Text: Martin Pei de la Paz
Photos: Francisco Collazo and Brayan Collazo
[vease abajo para la version en espanol]

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Traveling to another country presents a number of logistical challenges: finding accommodation, learning the local transportation system, making sure you’re safe, and learning local customs, to name just a few. Visiting Cuba presents even more challenges, such as exchanging money, and then, learning about the different types of currency, how items are priced, and forms of payment.

Cuba, with its CUC (shorthand for the “Cuban convertible”, as it’s called), turns money exchange into a science that’s not easy to decipher in one or two weeks. Figuring out the maze of transactions is a task that’s utterly Cuban–and tough, to boot.

Recently, some German friends of mine wanted to have the experience of buying fresh fruit and vegetables at a local market. A chalkboard indicated that guavas were 5 pesos a pound. They paid 10 CUC for two pounds of these delicious, aromatic fruit.

In reality, they paid $240 Cuban pesos, the equivalent of a Cuban’s monthly salary.

Every CUC is equivalent to 24 Cuban pesos. Every CUC is divisible into $0.25, $0.10 and $0.05 coins, facilitating small transactions, quite similar to the US dollar.

Although they were aware of the equivalency, my friends never thought that the national markets would charge in national currency (the peso) and not in CUC (the convertible).

The Cuban national currency (the peso) generates confusion among tourists, particularly as the coins look similar to those of the CUC. Complicating this scenario is the fact that we have a complex system of payment, which one can really only learn through his or her experiences of living in Cuba.

The peso is the currency used by the government to pay its workers. It’s also the currency that’s used to pay for daily expenses, such as transportation, as well as telephone and electric bills.

Oftentimes, tourists pay for services in CUC when they should be paying in Cuban pesos. Many Cubans take advantage of tourists’ lack of knowledge about the currency for motives of personal gain. It’s a common situation in markets that are designated for national consumption.

The system of money exchange gets more complicated and darker still, even for Cubans. For example, if you stop at a store designated for national consumption and you only have CUC, the exchange value of that CUC will only be 20 Cuban pesos instead of 24 Cuban pesos… complex, right? Yes, it is. Returning to our example of the German tourists buying guavas, having paid with one CUC, they would have only received 10 Cuban pesos, instead of 14, the official rate.

To get a better sense of this internal exchange rate, here’s a conversion table used by the Currency Exchange Bureaus in Cuba (CADECAs):

1 CUC= $24.00 Cuban Pesos
0.25= $6.00
0.10= $2.40
0.05= $1.20

The rate of exchange described in the market scenario, which I’ll refer to as an illicit exchange rate, are reflected in the following table:

1CUC= $20.00 Cuban Pesos
0.25= $5.00
0.10= $2.00
0.05= $1.00

Who knows what the reason is for this difference in the exchange rate in markets compared to the official exchange rate, but perhaps it can be explained by two possibilities: one, the ease with which this modified exchange rate facilitates transactions for vendors, who can work with round numbers instead of fractions: 1, 2, 5 and 20, for example, instead of 1.20, 2.40, etc. Perhaps the other reason is that this unofficial yet sanctioned exchange rate allows the vendors to earn a bit more. Nevertheless, I believe that once the embargo is lifted, the system of currency in Cuba will become more simplified.

The incentive for dishonesty and deception with respect to currency exchange is clear: just a few CUCs represent the monthly salary of an entire family. A good salary for a Cuban is 450 Cuban pesos– the equivalent of 19 CUC. It’s not hard to understand, then, why the driver of a private car for hire might take advantage of the ignorance of his passengers– and the perceived depth of their pockets–when charging them more for a trip from Point A to Point B than he’d charge from Point B to Point A when the distance is exactly the same.

The ideal place to change money is in banks or in authorized exchange bureaus, known in Cuba as CADECAS. CADECAs can be found throughout Havana and other provinces, as well as in hotels.

