Cuba day 5: Santiago

Not feeling so good, so wanted a lazy day. Some issues negotiating what happens next, Luci wanted to move to another Casa Arrendador even though these very nice and helpful, also wanted to stay in Santiago extra days

Long chat with guy of house. Standard wage CUP250 = CUC10 per month. They complement it with accommodation, but don't declare all the takings. But they have to declare all guests, if not potential big fine because the host is representative of the guest if anything goes wrong. Guests also fined if not registered CUC1500. I washed clothes, noticed the water tank was overflowing, apparently after several years of drought water now is only reliably available once a fortnight. His son joined an opposition party, hence labeled counter-revolutionary, tried to go to the US in a launch but was caught by US border guard and returned to Cuba, now in gaol 6 months, will probably go to Australia as a refugee.

Talked about the 'special time' after support from the USSR stopped, everyone lost weight incuding Mariano who dropped to 118 lbs (53.5kg, now more like 80 kg!)

Luci went out early afternoon, told Aleisha she'd be back by sundown, but when she wasn't an hour later we went looking for food. First stop was a pizzeria just around the corner, very cheap because prices are in CUP, but long lines so long waits, and Aleisha didn't want greasy food. So we proceded to the Malecon along the waterfront, went to a restaurant and were told there would be a 30 minutue wait even though the waitresses were standing around doing nothing. After waiting 15 mins or more Mira went to ask and was told the wait was now an hour or more, and that was to see the menu.

Horse-drawn carts were taking people around, this is not an uncommon method of transport.

We walked to the centre where a tout took us to restaurant '2 blocks away, normal prices' (acctually 4 blocks and expensive). Aleisha grumpy due hunger and long walk while ill. Tout hangs around. Seat pinches me (turns out that seat slats separate when no weight, then close up when. one sits on it and it moves back Food so so. Rice with prawns (me) and chicken (Mira), over-salted bean soup. Usual Cuban salad: thinly sliced white cabbage, cucumber and semi-ripe tomato.Read more