Cuba geography facts: Cuba Country Profile – National Geographic Kids – Conoce las especies de Puerto Rico

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Cuba geography facts: Cuba Country Profile – National Geographic Kids

Cuba Country Profile – National Geographic Kids

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The city of Matanzas has been home to many scholars and artists.

Photograph by Evgenia Bolyukh, Dreamstime

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Cuba
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Socialist republic
CAPITAL: Havana
POPULATION: 11,116,396
OFFICIAL LANUAGE: Spanish
MONEY: Peso
AREA: 42,802 square miles (110,860 square kilometers)

GEOGRAPHY

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Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean Sea. Cuba and its neighbors form the Greater Antilles, a chain of islands created millions of years ago when two of Earth’s tectonic plates collided.

Cuba is a long and narrow island. It stretches 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) from east to west, but is only 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide in most places.

High mountains and rolling hills cover about one-third of Cuba. The other two-thirds of the island are lowland plains used mainly for farming.

Map created by National Geographic Maps

Traditional agriculture methods have been practiced in Cuba’s Viñales Valley for several centuries.

Photograph by Massimo Bocchi, Shutterstock

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PEOPLE & CULTURE

The mixture of native, African, and European influences in Cuba gives this island a lively culture that is known around the world. The introduction of communism to the country in 1959 has had a big impact on the people, both positive and negative.

Cuba’s history is reflected in its food, language, art, and, most of all, its music. All year round, it seems as if bands are everywhere in Havana. The main musical form is called son, which combines lively rhythms with classical guitar.

Unlike most countries in Latin America, Cuba’s favorite sport is not soccer. It’s baseball! Baseball came to Cuba from the United States in the 1860s. Many international baseball stars have come from Cuba, and the Cuban national team is one of the best in the world.

NATURE

Cuba has many different habitats, from mountain forests to jungles and grasslands. There are even small deserts. These different ecosystems are home to unique plants and animals found only in Cuba.

Many interesting creatures live in Cuba’s thick forests. Most famous is the bee hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird. Adult bee hummingbirds grow to only two inches (five centimeters) long. The world’s smallest frog also lives in Cuba.

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LEFT: CUBA FLAG, RIGHT: PESOPhotograph by Wrangel, Dreamstime

GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY

Cuba is a socialist state run by the Cuban Communist Party. Cubans vote for their leaders, but the communist party is the only legal party. Fidel Castro was president, prime minister, and commander of the armed forces until February 2008, when he stepped down due to a lengthy illness.

The United States had been hostile toward Cuba since the communists took power in 1959, but in 2015 the United States reopened its embassy in Cuba—where American diplomats live to work with the Cuban government. Soon after, Cuba did the same in the United States.

HISTORY

Cuba’s original inhabitants were the Ciboney and Guanahatabey people. About a thousand years ago, the Taino people from Venezuela took over the island. In 1511, forces from Spain defeated the Taino and claimed the island as a Spanish territory.

The Spanish forced many of the Taino people into slave labor. Most died from overwork and from diseases brought by the Europeans. Hundreds of thousands of African slaves were then brought to Cuba, mainly to plant and harvest sugarcane.

American forces helped drive the Spanish out of Cuba in 1898, and by 1902, Cuba had won independence. But the United States had a strong influence over the island. In 1959, communist revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro, took control.

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Cuba | Government, Flag, Capital, Population, & Language

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Head Of Government:: Prime Minister: Manuel Marrero Cruz

Capital:: Havana

Population:: (2022 est. ) 11,164,000

Head Of State:: President: Miguel Díaz-Canel

Form Of Government:: unitary socialist republic with one legislative house (National Assembly of the People’s Power [612])

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Summary

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Cuba, country of the West Indies, the largest single island of the archipelago, and one of the more-influential states of the Caribbean region.

The domain of the Arawakan-speaking Taino, who had displaced even earlier inhabitants, Cuba was claimed by Christopher Columbus for Spain in 1492. It became the Spanish empire’s most-important source of raw sugar in the 18th century and later earned the sobriquet “Pearl of the Antilles.” Though Spain had to fight several difficult and costly campaigns against independence movements, it retained rule of Cuba until 1898, when it was defeated by the United States and Cuban forces in the Spanish-American War. Cuba soon gained formal independence, though it remained overshadowed by the nearby United States.

