The Pig Farm

Last month I was apprised of an opportunity to buy a pig farm in Cuba. This is not my idea of a good time, but what I initially heard made it sound like a heck of a deal: $16,000 for 400 hectares. In Iowa $16,000 will buy you four or maybe five acres. This is 400 hectares. A hectare is like two and a half acres, so we're talking a thousand acres. That is more than a square mile. That is a heck of a lot of land. Of course there is the minor problem of it being in Cuba, but still, it's a heck of deal, and surely you could do something with that much land.
   But wait! There's more, though I'm not sure any of this makes the deal sound more or less attractive. The farmer who's been running this place had about 300 hogs. He was only using a small fraction of the land. Looking at a satellite view of the place it looks like there are only a few farms in the general area, and they all look like small operations. (I think farm #4 is the one. (Update: this note seems to be worthless) There are big stretches of unused land between the farms. I thought Cuba was having a hard time producing enough food for their people, and here is all this land lying fallow. Plus one for Communism.
    The couple in Cuba who were looking at buying this farm are older, established professionals. One is a doctor and the other is a teacher. I'm thinking those should be at least satisfactory jobs, even in Cuba, but no, such is not the case. If they were able to swing this deal they would have thrown over their jobs and taken up pig farming. That's pretty damn serious. If you have ever been within a mile of a pig farm you know that they smell really bad. Basically, they smell like shit. I suppose people can get used to anything, but that is one smell I do not like being around. You know, maybe the Jews and Moslems are onto something (they both prohibit eating pork). On the other hand there's bacon. And ham. And sausages. Mmmmm. Hard decision here.
    Being an American citizen, I cannot buy land in Cuba. Actually, I'm not sure anyone can buy land in Cuba. What the $16 grand does is it transfers the right to farm the land to the buyer, and the seller promises to clear out. Not really much different than here, at least as long as everyone plays nice. When they don't, that's when the differences become apparent.
    Being an American citizen, I cannot send any money to Cuba, or if I go there I cannot spend any money. If I had relatives there, I could send money to them, and many people are. Any number of small businesses have sprung up since Cuba and the US both changed their rules (sometime in the last ten years). Things are slowly changing for the better. This current situation looks like a way for all those who got booted out of power (way back when) to get a head start on rebuilding their capitalistic structure.
    You can go visit Cuba directly from the US, but only if you sign up with an "approved" travel agency, which books you into "approved" destination resorts. You can get around these restrictions, but it requires a little misdirection, like flying to Canada or Mexico before you fly to Cuba.

P.S. Don't forget the alligators. There are two ponds on the farm and when it rains the second one fills up, and when it fills up with water, it attracts alligators. What a combo, pigs and gators, all on one farm.

Update November 2024 replaced link to Google Maps. I think the area is approximately correct, but I've lost track of what farm was #4.