Internet in Cuba c. 2016

After my first day in Havana doing an Internet Drug Deal, I realized it didn’t have to be quite that difficult. The next day Jason and I went to the same area to see if we could repeat our internet deal, however this time there was no one on the ledge. We did figure out, however, that the Internet we were using the day before was being stolen from the hotel next door.

Simply walking straight into the hotel Saratoga and asking for Internet brought us to an official business room where someone sold us a 15 minute Internet pass for 4 CUC that we could use while hanging out in the very comfortable bar/lobby. And to think we got this same thing on the street the day before! People have since told us that was expensive, but we never bought Internet again….and it was a pretty nice bar.

Days later, I ran into a friend randomly in Havana. My buddy Will, who I met in Israel, had been traveling in Cuba for a month already. He told us about the Etecsa/Nauta cards you can buy officially from certain stores. You buy them with various time durations, and they have obscenely long numeric only codes for the username and password. Really good if you want to practice your memorization skills. If you’re in a place with Etecsa wifi, which is in random places like parks and plazas, then you can access the Internet after frustratingly fixing all your typos.

I never bought an Etecsa card myself, but I was told it was quite official and you need your passport to purchase one.

After all of this, I’m not sure what the point is. They still block all the websites they don't want people visiting. From reading a little bit of recent Cuban History, it seems that after Raul became president in 2008 he started slowly making some reforms, one of those being that people can access the Internet in these very controlled ways. Before then it was supposedly more like the drug deal we first experienced.

My experience is just one snapshot of a continually changing Internet landscape that’s accelerating every moment. I doubt it will be like this in the near future, with widespread Internet to soon be common like it is in most other developing countries.

The Cuban Drug Deal

When I went to Cuba people told me there would be no internet. It was true the airbnb did not have the internet amenity checked, and when I got there…definitely no internet. Walking around Cuba usually resulted in zero wifi networks available. However, people told me I could get it from some “guy in a park”.

The time in Cuba came where I wanted some internet, so I kept my eyes peeled for guys in parks. Sometimes I would open my phone at a park and see if the phone found any broadcasting networks, but nothing.

At one point I went up to 2 people who looked sketchy and they had a bag. I said “Wifi? Internet?” and they looked at me like I was crazy and didn’t understand the words. I shuffled away.

I told my travel buddy Jason this internet deal was probably going to go down like a drug deal, and I was looking forward to it.

Then I was walking down the street and I saw a girl sitting on a ledge at the side of a building, laptop on the lap. First time I saw a laptop outside on the dirty streets of Havana. Next to her were a few more girls all on their phones.

I thought, this must be the place of the Internet! Past the girls there were a few guys, I stopped and said “Wifi? Internet?” A few looked up and said no, one guy on his phone with headphones didn’t even look up.

I passed by them and checked the wifi networks on my phone. There they were! 3 unlocked wifis!

I sat down next to the quiet guy with headphones and pulled out my phone. Tried to connect to one of the networks and a login screen came up. I looked at the guy next to me and he had the same login screen on his phone. I leaned over and asked if he knew the login info so I could use it on my phone.

He looked at me and shook his head no, and looked back down. Then he leaned over and whispered 3 pesos with 3 of his fingers held out. I said sí. I tried to give him a 5 CUC bill, he said no. Then he wanted to take my phone. I was hesitant but allowed it. He typed in the code and was getting it to connect but we were out of range.

We had to stand up and walk a few paces. Then the notifications started rolling in. I tried to give him money, still he said no. Jason was hanging out near me freaking out about this sketchy deal, since the guy kept looking around to see if someone was watching.

I had to write my messages standing up with everyone awkwardly hanging out around me, and then the headphone guy put 2 CUCs in my hand. He had seen my 5 CUC bill earlier. I discretely pocketed them, got my 5 bill and did the sketchy handshake.

The transaction was complete.

We also later realized it didn't have to be this way.