On New Year’s Day, 1959, revolutionary forces led by Fidel Castro overthrew the government of dictator Fulgencio Batista. Two years later Castro proclaimed the Marxist-Leninist nature of the revolution. Cuba became economically isolated from its northern neighbour as it developed close links to the Soviet Union. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s isolated Cuba still further, bringing on what Cubans euphemistically call the período especial (“special period”), a time of widespread shortages and financial uncertainty. By the early 21st century, Cuba had loosened some of its more-restrictive economic and social policies, but the United States continued its decades-long economic embargo against the Castro regime, though the December 2014 announcement of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries held promise of the embargo’s removal.

Life in contemporary Cuba is thus challenging, given the limited access to food, transportation, electrical power, and other necessities. Even so, many Cubans show a fierce pride in their revolutionary society, the only one of its kind in Latin America. The protagonist of anthropologist Miguel Barnet’s novel Canción de Rachel (1969; Rachel’s Song, 1991) describes it thus:

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Cuba is a multicultural, largely urban nation, although it has only one major city: Havana (La Habana), the capital and commercial hub of the country, on the northwestern coast. Handsome if rather run-down, Havana has a scenic waterfront and is surrounded by fine beaches, an attraction for increasing numbers of visitors from abroad. Cuba’s other cities—including Santiago, Camagüey, Holguín, and, especially, Trinidad—offer a rich legacy of colonial Spanish architecture to complement contemporary buildings.

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Land

Cuba is situated just south of the Tropic of Cancer at the intersection of the Atlantic Ocean (north and east), the Gulf of Mexico (west), and the Caribbean Sea (south). Haiti, the nearest neighbouring country, is 48 miles (77 km) to the east, across the Windward Passage; Jamaica is 87 miles (140 km) to the south; the Bahamas archipelago extends to within 50 miles (80 km) of the northern coast; and the United States is about 90 miles (150 km) to the north across the Straits of Florida.

The country comprises an archipelago of about 1,600 islands, islets, and cays with a combined area three-fourths as large as the U. S. state of Florida. The islands form an important segment of the Antilles (West Indies) island chain, which continues east and then south in a great arc enclosing the Caribbean Sea. The island of Cuba itself is by far the largest in the chain and constitutes one of the four islands of the Greater Antilles. In general, the island runs from northwest to southeast and is long and narrow—777 miles (1,250 km) long and 119 miles (191 km) across at its widest and 19 miles (31 km) at its narrowest point.

Relief

Groups of mountains and hills cover about one-fourth of the island of Cuba. The most rugged range is the Sierra Maestra, which stretches approximately 150 miles (240 km) along the southeastern coast and reaches the island’s highest elevations—6,476 feet (1,974 metres) at Turquino Peak and 5,676 feet (1,730 metres) at Bayamesa Peak. Near the centre of the island are the Santa Clara Highlands, the Sierra de Escambray (Guamuhaya), and the Sierra de Trinidad. The Cordillera de Guaniguanico in the far west stretches from southwest to northeast for 110 miles (180 km) and comprises the Sierra de los Órganos and the Sierra del Rosario, the latter attaining 2,270 feet (692 metres) at Guajaibón Peak. Much of central-western Cuba is punctuated by spectacularly shaped, vegetation-clad hillocks called mogotes. Serpentine highlands distinguish northern and central La Habana and Matanzas provinces, as well as the central parts of Camagüey and Las Tunas.

The plains covering about two-thirds of the main island have been used extensively for sugarcane and tobacco cultivation and livestock raising. The coastal basins of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo and the extensive Cauto River valley lie in the southeast. The Cauto lowland adjoins a series of coastal plains that continue across the island from east to west, including the Southern Plain, Júcaro-Morón Plain, Zapata Peninsula (Zapata Swamp), Southern Karst and Colón Plain, and Southern Alluvial Plain. Cuba’s most extensive swamps cover the Zapata Peninsula and surround the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos). The Las Villas Plain of the North, Las Villas Plain of the Northeast, and Northern Plain stretch across much of the opposite coast.

Cuba’s approximately 3,570 miles (5,745 km) of irregular, picturesque coastline are characterized by many bays, sandy beaches, mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and rugged cliffs. There are also some spectacular caverns in the interior, notably the 16-mile- (26-km-) long Cave of Santo Tomás in the Sierra Quemado of western Cuba. The main island is surrounded by a submerged platform covering an additional 30,000 square miles (78,000 square km).

