Today my four-day all-inclusive mini break ended, and I arrived back in Camagüey late in the afternoon. I went online for the first time in Cuba to check the bus schedule - turns out the bus to Trinidad leaves at 2:30 am! Well, at least I'll save the money for a casa particular this night...
But the really interesting part was going online. I had to go to the Telepunto, the official representation of Cuba's telephone company (there is exactly one Telepunto in a city with 300000 inhabitants). There, I had to show my passport to be allowed to buy a one-hour access card for 6 convertible pesos (about 4.50€). The card has two fields containing a user name and password. Using these, you can log in to the rather ancient computers. The installed software matches the computers in ancient-ness: the only available browser is a very old internet explorer 6 - which has been modified to allow only a single window at a time. Who needs multitasking?
Of course, there is also no way to print or save stuff to a usb stick... So I had to resort to the good old notebook and pen to jot down the most important bus departure times for the rest of my time in Cuba.
Now, armed with fresh information - the earth is still revolving around the sun, there's no important email, and the current bus schedules are in my pocket - on to Trinidad!
But the really interesting part was going online. I had to go to the Telepunto, the official representation of Cuba's telephone company (there is exactly one Telepunto in a city with 300000 inhabitants). There, I had to show my passport to be allowed to buy a one-hour access card for 6 convertible pesos (about 4.50€). The card has two fields containing a user name and password. Using these, you can log in to the rather ancient computers. The installed software matches the computers in ancient-ness: the only available browser is a very old internet explorer 6 - which has been modified to allow only a single window at a time. Who needs multitasking?
Of course, there is also no way to print or save stuff to a usb stick... So I had to resort to the good old notebook and pen to jot down the most important bus departure times for the rest of my time in Cuba.
Now, armed with fresh information - the earth is still revolving around the sun, there's no important email, and the current bus schedules are in my pocket - on to Trinidad!
