How Cubans are navigating the US oil blockade with rechargeable fans and solar-powered Chinese tricycles

How to conserve cellphone battery when recharging options are scarce; how to preserve food when the fridge isn’t working; how to cope with the heat when air-conditioners aren’t an option; how to generate power when the whole country has almost none left.

These are the sort of tutorials that have made the Instagram feed of influencer Dayán Marrero indispensable to many Cubans as they try to adapt to the rolling electricity blackouts and fuel shortages that are increasingly part of everyday life on this Caribbean island.

As the US-imposed oil blockade that is worsening the situation bites ever deeper, Marrero and his compatriots are having to get creative. Farmers pasteurize milk over charcoal fires; commuters ride solar-powered Chinese tricycles; tour guides grind coffee by hand for the vanishingly few visitors that remain.

Like his fellow countrymen, Marrero — a third-year computer science student at the Agrarian University of Havana — has become adept at adapting.

Previously, the idea that he might become a content creator had “never even crossed my mind,” yet here he is, in the living room of his home in Caraballo, a former sugar town, promoting the latest must-have items, such as a rechargeable fan that also provides light while he records his videos. And he is successful; one of his most popular posts, a tutorial on how to build an antenna to pick up the mobile network’s elusive internet signal, is approaching 800,000 views.

Still, if he is to reach his next goal as an influencer — establishing a presence on TikTok — he will have to get even more creative, as use of the app is restricted by US sanctions.

Cubans have known for decades what it is like to live without abundance and — while it is true that things have worsened markedly since the US blockade and the subsequent loss of energy imports from both Venezuela and Mexico — people like Marrero are showing there is no scarcity of creativity or resilience on this island.

At 57 years old, Osiris Hernández has spent more than half his life as a tour guide in Viñales, Cuba’s ecotourism mecca. He works at one of Viñales’ main tourist attractions, the Indian Cave, where he operates a boat that carries visitors through waters deep underground and ends its journey with a spectacular view as it emerges from darkness into light.

Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

Cuba’s hotels sit empty as US pressure campaign drives tourists away

The streets in Viñales are clean, signs advertising rooms for visitors are everywhere and there is even a market where artisans sell their wares. There’s just one problem: There are almost no tourists.

Tourism on the island fell 62% from January to July compared with the same period last year, according to official figures.

When Hernández hears a single Chinese tourist has arrived, a smile crosses his face. He is eager to please the few who, despite it all, still come to visit. He has set up rooms in his own home to accommodate them and cooks their food over charcoal, grinds coffee by hand and passes around the same type of rechargeable, light-providing fan that Marrero advertises on his Instagram.

He tells CNN his goal is to provide quality service, whatever is happening with the electricity. Even when the power is down, he says, he has an inverter that converts energy from solar panels for use in household appliances. It allows him to keep at least one freezer running.

Norlys Perez/Reuters

On the outskirts of Viñales is El Olivo agroecological farm, where Osnel Corrales and his family have installed solar panels and batteries to help them produce dairy.

Although they have an industrial generator, they do not have fuel, or at least not enough. On the day CNN visited, they were producing yogurt — pasteurizing the milk first by heating it over charcoal, then cooling it in vats using electricity generated by solar panels.

The farm has a restaurant specializing in Mediterranean food, but there are no customers. Yet they continue operating — the cows have to be milked no matter what — and produce cheese in addition to their yogurt, which they distribute through a branded store in Viñales and to customers in Havana.

Still, the lack of tourists means demand for their award-winning produce has dropped severely and given the shortage of fuel it’s not easy for the few tourists still arriving in Cuba to visit the farm.

The lack of fuel, however, does have one silver lining: Traffic congestion in Havana feels like a thing of the past.

With buses in short supply, a growing fleet of privately operated solar-powered electric tricycles provide public transportation for the city’s nearly 1.8 million residents.

Augusto operates one of the latest-generation models. Not only does it have a small fuel-powered engine but, more importantly, it has three rechargeable batteries. He can connect these to the power grid — when there is electricity — or charge them via the solar panel that serves as the vehicle’s roof.

Augusto, who has spent years driving taxis, rents the tricycle for about 9,000 Cuban pesos ($15) per day, whether or not he has passengers.

It can carry up to six passengers at a time, in a system in which operators have strategically divided the city into routes that take into account the distance they can travel based on battery range and the available charge level.

With or without fuel, Augusto manages to help his fellow Cubans get around every day by relying on a dynamic that is long familiar on the island. Augusto, Marrero, Hernández and countless others have little choice but to figure things out which, in Cuban parlance, means overcoming whatever obstacle is placed in their way.