Among the extensive cays and archipelagoes ringing the main island are Los Colorados, to the northwest; Sabana and Camagüey, both off the north-central coast; the Jardines de la Reina (“Queen’s Gardens”), near the south-central coast; and Canarreos, near the southwest coast. Juventud Island (Isla de la Juventud; “Isle of Youth”), formerly called Pinos Island (Isla de los Pinos; “Isle of Pines”), is the second largest of the Cuban islands, covering 850 square miles (2,200 square km). It is technically a part of the Canarreos Archipelago. Hills, dotted with groves of pine and palm, characterize much of the island’s northwest and southeast. Sand and clay plains cover parts of the north, a gravel bed takes up most of the southern part of the island, and bogs dominate the coasts and sparsely inhabited interior.

Drainage

Cuban rivers are generally short, with meagre flow; of the nearly 600 rivers and streams, two-fifths discharge to the north, the remainder to the south. The Zapata Peninsula is the most extensive of Cuba’s many coastal wetlands.

The main island’s heaviest precipitation and largest rivers are in the southeast, where the Cauto, at 230 miles (370 km) the country’s longest river, lies between the Sierra Maestra and the smaller Sierra del Cristal. The Cauto and its tributaries, notably the Salado, drain the Sierra Maestra and lesser uplands in the provinces of Holguín and Las Tunas. Other rivers in this region include the Guantánamo, Sagua de Tánamo, Toa, and Mayarí. To the west the most important southward-flowing rivers are the Sevilla, Najasa, San Pedro, Jatibonico del Sur, Zaza, Agabama, Arimao, Hondo, and Cuyaguateje. Northward-flowing rivers include the Saramaguacán, Caonao, Sagua la Grande, and La Palma.

Cuban lakes are small and more properly classified as freshwater or saltwater lagoons. The latter include Leche (“Milk”) Lagoon, which has a surface area of 26 square miles (67 square km). It is technically a sound because several natural channels connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. Sea movements generate disturbances in the calcium carbonate deposits at the bottom of the lake to produce the milky appearance of its waters.

✈ 9 interesting facts about Cuba that will make you want to come to the island

What else can Cuba attract tourists besides cigars, rum, beautiful scenery and vintage cars? Yes, there are other, lesser known things that also beckon to come to the island. For example, juicy Cuban sandwiches are prepared here, the smallest bird in the world lives here, almost all street dogs have a home, and medicine is of high quality and free. We are talking about nine things that you may not have known, but which will make you look at Cuba with different eyes.

Cubans love fresh but fatty food

In the national Cuban cuisine, elements of Spanish, African and Creole cuisines can be traced. The most popular food on the island is rice and beans. It is generally customary to add beans here to many dishes, although they are not prepared so quickly – they must be soaked in water in advance. In addition, Cubans only use meat that has been marinated a few hours before cooking, as they prefer only fresh food.

The national cuisine of Cuba can hardly be called healthy: if it is meat, then it will contain a lot of fat; if potatoes, then they are cooked in a large amount of oil. Bananas here are also loved to be fried and served as an appetizer. It seems that the local people have not heard anything about cholesterol.

Acquaintance with the gastronomic culture of this state is advised to start with a Cuban sandwich. It consists of local bread, roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and yellow mustard. Also don’t forget to try Arroz con Poio, a fried chicken dish with rice and sofrito sauce.

Cubans love to play dominoes in the street

Cubans love dominoes and play with each other right on the street. In the evenings, they gather at tables and find out which of them is better, and other game lovers and just street onlookers come to watch it. In 2003, the country’s capital, Havana, hosted the first World Domino Championship, which was won by a Cuban duet.

There is practically no internet in Cuba

Previously, all tourists who visited Cuba, in addition to describing local beauties, talked about the lack of Internet on the island. Since January 2018, everything has changed – almost 500 public places began to provide access to high-speed Wi-Fi. However, home and mobile Internet is still a luxury for local residents, as one hour of using the network costs about one dollar. So while everyone else checks their social media feed with their eyes open, Cubans start their day with a glass of juice. But who is more fortunate in this regard?

Cuba is famous not only for boxing, but also for ballet

The sport most associated with Cuba is usually boxing. However, at present, the most popular sport here is baseball, and the main pride of the country is ballet. The Cuban National Ballet is one of the strongest in the world. Locals say: “Russian ballet is striking in its skill, French ballet is emotionally rich, and Cuban ballet embodies both of these traits.” The school on the island was founded by Cuban ballet icon Alicia Alonso in 1948 years. She herself danced on stage and taught until she was 65, despite the fact that she was already almost blind.