As incredible as it may seem, it’s not uncommon for tourists in Havana to be approached by a local who offers to change their money for them. I’d recommend, however, that you not take them up on the offer; money exchange outside of banks and CADECAs is not an authorized activity, and can end up causing you and the local problems. On more than one occasion, the tourist will receive one Cuban peso for every CUC he changes. In such cases, your money is lost and you’ll have no right or recourse to reclaim it. For this reason, I strongly suggest that you change your money in small denominations at CADECAs, being sure to ask for both currencies (CUC and Cuban pesos), as both are acceptable forms of payment throughout Cuba.

Although traveling in Cuba is safe compared to many other places in Latin America, it’s preferable if you travel with people you know or trusted friends until you’re confident enough to get around on your own.

Good luck!

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Llegar de un pais a otro presenta un sin numero de problemas logisticos: acomodacion, transportacion, seguridad, costumbres, etc. Llegar a La Habana, Cuba especialmente envuelve algo mas que esto como por ejemplo, el cambio de monedas, precios, y formas de pago. Cuba, con su CUC (Cuba Unidad Convertible) como se le denomina por sus siglas o simplemente “convertibles,” envuelve una ciencia aparte no muy facil de decifrar en una semana o dos. Navegar por este laberinto de transaciones es de por si una tarea muy cubana y ardua a la vez.

Recientemente unos amigos mios Alemanes querian tener esa experiencia de viajeros primerisos de comprar en el mercado de frutas y vegetales frescos. En la pizarra aparecia “guayabas 5 pesos por libra.” Ellos compraron 2 libras de estas deliciosas y aromaticas frutas, pagando 10 CUC por este producto. En realidad pagaron $240 pesos cubanos, el equivalente a mas de un sueldo mensual para un Cubano.

Cada moneda de 1 CUC equivale a $24 pesos cubanos. Cada CUC se divide en monedas de $0.25, $0.10 y $0.05 para facilitar su cambio en transaciones pequenas, muy parecido al dolar en su unidad fraccionaria de cambio. Mis amigos aunque sabian su equivalencia en el cambio no se imaginaron nunca que en los mercados nacionales el pago es en moneda nacional (peso) y no en CUC (Moneda Convertible).

La moneda nacional Cubana (el peso) genera en sentido general confusión para los turistas ya que se parecen al CUC al cambiarse en monedas pequenas. Todo esto sin tomar en cuenta que tenemos un complicado sistema de pago que solo se aprenderá con la experiencia de vivir en Cuba. El peso es la moneda con la cual el gobierno paga a los trabajadores. Esta se utiliza para los pagos de actividades diarias: servicios telefónicos, eléctrico, transportes, etc.

Los turistas muchas veces pagan los servicios en CUC cuando deberían pagarlos en pesos cubanos. Muchos cubanos se aprovechan de este desconocimiento para sacar provecho. Esta situación se da mucho en los mercados para consumo nacional.

Este sistema de cambio en el mercado negro tiene otro valor, inclusive para los cubanos. Por ejemplo si te detienes a comprar en un establecimiento para el consumo nacional y solo tienes dinero CUC, el equivalente de este CUC sera de solo $20 pesos cubanos en vez de $24. Complejo verdad? Si, lo es. Ese mismo turista por ejemplo podria pagar por sus guayabas con 1 CUC y le devolverian $10 pesos cubano, en vez de $14 que es el cambio oficial.

Para una mejor idea de este cambio y su equivalencia, aqui esta la tabla de conversiones de CUC a peso cubano en casa de cambio oficia (CADECAS):

1 CUC= $24.00 pesos cubanos
0.25= $6.00
0.10= $2.40
0.05= $1.20

El mercado negro tiene una diferente tarifa de cambio en los mercados de frutas y vegetales. Estos se reflejan en la siguiente tabla de cambio de CUC a peso cubano:

1CUC= $20.00 pesos cubanos
0.25= $5.00
0.10= $2.00
0.05= $1.00

No se cual es la razona para esta diferencia en las tarifas en el mercado negro, pero quizas esta sea por dos razones especificas: una es la facilidad que esta presenta para los vendedores al trabajar con unidades de cambio completa: 1, 2, 5 y 20, en vez de: 1.20, 2.40, etc. Y la otras es por las ganancias que este cambio representa para ellos. Sin embargo creo que una vez las restricciones del bloqueo se levanten se podria simplificar este sistema monetario de cambio.

