#Cuba

We’ve been to Cuba seven times now. Every time we come home from Cuba we say ‘this may have been the last time’, but then we decide to go back again. The reason for that is quite simple. We love the beaches—the best beaches in the world. Of course, we haven’t seen too many other beaches, but I don’t believe they can get much better. White sand and at most resorts you can walk far into the ocean, and when the tide is low, the beach gets even larger.  We love the turquoise color of the ocean.

The food can be a bit of a problem; it is sometimes not as good as in the Dominican or Mexico, but it is okay and not as bad as some people make it out to be. Most resorts we’ve been to we got plenty of seafood, important to us, and shrimp every day. We even had lobster in Varadero.

The resorts in Cuba are much safer than in other countries, like for instance Mexico. Crime is practically non-existent. The Cuban government sees to that, because vacationers are an important part of their economy, providing work and bringing in money.

Another reason we go to Cuba it is still more economical than other countries.

The only problem I have is the Cuban Convertible Peso, the CUC. It is worth nothing on the world market and only good in Cuba. To me, the whole thing is a bit of a scam. I have no idea how they figure out the value of the Convertible Peso. It seems to be on par with the Euro. On our last trip, it cost $1.40 Canadian to buy one Cuban Convertible. That is a bit of a joke, because our economy is so much better than the Cuban economy. Let’s face it, the Cuban people live in poor conditions and they don’t earn much money. How can you compare that with Canada? We are the ones going on Holiday in Cuba not the other way around. Neither can they buy everything they want and even need. They drive old cars, even though they take much pride in restoring them; they are still old cars.

We never buy much anymore in Cuba, except for liqueur. Depending what you buy, liqueur is still a bargain. On our last trip, we paid $15.00 Canadian for one liter of rum. When it comes to alcoholic beverages, our Canadian government is ripping us off. But the selection is quite small in Cuba. Imported liqueur is prohibitively expensive. They wanted over 100 Dollars for a bottle of Gin. The only cheap alcohol we found was imported whiskey from Spain. I’ve been buying a bottle every time we go and the whiskey is good, especially if you only use it for a mix, the way I drink it. Rum, of course, is also cheap.

Like I said, we don’t buy anything else, because of the high Cuban Peso. T-shirts cost between 11.00 CUC and 20.00 CUC. 20.00 CUC translate into $28.00 Canadian. And the quality isn’t there. So we don’t buy them. I wonder how many other vacationers don’t buy as much as they used to. This is not good for the sellers who rely on this income.

As soon as I find some time, I will write a detailed review of the resort we visited this year. Come back and look for it.