Sports became popular in the country thanks to Fidel Castro, and today physical exercise plays a huge role in Cuban society. Mothers instill a love for sports in children almost from birth – they do morning exercises with them when the babies are 1.5 months old. Later, children begin to engage in various sports that include the work of all muscle groups. And, of course, the love of sensual, hot dancing helps the locals stay in good shape. There is hardly a Cuban who cannot dance.

Cuba is home to the smallest bird in the world

The bee hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world, found only in Cuba. These hummingbirds reach a length of 5.7 centimeters (with a tail and beak), and weigh only two grams – about the same as two paper clips. Hovering in flight over the flowers, the bird makes 90 flaps of its wings per second. Due to their small size, the bee hummingbird is often confused with an insect.

Cubans use food cards

The average monthly salary of a Cuban is only 17-30 dollars, and the monthly pension is 9. 5 dollars. But local residents have the opportunity to buy a food card for just a dollar a month and get a dozen eggs, a liter of vegetable oil, two kilograms of sugar and rice, as well as some meat, fish and sausages.

In 2016, the Cuban government legalized small and medium-sized businesses (previously everything belonged to the state). These reforms allowed approximately 500,000 Cubans to enter the private sector. In addition, the government takes care of school-age children: it provides students with uniforms for free. Cubans are proud that medicine and education are free in their country.

Stray dogs in Cuba have ID cards

Cubans are very fond of dogs – they live even with families that can barely make ends meet. To protect against trapping street dogs, government agencies in Cuba have “adopted” the animals. Such four-legged animals have names and identification cards that do not give the right to catch dogs. On their necks, you can see a sign with a name, photo, address, and medical information. If the dog loves attention, on his certificate you can find the comment: “Pet me.”

Quality and free medicine in Cuba

Cuban medicine is considered one of the best in the world. It is under the complete control of the state. Medical services for every resident of the country are free – from a doctor’s consultation to the most complex operation. Much attention in Cuba is paid to prevention. Every year, the doctor examines all patients, which helps prevent complications of diseases. Tourists also come to the island in order to get to authoritative doctors. At the same time, the cost of treatment here is cheaper than in similar clinics in Israel or Switzerland.

Cubans are forbidden to slaughter cows for meat

For killing a cow or a bull in Cuba, you can get up to 15 years in prison, while for killing a person – only 10 years. All the livestock of the island belongs to the state, so when a cow goes to another world for natural reasons, it is necessary to call the police to record the fact of death.

Photo: pxhere.com, commons.wikimedia.org, pixabay.com, wired.com, wikipedia.org, scoopwhoop.com, hoa.africom.mil, pexels.com

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55 facts about Cuba – «Coral Travel»

1. Cubans are very sociable people, you should not be surprised by the many compliments on the street (I note, not at all vulgar, but very nice), especially if you are a pretty woman with a friendly attitude. It is also quite normal for a local to start a non-committal conversation with a stranger on the street, simply because he is in a good mood or, conversely, sad.

2. Cuba has a very weak education system. In Soviet times, there was a base of good teachers, who are currently retired without exception. The schools are taught by former high school students with a low level of knowledge, and many subjects such as biology, geography, chemistry, etc. are combined into one subject called “Ciencias naturales”.

3. Only free education exists in Cuba. For admission to any university, you must take three subjects: the history of Cuba, Spanish and mathematics.

4. For Cuban citizens, all medical care is provided free of charge, including dentistry, which is currently not at the highest level, and even such services as abortion.

5. Cuban medicine is considered one of the best in the world. The relatively low cost of treatment attracts numerous foreign patients with severe or rare diseases. Cuba has a reputation not only as a tourist destination, but also as a medical infirmary with a wide base of specialized hospitals and a huge staff of medical personnel.

6. Cuba regularly supplies its doctors on lease to third world countries in Africa and Latin America.

7. Cubans are incredibly clean, they try to take a shower at any opportunity, change clothes at least twice a day and actively use antiperspirants and perfume. Having wet armpits in this hot tropical country is considered indecent and disgusting.

8. I have never seen a more sexy and alluring walk than a Cuban girl. This feature of theirs manifests itself from about 10 years old and continues until 30.

