Our experience was very controlled though. We took an extensive bus tour of Havana, but did not get to explore very much on foot. They took us to the Hemingway Estate for a couple of hours as well. We went back to the ship and had about two hours to walk back to and area of Old Havana if we wanted to explore and see the really cool stilt-walkers and street performers. But we had to be back to go to the Tropicana for the night getting home at 2 am. It really was a whirl-wind tour and then we took off for our next port.
Another complaint. Our tour could have been more helpful about going out on our own than they were. Maybe a map or something. But our day and a half in Havana was packed.
The people are not backward at all, by anyone's standards. Their literacy rate is in the 90's. But the country is very poor and the incredibly beautiful architecture in Havana is now caked in black mold and falling apart and they have no resources to fix it. That is an issue that they talk about a lot.
Also, people there can no longer make it on their monthly allotment; highest in the country is $40 for an MD, $20 for a teacher. Regular people get much less and it's no longer enough to live. Raul Castro has allowed people to open private businesses to supplement their income since 2014. People are doing things like opening their homes for meals, or lodging. One woman asked me if I wanted to come in and see her "restaurant" which I did. She and her son had put chairs and loveseats around the living room for seating and were serving pizza among other things. The pizza looked awesome.
They use the amazing cars, 50's American beauties (about 80,000 of them many still beautiful) for photo ops, or to drive tourists around. Some who have relatives in the US are funded and doing really well with these new businesses.
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