Mexico and Cuba are two completely different worlds. Mexico is all built up and Cuba is built down. Simplifying that is that Mexico has big city’s, lots of people and big grocery shops with a variety of food. These are just some of the differences between Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and Cuba’s Old Havana, Vinãles and Trinidad.
First of all the grocery stores and the queuing. I noticed it straight away. When we walked into the central square for the first time in Old Havana the first thing I noticed was the long queues of people outside shops or bakery’s. The reason why you see everyone queuing is because there shops are so small with limited stuff. We went into one of the supermarkets and there was one isle of rum and alcohol, one isle of dry foods such as pasta, one isle of biscuits and chips. Also when we were walking around the streets we would see one shop full of eggs, one shop full of meat, one of bread e.t.c. When I say shop I really mean a room with a door and a counter and whatever they are selling. Mexico is very different. No queuing and about five big supermarkets in each city.
The next noticeable thing would be the local transportation. One of Cuba’s transportations is old American cars. You see them absolutely everywhere. Blue ones, lime green, and we even saw one which was white with pink polka dots. It is amazing how they keep all these old American cars going. We went for a ride in a bright yellow nine seater fifty one Chevy from Vinãles to Old Havana. It was cramped and hot because the car didn’t have air conditioning and the windows wouldn’t open or close so if you were cold you would stay cold and if you were hot you would stay hot.
Another mode of transportation is the old horse and cart. If you were a local and couldn’t afford an old car, you would get around by horse and cart. It’s amazing how fast some of the horses can go. When we were biking in Vinãles a horse and cart raced past us and we reckon it was going 40kmph!! Auntie Bron and Uncle Ross went on a four hour tour of a Tobacco farm on horse back. They got from our house to the start of the track by horse and cart. Auntie Bron had a really sore bum after that.
Mexico is so different. It has all the newest model cars and flash local buses. We got culture shock going into Mexico because of their flash buses. Coming from Guatemala and Nicaragua and all the other countries with there way over crowed chicken buses, then the cheapest local buses in Mexico are first class coaches.
The third and final most noticible thing about Cuba would be the old colonial buildings. It’s cool seeing how much effort and detail that are in some of these buildings. Some of them are so huge and still standing but most of them are crumbling. The government is now restoring them to there original glory. Vinãles is different to Old Havana and Trinidad. It has one big church in the centre but that’s all. The rest is all colourful one story buildings attached to each other. It reminded me of Granada, Nicaragua. Mexico is just a different story again. All modern buildings and with each new building trying to be more flash than the last one.
As you can see Cuba is very old but unique in its own way and is very, very different to Mexico. With transport, buildings and shops Cuba is its own little country.