Things I Will (and won’t) Miss about Living in Santiago de Cuba

 

View over the city from the Pico Turquino ice cream parlour

After three months living in Santiago de Cuba I have returned to England. I thought that I would compile a list of the things that I will (and won’t) miss about living there. Here they are:

Will Miss

1. Waking up every morning with the almost certain knowledge that it will be a warm, sunny day
2. Panaderos passing my front door from 6.30am onwards, selling fresh bread, often still warm
3. Carratilleros coming past my door each day selling vegetables and exotic fruit such as pineapple, guava, mango, papaya, coconuts, bananas, oranges, tamarinds, zapote and grapefruit.
4. Street cleaners in the street outside every morning from before sunrise (my street in the Reparto Santa Barbara neighbourhood had better cared-for houses, road and pavement, and was cleaner, than my street at home in England).
5. Children playing in the street
6. Copelitas (small ice cream stands) selling cornets in flavours such as strawberry, orange/pineapple, mango, guava, chocolate, coconut and vanilla, for 1 CUP (£0.03)
7. The Pico Turquino ice cream parlour on the top floor of an 18-story tower block, with superb views over the city, selling combinations of ice cream and cake – five scoops and a slice of cake for 12 CUP.
8. Las Noches Santiaguerras (see post of 11^th January), where every Saturday and Sunday night the Avenida Garzon is closed to traffic and there is live music, dancing, food and drink stalls and open-air restaurants, all priced in CUP.
9. The bolero (a genre of tragic love songs popular in Spanish speaking countries) sessions in the Patio de Artex every Saturday afternoon.
10.  The rumba (an Afro-Cuban musical style) sessions in the Casa del Caribe late every Sunday afternoon
11.  A trip on a lorry to nearby Siboney to spend the day on the beach
12.  Watching Santiago play baseball, particularly when it is an important game and there is a conga group   playing  in the stand
13.  Saturday nights in the Casa de las Tradiciones, where a band was always playing – in the front room of what was a house – whilst the crowd, a mixture of locals and tourists, seated on up-turned barrels and rocking chairs, danced and enjoyed themselves.
14.  Maniceros selling cones of hot peanuts for 1 CUP.
15.  Tamarind juice for 1 CUP per glass in the market in Enramada.

 

Won’t Miss

1. Endlessly searching for cheese in the shops
2. Powdered milk
3. Shaving in cold water
4. Washing dishes in cold water
5. Things that creep, crawl and fly (such as flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes and lizards) and want to share your house
6. Sudden unavailability of  items in the shops
7. Barking dogs
8. Slow internet access
9. People repeatedly saying “taxi” to me as I walk through the city centre

HAVANA

 

As always, it was a pleasure to spend my last four nights in Cuba in the capital city of Havana. It was much warmer than when I had arrived there in December.

The last time that I had spent a few days in Havana was in July 2010. It was interesting to see what changes had occurred since then. Like in Santiago, there was a huge increase in the number of cafeterias selling food and snacks, mainly from the front of people’s houses. Similarly, a large number of new sellers of pirate CDs and DVDs. Interestingly, it’s not only foreign films and discs being pirated in this way, but Cuban ones as well. By licensing the sellers, the Cuban Government is effectively colluding in defrauding its own film and record producers.

There seemed to be a number of new casas particulares (private homes offering bed and breakfast); plus some new paladares (private restaurants), including a very smart looking one in the heart of Centro Habana, in San Rafael, named San Cristobal, which I shall try out on my next visit.

There seemed to be a big increase in the number of taxis – and the touts operating on their behalf; and an even bigger increase in the number of bici-taxis, who were keen to get tourist customers. This is different to before, as most of them were not licensed to take tourists. I made a couple of journeys using boteros (collective taxis). My understanding was that these too were not licensed to take tourists, but they did not ask to see my carnet, so for all they knew I was a tourist. This is a cheap and effective way to travel around the city – 10 CUP (less than £0.30) for journeys within the central zone; 20 CUP for outside.

It was interesting seeing the contrasts between the capital and the second city, Santiago. In Santiago we had been looking for an insect spray – one made in Cuba – for three months, but had been unable to find any. In Havana it was everywhere. In Santiago I spent much of my time unsuccessfully looking for cheese. Again, in Havana it was easy to locate.

