Changing Money

Peg at the money exchange office

American and Cuban banks are not yet allowed to interact. As a result, we cannot use credit cards or debit cards. Cash only!

You cannot change money until you arrive. At the airport we stood in line at the exchange booth. There is a 10% surcharge to exchange dollars, in addition to the 3% charge for exchanging money from other countries. That's because the Cuban banks must first exchange the dollars with some other country, since they can't deal with US banks directly. 

Cactus "art" outside the money exchange office

We had Euros remaining from our trip to France, Spain, and Ireland in May and June. We exchanged those to save the surcharge on dollars. We received 104 CUCs (Cuban "dollars") per euro. Others received .87 CUC cents per dollar. 

Prices are modest here. A beer is about 1.25 CUCs. Earrings and souvenir paintings are 1 or 2  CUCs.

But there is a two-tiered money system.  The locals are paid in a combination of CUCs and pesos. Cuban stores, as opposed to tourist stores, accept pesos. 25 pesos equal one CUC.  Our tour guides monthly salary was 20 CUCs plus 400 pesos. she said that a teacher might earn about the same and a doctor might earn a few more CUCs but fewer pesos.