Non Communicado (Wednesday 4th February)

International contact in Cuba is nigh on impossible. Wanted to make an international phone call back to Australia so went to the Cuban telephone Company head office to buy a telephone card only to be told that they do not have any cards. Was sent down to one of their branches and, after waiting in a queue for ages (see Sharon at the end), was also informed that they had no cards. After much searching found one at a hotel. After paying 10CUC (about $16AUS) made the call and got less than three minutes. We then decided to use the Internet which costs 6CUC (about $10AUS) an hour only to find there were no Internet cards available – apparently the same company make both Internet and Phone cards – go figure. Again, finally found a hotel that had a card for sale. Unfortunately, the Internet is really slow and censored in Cuba and when I say slow I mean slowwwwwwwwwwwww. It took 40 minutes to connect to Yahoo mail and then we ran out of time before we could send a reply. The hotel staff were not at all surprised or phased when we reported this and shrugged their shoulders as if to say “what’s your problem”. Lucky Havana is such a beautiful and friendly city.