After 2 years of looking for houses, I have to say that Havana has “great bones”!  It is so obvious that it was a beautiful, rich city at one point.  Now the decay is everywhere—building look bombed out, grass is growing out of the side of walls, streets are broken full of potholes.  The general run down appearance of everything is accentuated by an occasional restored building.  China has now given Cuba billions of dollars to work on their infrastructure and to fix up old Havana.  Around the center of town, scaffolding encases a few of the buildings.  The biggest surprise is the lack of anything in the stores.  The shelves are almost bare.  Meat cases are empty.  People have ration cards and we see them standing in long lines for bread at the bakery, eggs at another store and beans and rice and rationed.  The rations aren’t’ really enough to feed the people but people look well nourished and are certainly not going hungry.  The stores that I have been in will have a few chicken breasts selling for a price that the ordinary person couldn’t afford.  A small box of juice was 2.50 CUC, a bottle of olive oil was 13.5 CUC, but a bottle of rum costs 3.50!