Back to Varadero Part I:

Reservation Gone Awry!

I am publishing this on my website although it will seem a non-sequitur. My apologies – I am in the process of resurrecting and updating my blog but have been posting this trip in Facebook due to ease of use. These next 3 posts are longer and contain lots of details relating to Cuban currency ways and my troubles with my hotel booking, so I;ve stuck the posts here. If you are reading this and don’t have a clue what I am talking about – go back to my facebook page and read my posts starting Oct 14th, when I first traveled to Cuba.

And so the story continues.

When I arrive at the hotel and the check-in clerk sees that I am not on her list though I have the hotel vouchers on my phone she sends me to see the manager. Jennifer sympathetically explains that the hotel is no longer booking inclusive rates and can only offer accommodation plus breakfast. Further, since she rejected my booking from the online agent, I would need to pay again and recover my paid reservation from them. Clearly, she was upset on my behalf as she muttered “Sometimes I think I am in another country! She had sent the booking agent an email as soon as she saw my reservation come in but they didn’t respond.

After recovering from the shock of no reservation, I asked if there was someone who could assist me to make alternate arrangements at another resort nearby as I had no internet (another story!). I booked this hotel—Gran Carib SunBeach—rather than at Ramiro’s friend Damaris’s Varadero Casa (which I have done in the past) but Damaris herself suggested an inclusive as casas in Varadero have doubled in price as had restaurant meals. The inclusive 3 star was a cheaper option. And the government has recently improved the food at these resorts to draw tourists to the more affordable accomodations. Ramiro, Maritza and myself stayed in the 3 star Delfin before going to Havana, just a week ago and I found myself wishing I had booked the same resort, although it was clearly aimed at the Cuban budget and taste buds.

Gran Carib SunBeach… sadly, not located on the beach, but 2 streets over. Just as well I didn’t get to stay here!

We walked over to see Janet—the on site booking agent. She listened to my sad tale of the invalid booking but advised that if she booked my accommodations I would have to pay in pesos and by credit card. The rate of exchange that the credit card company would apply would be 24 pesos to 1 USD, which would more than triple the price if paid in Euros. (*see notes at end). The ladies suggested that I go 4 blocks down the road to Roc Barlovento, which was an inclusive, to see if they had rooms. Off I went.

* Note: The situation regarding foreign currencies and the (now) one local currency is a complicated and somewhat unresolvable challenge for the Cuban government and citizens alike. I’ll leave the details to yet another post (or maybe the book I will write about Cuba) but the 101 is this:

⁃ Cuba imports much more than it exports, shortages exist because Government and non-government importers alike lack foreign currency to import goods, but unlike other “have-not” countries they are not assisted and instead are actively thwarted by the US by the blockade and policies which threaten retaliation against companies doing business with Cuba because of something that happened 60 years ago.

⁃ Cuba last year did away with the dual currency system of convertible pesos (“CUC”s) and Cuban Pesos (“CUP”s). The CUC was pegged 1:1 with the USD and were used by tourists – and the CUP was pegged at 24:1 against the dollar, but really was only used in Cuba, paychecks arrived in pesos (still do) and government owned stores accepts only pesos as cash. Foreign exchanges around the world still report exchange as 24:1, but because pesos can be only exchanged for foreign within Cuba but now the Government requires Cubans to buy certain items in Euros, several other exchange rates are now used internally. The Cuban peso is devaluing (is that a verb?) and now one must pay at least 83:1 for foreign and sometimes more than 120:1, depending on where you are shopping. At a store where everything is priced in pesos, like a restaurant, but where supplies must be imported using foreign currency during these inflationary times, high demand for foreign currency means a lower value for pesos. So inside Cuba the peso’s value is floating downward but moreover people just can’t use it to buy some things.

⁃ Increasingly goods which are imported are priced and sold in Euros and must be purchased on a credit or debit card. Ramiro maintains 2 foreign currency accounts which he uses his debit card to access to spend foreign currency to purchase needed items.

⁃ Ramiro tells me that the currency’s devaluation (he experiences it as inflation) is noticiable week to week. That he pays only 24 pesos for a litre of gas means nothing to him. He used to pay just 1 peso per litre and he only has 2,000 pesos a month from his pension to supply his every need. When it costs 750 pesos for an entre at his daughter’s restaurant, one can see the difficulty he is in. And his situation is perhaps a bit better than others in Cuba. As he says “what must they be doing to buy food out in the provinces?”

But I digress… I was telling you about my lack of a reservation when I arrived in Varadero.

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