However, to my dismay, the copelitas (small ice cream stands) selling 1CUP ice creams seemed to have disappeared. Two that I always previously frequented – one in Calle Obispo, the other in San Lazaro – have gone. I only saw one in four days – in San Rafael. My comment in my post of 22^nd January that “Cubans must eat more ice cream per head than any other nation in the world” should be changed to “Santiaguerros must eat more ice cream than the citizens of any other city in the world”. There were houses selling cornets for 3CUP, but far fewer than in Santiago.

In my street in Santiago, between 6.15 and 7.45 each morning, there would be at least four people coming along selling bread (see my post of 8^th January). In Havana there were none. This may explain why in our casa, on two days out of four, we were given stale bread for breakfast (Cuban bread, like a French loaf, lasts less than a day). Each day in Santiago we would also have a dozen or more carratilleros (guys pushing wheelbarrows or with a horse and cart) selling fruit and vegetables come by. We saw none in Havana, although the markets seemed to be well-stocked.

The two cities are very different, with different attitudes, different words and slang; and different economies. My advice to any traveler to Cuba would be to try and visit them both.

LEAVING SANTIAGO

 

On Tuesday, 29^th March, I will be leaving Santiago de Cuba. I will spend four nights in Havana and then return to England. I will be sorry to be leaving. Living here has been a great experience and education.

This will be my final post for more than a week. When I return to England I will post on my observations on what changes I observe in Havana; I will do a full review of my Spanish course; and I will post various photographs and other odds and ends that I have.

This way, I hope to keep the blog ticking over until I return to Santiago for the month of July. I hope to return to Santiago in the autumn to continue my studies.

Thanks to everybody for the kind comments that I have received. If I have helped even a few people to understand a bit more about this wonderful, complex island and its great people, I will be satisfied.

FURTHER UPDATE ON SELF EMPLOYMENT

 

Supergordi hamburger stall

Earlier this month I reported that between October 2010 and the end of January 2011, a total of 113,618 new people had been authorised to become self-employed, compared to the total of 157,371 that existed at the end of 2010, representing an increase of 72% in the number of those working for themselves.

Juventud Rebelde reported on 20^th March that the figure of new authorisations at 11^th March was 171,000, an increase of 108%, more than double the original figure. Even if my assessment is correct that a majority of these are formerly unlicensed businesses becoming legal, it still represents a significant increase in those operating in the private sector. It is certainly a big new source of taxation income for the Cuban Government, which is struggling with a financial deficit.

Cuban President Raul Castro told the National Assembly last December: “…if we have arrived at the conclusion that the exercise of self-employment constitutes an alternative form of employment for those of working age, with the result of elevating the offer of goods and services to the population and liberating the state from these activities in order to concentrate on what is truly decisive, what the Party and Government must do in the first place is to facilitate their development and not to generate stigmas or prejudices towards them, nor much less to demonise them, and for this it is fundamental to modify the negative perception that more than a few of us have towards this form of private work.” (my translation)

This represents a major change of approach and seems to be generating a significant alteration in the balance between state and private sector. It is one that I welcome and believe is long overdue. Although I am in favour of state ownership of major industries, I believe that the state should concentrate on what Lenin referred to as “the commanding heights of the economy”, those sectors that are strategically important. In my opinion, it makes no sense and is inefficient for the state to be running cafes and  restaurants, hairdresser shops, taxi cabs or takeaway food stands.

I previously reported that I had personally seen four new paladares (private restaurants) in Santiago de Cuba. That has now risen to seven, an increase of 350% on what existed in the third quarter of last year. I’m sure that there are more and will be many more to come.

One new enterprise that has opened, around the corner from my apartment here, is a hamburger stall, named Supergordi. The house speciality and dearest item on the menu (at 25 CUP – less than £0.75) is a Supergordi, a hamburger on a bun, served with ham, bacon, thick slices of cheese, lettuce and tomato. In the interests of research, I tried one and can personally report that they are very good. If anybody is in the vicinity of Calle 10, Reparto Santa Barbara, Santiago de Cuba and is hungry, I recommend that they try one.

CORRUPTION

 

The daily newspaper Granma reported on Thursday 24^th March that former Minister of Food Industries Alejandro Roca Iglesias had been tried and recommended to receive 15 years’ imprisonment for the crime of complicity in and acts prejudicial to economic activity or contracting.

