Okay. Cuba pictures are coming. Here's why there's a delay: My lappy's default picture viewer has no "resize" feature, so whilst in Cuba if there was a picture I wanted to post, I'd simply take it twice: once in the "printable" resolution, once in the lowest resolution. However, it turns out that many of the low-res shots were still over 100K. But fear not, gentle readers... I have found the Office Photo manager, and have set to work making postable versions of the pictures. In the meantime, here's a Cuban fun fact that segues well into a Tale of Adventure.
These days, Cuba has two currancies. There is the traditional Cuban peso, and the Convertable Peso. The old-school peso is what all the locals are paid in, while the convertable peso is what all the tourists have. On account of being, y'know, convertable. And it's worth 10 or 12 times more than the traditional one. So if you're in a tourism-based job, like hotel staff, taxi driver, tour guide, etc., you get paid in old-school pesos but tipped in the good stuff. This has created some difficulties, as highly trained professionals such as engineers or teachers or architects or what have you are abandoning those jobs to be cabbies and tour guides and hotel waiters just to get a taste of those convertable pesos.
This also means that Havana has bred an unholy blend of panhandlers and buskers.
"Busking" comes from a French word meaning "to irritate people in public without asking." You play an instrument, or sing, or draw caricatures (not technically busking, but will aid the story later)... but you stay rooted in one spot, ply your trade, and if people like what you're doing they'll drift by and give you money.
Panhandlers stroll up to you and ask for spare change.
What they have in Havana is roving gangs of would-be buskers running up to you and doing whatever it is they do and expecting money for it. Perhaps they swarm around you with crude instruments singing the same traditional songs that you've heard all trip and are getting tired of. Perhaps a youth with start determinedly following you along doing a sketch. Maybe an older man will walk up to you as you're trying to rest and start, for lack of a better word, singing. The way Shatner sings. That's all well and good, Cuban people, but here's where you encounter a problem. You can't just run up to random people, do whatever, and act entitled to money. I didn't ask to be sketched, we didn't ask for a song, and my brother certainly didn't ask for a stone-age Mariachi combo to invade his personal space and sing at him. Although that one was kinda funny, since it didn't happen to me. Hee. Anyway, if all you get for your efforts are some Listerine thin mints or a Canadian flag pin... so be it. You want cashy money for your little routine, I'd suggest being less pushy or selecting your marks a little better.
And then there are the Photo People. Some are older ladies, sitting in some sort of costume with a giant cigar acting picturesque. Or the younger ones in bright, colourful dresses that grab your arm and want you to get a picture of them kissing your cheeks. Or that guy dressed as a clown carrying a camera made out of pop cans. You will not see pictures of these people, even when I'm done resizing, because that's their gimmick--you take their picture, they demand money. And unlike the pushy people (which is not to say they aren't pushy), they've got a point: all they're really doing is charging for the use of their likeness, and they've done their damnedest to make that marketable.
Actually you will see the clown guy in the background of a photo called "the French Knight," but he didn't know about it, so it's all good.
I leave you with that for now, as my work beckons and I must make haste. But more to come, and pictures should be resized by the weekend.
"I watched the first two thirds of the M.C. Hammer Behind the Music special, and if there's one thing I learned about money it's that it never runs out!"
-Principal Cinnamon J. Scudworth
These days, Cuba has two currancies. There is the traditional Cuban peso, and the Convertable Peso. The old-school peso is what all the locals are paid in, while the convertable peso is what all the tourists have. On account of being, y'know, convertable. And it's worth 10 or 12 times more than the traditional one. So if you're in a tourism-based job, like hotel staff, taxi driver, tour guide, etc., you get paid in old-school pesos but tipped in the good stuff. This has created some difficulties, as highly trained professionals such as engineers or teachers or architects or what have you are abandoning those jobs to be cabbies and tour guides and hotel waiters just to get a taste of those convertable pesos.
This also means that Havana has bred an unholy blend of panhandlers and buskers.
"Busking" comes from a French word meaning "to irritate people in public without asking." You play an instrument, or sing, or draw caricatures (not technically busking, but will aid the story later)... but you stay rooted in one spot, ply your trade, and if people like what you're doing they'll drift by and give you money.
Panhandlers stroll up to you and ask for spare change.
What they have in Havana is roving gangs of would-be buskers running up to you and doing whatever it is they do and expecting money for it. Perhaps they swarm around you with crude instruments singing the same traditional songs that you've heard all trip and are getting tired of. Perhaps a youth with start determinedly following you along doing a sketch. Maybe an older man will walk up to you as you're trying to rest and start, for lack of a better word, singing. The way Shatner sings. That's all well and good, Cuban people, but here's where you encounter a problem. You can't just run up to random people, do whatever, and act entitled to money. I didn't ask to be sketched, we didn't ask for a song, and my brother certainly didn't ask for a stone-age Mariachi combo to invade his personal space and sing at him. Although that one was kinda funny, since it didn't happen to me. Hee. Anyway, if all you get for your efforts are some Listerine thin mints or a Canadian flag pin... so be it. You want cashy money for your little routine, I'd suggest being less pushy or selecting your marks a little better.
And then there are the Photo People. Some are older ladies, sitting in some sort of costume with a giant cigar acting picturesque. Or the younger ones in bright, colourful dresses that grab your arm and want you to get a picture of them kissing your cheeks. Or that guy dressed as a clown carrying a camera made out of pop cans. You will not see pictures of these people, even when I'm done resizing, because that's their gimmick--you take their picture, they demand money. And unlike the pushy people (which is not to say they aren't pushy), they've got a point: all they're really doing is charging for the use of their likeness, and they've done their damnedest to make that marketable.
Actually you will see the clown guy in the background of a photo called "the French Knight," but he didn't know about it, so it's all good.
I leave you with that for now, as my work beckons and I must make haste. But more to come, and pictures should be resized by the weekend.
"I watched the first two thirds of the M.C. Hammer Behind the Music special, and if there's one thing I learned about money it's that it never runs out!"
-Principal Cinnamon J. Scudworth
Kisses