About cuba

Climate

Moderate subtropical. The Cuban territory grazes the Tropic of Cancer, and due to its long and narrow configuration, on an east-west axis, it receives the refreshing action of the trade winds and the sea breezes. During the short winter, it is cooled by masses of cold air from the North; those cold fronts do not last long. The day and night temperatures differ less in the coastal regions than inland. The eastern part of the country has a warmer climate than the western part.

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Temperature

Average temperature 24,6º C (76,3º F) Summer average 25º C (77º F) Winter average 22º C (71,6º F)

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Seasons

There are two, clearly defined: the dry season, from November through April; and the rainy season, from May through October. The average annual precipitation is 1 375 mm.

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Orography

There are three outstanding large mountain ranges. In the West, the Sierra de los Órganos; in the central part, the Sierra del Escambray; and in the southern region of eastern Cuba, the Sierra Maestra, where the highest point of the country is located, the Pico Real del Turquino, 1 974 meters above the sea level. Its longest river is the Cauto, with a length of 250 kilometers.

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History

Cuba was discovered by Christopher Columbus, on October 27, 1492. The conquest and colonization caused the extermination of the aboriginal inhabitants, due to which they imported black people from Africa to enslave them. The resulting mixture defined Cuba's population and culture. On October 10, 1868, the Cuban people began their struggle for independence from Spain, whose colonial rule lasted 4 centuries. United States intervened in the warlike conflict and established a pseudorepublic in 1902 until the 1st. of January of 1959, when the Revolution commanded by Fidel Castro triumphed, bringing essential transformations for the life of the country.

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Economy

The tourism is the main line. Other important industries are the sugar cane, tobacco, nickel, rum, coffee, and since a few years ago, the pharmaceutic and biotechnological lines.

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Education

Education is free and obligatory until the ninth grade. In 1961, illiteracy was eradicated and today the population has a high instruction level. Cuba's national system of education comprehends from day care centers for working mothers' children to universities disseminated throughout the whole country.

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Culture

A country prodigal in artistic and creative manifestations. It has made contributions to international culture with important names of writers, thinkers, dancers, musicians, painters, poets and singers. Cuban craftwork is interesting, with outstanding works in leather, vegetable fibers, wood, stone, metal and sea products. Cuba's cultural infrastructure consists of theaters, museums, art galleries and cinemas, where not only samples of the national wealth of all times are shown, but also of world art. It is the seat of important international events such as the Ballet Festival, the biennial of visual arts, popular music festivals and the Festival of the New Latin American Cinema, among others.

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Health

Cuba's health system is said to have one of the world's most complete programs of primary attention, the lowest of infantile mortality rate in Latin América and free services for all the people.

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Sports

Excellent olympic results, a highlighted place in world sports and the massive and free practice in the country make Cuba proud and are counted among the achievements of the people in the past 40 years.

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Religion

Lay country with freedom of cults. Catholic and Afro-Cuban religions prevail, although other tendencies also exist.

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Payment Forms

In tourist facilities and other service units, prices are set in Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC). In Varadero, Cayo Largo del Sur, Jardines del Rey (Coco and Guillermo Keys), Santa Lucía and Covarrubias Beaches, and Holguín province (tourist resorts on northern coastline), you can also pay in euros. Credit cards – except those issued by US banks or their branches in other countries – are accepted. Among those accepted are MasterCard, Visa International and CABAL. Cuban convertible pesos and coins equivalent to 50, 25, 10, 5 and 1 cents have unlimited legal course in the national territory. Cuban convertible pesos can be changed upon departure at bank offices at international airports and ports in Cuba. Traveler's checks, including those issued by US banks, are accepted.

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Official Commemorations

Although they are not holidays, they are also considered important dates: January 28: Anniversary of the birth of José Martí, Cuba's National Hero, in 1853. February 24: Anniversary of the beginning of the War of Independence, in 1895. March 8: International Woman's Day. March 13: Anniversary of the attack to the Presidential Palace of Havana, by a group of revolutionary youths that sought to execute the tyrant Fulgencio Batista, in 1957. April 19: Anniversary of the defeat of the mercenary attack at the Bay of Pigs, in 1961. July 30: Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution. October 8: Anniversary of the death of Major Ernesto Ché Guevara, in 1967. October 28: Anniversary of Major Camilo Cienfuegos’ death, in 1959. November 27: Commemoration of the execution of eight students of Medicine, by the Spanish colonial government, in 1871. December 7: Anniversary of Antonio Maceo's death in combat in 1896, an outstanding figure in Cuba’s War of Independence against the Spanish colonial rule.

