There is something that no Cuban escapes. If everything worked as it should, no one would leave
Cuba, but currently many dreams become something else. There are situations that
perhaps are only seen in poor countries like Cuba, such as those that lead to so many people on
the street inventing things that we have already explained in previous videos: walking
all over Havana to get the most basic items or spending hours chasing a box of cigars,
and thank all the saints because malt finally appeared somewhere, one of
the favorite drinks of us Cubans. Visiting other places opens your mind a bit,
seeing other realities also within your own country, because things are tough and if Havana
is in bad condition, Niagara is being cycled through in remote places (worse situation).
The number of stray animals amazes tourists. It is a luxury to have a pet in Cuba
as much as in other countries, because if it is difficult to get food for you, imagine for the pet.
It is a reason to be happy when someone appears on the street selling white yogurt,
do you remember that one that cost 25 pesos? Well, now it costs 200 and you have to pay 10 more for the
plastic knob. And there is a saying that here is applied in reverse. That of knowing Cuba first and the foreigner
later, that is only theory. In practice, to get to know Cuba, you first have to go to Nicaragua,
on a raft, or look for a sponsor, and after you have a decent salary in another country, you can
come to Cuba and see where you were born, because with 30 dollars a month or 10 retirement,
you can not know a country. A rent costs 150 dollars, five times the average salary in Cuba,
where there are still stupid prohibitions for Cubans. Beyond the regular boat
and perhaps the occasional boat, it is forbidden for Cubans to board
motorized boats, a simple boat ride. To do things as simple as that, we have to get out of Cuba.
It feels weird to do in another country what you are not allowed to do in yours.
For the majority, the basics become a luxury and the luxuries impossible,
impossible that in most cases they have to be financed with
capitalist dollars, with the currency of the supposed enemy.
Many will reach old age without having anything, even those who defend the system so much
on social networks, have nothing either, everything is borrowed. Small normal things in the
whole world that cannot be paid for with their salaries. Crumbs for today, hungry for tomorrow.
But let's see how expensive life can be in a socialist country and what
becomes a nightmare for Cubans: construction.
The Trasval shopping center, like most of the others in Cuba, is practically
empty, either due to shortages, the mass exodus or the high prices of its products. A
sink costs more than twice the monthly salary of a doctor; some doors, 14 times the salary of
an engineer (417 USD); and a window, more than nine times (285 USD). The things that are not in the store, mostly
end up in the hands of resellers. But let's keep exploring to see what else we find.
If cars are very expensive, why don't they ride bicycles? Well now you will see why. Prices
for a bicycle range from $370 to $420, between 10 and 15 times the monthly salary of a doctor in Cuba.
Most of the products sold in these stores are imported, brought from other countries.
But hardly anyone comes to buy anymore, unless it is strictly necessary.
With some products interesting things happen, they are put on display,
however, they are not for sale in the store. There is a constant fight against corruption and
the diversion of resources, but it is widespread. Ordinary Cubans have to deal with all this every day
, even leading them to adopt the most extreme measures to solve their own
housing problems. The dream of having a functional decent home sometimes turns into a nightmare. (collecting bricks among the rubble to reuse them)
I want to bring you closer to my new adventure, one that I have avoided and lengthened so much, dream adventure or (collecting bricks among the rubble to reuse them)
nightmare... you will tell me in the comments. In the process, they will learn more about Cuban society.
Well, the new adventure is the headache of Cubans: construction. That's the kitchen,
the key here broke, so now I have to glue it with crazy glue and this is the plateau,
no matter how many times you clean it and put chemicals on it, it turns black from anything because the
tiles are already they are porous The plateau was built many years ago, I would say that it was around
20 years perfectly, and the sink was the same, we are talking about a Creole sink, a
cheap sink, one of those sinks that are sold or were sold in national currency,
because that's enough It's hard to find one, the same thing happens with it, no matter how many chemicals
you use, no matter how hard you try to clean it, there are stains that can't be removed because it
's also all porous, too old. The doors of the plateau were put by me when I came here.
And the floor, well, we'll talk about the floor later. In Cuba, building is always a headache,
getting the materials, getting the fittings. Some time ago I made a video for you, a
video that I made when the cifa in the sink broke, the cifa that goes in there. I'm not
going to tell you now how I solved that because, since there are many new subscribers, I'd better
share the video in the community tab, in my stories and also in the pinned comment
of this video, so you can go to see the kind of invention I had to do. And so that you can see how
things work in Cuba, the slabs that I am going to put are these. The funny thing is that these same
tiles are the ones I have on the bathroom floor. As they are listening. I bought
them a while ago, when I did the bathroom floor. Of course, at that time these slabs cost me 21 CUC
per meter. There is no longer this type of slab here in Cuba, I would say that now they are even more expensive.
Many people in Cuba make the pots with the same tiles that they put on the floor, in certain
parts of the house. Because? Because there is nothing else, that is, here it is not like in other countries where
perhaps you can make a purchase from a catalog, look for the color that you like, the model
that you like. That doesn't work here, you have to buy what appears when it appears. For example,
the tiles that I have in the kitchen, I have tiles in the kitchen, I
also bought them at the same time, they cost me 3 CUC, but this one doesn't exist anymore, family, that is, it's
impossible to put this here on the plateau, that is practically impossible. In fact, to buy
these slabs I remember that I was walking for about a month, I don't remember if it
was a month or if it was more than a month, I would walk about 5 km daily
through certain stores where they sold slabs. And if you are wondering why I didn't call the
stores, for the simple reason that in Cuba the resellers have their connections within
those stores and the store staff will not notify you when the merchandise arrives. They
notify the resellers, the resellers go, buy the merchandise, give additional money to
the salespeople in the store, and that's how the business works. And if you are wondering how much
the adventure of fixing the plateau is going to cost me, well, for this work that is not so big,
they told me to buy about seven bags of sand and stone dust. Each sack of
these costs 180 Cuban pesos, the equivalent of 1.05 dollars, we are going to leave it at 1 dollar.
And they told me to also buy two bags of cement, each bag of cement costs 2,200 pesos,
which is approximately 13 dollars. This, of course, has to be transported here
in a truck, the transportation costs 1,500 pesos, which is approximately 9 dollars,
and to bring it up here, which is a first floor, that's why they charged me 500 pesos, to bring those 9
sacks up . So, 500 pesos is approximately 3 dollars, in total, all the material that
is there, plus the transportation, plus the carrying of the bags up here, was approximately 45 dollars
. What you are seeing here, 45 dollars, which, of course, is much more than
what the average Cuban earns, to be exact, more than double what the average Cuban earns.
And when we're done with the plateau, then we're going to do the kitchen floor. So you know
what I'm going to be immersed in for a long time. Let me know in the comments what you think
what I have just shown you and tell me if you have had any similar experience in your countries.
And if you're Cuban, let me know how you had it when you were building, because here all
Cubans have built. In future videos I will show you if progress is being made or not.
They have told me about a cheap place, where the people can eat well, with a capital B, and
cheap, as far as possible, an accessible place among many others that only
tourists can visit. Soon I will be bringing you videos of Matanzas, but not the touristic Matanzas. We are going to
go deeper, we are going to see reality and how people live there, their joys and their sadness.
If you found this video interesting, leave a like and share it. If you
haven't already, subscribe so that our family continues to grow.
Greetings from Havana, Cuba. See you in about three days.