Each is complete with a swimming pool and would grace the most luxurious resorts in the south of Europe. By contrast the Cubans live to a large extent off their ration cards. Not everything from the card is accessible. But their sugar intake is enormous. We had to smile when we were told that six pounds of sugar per person per month was not enough.
Housing too is at a premium.
Not unnaturally and because of the heat and humidity, peopie spend their time on the street and round every doorway. Most people in the cities live in old tenement blocks and high rise flats. In the country we saw many small single-storey houses and sometimes ofprefabricated bungalows. A farmhouse in the heart of the country that we visited was a wooden frame construction. The sides were covered by thick overlapping palm leaves and the roof was made of heavy thatch.