A Cuban documented her visit to the National Aquarium of Cuba during the Summer Festival Pa'Cuba in an Instagram reel and shared a price list that left her followers speechless: pork sandwich at 1,000 pesos, skewers at 1,600, a can of soda between 500 and 600 pesos, and a cart ride for 500 pesos, whereas in other places that same service costs between 100 and 150.
The user @bichota_de_cuba_2712 participated during the fifth edition of the festival organized by the company Conex, part of the Palco Business Group, which took place at the aquarium from June 5 to July 19, 2026, with the stated goal of attracting external funding for the deteriorating facility.
"We talked about the sandwiches with lechón, 1,000 pesos each; the skewers, 1,600; a simple can of soda, 500 to 600 pesos. Getting on a cart and taking a ride, which usually costs between 100 and 150 anywhere else, was priced at 500," the visitor detailed in the video.
The only thing he considered affordable was the entry fee: 50 pesos for children and 150 for adults.
Everything else, in his own words, was "extremely expensive for the prices here in Cuba and for the salaries of Cubans."
One of the most criticized points was the access to the dolphins, historically the main attraction of the aquarium.
«I was told at the entrance that the dolphins were not available unless you enter the restaurant-dolphinarium. A restaurant where, if you eat there, you can see the dolphins. Logically, what are they trying to say? That you have to pay to see the dolphins», he explained.
The meals at that restaurant ranged between 1,500 and 1,800 pesos, and getting to a table had its own cost in time: "To get to the restaurant, we spent, honestly, two hours waiting to get in. The kids were hot, crying, desperate to get inside, but just imagine. We live in Cuba, the country of queues."
The author of the video acknowledged that the experience was enjoyable, but insisted that the prices were exclusionary: "We know that prices are extremely high right now, but there is an aquarium here where some children have opportunities and others do not. Honestly, those prices were incredibly exaggerated."
“If you’re going to the aquarium, my dear, make sure you’re prepared and have enough money, because it’s not easy to go somewhere and keep telling your child, ‘You can’t do this,’ ‘I can’t buy you that,’ because if that’s the case, it’s better not to take them out,” warned @bichota_de_cuba_2712 at the end of her video.
The testimony carries more weight when contrasted with the salary reality of the island.
According to the ONEI bulletin for January-April 2026, the average monthly salary in the business and budgeted system reached 7,074.1 pesos, equivalent to about 12 or 13 dollars at the unofficial exchange rate, while the monthly basic basket exceeds 96,000 pesos, which is about 14 times that salary.
In that context, a sandwich with lechón priced at 1,000 pesos represents about 14% of the monthly income of an average worker.
The pattern is repeated in other recreational spaces. The Jalisko Park in Vedado charges 1,000 pesos per person, which amounts to 4,000 pesos for a family of four.
The Los Caballitos Park in Artemisa reopened under private management with fees ranging from 100 to 500 pesos per ride on each attraction. And a Cuban mother spent 5,600 pesos in a single afternoon outing with her daughter at a private park.
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