cuba: la habana

Of course I started exploring Cuba with the capital city of Havana. Even though I hadn't been outside (only in an un air conditioned airport and a taxi,) I could feel the heat and humidity. I was really happy to see a mini refridgerator in my room, as I knew I could keep water cold in there. Just before coming I'd bought a water bottle with insulation, so my cold water would stay cold.

After resting up for a few hours, (I wasted hours, but also used the time to finally read my guidebook,) I went for a walk.

Visible from my room was a church, of course that was the first place I visited. Iglesia del Carmen. As soon as I entered I could feel the lack of air circulation. There were fans on columns everywhere, but they weren't moving. I hope they're turned on during worship times.  I'm so used to churches in Europe and elsewhere being nice and cool, this was definitely not the case in this church. I suppose when stone is constantly being baked by the sun, it eventually absorbs the heat and holds on.

Anywho, the ceiling was lovely, painted in several places. Some of the columns had tiling at the bottom, which I loved. The sanctuary was pretty big overall.

From there I walked to the end of the street, which happened to take me to the malecon. Just before the end of the street was a fake waterfall with a Cuban flag waving above it. I'm not sure what the point of it was, but it has potential to be pretty. It wasn't pretty to me because of the trash floating in the water, as well as the lack of circulation in the water that caused algae to grow.

Several cities in Cuba have them, but the malecon in Havana is the one most well known. In all the cities it's basically a walkway along the water, usually guarded by a wall. The walk in Havana is something like 8 kilometers if you start at one end and go to the other.

There are epic photos of the malecon in Havana, as the sunsets are generally gorgeous. There are also epic photos of water crashing over the wall when hurricanes and other nasty weather come along. This is the place where the whole city comes out to hang out at night.

There are families, there are couples, there are people fishing, etc...

It was boiling hot when I started walking, and it was already 1600. It felt like the sun was aiming right for me, or hitting the cement under me and reflecting heat. I saw the rocks on the other side of the wall and wanted to take a photo, but realized the wall itself was really hot, so leaning on it didn't feel good. Plus when I looked over I saw the horrid amount of trash on the rocks, it was not pretty. I did realize that standing and walking on the wall was a lot cooler, (but still hot,) as there was a slight breeze.

I got off the wall and the malecon itself when I saw a statue of a guy on a horse. My map told me this was Antonio Maceo, a Cuban general from the late 19^th century. It was actually a decent sized platz, but there was no shade, so no one was hanging out. I took my photos and moved on.

Instead of going back toward the malecon, I decided to head into Old Havana, Habana Vieja. It was crowded, dirty, and full of personality. I stopped counting the number of men/boys who whistled, catcalled, hissed, (the hissing really creeped me out,) or made other indications toward me.

It's part of the culture, but I don't like it. This is one of the times being a solo female traveller isn't much fun. Those that didn't do any of those actions tried to start conversations, but I wasn't interested.

As I walked along I could see that nearly everyone had their front door open. I inadvertantly looked into heaps of living rooms. Kids played in the streets, people sat on front steps and talked with everyone. It felt like a community.

I walked past stores of various kinds. Most of them were small, selling just a few things. Drinks were the most common, but I also saw stands selling bread, or bread with ham, or bread with ham and cheese. One place sold eggs, just eggs. Every time I walked past a place with food it seemed like I should eat something, but I wasn't hungry. At all.

I stepped around multiple piles of rubbish. Sometimes it was construction/renovation related rubbish, others times it was food, and sometimes it was just trash. None of it was pleasant. I don't know what the city does about trash, is there a pickup? Or do people just have to deal with it on their own?

The buildings had once been amazing, now it felt like I was seeing faded dignity. All of them could use a cleaning and paint job, but those priorities are pretty low for most Cubans. There isn't a lot of money for paint, if the paint can even be found.

Eventually I came to the capital (called Capitolio) building. It looks just like the US capitol buiding, after which it was modeled. The cupola was covered in scaffolding, renovation was clearly being done.

From there I found myself in tourist central. It was still Havana, but it was a bit more spruced up, and most of the people were not locals. I walked along a pedestrian street filled with shops and restaurants geared toward tourists.

Even though I wasn't hungry, I knew I needed to eat. I found a cafe with prices I didn't mind paying, and sat down for a while. My clothes were wet, I felt rather disgusting. The sandwich and juice tasted good, but I just wasn't hungry.