The same hearing heard – in the absence of the defendant, who is in Chile – a case against Max Marambio Rodriguez, for the crime of complicity in the falsification of banking and commercial documents. He was recommended to receive 20 years’ imprisonment.

This was a major case. Marimbio was a former armed revolutionary in Chile, who became head bodyguard for Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende. He fled Chile for Cuba when General Pinochet led a military coup against the elected government and slaughtered thousands of his opponents. He was reportedly a close friend of Fidel Castro. He ended up as head of a joint enterprise company with the Cuban Government, manufacturing fruit juices. Most tourists will be familiar with the pale blue cartons of drink, which disappeared from Cuban shelves for several months last year when the scandal broke.

Other than a small article of three paragraphs on page 2 of Granma, I am not aware of the case or its details receiving much publicity here. The same is true of another scandal, involving the head of the Cuban national airline. The Cuban Government is understandably nervous of revealing its murky secrets to the eyes of its enemies. However, US papers such as the Miami Herald have already reported on the cases. Cuba’s enemies are well aware of them. The people who are kept in the dark are the Cuban population.

My friend describes the Cuban Government as being like an over-protective parent of a young adult, who will not recognise that their child has grown up and needs to be treated with a certain amount of trust. This seems to me like a good simile. When will the Cuban leadership treat its people like the grown-ups that they are? They already receive much information and disinformation from various sources, including travellers from Miami bringing memory sticks full of articles from the US media. The best approach to my mind would be to be as open and frank as possible. The Cuban people have put up with much over recent decades, due to the illegal US economic blockade and inefficiency, bureaucracy and corruption in the Cuban economy. The least that they can expect in return is to be treated like adults.

NB The house pictured above has nothing to do with these cases. It is just a nice house in the Vista Alegre district of Santiago. It is an example of the kind of houses that some Cuban families – including those who have acquired wealth through illegitimate means – live in. I am not suggesting that this is the case with this house.

TOURISM

 

View from the pool at Brisa Sierra Mar

This weekend I visited an All-inclusive tourist resort – the first tourist resort that I have visited in Cuba and the first All-Inclusive anywhere. I have always been prejudiced towards such places, imagining them to be full of morbidly obese people engaging in an orgy of gluttony.

However, on Sunday there was a special offer: 20 CUC (less than £14) for a return coach trip from Santiago to Brisas Sierra Mar (more than 60km away); and a day pass giving you access to all the facilities and food and drink at the hotel. I thought that I would take the chance to see what it was like.

The coastal road between Santiago and the hotel (which is near Chivirico, to the west of Santiago) is beautiful. It runs between the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Sierra Maestra mountain range on the other. In parts the road is in terrible condition, due to damage caused by the 2008 hurricanes, but it is a great drive.

The hotel is very attractive, nestling on a hill top overlooking the sea. It has a couple of swimming pools and a lift to take you down to the beach, where they have a bar and a restaurant. For the more energetically inclined, there is a gym and you can hire bicycles or play tennis. I went for a ride on a bike and made use of the snorkelling equipment that was available. There are also Spanish and salsa lessons.

The hotel guests seemed to be mostly Canadians and a fair number fitted the stereotype of my prejudices. However, to be fair, I engaged in my own orgy of gluttony – it’s hard not to when abundant food and drink is available without having to shop for it, buy it or cook it. You just take it and eat it.

I was very impressed with the hotel, particularly the beach, which was secluded and very tranquil. I would enjoy spending a couple of nights there for a break and a rest. However, more than that would start to drive me crazy, I think. You can, of course, take advantage of the over-priced excursions if you get bored, but being herded around by a tour guide would not appeal much to me either.

There were two coach loads of day trippers from Santiago. I think that I was the only foreigner on them. The rest were Cubans. The 20 CUC price is equivalent to a month’s wages for many Cuban people, but the coaches were full. Clearly, many Cuban people have significant forms of income which enable them to enjoy things such as this (see my earlier post from January entitled “Cost of Living”).

Up until three years ago, Cubans would not have been able to take advantage of deals such as this, as they were banned from entering tourist hotels or resorts. The ban was introduced in the 1990s as part of a crackdown on the prostitution that had grown around the tourist trade. The ban was very unpopular and was often referred to as apartheid by Cuba’s opponents. One of the early acts of Raul Castro when he assumed the presidency was to lift the ban. Not only was this popular, but it opened up a new market for the state-owned Cuban tourist industry (even those hotels with a foreign brand in Cuba, such as Melia or Iberostar, are joint ventures in which the Cuban state owns 51%).