El incentivo para la deshonestidad van marcado por el hecho de que unos pocos convertibles representa el salario mensual de una familia. Un buen salario llegaria a $450 pesos Cubanos o $19 CUC. Muchas veces una misma carrera en un auto de alquiler privado te cuesta mas en la ida que en la venida, estimando el precio no por la distancia sino por la ignorancia de sus pasajeros y por la profundidad de tu bolsillo.

El lugar ideal para cambiar la moneda a CUC, pesos cubanos, o monedas extranjeras es en los bancos o en las casas de cambio, conocidas por sus siglas como “CADECAS.” Estas se encuentran en diferentes localidades en La Habana y en las provincias, pero mayormente dentro de hoteles.

Por insólito que parezca en La Habana es muy frecuente que alguna persona se le acerque con la intención de cambiarle la moneda. Le recomendaría no hacerlo ya que eso es una actividad delictiva que terminara perjudicandole. En mas de una ocasion el cambio que le harán será de un peso cubano por cada CUC que cambie, robandole de esa manera su dinero sin derecho a reclamo. Mi criterio es que cambie en la CADECA una pequeña cantidad de CUC a pesos cubanos de esa manera ya tienes las dos formas de pagos aceptables para Cuba.

Aunque viajar en Cuba es seguro comparado a otros lugares en latinoamerica, es preferible que lo hagan con personas conocidas o amigos de un amigo hasta que puedas navegar por si solo.

Buena suerte!

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photo: shugyou

After publishing the public shame-on-you, National Geographic article last week, I received an e-mail from Kyle Smith over at the fantastic travel films site, TripFilms. Kyle agreed that American media’s tendency to prey on fear is disgusting enough, but their relative obliviousness to the damage they cause is particularly egregious.

Kyle mentioned that TripFilms has two short videos that show off the other side of El Salvador.

As I watched these videos, I was reminded that as important as it is for countries to examine their own and one another’s social problems critically, it’s also important to acknowledge and document the details of daily life that make less compelling and sensational news bites.

I hope you’ll check out the TripFilms videos. And if you’re heading to El Salvador, take your video camera and submit your own video to TripFilms–they could use a few more El Salvador films for their library!

*To learn more about current events in El Salvador, check out my article on Matador Pulse about El Salvador’s recent presidential election.

Text & Photo: Julie Schwietert Collazo
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If you’re a regular visitor to Collazo Projects, you’ll know that Francisco and I lived in Mexico City for about two years between 2007 and the beginning of this year. (We’d live there still if our residency visas had been renewed).

Mexico City is definitely one of my favorite cities in the world–if not my absolute favorite (though I avoid definitive superlatives), and if you ever read David Lida’s fantastic book, First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, The Capital of the 21st Century, you’ll understand why.

I’m always happy to accept opportunities to write about Mexico’s capital. It’s an overlooked travel destination, which is a shame, both for travelers and for Mexico. My recent series of articles for TravelMuse explains why the city shouldn’t be left off your top places to visit list, and helps you plan a trip there. The guide includes five articles:

The Resurrection of Mexico City

Mexico City’s Top Cultural Attractions

Mexico City All Night Long

Where to Take a Siesta in Mexico City

Buen Provecho: Top Mexico City Dining

If the articles inspire you to visit or if you need other advice, feel free to leave a comment below!

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo
Photos: Brayan Collazo
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Yesterday, I wrote an article about the introduction of the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which, if passed, will allow ALL Americans to travel to Cuba for the first time in decades.

You can be sure the tourism industry is firming up all the logistics (which they’ve been working on secretly for years) that will make it possible for Americans to line up for flights as soon as the law goes into effect. An expat acquaintance of mine who lives in Havana has been consulting on such topics for years, so it won’t take long at all before you’ll be able to flash your blue passport with the eagle on it at any major US airport and hear “Next stop: Jose Marti International Airport, Havana, Cuba.”

