More than 20 days without being able to cook due to power outages and gas shortages led a Cuban woman to pay $99 for a cylinder of just eight kilograms. And she wasn't even able to have it delivered to her home; she had to travel to Campo Florido in Havana to pick it up.
The protagonist of the story is Gely la Flaki, a Cuban known on social media who documented in several videos on Facebook the difficulties she faced in obtaining fuel through CubaMax, a shipping company based in Hialeah, Florida.
"In Cuba, even with money, it's difficult," he summarized at the start of one of the videos.
The sentence ended up describing everything that followed. Gely explained that she had been facing enormous difficulties in cooking for over 20 days, caught between the lack of gas and the prolonged power outages that make it impossible to rely on electric appliances as an alternative.
Faced with the necessity, he decided to pay the 99 dollars to get a "balita" of gas through CubaMax.
"I was able to get it through CubaMax, which are really expensive. It cost me a total of ninety-nine dollars, and to top it off, I have to go pick it up in Campo Florido," he recounted.
99 dollars and smaller than the Cuban "balita"
The surprise didn't end with the price. When he finally had the cylinder and could compare it with those typically used in Cuba, he discovered that it was also smaller.
The purchased container holds eight kilograms, compared to the 10 kg of conventional household cylinders.
"Yes, ninety-nine dollars, and wait. And it's much smaller than the original," she commented while showing both in front of the camera.
Gely had tried to convince herself that the significant expense would at least have one advantage: keeping a second cylinder to use as a backup when she could buy gas at a lower price.
But the difference in size also complicated that possibility.
"I mentally prepared myself so that the expense wouldn't hurt as much. I thought: no, I'm going to have another little one ready in case I find it cheaper. I'll buy two. But no, because this one is much smaller than the ones they normally sell," he explained.
Additionally, there are concerns that the eight-kilogram cylinder may not be usable in the usual system for exchanging state containers.
"And obviously, when I give that little empty cylinder for a large one, they are not going to accept it," she lamented.
Users who commented on the videos noted that the $99 would correspond to the initial purchase, which includes the container, while subsequent refills would cost between $19 and $29.
From the state price, nearly 100 dollars to be able to cook
The disbursement reveals the vast gap between the official price of liquefied gas and what a family may end up paying when the product disappears from regulated channels.
In July 2026, the Cuban government set a price of 35 pesos per kilogram of liquefied gas, so a 10 kg cylinder would have an official price of 350 pesos.
The problem for many families is not just how much it officially costs, but actually getting it.
The prolonged scarcity has driven up informal alternatives and purchases from abroad. Between May and June, the "balitas" reached prices of 24 to 50 dollars in the informal market, while in Santiago de Cuba, offers of up to 65,000 pesos for gas and 75,000 pesos with the cylinder included were reported.
In that scenario, paying 99 dollars for an eight-kilogram container illustrates how far a family can go when they need to solve something as fundamental as preparing food.
Without gas and with blackouts: what to cook?
The situation described by Gely takes place amid an energy crisis that has drastically reduced the domestic options available to Cubans.
CUPET suspended the distribution of liquefied gas in the eastern part of the country in January due to supply issues. This August, moreover, a malfunction in Canasí affected the manufactured gas service in seven municipalities of Havana.
The scarcity of fuel is compounded by power outages that last for much of the day in some areas of the country. When both electricity and gas are simultaneously unavailable, cooking stops being a daily task and becomes another problem that families must solve as best they can, even resorting to coal and firewood.
The story sparked numerous reactions on social media, particularly due to the price paid.
"100 dollars cost me two years of gas here in Colombia," commented a Colombian user.
Another highlighted an even harsher reality: being able to pay that amount is, in itself, a privilege in a country where state salaries are paid in Cuban pesos.
"You are fortunate to be able to buy it. The working people will not be able to," she remarked.
Gely also did not hide the disproportionate nature of the spending. However, after more than 20 days dealing with the difficulties of preparing food, she explained that she saw practically no other way out.
"Well, yes, my dear, ninety-nine for a gas cylinder. With gas, of course. The good thing is that I get to keep the cylinder. It seems unbelievable, but it's true. But it has to be done, because how am I supposed to cook?"
Their experience encapsulates one of the harshest paradoxes of daily life in Cuba: having money no longer guarantees finding what you need, but when it finally appears, meeting such a basic necessity as cooking can cost nearly 100 dollars.
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