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Migratory Regulations

Visitors should possess an effective passport or a trip document stating their name and the corresponding visa or Tourist Card, excepting those countries that Cuba maintains Free Visa agreements with. Tourist Cards can be requested at the Cuban consular representations. Also, in travel agencies and airlines. They are of two types: for individual tourists or tourists that travel in groups. The businessmen, journalists at work and natural of Cuba, non-residents or with another nationality, should get a visa.

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Sanitary Regulations

There are only restrictive sanitary regulations for visitors coming from countries where yellow fever and endemic cholera exist or have been declared infection areas by the World Health Organization. In such cases, an International Vaccination Certificate is demanded. Products of animal and vegetable origin have entry restrictions. Animals may be imported, previous presentation of the corresponding certificate.

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Electricity

The electric appliances endowed with round spikes should be brought with an adapter of plane spikes that are the type used for the plugs existent in the country. Electric current of general use is 110 V / 60 Hz, although in the recently constructed hotels it is 220 V / 60 Hz.

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GEOGRAPHIC UBICATION

Cuba, the biggest island in the Caribbean, is located at the entrance to the Gulf of México. Cuba's nearest neighbors are: to the East, Haití (77 kilometers), to the West, the Yucatan Peninsula (210 kilometers), to the North, Florida Peninsula (180 kilometers) and to the South, Jamaica (140 kilometers). The Bahamas are very near, toward the Northwest of the eastern end of Cuba. Formed by around 4 195 smaller keys, cays and islets, it covers a surface of 110 922 square kilometers and1 200 kilometers of extension, on a mostly karstic and flat territory. Its nature, diverse and prodigal, shows wide variety of plants, animals and more than 280 beaches, virgin islands, grottos, caves, mountains, forests, savannas and marshes.

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Currency

The national currency is the Cuban Peso, which is equivalent to 100 centavos (cents). Notes can be of 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pesos. Coins can be of 1, 5 and 20 centavos, and there are others of 1 and 3 pesos. At the Bureaus of Exchange (CADECA) created to sell - buy Cuban Convertible Pesos, the exchange rate can vary now between $20.00 and $25.00 Cuban pesos to the Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC). The exchange rate to the American dollar is fixed $ 1.00 CUC - $ 0.80 USD

As much as anything else, Cuba today is about waiting. Many Cuban expatriates are waiting for Castro to fall, hoping they'll be able to return to their homeland under a new, more tolerant regime. Foreign businesses are waiting for greater access to a previously deprived, and potentially explosive, marketplace. Meanwhile, Cuban citizens wait patiently in lines for their monthly ration of a half-dozen eggs.

Tourists from Canada, Europe and Latin America are doing less waiting: They continue to arrive in greater numbers every year (foreign visitors exceeded 2 million in 2004), and new hotels are going up every day to house this influx of visitors. Yet in a sense, even these visitors are in a state of limbo: Although they can lounge on lovely beaches or take a look at Hemingway's haunts around Havana, most are sheltered from interacting with everyday Cuban people. Despite relinquishing some control in the last decade, the Cuban government has since tightened up again and still does its best to separate its visitors from its citizens (new restrictions on interactions went into effect in March 2005), although the greatest restriction is that Cubans simply don't have the money to share many of the venues that tourists enjoy.

That's a shame, because to us, one of the greatest draws of this island nation is its people. Whether you troll for tuna with a local fisherman, watch a baseball game in the park or banter with a shopkeeper, it's the Cuban people -- passionate, vivacious and welcoming -- and their unique and fascinating culture that are the most potentially rewarding aspects of a visit to the island.

Of course, a big part of the Cuban waiting game involves U.S. citizens. They are not forbidden to set foot on Cuban soil, but the U.S. government continues to restrict its citizenry from spending money in the communist country, as it has since 1961. This has proven an effective deterrent to the development of large-scale tourism from the U.S., though individuals have quietly been visiting Cuba (via third countries) for years. Although some people from the U.S. can get permission to visit the island, large numbers of U.S. visitors will not return until the restrictions are eased.

No doubt Cuba will be immensely popular with U.S. travelers should they have easy access to the island. For many, Cuba is attractive because of images associated with its past: Hemingway, deep-sea fishing and gamblers rolling dice to a mambo beat. In other words, a paradise for carefree travelers. But the Cuba that would open to U.S. citizens is quite a different place. Although the hotel infrastructure now approximates international standards, at least in Havana, much of its infrastructure has visibly deteriorated during the past 40 years. Shortages of fuel, transportation, food, electricity and water are widespread. Many of the hardships are caused by the loss of annual subsidies that used to come from the old Warsaw Pact countries. Conditions have been made worse by controversial U.S. economic sanctions that have remained in place since the Soviet bloc disintegrated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Also, Cuba is not an inexpensive country to visit, or at least it hasn't been in recent years. Food, hotels and transportation costs are similar to, and sometimes more expensive than, those in many other destinations in the Caribbean.