Travel to Cuba About to Get Easier

Cuba and the U.S. will sign an agreement Tuesday to open up commercial flights to the island. Until now, you had to sign up with an expensive charter flight and follow a restricted itinerary. The competition from commercial flights will probably bring down the cost of the charters. It will also make on-line booking possible. These two steps will make it both easier and cheaper for you to get there. Whether itinerary restrictions have been lifted isn't clear yet.

I'll keep you posted as more info comes to light. If you have more up-to-date information, please leave a comment. Many viewers will appreciate it.

 

If I ever get to Havana, one of the sights I want to see is Esquina Caliente. You find it in the Central Park where young men gather all day to argue about baseball. Hence the name. Esquina Caliente means "Hot Corner." Take a look, and feel free to comment.

One last comment on Copellia.

Copellia has become such an icon in Havana that I couldn’t resist using it for one of the scenes in my new novel Crosshairs on Castro that’s coming out in a few weeks. Then I got nagged by a suspicion that Copellia might not have existed in 1962 which is when the novel is set. Sure enough, when I looked into it, Copellia didn’t open until 1966. That’s one of the perils of writing historical fiction.

I kept the scene, but shifted it from Copellia to even better  Havana establishment, the restaurant El Floridita.  

Last week, I noted that the popular ice cream store Coppelia illustrates a problem posed by  Cuba’s dual currency system. 

Coppelia illustrates another problem as well. It offers fewer flavors than it used to offer. And, as the photo shows, the lines can be long, especially for people buying with nonconvertible pesos. The line looks jagged, because Coppelia has a different way of doing this than we have in the U.S. When you show up, you shout “Ultima!” or “Last!” The last person in line raises his or her hand, letting you know who you follow. While you are waiting for that person to reach the window, you can wander around, go to the restroom, or just sit around waiting. But you don’t have to stand in line. When the other guy shows up at the window, you just fall in behind him.

Given the opening of relations with Cuba, it is likely that foreign ice cream chains will want into the Cuban market. How will Coppelia survive if it has to compete with well-run companies like Ben and Jerry or Dairy Queen? Customers at a well-run Ben and Jerry Ice Cream Shop probably won't put up with the long lines at Coppelia.

This problem will expand beyond Copelia. As Cuba engages more fully with the world, the government will lose its ability to protect its state-run industries from competition, Huge swaths of the economy will come under pressure.