Day 3 – Havana

Today I ventured into the newer part of the city and tried to get my head around Cuba's unique currency system. This is how it works;

For almost all transactions a tourist would need to make (accommodation, travel) they will be charged in Cuban Convertible Pesos also known as CUCs or just plain Pesos, however, for certain things they may also find themselves being charged in an alternative currency used only by the locals known as Cuban Pesos also known as MNs or just Pesos.

1CUC (or Peso) = 70p or,

1MN (or Peso) = 3p.

To make it simple, 70p = 1 Peso = 24 Pesos. Got it?

Some prices are displayed in CUC and some in MN but it is rarely specified which. In short, the potential for being ripped off in this country is enormous and only Stephen Hawking would be able to do the maths required to convert prices from CUCs/MNs/Peso to Sterling. He would have a bugger of a time with all the holes in the pavement though.

I am not sure if it is that Cubans like to queue or that the staff are geriatric-like in their speed of service or a combination of both but just about every shop or restaurant seems to have a line of people outside it most hours of the day, the situation is exasperated by the security guard that stands outside every premises and often only let one person into the building at a time.