From there I followed another pedestrian street to a platz.

Plaza Vieja is surrounded by buildings that were originally constructed as homes, rather than government buildings. Apparently this is where the wealthiest Havanans lived, and the plaza once hosted public executions. Nowadays it isn't exciting, it's just a plaza with nice looking buildings around.

I walked back up the pedestrian street, then made my way out to another area of the malecon. On the way there I passed a fort, but it was closed. I didn't see a sign listing hours so I don't know if this is normal, or I was just late in the day.

I followed the malecon all the way back to my room, except for the last few blocks, of course. I got to see the whole thing come alive, especially as the sun went down. The sunset was lovely, I'm guessing they get this sort of thing regularly?

I finally got back to my room and pretty much collapsed from heat exhaustion. I read my guidebook for a while, and came up wth a basic itinerary for my three week trip. Then I aimed the fan straight at me and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up thinking I could get breakfast in the house.

This was when I found out I should've ordered it the night before, ooops. She took pity on me and fed me a roll with ham and cheese, as well as a glass of juice. It was totally unexpected, and very much appreciated. I made sure to say that I definitely wanted breakfast the next morning.

My first 'chore' for the day was to buy a bus ticket to leave Havana. I walked to the bus station, which was nowhere close. My route took me through neighborhoods that don't get a lot of tourists, but I think I could say that about almost anywhere in Havana, except for the highly touristed areas.

There wasn't much of anything to see in the areas I walked through, as they had apartment block homes, and very few cars. I did see kids playing in the streets.

At the bus station I had to wait in a queue, which did not seem to move. Eventually I got to buy my ticket, after feeling heaps of sweat drip down my face and back. So gross.

After buying my ticket I was thrilled to get walking again. It was still crazy hot and sunny, but I'll take walking in heat over standing still in a building without much circulation.

My first sight of the day was intended to be the Chinese cemetary, but it wasn't open. From what I could see over the fence, it didn't look very 'Chinese.' (I've traveled in Asia enough to recognize a Chinese cemetary.) there used to be a decent Chinese population on Cuba, they were mostly cheap laborers. They left after the revolution.

I kept walking and found a memorial to Ho Chi Minh. I suppose the communist/socialist folks support each other. It wasn't big, nor particularly memorable.

My next sight was listed in the guidebook: another cemetary. It was surrounded by a yellow-orange wall, entry only through specific gates. The entry fee was $5, which seemed like a lot for a cemetary. The guard who took my money asked where I was from, and asked if I liked Trump. I gave my answer, then he asked if I liked Obama. I gave a completely different answer, and I was happy to know that he agreed with me on both counts.

The cemetary was big. I walked past a communal memorial for revolutionary fighters, which was very nice looking.

I walked past quite a few family tombs, as well as individual tombs. Some were huge, others were 'normal' sized. Some were incredibly ornate, others not so much.

Everything was above ground, which I don't think I've seen before. (Maybe I have, but I don't remember.) The water level is too high to bury people underground.

There is a church in the middle of the cemetary, and while I was walking around I'm pretty sure I saw at least two caskets being carried in. I didn't see massive numbers of people following the caskets, so I could be totally wrong.

I could've spent days by looking at each tomb/memorial, but eventually I decided it was time to go. My next sight was the plaza de la revolucion, which is well known because one of the buildings has a GIANT 'picture' of Che on the side.

One side of the plaza has a big memorial to Jose Marti, a hero of the second war of independence. (The one when the US got involved and essentially kicked Spain out of Cuba.) Marti was a poet, who ended up in exile after the first war of independence, then came back and died in battle.

He was the spiritual leader of the fight, and is one of the heroes and martyrs of Cuba. When I got there his memorial was closed, even the steps leading to the memorial were closed. Again, I don't know if it was the day of the week or my timing, or a special closing. The thing was so big though, it was easy to take photos from a distance.

Of course I took a selfie with the building with Che on the side. Who doesn't? While doing this I noticed at least four soldiers guarding the building. Is anyone planning to attack?

From there I walked home and rested for a while. I could tell I was going to need a daily afternoon break while traveling in this country, due to the heat. Just before arriving home I saw a place with pizzas for about $1.50, which seemed like a decent price. It was cheap for the size of pizza I got, at least in my opinion. They don't have takeaway boxes in Cuba, so you are handed the pizza on a few slices of paper. Since it is straight out of the oven, it's hot. Not so easy to deal with, as the heat goes right through the paper.