The hotel did seem like a different world from the Cuba in which I have lived for the last eleven weeks, the Cuba of bodegas (ration shops), markets selling potatoes at 1CUP (£0.03) per pound, haircuts at 2 CUP and ice creams at 1 CUP. However, Cuba is a country of many contrasts. The isolated rural communities that we passed on the coach from Santiago are very different from the urban communities of Santiago or Havana; the upmarket parts of those cities (such as Vista Alegre or Miramar) are very different from the poorer parts, such as Distrito Jose Marti or Marianao. The west of the island (including Havana) is very different to the east (where Santiago is situated).

Tourism is an important element of the Cuban economy and a major employer. The recent devaluation of the CUC should see a boost to the Cuban tourist trade. My advice to tourists coming to the island would be to get out of their resorts for a time and explore the rest of this fascinating island.

SPIES

 

The Cuban press reported at the weekend that the US citizen Alan Gross had been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for “acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state”. From what I know of the case, which has not had extensive coverage in the media here, Gross was working for a company contracting for the US Government Department of State, to “promote democracy” in Cuba.

In reality, the US Government has no interest in democracy in Cuba, in the same way that it has no interest in democracy in Saudi Arabia. What it is interested in is returning capitalism to Cuba and gaining compensation for those US companies and individuals who lost their assets when they were nationalised in the early years of the revolution.

To that end, they are determined to bring down the Cuban Government and they devote millions of dollars each year to that purpose. You would think that, after 52 years, they might ask themselves what they have achieved with those millions of dollars, but US politics works in mysterious ways.

Gross had illegally entered Cuba on a tourist visa and was planning to distribute satellite telephones. He claims that he was working with Cuban Jewish organisations, to assist them with communication. Why would synagogues need satellite telephones? The leaders of the synagogues here deny having contact with him. Many foreign synagogues have links with the Cuban Jewish community and visit here to provide assistance. This is not a problem. What is a problem is providing satellite telephones, which have military uses and are expressly forbidden from being imported into the country.

Fifteen years may seem harsh, but when compared with the sentences given to five Cubans working for the Cuban Government in the US, it does not seem so bad. These are the Five Cuban Heroes – as they are known here – who entered the US on behalf of the Cuban Government to infiltrate Cuban opposition groups in Miami and provide information on planned terrorist attacks. This was in the 1990s and anti-Cuban terrorism was a real problem. In 1976 a Cuban airplane was bombed en route from Venezuela, killing everybody on board. In the 1990s bombs were placed in Havana hotels, killing an Italian tourist. These terrorist attacks were planned and financed in Miami.

The US Government uncovered the five and sentenced them to lengthy periods of imprisonment, between 15 years and life. Two of the five have not been allowed visits from their spouses, because the US claims that they (the spouses) are Cuban agents. Amnesty International has claimed that the five were denied a fair trial.

The Cuban Government and sympathetic groups throughout the world have campaigned for the release of the five. It is believed that at one time the Catholic Church was attempting to negotiate the return of the five in exchange for Cuba releasing 70 prisoners who had been convicted of working on behalf of the US. The US Government would not play ball and the Cubans released their prisoners unilaterally last year, after negotiations with the church.

Now that the Cubans have a US agent behind bars, perhaps their negotiating hand will have been strengthened. I hope so.

The five Cubans must wish that they were Russian instead. When a network of Russian spies was uncovered in the US last year, within weeks they were on a plane back to Russia. This is the normal procedure when spies are uncovered: the expulsion of some diplomats; the summoning of the ambassador to be told of the government’s disappointment and the offence caused; and then, quietly, the spies are returned and things return to normal. Why does the US Government treat the Cubans differently? Because the Cubans must be punished for successfully sticking two fingers up to US imperialism for the last 52 years and demonstrating that a small Caribbean island does not have to dance to its powerful neighbour’s tune.

IT’S IN THE SIERRA MAESTRA

Whenever I’m staying somewhere, even if just for a few days, I like to buy a local newspaper. It gives you a glimpse into the life of a particular town or city.

