That's 6 breads.
- 6 breads. We're entitled to 6 breads.
- Yes, we are. Great, let's go buy bread. - I'm going to put you
on the census to make it 7. To see how a family,
how a housewife or the person who is
in charge of the family in a Cuban household has to do
to be able to get, first, the food and, obviously, then cook. Don't ever imagine
the reality of Cuba if you have never lived it. It is difficult to contemplate everything that happens
without asking yourself many questions. Every day is a different story. With different nuances on this island. Without receiving
a monetary aid from abroad, for a Cuban family
is usually very complicated. Today we will know how difficult and complex
the economy in Cuba. And how the shortage of products,
ironically, is the daily bread. for all Cuban families. In the previous video we saw a real part. Today we will go deeper. To make you feel privileged to even
the coffee and bread you have every day. A coffee in Cuba could be
quite complicated. Since, many times, coffee
is closely related to breakfast. However, breakfast
in this country changes radically. Simply for the sake of getting bread. And we are going to realize
today how a Cuban family, 90% of Cubans, try to buy
a bread to go with this coffee. That, in fact, in this family, they drink it between 3 to 4,
or even 5 times a day. And they have what for?
A beautiful and tasty coffee. Let's see how they have breakfast here in Cuba. Let's see how to shop here in Cuba. How people do magic,
tricks, they do everything, the impossible, to be able to
to buy and eat here in Cuba in this video. 485 CUP went all out. As people buy it there... There is a characteristic
here in Havana, Cuba, which is that most Cubans
start their day on the street. Because, apart from buying
coffee and breakfast, a lot of people have
to stay for a long time because of the queues. And now, we are in front
of a bakery, and to buy bread, only one loaf of bread per person
and each family member. They have to come to these
establishments to make a queue. Which, by the way,
can take between 10 to 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Depends on the time,
depends on the day, obviously. And it depends if you coincided with the time
when everybody decided to come and buy. And for that, there's a notebook. That's 6 breads.
- 6 breads. We're entitled to 6 breads.
- Yes, we are. Great, let's go buy bread. - I'm going to put you on the census to make it 7. Hello, good morning.
- Good morning to you. Ah, that's two. Yours and one other person's. Okay. And each bread is... - 1 peso. 1 peso, okay. Hello, good morning. This is the blessed notebook. And this is the date where
everyone goes to write down the right to bread. There's the bread. And everyone comes
with his package, right? With his bag. What do you call this? - Jaba. Jaba.
- Jaba. It took us
about 2 minutes to buy bread. And now we're on our way
to buy the egg, right, Elizabeth? - Just like that. Is it practically the same process
with the egg, with the notebook, or do you buy this one? - Yes, the same thing. Fortunately, to understand better, every family
here in Cuba has the right to buy in their bodega nearest. But, for that, you have to be on board. It is very unlikely
or practically impossible that you would want to go
to another winery and market to buy what you usually always buy. - If you don't have the supply book. If you don't have the supply
supply book... gee, excuse me... you'll have to go back and do the booklet procedure again. And you have to go to the warehouse
where you're stuck. Wherever it's your turn. Either to buy your bread, your egg
or whatever you get in the book. - I was telling him that I lived here. You lived here?
- Here. Which one?
- In this here. In the same container?
- It was a building. Oh, it was a building and they knocked it down?
- Up there. - The part of the boardwalk
fell down and they gave us a house. - Ah, in other words, you were
moved by the government itself. - Yes, of course, and we were left with a house. And they were assigned a house. And was it easy, was it difficult? - Easy, everything easy. - They gave us a house and we went there. - They found us some trucks and we left. Ah, okay okay. Hi! Hi, how are you?
- Hi, how are you? And she was your neighbor.
- Yes, my neighbor, she lives here. - She's the boss here from...
- Of the land. She's been looking after the land so that no one...
- She sells building materials. One of the most difficult situations that is
welcoming to all the citizens of Old Havana, watch out there, from 'Old' Havana, is the decadence of the old buildings. A clear example
is the one in which Elizabeth lived. As I had already mentioned,
she resided here. And she had to move. This is one more example
of the houses that are falling down. However,
the neighbors put it to good use. Since this became a hardware
store for construction supplies. A piece of land where
there was a building that fell down and the families were moved. Instead of
staying here as a vacant lot. And that a lot of people misuse it, turned into a hardware store where
another family is already working here and generating as much income as possible. - Did you see? Wow. The queue we've got now,
that was very fast, is it always like that? Or is there sometimes a longer queue? - Well, sometimes there is more queue.
When the products arrive, there's more queue. Did the products arrive today or when? - Yesterday. Yesterday. And how do you know?
Do you let each other know? - Sure, we'll let you know. - "The chicken is here, the chicken is here!" And in short, this is what a Cuban breakfast would be like. We opened the bread.
