Cuba - Day 6, January 8

Our last day in Havana and we are stuck in our hotel because we are both ill  following our meal at the El Cubano restaurant. As the day wore on I improved and felt sufficiently confident to venture out to the Hotel Parque Central to post my blog for day 2, the last post that I was able to send from Cuba, and to send an email home. At that point in time I felt that I was through the worst of the illness, but, sadly, that was not the case as it continued in waves of intensity curtailing our activity over several days,

Since there is little of interest to say about our day it may be a good time for some basics about Cuba for those who, like me, might know essentially nothing about this country.

The population is just above 11 million. And the country is much larger than I thought - I don't know the land area but from one end to the other it is between 1400 and 1500 Km.  Politically, it is divided into 19 provinces and, according to the Lonely Planet book, the population, surprisingly to me, is 65% white, 25% mixed and 10% black.  Surprising because it would seem to me that, having spent some time in both Cienfuegos and Havana and acknowledging the limitations imposed by the categorizations, the percentage of the white population seems somewhat lower.

And the topography, in places we passed through was extremely flat - almost prairie like - and I was surprised to learn that, with significant wet land areas, rice, along with sugar cane, is a fairly major crop in Cuba.

Sugar cane (above) and rice fields and a farmer on his tractor (right) which, except for a few palm trees and the prevalence of egrets, could be in Saskatchewan!

As you will see in a later post there are mountains as well, in height perhaps a bit like the Laurentians but without snow.

And, of course, beaches, surprisingly unbusy at this one at Rancho Luna near Cienfuegos on the south coast where we spent part of a day.




There are 2 currencies in Cuba -  one for the locals referred to as pesos nacional or CUP's and one for visitors - also officially called pesos - but generally referred to as CUC's. The CUC, close to the Canadian dollar in value, is roughly 25 times the value of the CUP. Interestingly, in this socialist country there are at least two very distinct classes - the Cubans and the visitors with the latter having privileges that the locals do not have - such as, places they can go that Cubans cannot. This seems especially true with respect to restaurants, beaches and boats. For example, we learned later from our host at the Casa Particular in Cienfuegos, that he cannot go out on a privately owned boat in the bay in Cienfuegos, the city in which he lives! The places where Cubans buy food or treats like ice cream (you might think of them as "fast food" places or cafés) are easily recognized as they are typically dimly lit, small and often have line ups, while those for visitors/tourists are quite brightly lit, larger and well outfitted (although even restaurants for visitors may lack many things they say they have, for example, there may be a long wine list but only one or two choice of wine). I do not have any photos of these "for Cubans" places as it felt like taking photos would be intrusive.

It appears to me that there are at least three different types of restaurants, all state owned.  One type for visitors operated by the state and the other, also for visitors, but operated privately, often by a family. The latter, referred to as paladars, are restaurants which Cubans are unlikely to frequent, possibly because it is not allowed but almost certainly because they could not afford it. (a 20 CUC meal would be the equivalent of about one month's income for the average Cuban). These paladars are required to pay a "tax" to the state. The third type of restaurant is for Cubans.

The people here appear to have adopted a culture of patience and a very effective capacity to adapt. For example, there seem to be line-ups for many things - for the money changers (Cadecas), public transportation,  the fresh bread line, bus tickets, the banks, rations outlets, the fish outlet as well as for things unknown. And the word somehow gets around - we would come across a long line up where there had been none when we passed by the place earlier and a couple of hours later it would be gone.  And not infrequently there is a closed door between the front of the line up and the source of whatever one is lining up for. At intervals (when there is space inside) the door will be opened by an official "door monitor" or security person allowing the person next in line to enter.

And, yes, there is food rationing for Cubans though exactly what that means isn't clear to us. And when you glance into the establishments we think are ration sources, there often appears to be little available. On the other hand, as you may recall from photos of the vegetable and fruit market, there seems to be an abundance at least of fruit and veggies. So the issue of food availability remains a a bit unclear.

Breakfast at our second Casa - egg "tortilla" to come.