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The Freedom to Travel Act isn’t the first bill of its type to be introduced in Congress; almost every year in recent memory a bill proposing this particular piece of US foreign policy be abolished has been put before US lawmakers for their consideration.

The difference this time is this bill might just pass.

There’s a critical mass of senators and representatives backing the bill and a diverse cluster of lobbies and special interest groups have come out publicly in support of the Act.

It’s entirely possible that by this time next year, everyone I know who’s nurtured a desire to go to Cuba will have already been.
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There are lots of questions about the implications of the bill, particularly for Cubans. The blogosphere is electric with people who have been to Cuba, wondering aloud if a sudden influx of Americans will somehow corrupt Cuba.

Will McDonalds and Starbucks pop up on every corner of Havana?

Will the island suddenly start selling cheesy t-shirts with palm trees imprinted on them?

Will our tourist experience somehow become less authentic?

Will those Americans who didn’t visit pre-freedom to travel be considered less adventuresome tourists than those of us who did go pre-FTCA?

Will it even be cool to bring back Cohibas and bottles of Havana Club now that everyone can do it?

And, as an afterthought, how will “exposure to capitalism” affect Cubans?

I get these questions, and I even think they’re well-intentioned, but I also think they’re misinformed and evidence some logical flaws.

First, Cuba has had a thriving tourism industry for the past 40 years without Americans. Why do we somehow think that because we’re not allowed to visit that Cuba has been isolated from the rest of the world?

Cuba’s Office of National Statistics reported that the island had almost 3 million visitors in 2008. Canadians, Italians, British, Australians, and people from all over Latin America keep the tourism industry of Cuba thriving. Many travelers who step foot in Cuba are repeat visitors. In fact, Italians, Chinese, and a number of other European governments and private interests have invested significant sums in improving and expanding the tourism and hospitality infrastructure in Cuba. While the Cuban government has made a number of concessions in order to attract these investments, you haven’t noticed illy cafes spurting up on Havana’s streets like grass between sidewalk cracks.

Cuba has remained Cuban–a quality that is all but indefinable and which has nothing to do with cafes or fast food restaurants– and believe me, no one can take that away from the Cubans I know.

Second, the notion that Cubans somehow can’t handle a sudden influx of American tourists is, I think, both presumptuous and–dare I say it?–neocolonialist. Underneath this argument is the implication that there’s a certain sort of romance to poverty as long as we aren’t living in it ourselves.

We want Cuba to stay as it is right now–charmingly colonial, not modern; crumbling around the edges; its people impressing us with their ingenuity, their generosity and their joy in the face of what we view as constant hardship; with old cars that barely run; without access or exposure to the “conveniences” of modern life to which we ourselves are addicted but which we love escaping when we’re there.

Keeping electronics or brand name clothes of capitalism out of Cuba doesn’t mean that Cubans don’t know about them, or that they don’t already have them. Family members in the US, in Brazil, in Mexico, or in Europe send home iPods, cell phones, DVD players and even flat screen TVs. My stepson can name more brands of clothes than I’ve ever owned, much less heard of, and our 15 year old niece knows when we’ve sent her clothes from K-Mart instead of something from Juicy (which is all the time). There’s already competition among family members and neighbors over these objects even without the formal exposure to capitalism. There’s already the influence of American pop music and Puerto Rican reggaeton in the popular music that fills the air in Centro Habana– you just don’t want to see it or hear it because it doesn’t square with your version of what you want Cuba to be.

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Don’t worry about how Cuba will handle the American bumrush. It will be just fine.

Think, instead, about how you’re going to handle it.

Text: Julie Schwietert Collazo

…and what other PR firms and tourism boards should learn from them.

I don’t have an MBA and I’ve never studied public relations or marketing formally, but I spend a good bit of time talking with tourism boards and the PR firms that work with them. Through these conversations, I’ve learned a thing or two about what makes the promotion of a country successful… or what makes their efforts unlikely to gain traction.