It is the same here in Santiago de Cuba. Here the local newspaper is called the Sierra Maestra. It comes out each Saturday and its cover price is 0.20CUP (less than a British penny), although it is most frequently seen being sold on the streets by pensioners for 1CUP (£0.03), as a means to supplement their income. The first time that I came to Cuba, I imagined that the pensioners selling Granma (the daily official organ of the Cuban Communist Party) on the streets of Havana were veteran party militants, still pushing the party line. It was only later that I discovered that they were simply pensioners trying to make ends meet on their meagre pensions.

This week’s edition of the Sierra Maestra contains, amongst others, the following news items:

Tributes have been paid, in the form of floral offerings in the names of Fidel and Raul Castro at the tomb of Jose Marti, to the fighters in the second War of Independence against the Spanish, in 1895.

Fidel Castro has been elected as a delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in April, from the Jose Marti district of Santiago de Cuba. His brother Raul was elected as a delegate from Mayari Arriba. Somehow it’s hard to imagine the two brothers not participating in the Party Congress, but there are formalities to be followed.

The second week of March will see the first step of the 50th Vaccination Campaign against polio, with 41,400 children between the ages of 30 days and 2 yrs, 11 months and 29 days, being vaccinated in the province. A Santiago resident will celebrate her 101st birthday, with her five remaining (out of seven) children; twenty grandchildren; twenty great grandchildren and .four great great grandchildren. Before the Triumph of the Revolution, she had worked for miserly salaries in the collection of coffee, because the plantation owners had used the difficult situation to exploit them. The article concludes: “Dora had the luck to be born in Cuba where a revolution was made by the humble for the humble.”

A new emergency psychiatric ward has been opened in a local general hospital.

 A provincial tribunal has sentenced a number of employees of the cement company of Santiago for the crime of “malversacion”, the misdirection of official resources. In this case, 600 concrete roof beams had been siphoned off into the black market. The director of the company received five years’ imprisonment; whilst several others received between two and four years each.

 An agricultuaral co-operative in the Jose Marti urban centre of Santiago has been growing rabbits for the last ten years (see my earlier post re. rabbit breeding), alongside green beans, lettuce, cucumber, beetroot, chives, garlic, cabbage and parsley. The fourteen workers there earn an average of 1000CUP per month (£30.00 – more than average).

A rural community, named Palenque, in the Tercer Frente municipality, has been telling of its difficulties with electricity supply. They should receive electricity from a sub-station for four hours daily, between 6pm and 10pm. However, the sub station has never received an adequate supply of oil to function for the whole month. In fact, they have been a whole month without supply. This has led local people to illegally hack into a nearby supply from a main road. All of their problems are in the process of being resolved, but the people responsible for ensuring their supply have been negligent.

An analysis of the performance of local companies had found poor performance and utilisation of resources. Lazaro Esposito, the popular First Secretary of the Communist Party in the province, said that “in some places we are selling our souls to the devil”. He said that, although results in the province are improving, 2011 had started badly.

 Two pages are dedicated to the week of activities in Santiago to mark the 20th International Book Fair, including talks, performances and concerts.

An article commemorates the 50th anniversary of the local oncological hospital.

First Vice President of the Council of State, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, undertook an extensive visit last weekend of health facilities in local municipalities.

 An event had been held at the university to mark the 35th Anniversary of the adoption of the Socialist Constitution of Cuba.

Such is life here in an average week in Santiago de Cuba.

HEALTH SERVICE

 

I got a glimpse this week of how the health service works here. My friend’s sister had developed a nasty and persistent cough. Yesterday she decided to go along to the local polyclinic to get it looked at. In less than an hour she had been seen by a doctor, had a chest x-ray, been diagnosed with bronchitis, prescribed antibiotics and cough medicine and advised to rest for a week. She collected the medication at the local pharmacy.

I would not receive such good treatment at home in England. When I recently sought an urgent appointment at my doctor’s surgery, I was advised that none was available for a couple of days. If I was to attend the accident and emergency department at my local hospital, I am not sure that they would see me for a persistent cough, or if they would refer me back to my doctor’s. If they did see me, I would wait much longer than one hour.

For a developing country that has had to suffer the US–imposed economic blockade for half a century, to maintain this level of healthcare is remarkable.

