The biggest change you have seen in Cuba over the past 10 years?

[El Presidente]

The biggest change you have seen in Cuba over the past 10 years?

I was asked this question over the weekend and found that I could not bring it back to one sentence or concept.  Before I chime in, I would love to have members thoughts. 

What is the biggest change you have seen in Cuba over the past 10 years?

[Fuzz AI]

Fidel is dead.

[Connoisseur Kim]

End of The Castro Bros Era.

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[Fugu]

47 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Fidel is dead.

 

9 minutes ago, LonesomeHabanoAficionado said:

End of The Castro Bros Era.

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Did it change anything?

[Ryan]

Access to the Internet. By far the biggest change I've seen.

It started a few years ago with people hanging out in wifi hotspots but the biggest change came last December with mobile 3G for anyone with a smart phone.

4-5 years ago, phone calls were the only dependable way to stay in touch with people in Cuba, now most of the Cuban people I know are on Facebook.

Whatsapp and Facebook are now very easy ways to communicate. 

For Cuban businesses, from little classic car tour companies to restaurants/bars even farmers, the internet has been an enormous change. Not too mention AirBnB.

From what I have been reading and hearing, for small business owners in developing countries, access to the internet can increase business threefold.

Proper mobile 3G was launched last December (4G just this month), the Cuban version of Uber (Sube: http://subecuba.com) was launched 2 months later, on Valentines night, in Espacios.

I can't think of another change that comes close, and it's still far from perfect.

Having said all that, speaking selfishly as a tourist, it's a shame to see some aspects of Cuba become so similar to everywhere else.

This was the Gato Tuerto last Christmas Eve.

 

 

[Fuzz AI]

3 hours ago, Fugu said:

 

Did it change anything?

Cuanto más cambian las cosas, más permanecen igual.

Even if it didn't change anything, he wasn't dead 10 years ago.

[Nino]

23 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

Cuanto más cambian las cosas, más permanecen igual.

Even if it didn't change anything, he wasn't dead 10 years ago.

Right on both counts.

The end of the Castro Bros. has not changed anything.

And " The more things change, the more they stay the same" applies to Cuba.

I always thought Cuba had to implode, explode or at least change from inside - and have seen nothing of the sort.

Only change as @Ryan mentions has been the Internet plus allowing Cubans to visit Hotels ( with notable exceptions, apartheid is still strong ) and the growth of private business like Paladares and Casas ( with lots of problems as the system detests private enterprise ...

After some rays of hope caused by the Obama detente all is back to where it was, just a little bit worse off.

So for me the biggest change has been no change.

[Philc2001]

US/Cuba relations were starting to warm up in the shadow of the 50 year-old Embargo, with cruise lines and flights open to US residents. But that's back to cold war tactics again. So basically, no change. It hasn't worked in 60 years, but hey... it might change any day now   ? 

[Ritch]

From what I can the quality of pizza toppings has vastly improved.

Bloody condom pizza. Yes I'm still aghast at this.

[argrovesjd]

10 hours ago, Ryan said:

Access to the Internet. By far the biggest change I've seen.

It started a few years ago with people hanging out in wifi hotspots but the biggest change came last December with mobile 3G for anyone with a smart phone.

4-5 years ago, phone calls were the only dependable way to stay in touch with people in Cuba, now most of the Cuban people I know are on Facebook.

Whatsapp and Facebook are now very easy ways to communicate. 

For Cuban businesses, from little classic car tour companies to restaurants/bars even farmers, the internet has been an enormous change. Not too mention AirBnB.

From what I have been reading and hearing, for small business owners in developing countries, access to the internet can increase business threefold.

Proper mobile 3G was launched last December (4G just this month), the Cuban version of Uber (Sube: http://subecuba.com) was launched 2 months later, on Valentines night, in Espacios.

I can't think of another change that comes close, and it's still far from perfect.

Having said all that, speaking selfishly as a tourist, it's a shame to see some aspects of Cuba become so similar to everywhere else.

This was the Gato Tuerto last Christmas Eve.

 

 

Agree 100%

[Habana Mike]

Yellow cabs and shiny new tour buses. And paint....

[treberty]

Aside from what Ryan and Nino said I would add the fact that Starwoood/Marriott now own and operate a hotel on the island... so is Kempinski... who would have thought that an American chain would have interests in Cuba 10 years ago!?

[busdriver]

The more things change the more they stay the same.  Was sad for the Cuban people by seeing how shortages have increased over the last 12 months and the effects of fewer American are playing out. Internet access seems to have taken a hit as well.  

That said, if looking at now compared to 10 years ago the quality of food has skyrocketed, Cuban - tourist interactions are way more relaxed now that Cubans are allowed into tourist venues, people are a lot more open when talking about changes in the country, and air bnb has been a pretty cool addition.

Still my favorite place in the world to visit and one of the few places I return to whenever I get the chance!

[La_Tigre]

I’ve only been over the past year. I can say the dramatic change has been the cruise tourism. It reminds me a lot of the housing boom and bust. Many people banking on future profits only to find them gone in a hot minute. So many people losing their minds with the sunk cost and no hope for return.

