You're welcome.

Like, I suspect, any country with a social and political history as complex as its own, Cuba is full of contradictions that affect everyday life. I found the people very friendly, and as a nation it's a very proud culture, very homogeneous - no native Cubans survived the Spanish Conquest; Havana is full of life, bustling with energy at every corner, and you immediately feel at once welcomed and intrusive, the former because it's very touristy anyway and the latter probably due to some personal, West-determined 'guilt'. There's begging everywhere, despite basic provisions being catered for - education, healthcare, food, shelter; whilst everyone gets their basic food supplies paid for (so I understand), storage can be a problem because something as simple as a fridge can be too expensive to buy; similarly, the housing is often cramped and very, very basic; maintenance of the old American cars is cheaper than buying a new Chinese car - hence why you see old vintage Chevys with tape keeping the windows in. Etc.

I haven't lived there as a citizen, of course, so anything beyond that would be open to inaccuracy and insensitivity; I do think that while you can get approached by beggars and 'street performers' (artists, posers, etc.) at every opportunity, as well as people wanting or willing to sell you just about anything you're willing or wanting to buy, as a busy, capital city, Havana seems very safe. Its people are 'happy'.

That sounds immediately condescending to me and I don't wish it to.

As far as the hotel complex I stayed in in Varadero goes, it was quite backward. Basic, everyday maintenance of stock was poor - though quite normal, I've read. I stayed in an all-inclusive, for instance, but it would often run out of mint, so you couldn't order a Mohito; its many beer taps would be broken thus warm. Its public sanitation was horrid; its staff are underpaid and work very hard at what they do. I understand there's some social disconnect - a jealousy of sorts - between those working in the tourist service industry and those who do not.

There was a central buffet restaurant at the hotel but it also offered two pre-booking dining rooms. There was a dining rule to these that required men to wear long trousers at all times, which was kept to rigorously - people would be turned away if they were in shorts. Quite an absurd, curiously old-fashioned rule, and a frustrating request given the heat (who wants to wear trousers in such humid conditions?); very ironic too, considering the common absence of adequate public sanitation.