充电选择匮乏时如何节省手机电量；冰箱无法工作时如何保存食物；空调无法使用时如何应对酷暑；全国几乎断电时如何发电。

正是这类教程，使得网红达扬·马雷罗的 Instagram 账号对许多古巴人来说不可或缺，因为他们正努力适应这个加勒比海岛屿上日益成为日常生活一部分的轮流停电和燃料短缺问题。

随着美国实施的石油封锁日益加剧，局势愈演愈烈，马雷罗和他的同胞们不得不另辟蹊径。农民们用木炭火对牛奶进行巴氏杀菌；通勤者骑着太阳能三轮车；导游们为所剩无几的游客手工研磨咖啡。

和他的同胞一样，马雷罗（哈瓦那农业大学计算机科学专业三年级学生）已经非常擅长适应环境。

此前，他从未想过自己会成为一名内容创作者，然而如今，他却坐在位于卡拉巴洛（一个曾经的糖业小镇）的家中客厅里，推广着最新的必备单品，比如一款既能充电又能照明的风扇，方便他录制视频。而且他很成功；他最受欢迎的视频之一，一个关于如何制作天线来接收移动网络信号（虽然信号很弱）的教程，点击量已经接近80万。

不过，如果他想实现成为网红的下一个目标——在 TikTok 上建立影响力——他就必须更有创意，因为该应用程序的使用受到美国制裁的限制。

几十年来，古巴人一直都知道生活匮乏是什么滋味——虽然自美国封锁以及随后委内瑞拉和墨西哥能源进口中断以来，情况确实明显恶化——但像马雷罗这样的人正在表明，这个岛上并不缺乏创造力和韧性。

现年57岁的奥西里斯·埃尔南德斯在古巴生态旅游胜地比尼亚莱斯担任导游已有半生之久。他在比尼亚莱斯的主要旅​​游景点之一——印第安洞穴工作，驾驶着一艘载着游客穿过地下深处水域的船只，最终从黑暗中驶出，重见光明，游客们可以欣赏到壮观的景色。

Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images

由于美国施压导致游客流失，古巴的酒店空空荡荡。

比尼亚莱斯的街道干净整洁，到处都是招揽游客的旅馆招牌，甚至还有一个市场，工匠们在那里出售他们的手工艺品。但有一个问题：几乎没有游客。

官方数据显示，今年1月至7月，该岛旅游业与去年同期相比下降了62%。

当埃尔南德斯听说有中国游客到访时，脸上露出了笑容。他竭力款待这些即便在如此艰难的情况下仍然前来参观的少数游客。他特意在自己家中腾出房间接待他们，用木炭为他们烹饪食物，手工研磨咖啡，并分发与马雷罗在Instagram上宣传的同款可充电照明风扇。

他告诉CNN，无论电力供应情况如何，他的目标都是提供优质服务。他说，即使停电，他也有逆变器可以将太阳能电池板产生的能量转换成家用电器所需的能量。这让他至少可以保证一台冰柜运转。

诺利斯·佩雷斯/路透社

在比尼亚莱斯郊外，坐落着埃尔奥利沃生态农业农场，奥斯内尔·科拉莱斯和他的家人在那里安装了太阳能电池板和蓄电池，以帮助他们生产乳制品。

尽管他们有一台工业发电机，但他们没有燃料，或者至少燃料不足。CNN记者到访的那天，他们正在生产酸奶——先用木炭加热牛奶进行巴氏杀菌，然后用太阳能电池板产生的电力将其冷却到大桶中。

农场里有一家专营地中海菜的餐厅，但却门可罗雀。尽管如此，他们仍然继续经营——无论如何，奶牛都必须挤奶——除了酸奶之外，他们还生产奶酪，并通过位于比尼亚莱斯的一家品牌专卖店以及销往哈瓦那的顾客进行销售。

不过，由于游客稀少，他们屡获殊荣的农产品需求大幅下降，而且由于燃料短缺，少数仍然抵达古巴的游客也很难参观农场。

然而，燃料短缺也带来了一线希望：哈瓦那的交通拥堵似乎已经成为过去。

由于公交车短缺，越来越多的私人运营的太阳能电动三轮车为该市近 180 万居民提供公共交通服务。

奥古斯托驾驶的是最新一代的车型之一。它不仅配备了小型燃油发动机，更重要的是，它还配备了三块可充电电池。有电的时候，他可以将电池连接到电网；有电的时候，他也可以通过车顶的太阳能电池板进行充电。

奥古斯托开了多年的出租车，他每天以大约 9000 古巴比索（15 美元）的价格租用这辆三轮车，无论是否有乘客。

它一次最多可搭载六名乘客，运营商根据电池续航里程和可用电量，将城市战略性地划分为多条路线，从而确定车辆的行驶距离。

无论有没有燃料，奥古斯托每天都能帮助他的古巴同胞们出行，而他依靠的是一种在岛上早已司空见惯的互助精神。奥古斯托、马雷罗、埃尔南德斯以及无数其他人别无选择，只能想办法解决问题，用古巴人的话说，就是克服一切阻碍。