The Scam
(Please note our proper Cuba entry is below this one - probably more interesting!)
The event we now refer to as ¨the scam¨was such a significant event for us in Cuba that we decided it justified a separate blog entry. This may seem longwinded, and may be very boring for you all, but you can skip it and we need to get it out..
At the outset we would like to emphasise that we are not sucked in easily. When we are harassed for stuff on the street (far too often) our responses range from ¨no grassy-ass¨, ¨tu mama es gai¨ or giving the gross male prostitutes stickers that say ¨inappropriado¨ (thanks rae and kez, they went down a treat!)
So here the story begins. On our first full day in Cuba, we decided to wander down into the historical centre of Havana and get a feel for the quaint old town. We had looked at a few museums and sights before we had a rest in the Park. We deftly fended off a few male hustlers and were just checking our lonely planet map for our next stop (yes ok, we looked like blatant tourists, but its not hard with two blondes). A few of these hustlers had mentioned a salsa festival, but they were too dodgy for us to talk to.
As we were about to leave, this couple kind of wandered past and randomly asked us a few questions. They were very interested in New Zealand because she ¨worked¨in a hotel and saw a lot of Kiwis blah blah blah. After a bit of chatting they were about to head off when they said we were ¨lucky¨ to be in Havana on the public holiday recognising the death of the founder of the Buena Vista Social Club, asking whether we had been to the salsa festival yet. Wow, salsa festival we thought, it must be legit as everyone is now talking about it. They pointed us in the right direction, but when we asked exactly where they said they could show us, it was only a couple of minutes away.
So off we wandered, where they talked to us about how friendly Cubans are, how it is safe and going to New Zealand is their dream. We thought, yeah these guys are way friendly - go Cuba!
Eventually we got to the salsa festival. Which is funny, cos rather than looking like a festival, it looked more like a restaurant with a ripped off DVD of the Buena Vista Social Club playing loudly. But hey, we´ll give it a go. Next our new best friends ordered us some mojitos. Which was also funny, cos rather than looking like the mojitos we had already had, they looked and tasted like Coke. Hmmm.
It was at this stage that the ever astute Jacky noticed that each table in this festival had a couple of cubans with however many Gringos there was....Hmmmmmm. Then our friends off-handedly mentioned something about the ¨Chabito¨currency. We got a bit confused, as we knew Cuba had two currencies - the local peso and the convertible peso. ¨But no¨ our new best friends cried, ¨don´t you know about the chabito, its the third type of currency, and there is two chabitos to each convertible....everytime you are told a convertible price you can pay in chabitos.....you are being ripped off if you don´t go and swap convertibles for chabitos at the Centro Banco¨¨.
We never knew! We hate being ripped off (as you may be able to tell by this rant). What was a little odd is that the Centro Bank wasn't on our map...This discovery was interrupted by the bill, a whopping $27CUC (equiv to the US dollars), which our outcry reduced to $22.. ¨But don´t you see" they told us "if you had chabitos you could just pay half¨!! Our lady best friend told us that because she worked in a hotel, she could go and get half of the bill back, so that it could be changed into twice as many chabitos and everyone would be happy campers. She told us to wait outside with our male best friend while she worked her hospo magic!
So we did, and she returned triumphantly with our 10CUC, we were stoked - it must be true!! Our new best friends then told us we had to get to the Centro Bank that day, as it was public holidays for the next 7 days (over new years etc). We didn't have any money to change though, so told them that we had to go back to our casa and would go later. They told us they would come and we were like I don't think so new best friends, you´re not coming anywhere with us...this is when they stopped being our best friends and got a bit angry with us. She told us that we had to get back the 10CUC so she could get her Hotel ID back.
And the penny dropped (or in this case it was in fact a chabito). We had totally been had and the whole thing (the stories, the restaurant, everything) was just a big way to rip off foreigners - stink!
But, because we are tight, vengeful kiwis, the story does not end there. Instead of getting over the fact we had lost 20 dollars, we decided to get even. The next day, we revisited the non-festival. We went in, couldn't see our ex-best friends, but saw the scam in full swing - mostly with couples, approaching couples. So we approached a couple of foreigners on their way in and told them they were being ripped off - boy did that feel good.
Over the next couple of days, we would always go past the non-festival, and got approached time after time. We took great pleasure out of wasting the scammers time and getting
smart to them. Its funny, even after we told one of them we had been ripped off there the day before, she tried to tell us it was a different salsa festival! We don't think so you dirty rotten scammer.
Just before we left Cuba, we learnt from an actual friendly Cuban that apparently there is three or four of these ¨salsa festivals¨ set up to get some money out of the foreigners (and they pay a wee bit of that money to the cops to keep it all running). So I guess at least we weren´t the only gullible ones...and at least we wrecked some of their other scams...Muhahahahahaha.
The event we now refer to as ¨the scam¨was such a significant event for us in Cuba that we decided it justified a separate blog entry. This may seem longwinded, and may be very boring for you all, but you can skip it and we need to get it out..
