Yes, there are domestic flights in Cuba again and you can take them too! Covid brought all domestic flights to a halt and since then Cubana Aviation (Cuba’s flag carrier) planes have failed to take off and are rotting away in a corner of Jose Marti, Havana’s airport. Cuba has given up trying to keep its own fleet afloat after a few accidents that left Cubana with a very low score on international safety lists. I advised everyone not to take this risk. There were just too many planes falling from the sky. Solution: Atlantic Airways. Entirely in accordance with Cuban philosophy, an unprofitable ..read more

What’s Cuba like at the moment? This is a page that I will have to edit every month because today’s circumstances are not next week’s. A lot is changing at the moment and that is happening very quickly. For example, last month’s fuel shortage with long queues for the gas stations has now been resolved, but that could be different next week. Thanks to 7 Turkish floating power plants, we have had no power cuts for 2 months now. As soon as Cuba does not pay the bill, they will sail away and the power cuts will, of course, return. The Turks gave a little warning last week, cutting the power for a ..read more

Since January 2021, when Cuba abolished the double currency system and switched to the CUP (ordinary Cuban Peso), not only did a double currency system arise, inflation also ignited. In 2021 the official inflation was 67% but those are the official prices and at those prices nothing is for sale at all. The actual money depreciation was previously around 500%! 2022 added to that of about 400%. 10 times! So everything has become about 10 times as expensive in two years! That does not bother you, as a tourist, if you understand how money works here. If you don’t understand that, then, due to lack ..read more

Where is the best place to eat in Cuba? In the private restaurants, also called Paladar or at state owned restaurants? Some sort of comparative research halfway through the year after the CUC was abolished. On January 1, 2022, the CUC officially no longer existed and you could no longer use it to pay. All restaurants made new menus with new prices in Pesos. Before then, what we’ll call “the old days,” I favored the Paladars, although there were a few excellent state restaurants as well. The complications of Money. Some state restaurants had prices in Moneda Nacional (Pesos Cubano), others in C ..read more

Money is a complicated matter in Cuba and so are prices. Until January 1, 2021, we had the fable of the dual currency. Here you can read the history of the (completely incorrectly named) tourist peso. In fact, there was never a dual currency until Cuba abolished the dual currency. Then suddenly there was a lively trade in USD, Euros and all kinds of other hard currencies. With all its consequences. I will spare you the whole story and focus here on the practical side and on the possibilities and problems that this offers you, as a tourist. There is an official exchange rate of the Peso which i ..read more

The situation here in Camaguey is deteriorating. Due to the crisis, the blockade (embargo) and distribution issues food is hard to get by and expensive if you can find it. The socially weak are getting hungry… I live in a bad neighborhood (really bad :-)). And have set up a soup kitchen for the elderly that have no support. It’s becoming a social project and growing a lot of people helping. I need about 25$ per day to feed around 50 people a good Caldoza. Funding it myself for now but since I make my money in tourism my income first 10 days of may was 68$… You understand the problem in the lon ..read more

As of today 24/3 URGENT NEWS FOR VISITORS IN CUBAPLEASE SHARE If you have friends or relatives staying in Cuba,  please share this information with them urgently.  I would also recommend that they contact their Embassies if they haven’t already. They should also contact their Airlines urgently and look at getting themselves on any remaining flights as soon as possible. As announced on Cuban TV tonight :  1. No one allowed to go and wait for their family coming back to cuba. Cubans returning from tomorrow only allowed 1 suitcase and will be sent directly to an isolation center. 2. No nation ..read more

Happens more than you think!Can I use an ATM in Cuba? The answer to that question varies… History of Cuban ATMs The internet never forgets and a lot of information is outdated to say the least. About 10 years ago the first ATMs became available but the first few years they only worked VISA credit and debit cards issued by non US banks. Hence the confusion that ATMs don’t work in Cuba. Then they started accepting Mastercards in 2017 but still no other debit cards than VISA. A few months later almost all cards worked with the exception of all cards issued by US banks. The embar ..read more

Do you take US Dollars to Cuba or exchange them before you go into another currency? Well, conventional wisdom states that, since there is a 10% penalty on the exchange Dollar/CUC you should win a few percentage points by exchanging your dollars to Canadian or Euros before you go. This way you save a little bit (about 2 percent, depending on the rates you get at your bank. I will not go into the details here but the official rate is 0.87 CUC for a Dollar. But… (in Cuba there is always a but) The Cubans are opening hard currency stores were you can only buy products in foreign har ..read more

To prove my point this post is written in Cuban Logic. If you get it you might want to try to get Cuba.  We westerners draw the wrong conclusions about Cuba for several reasons: 1 Observation We tend to believe what we see. All travel guides describe in amazement how the Cuban disposable lighter repair man fills lighters with insecticide and it works! That is what they see so it must be true. They see a guy filling lighters with a can with dead insects on it. And it does work indeed. How inventive of the Cubans! Let’s make an item about it… Not insecticide The reality is that ..read more