As there seems to be plenty of food for us it feels like we may be eating food that should be accessible to Cubans. Not surprisingly, the rationing system fosters an off market process, as we learned from our hosts who know, for example, how to obtain fish and other things through friends and just knowing the way it all works. And how rationing affects their ability to feed us remains unclear. In any case this is another one of those examples of inequity that exist, at least between Cubans and visitors, which seems incongruous in this socialist culture. But to think of it another way, the tourist class brings in badly needed funds and creates jobs both of which, hopefully, contribute to the broader goal of attempting to maintain relative equality among Cubans, albeit a less affluent equality.

The public transportation, mentioned above may be in "los camions" which are basically quite large old trucks with an enclosed box mounted on the back in which most passengers, it appears, have to stand. To provide light and ventilation the area around the top of the box is open, (see photo) but, in spite of that, in the heat of the day it must be extremely hot. While I think these would be extraordinarily uncomfortable and a quite undesirable form of transportation (more of a personal nature about this form of transport later), they are an extremely useful adaptation to the current circumstances. They provide people with an inexpensive way to move about the city or between towns and cities in the relative shortage of personal motor vehicles and more costly forms of public transportation, especially for relatively long distance. (Note the Emergency exit sign on the back door.)

As you walk the streets in neighbourhoods in both Havana and Cienfuegos you find everywhere small clusters of people standing around or sitting on steps or in doorways talking sometimes loudly and animatedly - quite different from our neighbourhood in Dundas. (In this photo a bunch of guys were having a very animated discussion which we convinced ourselves was about yesterday's baseball game.) I suppose this pattern could be encourage by the fact that it is always warm outside (though, by Cuban standards, maybe not always) or that indoors may be crowded (especially where extended family or more than one family occupy the space) or, in order to conserve energy they keep it darkish inside. Or, maybe most just like to be out doors and mingling with their family, friends or neighbours. And, by the way, one must not assume that homes are small and darkish inside based on impressions from the character of the building and entry way - we have been in places where the outside and/or the entry belie what one actually finds inside. Witness, later, our second Casa.

And the streets are alive with lots of activities such as vegetable vendor carts, horse drawn taxis, bike taxis, single bikers (no helmets that we saw) and bikes carrying two people (occasionally three with a small child on the hand fashioned wooden seat on the crossbar and a second adult on a pannier rack over the back wheel - below the child on the wooden seat but not the 3rd person on the pannier seat),

including the ubiquitous chess game,












not to mention the plethora of ancient cars and trucks held together with cannibalized parts and the skill and determination of the Cubans who are able to keep them going.

The car above deserves special mention. I took this photo quite randomly but remember it because it becomes more than just a random car in the streets of Cienfuegos.

The next two photo were made in Havana when we were on our way to the Plaza de la Revolución.  These were both taken with the cars in full motion and me trying to have the camera move at the same pace as the car - hence the blur, especially of the background. I especially like the lower one, though it is a bit confusing because while I was trying to keep the camera moving at the pace of the car, I inadvertantly captured the slower moving, so very blurred, bicitaxi as well. I still like the effect.

This car could quite often be found in this location in front of the Hotel Union and across from the internet cafe - the blue building in the background.

Time for a rest.

Cuba - Day 5, January 7th

Today was the day for major walking - overall I think we must have walked over 11 or 12 Km.

In order to avoid the hottest part of the day, we started as early as possible on our walk to the Plaza de la Revolución - about 4 to 5 Km one way on a very hot and humid day. It took us westward out of the main tourist area along streets (Avenida Simon Bolivar and Avenida Salvador Allende) bustling with people and vehicle traffic. Here, even more than in the tourist area around our hotel, we were clearly foreigners among Cubans involved in day to day life of the city.

Along the way we passed a locomotive restoration area in the shadow of the Capital building, and a bit further on there was a cigar "factory", in which real Cuban cigars were apparently being rolled as we passed! An aside - the jintero who hawk cigars on the street, not surprisingly, are selling poor grade stogies, so don't buy.

In the photo below the cigar place is on the right.

While on Avenida Simon Bolivar about half way to the The Plaza de la Revolución, we passed a beautiful church, Iglesia del Sagardo Corazón de Jesus, which we noted as a likely stop on our return.

The Plaza de la Revolución is a huge open paved area where, in the past, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered and stood for hours listening to the oratory of Fidel Castro, or, when he visited Cuba in recent years, the Pope.