At the outset we would like to emphasise that we are not sucked in easily. When we are harassed for stuff on the street (far too often) our responses range from ¨no grassy-ass¨, ¨tu mama es gai¨ or giving the gross male prostitutes stickers that say ¨inappropriado¨ (thanks rae and kez, they went down a treat!)
So here the story begins. On our first full day in Cuba, we decided to wander down into the historical centre of Havana and get a feel for the quaint old town. We had looked at a few museums and sights before we had a rest in the Park. We deftly fended off a few male hustlers and were just checking our lonely planet map for our next stop (yes ok, we looked like blatant tourists, but its not hard with two blondes). A few of these hustlers had mentioned a salsa festival, but they were too dodgy for us to talk to.
As we were about to leave, this couple kind of wandered past and randomly asked us a few questions. They were very interested in New Zealand because she ¨worked¨in a hotel and saw a lot of Kiwis blah blah blah. After a bit of chatting they were about to head off when they said we were ¨lucky¨ to be in Havana on the public holiday recognising the death of the founder of the Buena Vista Social Club, asking whether we had been to the salsa festival yet. Wow, salsa festival we thought, it must be legit as everyone is now talking about it. They pointed us in the right direction, but when we asked exactly where they said they could show us, it was only a couple of minutes away.
So off we wandered, where they talked to us about how friendly Cubans are, how it is safe and going to New Zealand is their dream. We thought, yeah these guys are way friendly - go Cuba!
Eventually we got to the salsa festival. Which is funny, cos rather than looking like a festival, it looked more like a restaurant with a ripped off DVD of the Buena Vista Social Club playing loudly. But hey, we´ll give it a go. Next our new best friends ordered us some mojitos. Which was also funny, cos rather than looking like the mojitos we had already had, they looked and tasted like Coke. Hmmm.
It was at this stage that the ever astute Jacky noticed that each table in this festival had a couple of cubans with however many Gringos there was....Hmmmmmm. Then our friends off-handedly mentioned something about the ¨Chabito¨currency. We got a bit confused, as we knew Cuba had two currencies - the local peso and the convertible peso. ¨But no¨ our new best friends cried, ¨don´t you know about the chabito, its the third type of currency, and there is two chabitos to each convertible....everytime you are told a convertible price you can pay in chabitos.....you are being ripped off if you don´t go and swap convertibles for chabitos at the Centro Banco¨¨.
We never knew! We hate being ripped off (as you may be able to tell by this rant). What was a little odd is that the Centro Bank wasn't on our map...This discovery was interrupted by the bill, a whopping $27CUC (equiv to the US dollars), which our outcry reduced to $22.. ¨But don´t you see" they told us "if you had chabitos you could just pay half¨!! Our lady best friend told us that because she worked in a hotel, she could go and get half of the bill back, so that it could be changed into twice as many chabitos and everyone would be happy campers. She told us to wait outside with our male best friend while she worked her hospo magic!
So we did, and she returned triumphantly with our 10CUC, we were stoked - it must be true!! Our new best friends then told us we had to get to the Centro Bank that day, as it was public holidays for the next 7 days (over new years etc). We didn't have any money to change though, so told them that we had to go back to our casa and would go later. They told us they would come and we were like I don't think so new best friends, you´re not coming anywhere with us...this is when they stopped being our best friends and got a bit angry with us. She told us that we had to get back the 10CUC so she could get her Hotel ID back.
And the penny dropped (or in this case it was in fact a chabito). We had totally been had and the whole thing (the stories, the restaurant, everything) was just a big way to rip off foreigners - stink!
But, because we are tight, vengeful kiwis, the story does not end there. Instead of getting over the fact we had lost 20 dollars, we decided to get even. The next day, we revisited the non-festival. We went in, couldn't see our ex-best friends, but saw the scam in full swing - mostly with couples, approaching couples. So we approached a couple of foreigners on their way in and told them they were being ripped off - boy did that feel good.
Over the next couple of days, we would always go past the non-festival, and got approached time after time. We took great pleasure out of wasting the scammers time and getting
smart to them. Its funny, even after we told one of them we had been ripped off there the day before, she tried to tell us it was a different salsa festival! We don't think so you dirty rotten scammer.
Just before we left Cuba, we learnt from an actual friendly Cuban that apparently there is three or four of these ¨salsa festivals¨ set up to get some money out of the foreigners (and they pay a wee bit of that money to the cops to keep it all running). So I guess at least we weren´t the only gullible ones...and at least we wrecked some of their other scams...Muhahahahahaha.
Jacky and Jane looking unimpressed outside the non `Salsa Festival´
posted by backpack warriors @ 8:24 am
3 Comments:
Oh my god! I'd heard so much about this scam that I was worried something really bad had happened to you guys. You lost USD20 - that's it?!! I agree it was a pretty elaborate scam - man they work hard for a measley $20. But seriously guys, it could have been a lot worse!
hehehe sounds like you're having a blast. Hope the Inca Trail is killing ya!
Muchos amor!
Kez
You need to set up a counter scam which involves the Cubans paying for the first round of drinks...
Sux about the scam. You should get them back with a Waitangi Day festival where each non-Kiwi have to provide some koha (which can be in the form of monetary gifts - US currency accepted only) to participate. If they're lucky, they might give up their land too.
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