Cuba - day 2

It's so much harder to write about Cuba out of parents' home in Israel. I've only been home for 2 days, but all the memories already seem blury and insignificant. i'll try to stay as enthusiastic and euphoric about it...

so on day 2 i went walking around the city, warned in advance by the Lonely Planet, aka the Bible, to not take candies from strangers, and especially to not start conversations with men who ask me "excuse me lady, where are you from?"
Cuba was doing really well until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It didn't have any independent economy, being fully funded by the USSR. in 1991 started the "periodo especial" when people started growing pigs in the bathroom, and an average Cuban has lost 2.5 kg of his weight because of food shortages. to revive the situation Castro decided to rely mainly on tourism for influx of foreign currency. also limited private business was allowed - family owned B&B and restaurants. and of course Miami-Cuban money kept coming in. With a little help from its friends - Mr. Chavez and the devoted Canadian tourists that fly like bees to a honey comb to the all-included deluxe Caribbean resorts in Varadero, cuba managed to gain momentum and to recuperate little by little from the crisis. but not without a toll on the Revolution. two separate monetary systems were created - the national peso and the convertible peso. the national peso pays the worker and buys rice, bread, bus fare, books and theater tickets. the convertible peso is worth 25 times more than the national and is charged for any goods and services that are above subsistence (bread and theater that is) and is obtained from tourists.
social classes have returned from the ashes. average wage of a Cuban worker equals to 10-15 convertibles (1 convertible peso is roughly 1 euro) whereas the prices for tourists match the prices in Europe. so once you manage to sell anything to a tourist, or just get tipped by them in a restaurant you immediately ascend to the next social level. the causes an understandable alienation towards the tourist, who's considered a mere wallet. but the average Cuban is different from let's say the average Guatemalan or Mexican. The Cuban loves talking, and he's better at it because he's done more school. at the same time he's renown for his pacific temper. Cuba is untypically safe for Latin America. so you let your guards down...
I have walked to the Havana University, almost no one in sight. Suddenly some guy approached me and asked whether I know where such and such congress is taking place. I said "no", and he expressed a surprise it me not actually being Cuban. we started talking, he claimed to be a history student. as we strolled around the campus he kept pointing at different buildings and exclaiming "on this stare case on December 9th 1963 Che shook Fidel's hand for the first time" and so on. i asked him about how different things work in Cuba and the conversation slowly shifted to the awkwardness of the Cuban reality. I asked him where did he get his jeans and sneakers from - they where a present from his relatives in Miami.
"but hey, let me take you to the student bar around the corner, you have to try Che's favorite drink".
"it can't be too expensive if it's a student bar" I thought
Che's drink was rum mixed with something of course - in Cuba everything is about rum (fermented sugar) and tobacco - they didn't grow much except for sugar and tobacco until recently.
i notice the guy is only ordering one drink for me. it was of course something unaffordable for a student - 3.50 convertibles.
"ok, order another drink, i'll invite you. i'm not drinking alone."
"oh no, you don't have, i didnt take you here to buy me drinks"
blah blah blah. another drink is ordered.

** mistake no. 1 - whether the guy was scheming something from the beginning or not, now he definitely was. such an easy bait. classic!

he asks me whether i want to buy presents in Cuba - "no cigars, i don't have friends that smoke. no rum. Cd's? - maybe. it could actually be cool."
he takes me to some one's house. the old lady really does have a CD stand in front of the window, but her husband will be back in an hour, we should return then. another person in another house also gives us some excuse and orders us to be back in 20 minutes. now we're heading to a place where they only let you in with a student card, but the Cd's there are all so cheep! we're in front of a building that might look like the student dorms. he leaves me on a bench, disappears some where but returns after 5 minutes - "they have the new albums of Jose Lopez and Juan Ramon, you're gonna love it! let me buy it for you"
"ok, get me one of them"
"you should get both. 4 convertibles each"
"one is enough"
I hand him a 5 peso note. before i can count to 10 i regret it.
the scheme was so perfectly planned and so immaculately carried out, and yet so much effort and abstract thinking for a reward worth of 5 Euros and a cocktail. I stayed on that bench for another 20 minutes. I was never so deeply offended from such a petty theft. can i ever restore my trust in people, in cubans? probably not.
when all other means fail, denial works wonders. i've decided to keep on talking to strangers and go on trusting Cubans, otherwise there's no more reason for traveling... on day 5 i do it all again, with no regrets...

next, on day 3 i introduce you to Juan Carlos, my only trust worthy friend other than the "The Bible", who taught about Havana all that the "The Book" didnt.
and then zee germans are coming.