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RE: My trip to Cuba...Dictatorship and Paradise!!! 🇨🇺🇨🇺🇨🇺
Oh, and what's the situation with the dual currency? (Sorry for so many questions, just my curiosity) I've heard there is the national currency for the local commerce, and then there is a second national currency only for tourists, which is pegged to the dollar. Please correct me on this. By the way, is the dollar accepted at all? I mean unofficially, under the counter / on the black market?
You are correct. I'm going to put an example: If you bring $100 US dollar into the country, you have to exchange it for Cuban dollars. You can't buy with US dollars. (Government gives you $87 for every $100 US dollar) Ironically they value their currency more than the US dollar and it only works inside Cuba. You can't use it outside the island. Also they have the Cuban pesos. 1 Cuban dollar is equal to $24 Cuban pesos (Salaries are paid in pesos). Recently they changed the commerce, and you can use both currencies everywhere.
Of course they value their currency higher than anything else. Reminds me of when I visited Yugoslavia during the war: the official exchange rate at the official exchange places was 1 USD = 1 Dinar!!! Only a couple of years before the rule was: ignore the last four zeros on the dinar bills. Of course everyone just laughed at these "official rules" and used Dollars and D-marks under the counter as if they were the national currency, resulting to the Dinar only whenever they couldn't avoid it.
What a rip off...