Cuba - Day 2 - January 4th

I am finding it very difficult to write my blog, largely, I think, because the experience of these few days in Cuba has been overwhelming - I cannot decide where to begin or what words will express what I see and feel. So, I have found it easier to return to working with my photographs, of which there are many. But, I must begin to put things down as the details of what we have done and seen are fading and I would like be able to tell at least some of them before they are beyond recall.

In Havana, a city of around 2 million people, like in most large cities, you come face to face with some serious realities - extremes of poverty and wealth. However, neither my past experiences nor the limited reading I had done prepared me for the visual, auditory and emotional roller coaster of old town Havana (Habana Vieja). We are in the centre of the tourist area so we see, along the immediate streets and on the plazas and "points of interest", the signs of investment in the establishments which cater to visitors like us. Move a block or less from Calle Obispo, the street our hotel is on, and you find clear evidence of poverty, extremely crowded living conditions and structural decay. Similarly, indications of limited maintenance and decline are prevalent even around the attractive Parque Centrale, the Capital building (the Capitolio), the exquisite Gran Teatro de Habana and the Prado (all about 6 or 7 blocks from our hotel).

But in spite of what seems to me to be insurmountable obstacles, the people appear to find ways to adapt and thrive. The abundance of very old but functioning American and Soviet Union cars on the streets of the city is one obvious sign of the capacity of the Cubans to make very effective use of limited resources. (The US embargo of Cuba effectively eliminates the ability to obtain spare parts so they cannibalize and share parts and have become experts in mechanics and autobody repair.) The car in this photo is an example of the body work expertise here but is definitely not representative of the majority of the old cars in use - I will show and talk about some of them later.

There are no doubt many other areas of effective adaptation to limited availability of materials and services. One is the limited use of electricity - e.g. incandescent bulbs are not available in Cuba and at night there is strikingly less street lighting than in Canadian cities so many streets around our hotel are quite dark. Initially, this can be unsettling as it creates a certain sinister ambiance - a sense that shady characters with ill intent are lurking about in the darkness. But then you find children running about and, last evening when we were walking in a relatively dark area, a buxom woman shouted an obviously friendly "Olah!" and, laughing, did a bit of a shimmy and shake dance in front of us.

In fact it is quite safe (the crime rate in Cuba is very low - a Cuban fellow we met one afternoon in the Plaza de Vieja, said, jokingly, it is safe in Havana because, of the 2 million people, 1 million are police). And last evening when we were looking for a place to eat a young woman led us through some pretty dark streets to a restaurant about 7 blocks away. When I commented that it was a long way for her to go back alone, she smiled saying, "No problem."

Calle Obispo

But on with documenting. Our first activity on day 2 was to arrange to move from a quiet room well back of the street to one with a balcony overlooking Calle Obispo (see the photo to the right) the pedestrianized tourist street which is packed with people for most of the day and into the evening and night. Not surprisingly, it is much noisier but being here definitely gives one the feeling of being part of the action. Particularly annoying was the loud castanet-like sound made by striking two hollow piece of wood - likely bamboo - together, presumably intended to attract customers.



Unlike the annoying castanet-like noise, we relished hearing the colourful woman who frequented Calle Obispo singing her sales pitch for the small the paper cones of peanuts (mani) she offered (she was not alone in selling cones of peanuts but she was by far the most interesting). I wish I had had the presence of mind to record the song, but sadly, I did not. We learned later from our friend, Amed, in Cienfuegos, that the song she sang is well known in Cuba).

But, I digress, again.

In the morning we walked to the Parque Centrale, where we were approached by a charismatic fellow hawking cigars and looking to make a bit of money from selling the cigars and by having his photo taken with one of us.

Capitolio

The capital building, La Capitolio, which is nearby, was designed, ironically, based on the Capital building in Washington, DC. It is closed for renovations, so we checked it out from a distance and took some photos. From there we walked to a nearby hotel, La Sevilla, and had a look inside. The hotel, run in a partnership of the state and a French company, is quite ostentatious and some of the tile work and other decor suggests a moorish influence, which we found elsewhere during our time in Cuba. In the past this hotel was the setting for Graham Greene's novel, "Our Man in Havana" (apparently room 501) and was once a Mafia operations centre for their North American drug activities.

The Prado

From the hotel we walked the Prado, an impressively wide promenade which extends from the Parque Centrale to the Malecón, where the street follows along the sea wall west from the Castillo de Sans Salvador de la Punta. (Photo below)








This castle or fortress guards the entry from the Straits of Florida into the Bahia de La Habana (the Bay of Havana).

The Malecón and Castillo

The Malecón looking west

From the Malecón we walked back toward the Parque Central and on to the Museu de la Revolución, which, appropriately, is housed in the former Presidential Palace, hitorically home to a series of corrupt presidents. 

Museu de la Revolución

Room inside Museu de la Revolución

The museum covers extensive Cuban history up to the present - way too much information for a brief visit. But just walking through it and picking up bits and pieces of the Castro led revolution makes one realize how unlikely it was to succeed. Of the 80 or so revolutionaries that left Mexico for Cuba on the relatively small boat, the Grandma (which we saw in its resting place behind the museum), only a handful survived the landing - at one point, Castro apparently said, he was commander in chief of himself and two others. With luck, perseverance and the help of the local communities, the motley few increased in number and gradually translated small victories over vastly superior numbers into a revolution that deposed the Batista regime and survived over 50 years (albeit with a relatively high price) of military, economic and social pressures from their powerful northern neighbour and much of the rest of the capitalist world.

After leaving the museum we went to our hotel stopping for lunch at the Europa restaurant where we were entertained by music and two wonderful dancers. Back at the hotel, after moving to our new room overlooking Calle Obispo, we decided to follow a walking tour outlined in the Lonely Planet book.

Early in the walk we passed the Casa de la Obra Pia a former Spanish Nobleman's mansion dating from mid 1600's (it was closed) One gets a sense of the grandiosity of the place from the door shown in this photo.  Then past the Museo del Chocolate where there is always a line up, and, though we entertained the idea, we never did get into the place

On to the expansive Plaza Vieja where we visited the Camera Oscura building, took some photos from the top and, through the camera obscura we were treated to images covering 360° of this entire area of the city.














I took the photos, below on the right, of the Plaza Vieja, the view of Havana looking east and the apartment with balconies from the top of the Camera Oscura building - the camera obscura is located in the cupola.

Plaza Vieja

After leaving the Plaza Vieja we encountered a gregarious restaurant entrepreneur, George, who led us to La Giraldilla restaurant promising us that if we were not happy with the meal we wouldn't have to pay. It turned out to be a good meal of fish, chicken and pork so we paid.

Then home to relax and get some sleep in preparation for another busy day.

The tower in the photo, taken while we sat at our table on a small balcony waiting for dinner to arrive, is part of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza. Built in the mid 1500's it is the oldest existing fort in the America's. The weather vane on the top (which you can't see in this photo) is a replica of the famous original bronze version called La Giraldilla which now rests in the Museo de la Ciudad. It is believed to be a model of the wife of the gold explorer Hernando de Soto.