Village Squire, 1975-03, Page 16Many Cubans obviously supplement their
food rations by line -fishing from the beach.
Rents are controlled. Each worker is
entitled to housing at a cost of no more than
10 per cent of his salary, we were told.
Many of the lavish manions, in what was
formerly the wealthy residential area of
Havana, are in disrepair and vacation houses
on Varadero beach are run down, with most
gardens overgrown.
Workers' houses in the outskirts of Havana
and in the agricultural area between
Cardenas on the north side of the island and
the Bay of Pigs on the south are superior to
those seen in other West Indian islands and in
Central America. Huge apartment complexes
are being built in a new suburb a few miles
outside Havana.
There are playgrounds in almost every
village passed as well as day nursery
facilities. Most were well-equipped with
jungle gyms, slides and sometimes wading
and swimming pools.
On the highway leading to the Bay of Pigs,
were large secondary schools where
youngsters aged between 13 and 16 board
during the week, going home only from noon
Saturday to late Sunday evening.
Besides doing academic work in these
schools, the youngsters put in a minimum of
three hours a day agricultural work in the
fields. Some were cultivating newly -planted
citrus groves, others preparing for the sugar
cane harvest which starts early in December
and continues for five, months.
Some of the sugar plantations are ,
state-owned, others privately -owned. Private
owners, we were told, usually belong to a
co-operative and share the costs of
equipment. The state controls sales.
By 1980,' the government hopes to have
largely mechanized the sugar harvest, freeing
workers for other jobs. _
There are several chicken farms and a duck
farm and our guide proudly pointed out a pig
farm. "Those pigs come from Canada," he
said.
The teenage students doing agricultural
labor stopped to smile and wave at the tourist
bus - still a rare sight - went by. In the
evening. when the tour returned from the Bay
of Pigs, it passed a couple of open trucks
carrying the students back to their schools.
They seemed to be in high spirits and looked
less tired than the tourists did as they waved
and cheered.
Incidentally, the highway to the Bay of Pigs
is lined with concrete markers to those who
died there in 1961.
The work week in Cuba is 44 hours and
each worker is entitled to a month's holiday
each year. Varadero Beach is a popular
holiday spot for Cubans - and no other
tourists are allowed there during the summer
months.
The bartender at the beach hotel, where
the tourist spent six nights, said he has his
holiday in September.
For two weeks, he takes his wife and
children on a visit to Havana. For his second
two weeks, he and his wife go to a mountain
resort run by Init.
All hotels and resort areas in Cuba are
controlled by Init, an agency like Russia's
Intourist. Cubans on holiday can rent
apartments through Init. This is impossible
for Canadians because of rationing.
There are a few restaurants - not many. In
one, a small dish of spaghetti with meat sauce
cost S1.85 Canadian.
Sandwiches were 85 cents and up and the
selection was meagre. Canadian tourists have
to rely on .hotels for meals, so the tours from
Canada are all inclusive.
Meals are bountiful, however. Included
was a bottle of Cuban beer or a glass of wine -
imported from Chile - with lunch and dinner
there was no choice. The tourists got steak
twice, fish twice, pork twice, veal once,
chicken twice and plates of cold meats twice.
Breakfasts included fried eggs and bacon,
scrambled eggs and ham, pancakes and once,
cold meat with cheese.
There was also fruit juice, often, a canned
variety, and coffee with hot milk.
Occasionally, the food was very good. One
Canadian remembers particularly a red bean
and meat soup, a bit like chili con carne and
some very well chili con carne and some very
well seasoned fried chicken. With Tess
pleasure she recalls a cream soup that looked
like paste and had no taste. There were
shrimp cocktails every day and, for some
reason, cucumber salads twice a day. Fresh
fruits and other salads- were lacking.
Although Cubans normally do not eat
potatoes they have the idea Canadians do and
gave potatoes at every meal, often along with
rice. Desserts were mostly cake or ice cream.
On one gala occasion rock lobster was
cooked in a spicy sauce with rum and on the
last night on the beach the group got suckling
pig, cooked slowly in coconut oil and stuffed
with rice and herbs.
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