjam]

looks like the asshole masturbating bullshit fuck off delusional fucking cunts have managed to outlast Savid The Infallible.

[skinster]

First of all, the bikes you can hire (rent) in Holguin province are often beaters. But maybe you'll find nice bikes (and a bike tour) in Havana. If you find a bike tour and go on it, let me know!

I saw this, which I'm considering doing.

But you didn't answer my question.

[QatzelOk]

what's the word on the street regarding marijuana? I'm asking for a frand.

I didn't smell marijuana anywhere, and no one seemed to be partaking in it.

I had read before I went to forget about pot because it's expensive, hard to find, very illegal, and usually crap.

So all three weeks that I spent biking in Cuba were pot-free. Though I would have loved to have had some!

And that bike tour of Havana looks like fun!

Which is it?

Somewhere in between. For example, basic goods are easy to find (food, water, a place to stay, healthcare, education), but other cheap dollar-store basics (luxuries that the Chinese make) are hard to find.

[Pants-of-dog]

In all honesty, @skinster, I purchased marijuana in Havana. It was the equivalent of 15$ a gram, and I bought it off a street dealer in some older area near the port. It was all right.

This was about 20 years ago, mind you.

[Sivad]

looks like the asshole masturbating bullshit fuck off delusional fucking cunts have managed to outlast Savid The Infallible.

Your kind is legion and indestructible, I admit I can't outlast you. Congratulating yourselves on your indefatigable ignorance is pretty funny though.

And btw, I'm not infallible, I'm just not completely full of shit.

[Pants-of-dog]

@Sivad

No one thinks you are full of BS. At worst, you are merely an uncritical receiver of anti-Cuba propaganda from the US. And since you are a bit of a (lovable) grump, you probably want to believe the worst about people.

You should take a vacation in Cuba.

[noemon]

That summer of 1998...the summer I became a man, was the summer of Buena Vista Social Club....

http://www.buenavistasocialclub.com/

[skinster]

I'm so excited about going to Cuba.

This is me in emoticon form, in case everyone is wondering --->

[jimjam]

I'm so excited about going to Cuba.

This is me in emoticon form, in case everyone is wondering --->

When are you going and for how long? Are you an American citizen? Hopefully not. For all of America's talk of freedom, you will have MUCH more freedom if you are not an American.

[skinster]

I'm going at the end of the month and will be celebrating worker's day on that island.

I have no intention of becoming a citizen of freedom-land because, in the next year or so, I plan to move to a country where the cost of living isn't a complete piss-take, and they have human rights, such as healthcare and paid holiday/vacation. I'll be traveling on my UK passport.

[jimjam]

I'm going at the end of the month and will be celebrating worker's day on that island.

I have no intention of becoming a citizen of freedom-land because, in the next year or so, I plan to move to a country where the cost of living isn't a complete piss-take, and they have human rights, such as healthcare and paid holiday/vacation. I'll be traveling on my UK passport.

I will think of you. I took this pic when I was there and include it as a suggestion as to what you may want to wear

[skinster]

[One Degree]

Fake photo. They obviously are not Cubans. They look nothing like Ricki Ricardo.

[jimjam]

Fake photo. They obviously are not Cubans. They look nothing like Ricki Ricardo.

I had to move fast for that one and use a telephoto. They looked like dangerous females.




Here I am with a very unhappy Cuban lady ^ who is obviously suffering and downtrodden by the evil Cuban government.

[Pants-of-dog]

Siempre pa’lante con mi comandante.

[jimjam]

Siempre pa’lante con mi comandante.

Para la madre y el pais!!!

[One Degree]

Siempre pa’lante con mi comandante.

Pa’lante does not translate. Help out us unilinguals?

[Pants-of-dog]

It is a contraction of “para delante”, meaning “forward”.

[Sivad]

It goes without saying that what we have here in Cuba isn’t socialism or communism, but the State’s monopoly of pure and crude capitalism, where an elite conglomerated into a Party hierarchy owns every mode of production and employs the rest of the population using the extremely capitalist wages system, taking control of what Marx called “surplus”.

Of course they cover the costs of education and healthcare, culture and pensions, national defense and repression with a part of this surplus. Without some expenditure they couldn’t hold onto the power of managing the fruits of every Cuban’s labor without reporting back to anyone and to top that off, hoping that we thank them for their infinite kindness.
https://www.havanatimes.org/?p=131250

They were happy and our hungry faces were left out of sight.
They entered with these two guys and another one who stands outside the store entrance. There were four of them, two women and two guys, with their three bodyguards. They were all Cuban, but from another planet. I will dare to make a guess and say that they were some general or generals’ children or even Fidel’s or Raul’s own kids. And they suddenly had everything available to them.

I wanted to watch, so we sat on the stairs blocking the way. Other people watched them too. Those four were there for half an hour easily (like I said, the store was in a house so that section was a 5m by 6m room, and they chose and tried on everything they liked and two sale assistants bagged everything up for them.

I can tell you they chose some items, at least six or seven things each, I can’t tell you what they got though. However, the thing that really struck me, and I was paying close attention to everything so I didn’t miss it I swear, was that they didn’t take what they had chosen to the cash register. They never paid. They finished getting what they wanted, they opened the door, they left and that was that.

The sound I remember from that time was that every single one of them was pulling along a suitcase, with no care in the world like someone who lives in their own little bubble, and they were bumping and hitting every stair as they went past in rhythm. They were happy and our hungry faces were left out of sight.
https://www.havanatimes.org/?p=132074