And, plus coffee, we would be practically eating for breakfast
what the government gives you with prices. Because we cannot deny
that the difference in prices is abysmal. It is time to study the Cuban's notebook very well. Through several questions I asked Elizabeth, she was able to answer me
in detail what the study is like. and how this notebook works. That month after month,
Cubans benefit from the products very very economical. Compared to buying it on the street. In the context of Elizabeth, she lives in a family of four. She and her three children. Therefore, it is changing the subject
of acquiring products with another family. Let's see the context
and what we have bought today. We get one bread
for each member of the family. And she has the right to request it
on a month-to-month basis. You can request it every day, as detailed here. We see how the person who receives the notebook is writing and detailing that she received it. Day by day. Then, with the egg, we have
to place it in this part of the notebook. Here we see how month after month
she has a column for a selection of products, in which, when she receives them,
she will be able to put the check. Because you have the right to only once a month. We turn to May and see how she already, at the 15th, because we are
recording a fortnight, a fortnight in the middle of May, she has already been able
to receive her products according to this booklet. Rice, oil and eggs. These products are available every day. She has to ask around,
the same neighborhood. they are going to spread
the word that the egg has arrived. The milk is here, the rice is here. The products have already arrived
so that they have the possibility to claim them in the bodega
where they are registered. And if the breakfast issue seemed complicated... proceed to the next trick. The next tip. To see how a family, or how a housewife, or the person who is in charge
of the family in a Cuban household has to do in order to be able to get, first, food and, obviously, then cooking. In a country and in a reality, as you can see,
where everything is very difficult, sometimes, to obtain
basic necessities, such as egg, milk or proteins. I am not saying that because
I am for or against it. This is seen throughout the stores. and markets. This is what a Cuban says
and what someone from abroad says. And you can see it. So, we will now proceed
to Banco Metropolitano, because the next magic is to try to buy with card. And I said to Elizabeth
"let's try to do absolutely everything today". In order to see how
Cubans have to resort to to get their products. So, we're going to deposit
some money on a dollar card. And go to the stores
where you buy in dollars. It is often said that in these stores you can get products
or you can't get products, there may be chicken or there may not be chicken. It's a coin flip,
we are going to see it now. Let's see, two very important things. Half an hour later, we are still on the line
to the bank so we can deposit the money. There don't seem to be many people, however, the trick here
is to arrive and say "who's last?" so that you can reserve
and then go to rest elsewhere. Like, for example, on the wall and all that. It seems like you just
get to here, to the end of the queue. But, no, they come,
they ask who is the last one and you reserve your space. You can go do something else, and then come. I have brought you to the place
most frequented by Cubans. Where they have a card
and want to pay with dollars. Since a lot of people
agree that, when a Cuban family
has a family member abroad where the dollar is
easier to acquire and send, it makes their life slightly
or a little more, life easier. Since, apart from the notebooks program and the chance that
have a little more money to buy things
in Cuban pesos on the street, they can come here and buy too. Let's see if
there's availability or if there's a shortage. But these are the MLC stores. I've brought them here for you to see. There's a lot of these around here. This is one of them. But the reality is very similar. Will there be chicken? Will there be meat?
Will there be rice? We have these juices for 2 USD. Oatmeal 200 grams, 4.30 USD. Cereal, 3.15 USD. Beer, 1 USD. How much is the big bottle of Havana Club? - The reserve? Yes. - 18.25 USD. - Here we had to wait
for half an hour or 40 minutes. Not because of the queue,
but because of the internet connection. This is another store, let's see the prices. And see if we finally get the rice and pasta. Pasta, 2.15 USD. Rum, 10 USD. Wine, 16 USD a bottle. Peach preserves, 12 USD. 790 grams mayonnaise, 5 USD. Cola, because there is no Coca-Cola here, 2 USD. And to culminate, we have arrived at a warehouse
where you usually pay with pesos. But the prices are high,
according to the Cubans themselves. Here we can find
many things, like onions, like yucca. A very popular input here in Cuba. In fact, Elizabeth knows how to make it very well. Pineapple, we have different kinds of fruits. Eggplant. Good eggplant, I see. Mango. And well, tomatoes, lots of tomatoes. [Conversation] [Conversation] Let's start with the most complicated. In Cuba there is the Cuban peso and the MLC currency. Which is not a physical currency,
but a virtual concept. To which the Cuban government has given
the equivalent value of hard currency, such as the euro or the dollar. That is, one MLC is one dollar or one euro. The currency is not physical, it is only virtual. During this year, the demand for
of dollars in the Cuban streets have been very frequent. And from what I felt, it has free transit. You just have to be careful when you change. It must be with someone you trust. In Cuba they do not want to make it official
that the dollar is necessary. That's why, for international currencies,
