Cuba Hodge-Podge

Taking a slight detour in my daily summaries of my recent trip to Cuba – Here are some interesting items about things I learned while in Cuba:

Currency - There are two different currencies in Cuba; One for the locals to use and one for foreigners (CUC - Cuban Convertible Peso). 1 CUC = 24 peso. When I converted my US Dollar, I received about $.87 in exchange.
Wages - The Cuban people who work for the government (which is most of them) get paid anywhere from 12 – 60 CUC per month, depending on what they are doing. Because of this people have to become “very creative” (a term our guide used over and over to explain how the Cubans survive) and do other things to make money on the side. Buying food is their #1 priority (I have an interesting post coming on food rationing. You won’t believe it).
The President’s residency is a secret. They move him around from house to house due to all the threats he receives.
For every man in Cuba, there are seven (7) women. Yes, I did say 7.
There are wild dogs running the streets everywhere. occasionally you will see some wild cats, too.
Cubans don’t like to be called Communists; they say they are Socialists.
They have a serious transportation problem in Cuba. You will see people riding bikes everywhere in addition to hitchhiking. That is very prominent there.
There are 169 municipalities in Cuba.
Although the buildings are old and crumbling and give the appearance that the place is dirty, I hardly ever saw litter on the ground. And the people are very clean people. The thing they would come up and ask for the most (outside of money) was soap.