After a couple hours I went out again, and walked the malecon for another beautiful sunset. It was a Saturday evening, and there were quite a few neighborhood parties going on. Music everywhere, some people dancing. Awesome.

Breakfast the next morning was 15 minutes earlier than I'd asked, but oh well. My host didn't have fruit, which was a disappointment, as that was one of the reasons I'd ordered the breakfast. Even so, it was plenty of food; heavy on the carbs. How do people eat so much bread in this heat?

My walk to my first sight of the day was supposed to be about 30 minutes, of course it took longer with all my photo taking. My favourite 'find' was an indoor courtyard of sorts with a staircase next to a wall mural.

As I'd noticed the day before, all of the buildings had once looked very grand but were now very faded. I saw art deco, French colonial, Spanish colonial, baroque, etc... buildings. It was around 0900, and kids were out in the streets, stalls were selling rolls with ham and cheese, daily life going on everywhere.

I'm guessing most Cubans don't drink as much water as I need, how are they surviving? I saw a lot of drinks for sale, but most of them were high in sugar; is there a high rate of diabetes in the country?

I arrived at my first sight of the day and was a bit disappointed to see that part of it was under renovation. In other words, my outside picture of the Museo de la Revolucion wasn't going to look as good as I wanted it to. At one time it was the palace residence of various former presidents, so it was pretty spiffy, or could've been.

After paying my entry fee I found out they thought my purse was too big, so I had to check it. It was a bit awkward to carry around my tripod, camera, iphone, and water, but I made it work.

To get to the beginning of the exhibits you climb a central staircase, then hit a side staircase up to the top level. I looked up while climbing the first staircase, and as always, I'm glad I did. There is a cupola up there, beautifully painted and looking gorgeous.

The museum is one of the best in Cuba, with a big about the early history of the country, going up to modern day. But it's also (mostly) one of many about the events that have guided the lives of Cubans for a couple generations now. The socialist revolution succeeded, according to Fidel Castro, but I think most Cubans would now say he took it a bit too far. Anywho, the museum has a lot of photos and descriptions, all in Spanish and some in English. I'd be happy to do translations of all the descriptions into English if anyone wants me to do so. 

There are areas describing certain people involved in the revolution, as well as items they used in their daily lives. Eyeglasses, shoes, uniform, whistle, etc... Some of the clothing displayed had blood on it, some looked really really clean.

There were maps showing the locations of the fighting, as well as how those 'troops' moved in a specific area. There were a few banknotes (used during various times in history and especially during the revolution,) displayed as well.

One of the rooms used to be the president's office. I think I heard a guide say that 21 of the first 24 presidents of Cuba used that office. Obviously, it's a corner office. Near that office is a set of stairs with a glass door. The sign next to the door says this is the flight of stairs Batista used to flee the building when he ran away for good.

On the same floor as the office is the Room of Mirrors, which was designed by Tiffany's, in New York, the company that makes diamond jewelry.

It was designed to look like the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, and I suppose it comes close. It was under renovation when I visited, so I only got to peek in. The ceiling is painted, and I imagine it is quite grand when everything is fixed and sunlight is streaming in. Right now it is a vision of faded grandeur.

As you might guess, all of the information is presented from those on one side of the fight. There is no presentation from the US. Parts of the storytelling seemed much more one sided than others.

In one display they've accused the American CIA of bringing Dengue Fever to the island, I have no idea if that is true or not. The Bay of Pigs is presented as a Cuban victory, and a demonstration of what the Cuban people really wanted.

Just before exiting the building you walk by a cartoon representation of three US presidents and former (US supported) dictator Batista. Each of them is displayed as a character, and next to the character is a thank you. Not a nice thank you, the thank yous are all rather snarky.

Batista's thanks says 'thank you cretin for helped us to make the revolution.' Ronald Reagan's says 'thank you cretin for helped us to strengthen the revolution.' George Bush Sr's says 'thank you cretin for helped us to consolidate the revolution.' George W. Bush's says 'thank you cretin for helped us to make socialism irrevocable.' Let's just say these are viewpoints that will never be presented in the educational system in the US, no matter how much we like or dislike any of our former presidents and/or governments.