9. Plain Cuban brown cane sugar is moist and smells like mash. That does not detract from its merits, but even gives it a certain piquancy.

10. Cuba still has a system of card purchases, the so-called “Libreta”. The cards allow citizens to purchase essential products such as rice, beans, butter, powdered milk, sugar, etc. at specialized stores at an affordable price. Therefore, no one swells from hunger here, even with meager incomes.

11. The average salary of an average official is about $20 per month.

12. Almost all residential Cuban houses, with the exception of a few high-rise buildings in Havana, do not have glass. Wooden or metal shutters are usually used instead of glazing.

13. There is no high-speed Internet line in Cuba. The island enjoys expensive satellite communications that provide internet to all government offices, hotels and private users. Therefore, most Internet connections are modem, and the speed over a leased line is not much different from a telephone connection.

14. Internet access for tourists is carried out either at the hotel from state-owned computers, with the exception of a couple of expensive Havana hotels that provide a weak wi-fi connection, or from post offices, also on state-owned ones. computers.

15. Private trade in seafood (shrimp, lobster) and beef is prohibited in Cuba. Although in the markets, “from under the floor”, you can buy almost everything and at a normal price.

16. Some products, such as potatoes, beets, carrots, periodically disappear from the shelves for several months due to the seasonality of their cultivation.

17. There is no central hot water system in Cuba. Cubans mostly bathe under cold, although after spending the day under the sun, it can hardly be called cold. Some comfort lovers put boilers or speakers in their homes.

18. Until very recently, electric kettles, toasters and grills were officially banned in Cuba in the name of national energy savings.

19. Every Cuban has the right to issue only one SIM card for a mobile phone. Moreover, cellular communication itself is very expensive, for a minute of talking on local SIM cards you will have to pay about a dollar. There is only one mobile operator, called Cubacel.

20. The most traditional and favorite Cuban dish is “Congri”, consisting of rice and black beans. Served at the table, as a rule, at least 4-5 times a week, together with meat, or without it.

21. Banana is also widely used in Cuban cuisine, various varieties of which are used as a dessert, all kinds of chips and just a bite to the main dish.

22. Cuban alcoholism is different from Russian. On the street it is almost impossible to see a drunk, wallowing in wet pants, or moving along the wall. Drinking alcohol here goes slowly, and the maximum effect reaches only the “slightly under the shade” level. There are exceptions to the rule, but they are very rare.

23. Cubans don’t like to go out when it’s raining. Often this natural phenomenon becomes a reason for skipping work, school, etc.

24. An average Cuban will not go outside without an umbrella on a sunny day. Which in most cases is justified, because an umbrella gives at least some shade and protection on a hot tropical day.

25. With a fairly rich variety of tropical flora, the terrestrial fauna of the largest of the islands of the West Indies is represented by only a few species of winged and all kinds of reptiles and amphibians. Of the mammals, the species of the insectivorous Cuban flint-tooth is known, which until recently was considered extinct.

26. Cuban central channels broadcast without commercials. The network is saturated with educational, popular science and music TV shows, sports broadcasts and the latest in world cinema, the copyrights of which, according to my guess, simply do not pay attention.

27. Cuba’s favorite sport is baseball. Cuban baseball players are highly regarded in the sports world and often poached by American teams.

28. Cuba has a low crime rate due to the complete non-aggression of the population. But even here it is dangerous to wander at night in poor neighborhoods, illuminating the road with an iPhone.

29. The most favorite clothing of Cuban women is denim shorts. On girls you will see short ones, and on older women – knee-length.

30. Cuba has a rather strange contraceptive policy. It is believed that condoms should be used only in case of fleeting contacts and only to protect against diseases, and protection with a regular partner will be perceived as an offensive sign of distrust. Therefore, the number of abortions reaches incredible proportions for such a small country.

31. The Cuban ballet school is one of the most respected in the world. People say, “Russian ballet strikes with skill, French ballet is emotional and spiritually rich, and Cuban has embodied both.” One Alicia Alonso, the world famous Cuban ballerina, what is worth!

32. Cuba is attacked by cyclones. There is even such a thing as the “hurricane season”, which lasts from September to November and rarely ends tragically, because most funnels pass by or dissolve in the ocean. Most Powerful Category 5 Hurricane in Recent Years – Andrew 1992 years old, caused a lot of damage to the western part of the island.

