Low-budget guide for CUBA

OP will probably forgive us if we indulge in some jokes amongst the insiders which may be unknown to him. He deserves our thanks for blowing some myths out of the water.

I can see Fantasis Ferries stock going to a new high and splitting two for one in the near future.

Anyone for a KOA franchise in Holguin?

How many social workers does it take to fill a Primus stove?

Lithuanians & other East Blockers are far far more economical travelers than 99% of the anglophones posting here. Brilliant, Augustus!

$USD 465 per person for 40 days is less than $12. per day. THAT'S A RECORD, FOLKS! Now: what's the prize?

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<hr>Of course, sometimes we had to walk out of the town or the village more than 5 km in order to find bushy place where we could hide during the night. Often there are people on the road passing by with bicycles or horses, but it is possible to wait for the moment when nobody is around and run behind the trees.<hr></blockquote>
I'm sure the OP's travelogue will find its audience. If more people travelled in Cuba like this, maybe it would bring down the costs for more traditional travellers.

Sleeping rough is an excellent way to get scabies or ringworm. THAT'S the prize? Yuck.

Dont scorpions & tarantulas scuttle about, in these bushy places? Let's call it "The Frugal Spider" award: translation?

You can be sure the daily ritual of bathing is not part of this low end tour and you can only imagine what the natives are thinking after they've elbowed their way into a crowded camione. : ((

Travelling in this fashion has its devotees I'm sure. But the excitement seems to come from the lifestyle itself more so than what motivates more mainstream travellors. If you read some branches though you will occasionally run across a budget traveller who can articulately defend what to many seems to be the travel world's functional equivilent of homelessness.

OP should explain how he caught the yacht from Mexico to Cuba because I'm betting he's got a lot of his compadres salivating over the thought of gliding over the waves with the cool wind in their face , sailing the seas to Cuba. His account of entering without paying or how and from whom he got the tourist card seems a little sketchy to me though. Maybe things have changed, but I can't imagine Cuban Immigration at a port of all places not having at least some curiousity about a couple of $12 a day travellers turning up on a boat.

Augustas, thanks for your itemized price listing, bus and train tickets are not sold in USD.

Your trip doesn't sound much like a backpacker trip, 1 night sleeping in the bushes, 2 weeks in a casa in Cienfuegos, 11 days sleeping on a boat, other than collecting prices for fruits and veggies and off season prices for accommodation did you do anything else in Cuba?

OP

Be careful with our friend 2025. He seems to be sliding towards his attack mode which could strike any time now as the sun starts to set. He's also our favourite MANIAK, right Jacques?

I'm a little slow on math but everything you have said has added up to me.

I have one question which I have been holding back. What did you do about drinking water? Do you have some sort of filtration system?

to 2025:

We travel with backpacks. I guess, we are backpacking. I don't know what does this word mean for you. You are right, we do not walk in the streets with LonelyPlanet book, neither do what it says.

Our main target of the trip are people. To meet them, to talk to them, to stay with them and maybe keep in contact in the future.

The information we publish on the website provides hints for travellers (not for holiday tourists) willing to reduce costs in Cuba - the country which is designed unfairly to suck money from foreigners.

In Latin American countries our monthly budget is 300 USD for 2 persons. Cuba was more than twice expensive for us. We couldn't afford ourselves to enjoy luxury buses. And, unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy our beloved hitch-hiking, which is not natural for foreigners because of the system in Cuba.

We liked Cuba people and nature which we saw, but not the system which limits the freedom, not only for the locals but also for us.

to davfitz:

We rarely buy water, only if we want to change our plastic bottles. We drink from the pipe. In Mexico in every supermarket you can buy water desinfection drops (small bottle for 1.5usd and lasts for 1 month at least). We used them in Cuba as well.

No bathing = reduced costs, ie, no soap, no change of clothes.