When walking around Havana it is very hard to tell a tourist from local - at least from my perspective. And the Cubans do not seem to mind your presence at all which is a welcoming experience. There are is a mishmash of Europeans and locals in Havana making it a nice city to walk around. Very few Hustlers and vagrants. People just go about their business and hang out by the water front.
Everybody smokes - you can buy cigarettes at the ice cream parlor. Beer is as cheap as water. Cubans are either going about their business or waiting in a line. There are lines everywhere but Cubans seem unbothered by the waiting - you can easily tell by the lack of cars honking at intersections.
The women are very fashionable in bright colours and fishnet stockings from a very young age, especially on weekend nights. All the airport female staff and school girls wear hot khaki mini skirts. The police however wear pants and I saw (on multiple occasions) 2 female police officers giving traffic tickets - you would never see that in Jamaica. Overall the people are kind and welcoming and will try to meet to half way if you do not know any Spanish.
Pollo = chicken but there was none there I checked
I assume that no one has internet in their homes so it is common to see people sitting outside resturants, bars and hotels using the government wifi. Skyping, facetime and general internet stuff. Sometimes even late into the night. I doubt it is free. Though I never tried to join them. I had to pay 2 CUC for my 1 hour internet card that I could only use in the hotel lobby. The hotel wifi did not reach the room that I was staying it. I found the same wifi hotspots all over havana that accepted the same cards - even in the airport. At most you would see only 2 wifi names which is in contrast to the 10 or so you would see in anywhere in Jamaica. No free wifi anywhere. However I did not miss the absence of the internet. There have all the latest iphones, androids, tablets and blackberry phones.
You know a school is too big when the graduation is spread over 4 days and 2 shifts just so the school and accommodate all the students needing to graduate. I had not been on the campus in about 14 years. So what better opportunity is there than when 500 people walking around.
when you look back at a picture you took in 2005 and it looks like George Lucas is sitting in the background. He kinda looks a bit like Kenny Rogers too.