After leaving the building, I walked out the back, to the Granma Pavilion. This is where you get to see the yacht (named Granma, the province where it landed is now called Granma,) upon which Fidel Castro and 81 others arrived on Cuba, back in December of 1956. It's 18m long, so not that big for that many people. It is now in a glass building, so you can look but not get anywhere close. Around the glass part of everything are a few tanks, planes, and other assorted items used in the revolution.

Also in this area are four soldiers, in case you want to steal any of what you're seeing. (Though from what I could tell, the soldiers were more like docents at a museum, as they answered questions and told people where not to go.) There is also an eternal flame, dedicated to the heroes of the new country. (I think.)

After leaving the museum, I walked across the street to a church I'd seen, unfortunately it was closed. This happened in more than half the times I wanted to visit a church. Too bad.

From there I spied a statue, a rather grand statue, so of course I wanted to visit. It turned out to be Maximo Gomez, and the statue itself was in a rather large platz, with nothing else. To get there I had to cross a couple streets, I'm guessing this isn't a statue many tourists visit? Or maybe it was just too darn hot to be running around like I was. A police officer must've thought I was lost, because he came out of nowhere to help me cross the streets again. Or maybe I wasn't supposed to get that close to the statue? Who knows. He seemed completely surprised that I was there. 

I walked to the national school of ballet, but it wasn't open. Cuban dancers are famous, it would've been nice to see, although now that I think about it, they probably don't let tourists just wander through.

I walked along the street known as the prado to parque central, in front of a fancy hotel. Nothing much in the park except a statue in the middle (forgot to check who it was.) Between the hotel and the park was a small parkplatz full of the classic American cars used as taxis. Eye catching, of course.

Do people from other countries like those cars as much as Americans do?

I wandered through more of Old Havana, and eventually stopped for lunch. I wasn't hungry, but it seemed like a good thing to do. The food wasn't great, or maybe I was just too hot to care.

I kept walking, over to the front side of the Capitolio. There is a construction fence in front of much of the building, you can't get a photo of the whole set of stairs and building. Too bad. The guidebook mentions construction as well, how long has it been going on and how much longer will it continue?

As I was walking back toward home I stopped at a stand surrounded by Cubans. A guy was putting shaved iced in little cups, then pouring flavoured syrup water over the ice. It looked really good, and clearly I wasn't the only one who thought so. I tried to see how much money was being handed over, but I wasn't sure. After ordering mine, I paid with a 1 CUC note, and counted the change. The guy gave me back 20 pesos, which meant it only cost 5 CUP, or 5 pesos of the Cuban money. In other words, 20 American cents. AWESOME! I got another one a couple blocks down the road.

On the way home I passed a church mentioned in the guidebook, but it was closed. The spires looked pretty fancy, I wonder what the inside looks like.

I got home and rested for a couple hours, which felt amazing.

When I walked up to the malecon this time, I turned left instead of right, as I had the two previous evenings. This time my walk took me past the back side of the Hotel Nacional, which is huge. Pretty quickly I got to the memorial to the victims of the USS Miami.

I have to admit I was suprised to see this, because this was an American ship that blew up; 266 American sailors died in the explosion. The explosion was the official reason for the US to get involved in the second war of independence, otherwise known as the Cuban-American-Spanish war. There were people hanging out on the shadowed side of the memorial, but the sunny side was still way too hot.

I kept walking and got to the Plaza Tribuna Anti-imperialista, right in front of the new US Embassy.

The plaza is filled with flagpoles, they once held hundreds of Cuban flags. These were put in place because when the building was the US interests building (during the years there were no diplomatic relations between the countries,) George Bush Sr ordered a running ticker on the outside of the building to display headlines from around the world. These sorts of headlines were not news the Cuban people had access to, and the Cuban government didn't like the ticker. The flagpoles and flags went up to block the views of all except those who walked by the building, and I'm guessing very few did that. Now the flagpoles are empty, but I took a couple photos anywho.

Also, the US embassy is an ugly building. Just sayin....

I kept walking toward nothing in particular. I ended up on the malecon again, looking at a memorial for Calixto Garcia. I don't know who he is, I should look it up.

From there I turned around, and headed back into the grid of streets. I found the synagogue, which wasn't big to begin with, as the Jewish community in Havana (and Cuba in general,) is really small.

