Casa Particulares & the Cuban Economy!

So I mentioned previously about Casa Particulares. Whilst in most other countries we have stayed in hostels, guesthouses or tents. In Cuba there is a choice of either your all inclusive hotels or local Casa Particulares. Now these are a relatively new thing for Cuba and only legalised in the past 6-8 years. It is a process where by locals can open up their houses (maximum of 2 rooms) and rent them out to tourists or locals. As with most things here in Cuba it is strictly controlled and at the start of each stay you have to present your passport and tourist visa card and all details are logged in an official journal. These are checked nearly weekly by officials and if there are mistakes or omissions then heavy penalties are levied.

But these Casa Particulares are in essence a home stay and what a great way to meet local people, experience their lives, homes, way of lives and culture. We mainly stayed in Casas along the way round Cuba and had some great times and some not so great ones, although all of them were an experience. The first one was a colonial town house in Centro Habana, our next was a bright pink hut in the countryside of Viñales and another was what felt like someone's front room.

Whilst at the Casas we ate there and again this was food prepared in their kitchen and sitting at their dining room table. This was a continuation of the traditional Cuban dish. Rice, beans, salad and meat. To be fair though Kip had prawns or lobster more here than elsewhere and it was really good food.


As you can imagine there was a small language barrier and this was a great test of our pigeon Spanish, but as with any situation like that we managed to communicate and these were genuine Cuban people who were full of character and personality and it was lovely to be welcome into their homes and be their guest for a few days. Whatever language couldn't be understood it was overcome by a mass of hand signals, facial expressions and gestures.

Another thing to note is that every place is very clean and tidy, there is always that underlying feeling of national pride and wanting to present whatever they own as neat and tidy. This was also evident in the bigger towns such as Habana. The streets (even the dodger back alleys) were all litter free and the mamas wiping and moping down every step and surface every morning. They seem to have an obsession with moping over here; don't stand still otherwise you'll have your feet mopped.


The other thing about the Casas is that it is a great source of income for the locals. Now obviously the government will heavily tax and control how much they can actually earn, but to put it into context the economy here is not a typical setup.


When we had heard there was a 2-tier economy and that once you understand that you can appreciate Cuba, we were not 100% sure what people meant. There is literally 2 currencies here and therefore a natural divide between locals and non-locals (tourists). The local current is a Cuban Peso, the other is a Cuban Convertible (CUC). There is parity with the CUC and the US dollar ($1 = 1CUC) and there are approx 20-24 pesos to 1 CUC.


Ok so to put it into context a professional such as a lawyer or doctor earns 25 CUC a month, that's approximately 1 CUC a day (or a $1 a day). But the locals don't earn CUC, they earn Peso and pay for items that the buy in pesos. The majority of professionals have a second job as a waiter in a bar or restaurant as the 2 or 3 CUC tips that they might get per night are a massive boost to their pockets. So you can also see that running a Casa is a great way of earning money (albeit heavily taxed). The other thing you'll notice is that whilst the people are not starving and live a happy life, the luxuries such as shampoo, soaps etc are only in CUC and therefore those extra tips earnt along the way or gifts left by guests of the Casas go a long way.


There is also a side that we didn't get fully exposed to which is that people literally have ration books here for food. I am not sure what their entitlement is and if you get more if you have a Casa, but it is evidence again of the strict government control.


Overall our experiences of staying in Casas was fantastic and we meant some truly lovely people and families along the way. Yes there were the occasionally nutty ones or aces that had awful beds or really bad suicide showers (this was actually sparked with electricity as the water was flowing through it - sod that!!), but on the whole a great way to travel and experience the real Cuba.