 

We try to help those we’ve befriended and replace what resources we can that we use. 

[Piligrim]

does 3G work well? last time I've been there was last Feb and I used those internet prepaid cards which was not so easy sometimes

[jerrybrowne]

does 3G work well? last time I've been there was last Feb and I used those internet prepaid cards which was not so easy sometimes

3G works fine in Havana. You get sudden and sometimes frequent drops in connectivity in areas with good signal, but aside from that the coverage is decent and speeds are acceptable.

Way better than dealing with WiFi hot spots and cards.


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[CanuckSARTech]

On 10/21/2019 at 6:39 AM, Ryan said:

Access to the Internet. By far the biggest change I've seen.

It started a few years ago with people hanging out in wifi hotspots but the biggest change came last December with mobile 3G for anyone with a smart phone.

4-5 years ago, phone calls were the only dependable way to stay in touch with people in Cuba, now most of the Cuban people I know are on Facebook.

Whatsapp and Facebook are now very easy ways to communicate. 

For Cuban businesses, from little classic car tour companies to restaurants/bars even farmers, the internet has been an enormous change. Not too mention AirBnB.

From what I have been reading and hearing, for small business owners in developing countries, access to the internet can increase business threefold.

Proper mobile 3G was launched last December (4G just this month), the Cuban version of Uber (Sube: http://subecuba.com) was launched 2 months later, on Valentines night, in Espacios.

I can't think of another change that comes close, and it's still far from perfect.

Having said all that, speaking selfishly as a tourist, it's a shame to see some aspects of Cuba become so similar to everywhere else.

This was the Gato Tuerto last Christmas Eve.

 

 

 

THIS.  A big HUGE agreement to this.

My first trip, in 2008 or so, if cell phones were being brought in, they were getting looked over in Varadero.  At the time (still is, perhaps?), it was illegal to have something GPS enabled or walkie-talkie, etc.  Back then, people outside of Cuba were already then used to using their cell phones for cameras and everything.  It wasn't so in Cuba.

And like Andy said, the wifi hot spots stuff.  I have some pictures from some of my first trips, along the main arteries near Hotel Nacional and Habana Libre, where people are all gathered roadside for rides, transportation, buses, etc.  Pictures of the same spots over the last few years show 70%+ of people with heads down, in their cell phones, kids to grannies, all chatting and texting away.  

No matter the change in Castro family members, détente or not, open market or not, the country still has the same architecture, lit up by cell phones everywhere.

 

On 10/21/2019 at 9:39 AM, nino said:

Right on both counts.

The end of the Castro Bros. has not changed anything.

And " The more things change, the more they stay the same" applies to Cuba.

I always thought Cuba had to implode, explode or at least change from inside - and have seen nothing of the sort.

Only change as @Ryan mentions has been the Internet plus allowing Cubans to visit Hotels ( with notable exceptions, apartheid is still strong ) and the growth of private business like Paladares and Casas ( with lots of problems as the system detests private enterprise ...

After some rays of hope caused by the Obama detente all is back to where it was, just a little bit worse off.

So for me the biggest change has been no change.

 

Agreed on this too. 

Castro changes yielded not much overall, aside from slight and slow openness / markets / private ownership aspects / etc.  I was thinking / hoping it might lead to more with the Fidel-Raul-afterwards changes, but not much.

And then I was one that was worried that the Obama détente changes would be too much, too fast, for all.  It was a bit, but it was shockingly reversed fairly quickly, and my last trip in 2017 was definitely a noticeable feeling of depression overall again.

I can't remember if it was you, Nino, who said it a while back, or someone else on here...but the problem with the Obama détente, and now the issues afterwards with some of the peelback, is that Cubans "now know what they've been missing".  Just like Cuba was a mystery to many in the U.S., and had this sort of fabled effect, the same was true it seemed from Cubans on the island, wondering about life outside of the communist influence.  So, they've now had a taste of U.S. tourism and the dollar influx that brings, and now they're stuck "going back" to just the "old normal".

[CanuckSARTech]

I would also add, the biggest change is POWER - but not Cuba's.

In a similar vein to what Andy said about cell phones, and internet, and technology.

The island overall is not high-tech (stop your smirking, peoples).  But my first trip in 2008, the resorts in Varadero were JUST finishing with a "high-efficiency" update they were going with.  TVs and air conditioner from the 60's to 80's were all being replaced with brand new LG flat screens and LG high-efficiency air conditioners leased / loaned to them from the Koreas.  Lightbulbs everywhere were starting to get switched out en-masse to CFLs and LEDs both.  The usual brown outs were starting to relax, due to lower demand on their strained energy grid.  And now, with internet, and cell phones everywhere (and the need to change them), and wifi hotspots, etc.  People on the island are consuming technology and power now.  It's being loaned to them by Korea, and other nations, and communist prop-ups everywhere.  Even in the oil for medical stuff with Venezuela (although, I know that is in flux too).

But Cubans are consuming power / technology now.  I'd just like to see their economy blossom more where they create their own more freely (tech, ideas, businesses, etc.)