I am aware that not everything is wonderful in the Cuban healthcare system. When my friend’s elderly neighbour was admitted to hospital for a stroke last year, her family stayed by her side at all times, because they were not confident in the nursing care that would be provided. They also took sheets, towels and food for her. I know a foreign exchange student of psychology who visited a local psychiatric hospital here and was not impressed with the conditions there. I am also aware of the scandal in a Havana psychiatric hospital last year when several patients died during a cold spell. The media here has reported that the prosecution are seeking lengthy jail terms for the directors of the hospital. For their role in the patients’ neglect.

However, primary healthcare here seems to me to be excellent. The results can be seen in Cuba’s figures for life expectancy and infant mortality. Cuban doctors and nurses are also working and saving lives in developing countries in Africa and Latin America. Healthcare is truly one of the gains of the 1959 revolution that it is essential to preserve.

BAYAMO

 

At the weekend we went to Bayamo. I was able to take advantage of my student ID card and travel using the Astro bus network at a cost of 26 CUP (£0.84) for a journey of 129 kilometres. Normally foreigners need to use the Viazul network, which costs about seven times as much. The Astro journey took longer, as it stops at lots of small towns en route. The other difference (apart from the fact that I was the only non-Cuban on the bus) was that at these stops, people would be waiting to sell food, like I have seen in films of trains in India.

Bayamo occupies a very important place in Cuban history. It was the birthplace of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, known as the father of the fatherland. It was he who, in 1868, freed his slaves and launched the first War of Independence against the Spanish. When, at the beginning of 1869, the people of Bayamo sensed that the city was about to fall into the hands of the Spanish forces, they burned the city to the ground rather than allow the Spanish to occupy it.

It was these events that gave rise to the Cuban national anthem, La Bayamesa, which contains the stirring line: “Que morir por la patria es vivir” (to die for the fatherland is to live). This sentiment and the events that gave rise to them give a good insight into the Cuban national psyche, into which Fidel and his guerrilla army fighting in the Sierra Maestra fitted perfectly.

Fortunately, Bayamo is a lot more tranquil these days. In fact, it is the most tranquil Cuban city that I have visited, as well as the tidiest and best-maintained. This is interesting because, unlike Cienfuegos for example, it is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nor is it a major tourist destination. It is maintained for the benefit of the local people. The very popular First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in Santiago, Lazaro Exposito, was formerly in charge here and is credited with much of the improvement to the town.

The main street, known as El Bulevar (The Boulevard), is pedestrianised and decorated with art installations along its route. It is also well-stocked with shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. Nearly all of the restaurants, cafes and bars are priced in the national currency (CUP) rather than the convertible currency issued to tourists when they exchange their foreign currency (CUC).

In addition, the shops are well-stocked. In the kitchen at my friend’s house are two lights with circular fluorescent bulbs. One of them needed replacing. For the last seven weeks we had searched every shop in Santiago – not just in the city centre but everywhere – and could not find one. In Bayamo they were everywhere. It is not clear to me why shops in a provincial city like Bayamo should stock such bulbs whilst the second city in the country has none, but such is the nature of bureaucratic planned economies.

El Bulevar, Bayamo

The restaurants were impressive. On the first night we ate in a very smart restaurant in El Bulevar named La Sevillana. We had two starters of chick peas with chorizo; two main courses of beef roasted in juice; two portions of rice with chorizo; two salads of beetroot and tomato; two beers (Cacique); and a soft drink. The bill came to a total of 113 CUP (£3.39).

The following night we came across a new paladar opposite the main church, called the Bayamo Social Club, that had just opened it doors that week – on Valentine’s Day (which is a big event in Cuba). It was very smartly decorated, with old photos of Bayamo on the walls. The tables were candle-lit, with incense as well. There was a guitarist and a singer, playing boleros. The menu was described as a fusion of the four cultures that have created contemporary Cuban cuisine: Spanish, African, Taino Indian and Chinese.

The food was excellent. We had a chicken chop suey; pork chop suey; a salad; a dessert of milk flan with ice cream; two cocktails; two glasses of wine and a soft drink. The menu was priced in CUP but said that you could pay the equivalent in CUC. Our bill came to 360 CUP (£11.80). There were two European guys eating there, but everybody else was Cuban. The paladar had been opened in accordance with the new regulations, which now allow a maximum of twenty seats. If this is an indication of what the new regulations will mean for dining out in Cuba, then it is very good news both for Cuban people and foreign visitors.