33. During a cyclone (not to be confused with a hurricane, because a cyclone is a torrential and lingering rain) Cubans sit in a close family circle at home by candlelight and absorb goodies bought in advance for this occasion. With this approach, for most locals, the cyclone is something of an unplanned vacation.

34. The patroness of Cuba is considered to be the Virgin Mary, who is everywhere sculpturally depicted towering over a boat containing three representatives of the island population: a Spanish conquistador, an Indian and a Negro.

35. Over time, the indigenous population of Cuba was completely exterminated by the Spanish conquerors.

36. Mixed marriages are not welcome on the island. Moreover, the union of a white woman and a black Cuban is condemned to a greater extent than vice versa.

37. Cubans are notorious dog lovers, in almost every house there is one or even several dogs. Owning a thoroughbred dog is considered fashionable, preference is given, for inexplicable reasons, to the most furry breeds such as Laiki and Chow Chow, small chihuahuas are also numerous.

38. Cats are not particularly pampered here and are not kept at home, so feral and unsociable felines live on the street, stay near garbage dumps and do not come to feast on the local call “misu-misu”.

39. Few people know that the main revolutionaries in Cuba were not two, but three. Camilo Cienfuegos, a poet and colleague of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, was distinguished by his special charisma and love of the people until his mystical death in a plane crash in 1959, which did not have any confirmed facts of its existence and even aircraft wreckage. After the tragedy, Fidel took over the reins of power, and Che Guevara, by all accounts, was forcibly exiled from the country. Today, both of the dead revolutionaries are revered by Cubans, and images of Che Guevara are in great demand among the local population.

40. It is quite normal for a Cuban to sit comfortably on a bench under a tree or on a warm stone on the Havana embankment after work and take a nap. Life passes here slowly, and it is noticeable in everything.

41. Slaughtering your own cows and bulls for meat is prohibited by law here. After the natural death of the animal, it is necessary to declare it to the appropriate service, after which a corpse truck will arrive and pick up the carcass. In case of disobedience to the law, the violator will face a criminal punishment, providing for a solid term behind bars.

42. Massively Cubans visit the beaches only in summer, despite the tropical climate and constant air temperature. Some individuals swim in winter, but this is rather an exception to the rule.

43. At the age of 15, girls celebrate their birthday with special solemnity, dressing up in magnificent princess costumes and taking pictures.

44. Since the overthrow of the Batista regime, the only officially US territory is part of the province of Guantanamo, located on the eastern tip of the island. Guantanamo is a prison for terrorists and international criminals.

45. A few years ago, an epidemic of a deadly disease broke out in Cuba, spread by a common mosquito. Therefore, local authorities have established a special office that fumigates state institutions and breeding centers of these insects. It is not uncommon for a man with a smoking pipe in his hand to interrupt the work of an entire ministry or cinema for a couple of hours while the purge is taking place.

46. Plates with registration numbers on Cuban cars have different colors depending on whether they belong to one or another owner. So public cars are marked in blue, and private ones in yellow.

47. There are two national currencies in Cuba: the Cuban peso and the CUC convertible peso. The difference is that CUC is mainly used by tourists, easily exchanging dollars or euros for this currency, and the Cuban peso lives in the wallets of the local population. Almost all stores sell goods for cookies, but there are a number of places, such as public transport or the market, where it is better to pay with pesos.

48. There is oil in Cuba, but due to the unfortunate location of the deposits, namely in the tourist area of Varadero beach, it is practically not produced.

49. In Cuba, the patriarchal structure of the family flourishes. Easy on premarital relationships among young people, Cubans are very strict about morality and the distribution of roles in the family after marriage. The wife is required to do all the housework and childcare on her own, even if she works on a par with her husband, often earning more.

50. Bachelorette parties and all sorts of recreation apart from the husband is not only not welcome, but is also considered absurd. Husbands, on the other hand, have the full right to leave on their own business at any time.

51. The ability to dance is inherent in every Cuban from birth. Hearing rhythmic music, any local resident, even at the workplace, will dance a little. At night discos, all restrictions are discarded and you can see really “dirty” dances.

52. The most common breakdown of Cuban cars is a wheel that has fallen off due to the severe wear of the suspension, due to the slovenly attitude to technology among the locals.

53. Cuba has a railroad and a motorway running the length of the island. True, rail transport is not particularly popular due to the irregularity of flights and the lack of any kind of comfort.