If you're going to Cuba and want to meet the people who live there the best thing to do is to stay in casa particulares. We were in Cuba for 13 days and we stayed exclusively in these Cuban-style Air B&Bs--and we met a lot of wonderful Cuban people.
Our first one was in Havana, run by Amay a single mom in her 40s who resigned her job as a doctor to do this work. Amay, like many Cubans chose to work in the tourist business because it is much, much more remunerative than being a doctor. Even though the government takes a substantial portion of the money that is brought in (like maybe 90%) it's a step up for Amay.
Amay's home is in the restored old part of Havana so it's in an excellent location. She loves to meet people and her home is remodeled to provide four rooms each with a private bath and a common dining room where guests can have breakfast.
We arrived after dark and it wasn't until the next morning that we peeked through the door for our first glimpse of Havana. This is what we saw. That's a bicycle taxi on the street. These are everywhere in Cuba--a great way to get around when you get tired of walking.
Our casa in Vinales was on the main street of the little town. This one offered two small rooms, each with two single beds and a tiny bathroom, but they faced onto a private balcony where we we able to kick back with our travelling compations (Paul and Wendy from Comox). This picture shows some of the people from our tour group waiting to be assigned to their particular casa.
No matter where we stayed though, we could be sure of having and enormous breakfast consissting of fresh tropical fruit juice, smoothies, bread and jam, eggs, ham and cheese, plus a muffin or cake or pastry, and strong Cuban coffee.
Truly it was way too much food for any of us to eat. At first to be polite, we tried to eat everything but soon we started tucking some of it into our bags so we could feed the ever-present skinny dogs on the street.
It was only later that a friend told me that the food that we were offered is not available to the regular residents in Cuba. It's specially for the tourists. Andrew's theory about why the breakfasts were so large was so that the people who lived in the houses would be able to eat what was left over I have no way of knowing if this was true or not. But it may well be the case.
It was really a treat staying in these casas. We met some wonderful Cuban people, some who spoke English, but even if they didn't we made friends. Here's a picture of Harry and me with Rafaela, where we stayed at the end of our trip in Havana. Rafaels is a character. Even though her English is limited she's a great communicator and so very helpful. Aftter we left Cuba, our friends stayed on and were guided to a wonderful casa in the eastern city of Baracoa.
If you plan to visit Cuba, make a point of staying in casa particulares so you can get to know the amazingly warm and friendly Cuban people.
It sounds like you had quite a time.
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