Thread by @esooze

Having such a wonderful time in #Havana with @Tony_Tracy on the second day of our six-week-long #Cuba trip! 🇨🇺

Reminded of our earlier travels here in past years (like this video from our 2013 Havana trip).

Much has changed, but much remains the same.

One of the most profound changes in #Havana is something that we’d take for granted elsewhere: widespread accessibility of fairly fast internet (including, over the past year-and-a-bit, high-speed LTE internet by cellphone).

Honestly, LTE cell service in #Cuba is a game-changer.

When @Tony_Tracy & I travelled to #Havana for the first time together for a couple of weeks in 2011, wifi service was unavailable except in fairly pricy 4-and-5 star hotels & resorts, and it was dreadfully slow even then. I remember us paying as much as 5 CUC per hour!

#Cuba 🇨🇺

By 2013, when we were back in #Havana for another couple of weeks together, the wifi service was rolling out in more of the 2-and-3 star hotels, but still slow and expensive. We would often pay 3 CUC per hour of slow internet at places like Hotel Parque Central’s lobby bar.

By the time we brought @Tony_Tracy’s parents & his daughter to #Cuba in Feb/March of 2018, there was widespread internet available in *public parks* in #Havana, #Cienfeugos, #Trinidad & beyond (our casa had a router!) & cost of ETECSA/Nauta wifi cards was down to 1 CUC per hour.

Last year, when @Tony_Tracy and I were in #Cuba for a few weeks in January, they had just introduced 3G internet cell service.

None of the Cubans we knew in #Havana had subscribed to it yet (although all were planning to imminently), and reports were that the service was slow.

In the past year, the Cubans have rolled out very decent high-speed LTE internet service on cell phones.

Certainly not cheap by Cuban standards, by any means, but very reasonable by Canadian cell standards — 40 CUC for 4GB of LTE internet by cell for a month.

#Havana #Cuba 🇨🇺

Widespread introduction of high-speed LTE cellular internet service in #Havana and other major areas in #Cuba in the past year has meant an explosion of growth in a new tech industry and introduction of several new apps for iPhones & Android cell phones that are very interesting.

In what I would describe as a combination of @Yelp & @UberEats (or @SkipTheDishes or whatever), the new *AlaMesa* app for iPhone & Android has restaurant listings in #Havana & other areas of #Cuba… *and* you can order *delivery* from many restaurants! 🇨🇺

AlaMesaCuba.com

Young Cuban app developers released a ride-sharing app for #Cuba called “Sube” over the past year (again, with iPhone & Android versions) that mimics the functionality of @Uber or @Lyft in most respects, and which is in widespread use in #Havana. 🇨🇺

nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1…

We are excited & very interested to see more changes of various sorts over our next six weeks in #Cuba (the next four-and-a-bit weeks of which @Tony_Tracy & I will spend primarily in #Havana while enrolled in Spanish-language courses at the University of Havana for four weeks. 🇨🇺

We look forward to returning to places we’ve come to know & love on this #Havana trip, including the amazing @CubaLibroHavana café/bookstore in Vedado, run by @ConnerGo and her collective of folks… but also look forward to exploring new places.



#cuba 🇨🇺

The amazing Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC — @FabricaDeArteCU) cultural/art/music venue in #Havana’s Vedado neighbourhood is on a two-week break until the the Havana International Jazz Plaza Festival begins in mid-January, as they’ve done in the past.

#Cuba

fac.cu