And now for some Commentary: This has to be one of the strangest trips we have been on, as you know we have gone some fairly crazy places. We never heard a bad word about Fidel, but it is unclear if it is because they love him or are terrified of the consequences. The average wage was stated to be $15/month, but there is no way this is true, just look how clean the city is and how the people are dressed. I have seen $15/month, and that usually involves mud huts.
This may well be the safest city in the world; we walked alone at night and had no fear. In fact, we where escorted to the paladar in the picture above by a stranger and his daughter (also pictured). He wanted us to avoid the Tourista locations.
They all love Americans (and the US) and they look forward to a political reconciliation. Most streets cleared out at sundown as I presume the locals cannot afford to eat out. That said, there must be a vast underground economy to fund their reasonable way of life. The best way to earn some "extra money" is touching the tourist trade.
Most inexplicable, there is a dual currency system, one for locals and one for tourists. Whenever I have been in such countries, they all prefer to receive hard USD. Here, they mostly wanted Cuban Pesos, eventhought there was a 13% conversion tax they could have arbitraged.
Only 10% of the population has cars, as such, the roads away from Central Havana are wide open. In fact, picutred below is the main highway to Cienfuegosa and Trinidad, notice it is almost empty at mid-day.
This place is going to change dramatically over the next decade, I urge you to travel here now !!
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