Week 4: Local Living

Unsurprisingly, the best way to meet the local people is going to the Malecon! There are always a ton of people there, and even if they don’t speak English, you can bond over a pair of drums and a guitar.
I think that the most interesting thing that I have purchased so far was the right to take a picture of a homeless man. In Cuba, a small minority of people demand money in order for you to take pictures of them. While I am not normally inclined to do this, as I would quickly burn through my money, one man was so striking that I went for it.
Getting used to the CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso in English) has been fine, you just need to look at all of the prices as a little higher than the nominal value, due to the tax that the Cuban government has placed on the Dollar to CUC exchange. Keeping within a budget has been doable, especially because I have been tracking my expenses everyday down to the CUC!