I was there a couple of years ago, and it seemed the country was already in the late-communism early-capitalism phase that Eastern European countries went throu

I was there a couple of years ago, and it seemed the country was already in the late-communism early-capitalism phase that Eastern European countries went through around 1990. This was especially visible in the tourism industry, i.e. with 'casas', apartments/rooms rented to foreigners. In this market, people were already getting separated into economic winners and losers, as often happens in this quick transition to capitalism. It seemed that people had a feeling what was happening, everybody seemed in a rush to get as much of the tourist currency that's pegged to the dollar, rather than the locals' currency.