Cuba – 2003 – Street market

We went to a street market today to see what was on offer. There were some clothing, some used items like records and record players, and some new items aswell.

When we were there, Cuba had just used the last of her cash on hand to buy some wheat from America, I believe. Times were tough and the government was still allowing family members in America to send money back into the country. That stopped later I believe. The Russians had stopped helping Cuba financially by then I believe. Any way, I was looking around and the only boxes that I could see lying about were from Hanoi. So there was still some trade going on with them at the time we were there.

It was interesting to see all of the fields covered in tall grass rather than food crops. Perhaps it was the wrong time of year, but it is a tropical paradise. Why there were no crops planted or being tended to is a mystery to me.

We took a very old open train out into the country side and saw some old rum producing sites, but they were ancient. There was sugar cane growing, but we all know what happened to that crop. To many producers and not enough buyers meant a crash in the price of sugar and related products which is still a problem today.