From Christof’s perspective, Havana can easily compete with Beijing or Shanghai when it comes to air pollution. It’s largely due to the old trucks and cars, that have no exhaust filter whatsoever and seem to run on extra virgin diesel oil. It’s pretty bad in the city but obviously gets better on the country side. However, during the entire trip, we were able to smell a truck long before we passed it.

If you’re sensitive to air quality, you should seriously reconsider Havana. Christof got a sore throat the second day. Ruth was fine - after all, health is a mental state...

The situation seems to be born out of necessity, less out of ignorance. Even though Christof complained during the entire stay, Havana and Cuba in general is pretty clean. You don’t see any garbage outside towns like you do in Spain and besides the desolate state of the buildings, the Cubans do their best to keep things clean. Like all major cities, Havana is not representative for the rest of Cuba.