From there I walked until I found the Habana Libre hotel. It was originally the Hilton Hotel, until Fidel Castro appropriated it and started ruling the country from a suite on the 24^th floor. I didn't go inside, but I've read in several places that there are photos from that time still displayed. There is a giant mosaic on the outside of the hotel, very pretty.

On my way to another hotel I got popcorn, again only 5 CUP, or 20 American cents. Yahoo for cheap street goodies.

I went into the Hotel Nacional because I figured they had decent wifi. Cuba does not have wifi everywhere, far from it. And where you do find it, it isn't free. When I found a desk the lady sold me a card she said was good for two hours for 5 CUC, or about $5. I was online for more than 2 hours, but the card didn't seem to run out. Good for me I guess.

The next morning I walked toward Habana Viejo again, aiming for a fancy theatre. Since I didn't have breakfast in my accomodation (she still didn't have fruit, and that was what I really wanted,) I figured I should eat something.

I ended up getting a 'croissant' with ham and cheese from a bakery. So much for having fruit. While waiting in line I could feel sweat just rolling down my back, so gross. I'm glad I didn't want a drink there as well, because I would've had to wait in a second line, and neither line was moving quickly.

I got to the fancy theatre and wanted to take a tour. Go figure I showed up on the one day of the week it is closed. Argh. I should've done it the day before.

I moved on to another 'must see' sight in Havana, the city cathedral. It's on a platz of course, I didn't think much of the outside of the church or the platz itself. I'm probably just a jaded traveler. When I got inside I had to borrow a wraparound skirt because my shorts were considered too short.

I find it interesting that the standards for appropriate dress in a religious building vary so much around the world. In Rome I would've had to cover shoulders and legs. In Ukraine I would've had to cover my head, and maybe my legs depending on the church. In Malaysia I had to wear a cape sort of thing so I was covered from head to toe.

Anywho, the ceiling of this church wasn't terribly exciting, neither was the rest of the church. The altar up from was made of wood, and quite pretty.

Since the church was free to enter, I didn't mind paying 1 CUC to climb the bell tower. (The guy reminded those who were climbing not to ring the bells, of course.) The views over the city were nice, and the breeze felt fantastic.

I walked by the fort I'd seen the day before, but it was still closed. Is it ever open? I could see a guard, but I don't know what his job was, as no one is going to attack the fort anymore.

After that I ran out of things I wanted to see that day. Since the theater and fort had been closed, I didn't really know what to do with my time. I'd checked out of my accomodation in the morning, so I couldn't go back there to relax, though I was able to leave my bag during the day.

Instead, I walked. And walked some more. At one point I was in a platz and noticed a girl wearing the biggest dress I'd ever seen. I overheard some other tourists speaking English, and they said something about it being her quinciniera (sp?) and this being the traditional photo shoot.

Very apparently a lot of money is spent on these photo shoots. All I could see was a HUGE dress, and a girl with way too much makeup on her face.

Not too long after that, it started raining. To get out of the rain, I stepped into a gallery, which had some paintings I actually liked. But since I don't have a permanent home, it made no sense to buy any of them.

The rain continued for the next several hours, sometimes a little lighter, sometimes a complete downpour. I moved when it wasn't raining so hard, as did plenty of others.

I was near a cafe for a while, and quite amused at the flood level of the streets. I took one of my favourite photos of the trip then, when an American classic car was plowing through the water.

When the rain lightened up again, I started walking back in the direction of my accomodation. After several stops along the way to wait out downpours, I finally made it back to the neighborhood. There was a cafe with ropa vieja on the menu, which I wanted to try. It's basically shredded beef, and was served with rice and beans, and cabbage. A lot saltier than I expected, but not too bad.

From there I went back to the Hotel Nacional (it had finally stopped raining completely,) to use up the rest of the wifi card I'd started the night before. When I logged on, it said I had 20 minutes left. Almost two hours later it still hadn't kicked me off! I definitely wasn't complaining. That was exactly the opposite of what I expected to happen, given that everything is so tightly controlled in Cuba. 

I got back to my accomodation in time to pick up my bags, and take a taxi to the bus station. In most weather I wouldn't mind walking to the station, but I didn't feel like sweating that much.

I knew I would be back to Havana, at least at the end of this trip.