they created this virtual currency. In the case of Cuban families
who have dollars in cash and wish to transfer it to their card,
automatically, they become MLC, "free convertible currency". If they receive money
by transfers to their bank, whatever currency it is,
will become free convertible currency. In the case of remittances, there are families that are dedicated to receiving
these amounts of money and send them to your home in cash,
whatever currency it is. If you didn't understand, don't worry, I didn't understand the first time either. Let's take this video well with patience. How do you know that
spaghetti is already cooked here in Cuba? - You throw it to the wall. It's time to make accounts
of the purchases we just made. Because there is a big difference
between buying, obviously, thanks to the passbook and secondly, buying in a store
where they accept dollars. We have seen the prices
that change and vary a lot. To understand how money is
money is handled here in Cuba, the Cubans already have it well managed. And you have to understand that there are two currencies. The Cuban peso and the dollar. The dollar is handled
in cases, as I had already mentioned, that family members send dollars to the Cubans and they can both cash it on the card,
through an interbank account, however, there is a lot of money involved. And the second is that
they send it through a company and the same money,
a Cuban will bring it to your home and give it to you in your hand. It's quite a particular way
of how Cubans do in order to receive money. Mainly from the United States. With the dollars. To understand, the bread here is 1 CUP. The exchange rate is 185 CUP equivalent to 1 USD. However, the bread costs
1 CUP if you buy it with the libreta. Eggs, a jar of 30 eggs
cost approximately 75 CUP. We are still going to go to much lower
very less, not even 1 USD. And for rice, 5 pounds
will cost you about 50 CUP. That, if we add it up, comes out to 160 CUP, that we haven't even reached the dollar yet. If we compare that
with the Cuban minimum wage which approximately goes,
that of a doctor, 30 USD and that of a policeman, 35 USD, approximately as an average salary, you take into consideration that it could equal. But there is no notebook every day. You can't redeem the same thing every day. It is once a month. So how do the Cubans do it? They have to buy outside. And that's where the prices go through the roof. The onion and tomato
we bought cost us 450 CUP. Practically, half a pound of each. And what we went to buy at the dollar store, all cost us 20 USD. It's a trick to learn. It's quite complex. It's time for lunch, since, thank God,
we were able to eat today. Well, it's lunch today! Red noodles, thanks to today's specialist
who was in charge of the cooking. - Joselyn. Joselyn. You love to cook, don't you? Do you consider yourself a cooking lover? - Maybe. - Is it good? It's very good, Joselyn. - Yes, it is? That's awesome.
- Thank you! Great stuff. Very good, indeed. It was necessary to light
a cigarette to explain this. The complex... not complex... Easy and complex for those who know. And for those who find it difficult, it's a little complex. The issue of how to send money. And for this, we have to light a cigar, because, obviously, we are in Cuba, land of the tobacco leaf. A very good tobacco,
that everyone knows it. And he knows it. To explain to them that,
from what I've been told, there are two ways
to receive money here in Cuba. The first one is through the card. It is an easy and immediate shipment. There is a small commission. Sometimes large, depending. And the Cubans get it through the card. and they can already make use of it,
through these stores where you can buy for dollars. Or I think also withdraw them. And secondly, it's the slightly more traditional way. You send money to a company,
this company does the receiving, confirms it,
and the dollars arrive at your house. And they're delivered to you. - Yes, there are a lot of them. But it's rare that they bring them to you, isn't it? - They bring them to me unpunctually. How long does it last? 1 day, 2 days? Maximum 2 days? - Well, this week,
it was mother's day, - she sent it in the morning
and by noon I had my money here. Nice cut, eh! I put on my cap
because the sun is infernal here. Because I'm walking along the boardwalk. But I got into this parallel street. We have experienced firsthand what I consider
one of the most important things I've ever done in my life. And to have immersed ourselves,
in fact, in a Cuban family. Since they get up to buy bread. That they've seen how it's done. Believe me that it is something that
we have left for learning. In other words... Let's see, I tell you, what we have seen today I can confirm that it was the most special thing
I've ever done in the history of the channel. Thank you, Elizabeth,
for allowing me to enter to the most important part of your day to day life, which is the theme of food,
and the theme of family togetherness. We have seen how to buy a loaf of bread, we have seen how to make it for lunch. And even how we got our hair cut. Thank you very much to all the people
who participated in this video. What a beautiful car, by God... Very very beautiful car. That we're already going to have a nice video of it.
- Making a report? Yes.
- Making a report? Yes, is it possible? Thank you very much for watching the video so far. You know you have to subscribe to the channel. You subscribe so you won't miss
the next videos. Because they're going to be much, much better. Instagram, @pasajeenmanoperu. OnlyF*ns, @pasajeenmanoperu. You, just follow me, TikTok, follow me. Thank you very much and see you later! I'm staying here. Or... no, I'm leaving. I don't know.