It’s true–so let’s just get it out of the way–that one country’s successful marketing campaign is not necessarily going to produce the same results if replicated by another country. Indeed, a surefire formula for failure is to mimic the strategies used by another country without considering how those strategies might not apply to your country.

For this reason, each country’s tourism board and PR firm need to answer a few critical questions before embarking on any campaign:

*What’s our core target audience?: While most countries would love to corner the entire tourist market, from backpacker to luxury traveler, that goal is overly ambitious, especially for countries that are considered “developing” or which are emerging from recent conflicts. Target audience doesn’t just refer to budget, though; it also refers to nationality, adventure vs. relaxation traveler, and many other demographics. Many countries make the mistake of trying to pitch themselves to every potential traveler, thus diluting their marketing message.

*What’s our main draw?: No matter how spectacular, no country can be everything for every traveler. Even in a country as incredible as Chile–which really DOES have it all–a tourism board and its PR firm must develop a clear focus around which it can build a tagline, visual components, and the spirit of its campaign.

*What are the primary resources our core audience uses to learn about destinations and plan trips? Time and again, I listen to tourism representatives talk about strategies for reaching their target audience that sound incredible in theory… but which are unlikely to be effective for capturing the attention–and then, the buy-in–of their target audience. If you’re investing the bulk of your meager PR budget on trade shows and travel agents, then you’re unlikely to reach the end user.

Let’s take a look at a country that’s doing its PR campaign right: Aruba**.

Photo: atomicshark

Aruba’s target audience: New Yorkers.
Specifically: cold New Yorkers.

At the beginning of winter, Aruba rolled out a print-based campaign whose primary platform was the interior of subway cars. Perfect location: Aruba now has a captive audience. NYC subway riders have an average commute of 45 minutes. Even if they’re reading or zoning out to their ipods, subway riders are likely to give the ad at least a cursory glance.

The ads are incredibly appealing and have tremendous personality. Beautiful, rich colors take you straight to the tropics. For the length of your commute, you can fantasize about what it would be like to escape the cold North and warm yourself on a Caribbean beach.

Photo: animalvegetable

And Aruba makes it even easier to nurture that fantasy… each ad features a smiling local who shares his or her story in their own handwriting. Each anecdote also reveals an insider’s tip about a special place or experience on the island. Smart! The tourism board conveys information without making you feel that the campaign is at all didactic.

The tagline? Brilliant: 90,000 friends you haven’t met yet. After looking at these tanned, smiling people who’d opened up a page of their lives to you, you’re ready to consider them friends! And guess what… they’re real people. I know because Francisco met one of them at the New York Times Travel Show last month!

But that’s not all. It seems simple, but the easy to remember website– www.aruba.com– appears at the bottom of each ad. Go to the site and what do you find? The same smiling people! The same beautiful colors. The same font. Consistency is critical. Any successful brand knows this.

What else is on the website? TONS of information that keeps you on the site– you don’t need to look anywhere else. A community forum where visitors can share their experiences and tips (remarkable transparency). And two other features that seem so obviously necessary but which are all too often overlooked: a search function and language options.

Aruba ads have appeared on other platforms; I saw an ad in The New York Times Magazine, and, as mentioned, the tourism board participated in the New York Times Travel Show. Fine and fine. But what really worked were these highly specific, seasonally targeted ads that stimulated visual interest and personal investment in a country that maybe you didn’t know much about– but in which you were suddenly very interested.

There are other things Aruba could do better: Get rid of the Lewis Black gimmick (a satirist who makes videos about Aruba–doesn’t quite fit with the vibe the campaign has established). Develop a stronger presence on Twitter. Open up a Flickr pool. But it’s definitely on the right track…and other countries should take note.

What countries have campaigns that engage you? What are they doing that works? What could they do better? Share your opinions below!

**I have not met with any Aruba PR or tourism board employees or their representatives, nor have I conducted any interviews or done any formal research about their current campaign. My opinions here are based entirely on my observations of their campaign, considered against the successes and shortcomings I’ve observed in other marketing efforts with countries and officials with whom I do have relationships.