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Items at this page	Other pages about Cuba
Culture	Start page Cuba
What can you see?	Cuba links
Trafic	Photo's  neighbourhood of Santiago de Cuba
Guesthouse	Map of Cuba
Politics

photo's Santiago de Cuba (With  top you can go to the top of this photo collection)
Monumental Building(1)	Monumental Building(2)	Monumental Building(3)	Monumental Building (4)	top Monumental Building (5)
Market(1)	Market(2)	Bar(1)	Bar(2)	top Bar(3)
Balcony of Velazquez	Corner Hotel Casa Granda	Hotel Casa Granda	The bus(1)	top The bus(2)
The bus(3)	The bus(4)	The busstop	Hairdresser(1)	top Hairdresser2)
Accounting(1)	Accounting(2)	Department	Laundry(1)	top Laundry(2)
Dentist(1)	Dentist(2)	Host family(1)	Host family(2)	top Host family(3)
Host family(4)	Host family(5)	The farmacy	The nanny	top Spanish lesson
The old police station	Dancing lesson(1)	Dancing lesson(2)	School(1)	top School(2)
School(3)	School play(1)	School play(2)	School play(3)	top Baseball
Bycicle cabi	Hotel Santiago de Cuba	Vieuw Hotel Santiago de Cuba(1)	Vieuw Hotel Santiago de Cuba(2)	top Vieuw Hotel Santiago de Cuba(3)
Vieuw Hotel Santiago de Cuba(4)	Vieuw Hotel Santiago de Cuba(5)	Vieuw Hotel Santiago de Cuba(6)	Streetlife(1)	top Streetlife(2)
Streetlife(3)	Streetlife(4)	Streetlife(5)	Streetlife(6)	top Streetlife7)
Streetlife(8)	Streetlife(9)	Streetlife10)	Streetlife(11	top Streetlife(12)
Streetlife13)	Streetlife14)	Streetlife(15)	Streetlife(16)	top Streetlife(17
Streetlife(18)	Streetlife(19)	Streetlife(20)	Streetlife(21)	top Streetlife(22)
Streetlife(23)	Streetlife(24)	Streetlife(25)	Streetlife(26)	top Propaganda(1)
Propaganda(2)	Propaganda(3)	Host family(1)	Host family(2)	top Host family3)
Host family(4)	Host family(5)			top

Culture
Cuba is a poor country so they don't have much money to preserve old things. When Cuba was a Spanish colony the Spanish build a lot of beautiful buildings. The most important buildings are in good shape, but the other buildings are neglected. Because of the lack of paint, it's sometimess hard to see the beauty of a building. When you look a little bit better, you can see the beutiful wooden balconies. Historic buildings where you would expect a bank, are used for living and in bad shape. I was in the historic museum and the paintings where in bad shape, because of to much moisture. But the good point of all this is that buildings are not changed into Mac Donalds and buildings of concrete and glass.  Santiago de Cuba is still Cuban and does not have the regular shopping centres. Fortunately the Cuban government does not have enough money for new buildings, because these new buildings are very ugly. The pride of the city is  hotel Santiago de Cuba *****, but although it had 5 stars, I was not impressed.  Hotel Casa Granda****  (hotel the big house), in the middle of the centre is however very nice. From this hotel you can see the Cathedral of Santiaco de Cuba and the famouse balcony of Velazquez, (There Castro has hold his famouse speeche)

What can you see?
There're severqal interesting museums, for example the carnaval museum (with a traditional dance on the inner square), the old police station (propaganda) etc. You can also book an evening with traditional Cuban dance. I think you can see the most at the street. Look how they refill a disposable lighter , how the make  an ice-cream  and it's as if you live in the fifty's. Older people are  playing cards on the street and the youth is  playing baseball. There're long ques for the busstop and also ques for points of food distribution. Although you don't see any luxe, everybody has enough to eat and children go to school or to the dentist or medical. At the street you don't see beggars. Because you're extremely rich as a tourist, some Cuban ask you if you're intrested in sigars, or they ask you if you could give some money, but all is done in a decent way. They're not as aggresiv like in Turky or (worse) Tunesia. Maybe you don't like to walk? You can rent a bicicle cab for 1 dollar (I didn't negociate this price) and see the whole city.

Trafic
Although there're very few cars you hardly notice that, because there're always a lot of people walking. Longer distances are done by bus and you always see long ques for the busstop. The  busses usualy are trucks rebuild as a bus. Some busses are from Holland and you can see Dutch destinations and advertisements on it. It's obvious not a luxe way of travelling.

Guesthouse
I booked my holiday at Study Travel and my stay was at a family . The Spanish language lessons where in the house of a teacher. Study Travel told me that customs sometimes made problems when you stay at a family, so they adviced me to tell that I stayed in hotel "Santiago de Cuba". When the customs officer asked me where I stayed, I told him "Santago de Cuba" But when he asked the name of the hotel I give him the paper of Study Travel with a teletel number on it.
I already saw me go back to Holland...., but after they made the call, everything was oke.

The host family was rich for Cuban standards. They had there own house, two refrigerators, a television set with vcr, a car etc. Nothing special for Dutch standards, but not bad for a Cuban.

The Spanish teacher was very strict. I was not on a holiday, I was there to learn Spanish! But I did learn a lot of Spanish. The teacher did have a nanny. 

Politics
At the street you see a lot of propoganda like "Revolution or dead",  "The country is for all", "Long live Che Chavarra" , but you also see information about AIDS. You can regonize dictatorship on these propaganda and the monumental satues. On the televisie you see a lot of baseball and political talk-shows. Cubans know what's going on ion the world. I think it's possible to have your own opinion, as long as it fits in the communist way of thinking.... Because of the tourists there's more income but also difference in welfare.When you work in the tourist industry, you get much more money then in other industry sectors. It's strange that a docter earns less then a waiter in a restaurant (because of the tips). It's legal to have a small own business (for instance "Casa Particular" (private house)). I think Castro still has some credits a the (older) Cubans because of the revolution. Cubans doesn't like Castro's brother. I supose Castro will stay the leader until his natural dead and after his dead things wil change. I don't think Castro's brother will be able to become the leader for a long time. I hope the good things of the regime will stay in tact and the bad things wil dissapear.