12 days in Havana, Cuba so far. Arrived late night on a Thursday night. The first surprise I got was the use of 2 different currencies in Cuba. The CUC: Cuban Convertible Peso seems to have been created just for tourism to replace the dollar but now many cubans use it since most of them come in contact with tourists in Havana.
The Cuban national pesos are used by cubans mostly. I thought it might be worth changing 100 CUCs for national money. I recieved a big bundle of 2,400 pesos. That was a silly mistake... only managed to use about a 100 so far.
Most tourists would get approached by dozens of cuban wanting to sell something. I dont have that problem. I look like most other cubans... infact found a look alike of myself and took a picture with him. There is a downside though. On the second noght I was walking in old Havana with Frank (whome I met at the hostel and is travelling in Cuba for 5 months). Now Frank is as white as they come and blonde.
A police officer mistook me for a Cuban and asked for documents. Frank said I dont have any but the police officer wasn't interested in checking his documents and pointed instead to me. After checking my drivers license it was fine. It turns out he thought I was a cuban trying to rip off Frank... Great!
On the up side if I keep my mouth shut, I can pass myself off as a Cuban when buying food and drinks which means sometimes I can get away with paying Cuban rates. Now that is 10 times cheaper.
12 days in Havana, Cuba so far. Arrived late night on a Thursday night. The first surprise I got was the use of 2 different currencies in Cuba. The CUC: Cuban Convertible Peso seems to have been created just for tourism to replace the dollar but now many cubans use it since most of them come in contact with tourists in Havana. 
The Cuban national pesos are used by cubans mostly. I thought it might be worth changing 100 CUCs for national money. I recieved a big bundle of 2,400 pesos. That was a silly mistake... only managed to use about a 100 so far.
Most tourists would get approached by dozens of cuban wanting to sell something. I dont have that problem. I look like most other cubans... infact found a look alike of myself and took a picture with him. There is a downside though. On the second noght I was walking in old Havana with Frank (whome I met at the hostel and is travelling in Cuba for 5 months). Now Frank is as white as they come and blonde. 
A police officer mistook me for a Cuban and asked for documents. Frank said I dont have any but the police officer wasn't interested in checking his documents and pointed instead to me. After checking my drivers license it was fine. It turns out he thought I was a cuban trying to rip off Frank... Great!
On the up side if I keep my mouth shut, I can pass myself off as a Cuban when buying food and drinks which means sometimes I can get away with paying Cuban rates. Now that is 10 times cheaper.
I was wondering if you were going to update!
ReplyDeleteHandy that you look Cuban and it's good that the cop checked to see if you were a local ripping off a tourist - good news for the tourists!