The south side of the plaza is dominated by an imposing monument comprised of a tall phallic structure which towers above a very large statue of José Marti shown in the photo below (more about Marti later). If you click on the photo below and look closely you can see a couple of people who provide some perspective on the size of the statue.

Surprisingly to me there was no sign of a memorial to Fidel Castro. The plaza is located in an area which is populated by government ministry buildings, far removed from the Capital building which is well to the east in central Havana. Two of the government buildings on the north side of the plaza provide the surface for large images of two key figures in the revolution - Che Guevera and Camilo Cienfuegos. (a bit more about Cienfuegos in another post)


 There were two or three tour buses there but I was surprised at how few visitors there were.

On our return, as planned, we stopped to visit the church with the beautiful spire and renown stained glass windows which we had passed on our way to the Plaza de la Revolución.

It is a lovely church both inside and out and I did get a couple of photos inside but, as we were unaware of the reputation for stained glass windows at that time, I failed to get any good photos of them.
















Not far past the church we walked through a small park where I noticed this wonderful array of colourful vehicles parked along the street - the purple, green and blue ones were in place and just as I was about to press the shutter, the yellow one slid into its spot - perfect! And the red peeking through from the other side of the street nicely rounds out the rainbow. By the way, if you look at the building across the street you will see that it lacks windows and a roof, a not uncommon sign of deterioration in some areas in Havana.

When we got back to the Parque Central we went to Hotel Parque Central for beer and water hoping to savour these on the roof top cafe and bar after our long hot and tiring walk but, as we were not guests at the hotel, we were denied access. So, we had our drinks in the main floor bar and used the wi fi access.



Then to a tiny second floor paladar restaurant nearby for lunch (we are not sure what to make of it, but all of the paladar restaurants where we have eaten so far, have been on the second floor).

Next we went to to take some photos at the fruit and vegetable market we had visited earlier (a couple photos are in an earlier blog) and on to the Museo de Arte Nacional which, unfortunately, was closed.

 As our plans had been thwarted and we were both quite tired from the walk, we decided to return to our hotel.

When we went into our room we found this towel swan on my bed accompanied by a card saying "Sweet Dreams". The previous day when we returned to our room after the room service folks had been there, we found, fashioned from one of our towels, an equally creative hand fan which, unfortunately, I dismantled before taking a photo. This time I did not make the same mistake!

The service at the hotel was generally good even when I left some things behind when we changed rooms. They retrieved them for me quickly. But the shower was not so accommodating - the pressure was completely unpredictable and the temperature of the water varied from cool to cold, even though a sign warned us that the hot water temperature was set at 50 degrees celsius! Apparently the shower required some wake up time as Bob, showering later, seemed to have better luck.

After rest/naps Bob looked through the Lonely Planet book to find a recommended restaurant for dinner and, with a couple in mind we set out to find the first choice which was reasonably close to our hotel. It was closed. So we decided to look for the second choice and, en-route encountered the folks who were attempting to lure people to the Giraldillia restaurant where we had had a very good meal a couple of nights before. We wanted to carry on to the place we had in mind but began to realize that it was quite a long walk so were susceptible to a restaurant recommendation by a woman among the Giraldilla folks and she actually accompanied us through some very dark streets to a (second floor) paladar restaurant, El Cubano, several blocks away. According to her, it is run by a friend and serves excellent food for a very good price. It was a tiny place with only 3 or 4 tables and squeezed into one small corner was a group of 4 musicians (apologies for the fuzzy photo - they just wouldn't stay still) who, it turned out, were excellent and clearly the best and only good part of our experience at this place (we even bought a CD which we thought was theirs but, it turns out, it was not this group at all).

After a bit of difficulty getting our meal sorted out, the food was slow to arrive and left a good deal to be desired. Fortunately, the music entertainment was excellent because the next morning we realized how unsatisfactory the experience was as our GI problems, destined to last several days and seriously curtail our activities, began.

Cuba - Day 4, January 6th

Convent

Today we continued on our walking tour of Habana Veija, and headed south on our way to the Convento y Iglisia Nuestra Señora de Belén. It was built in the early 1700's and functioned first as a convalescent home and later as a Jesuit convent. In 1925 it was abandoned and fell into ruin through decay and fire. In the 1990's the City Historian, using tourist coffer funds, restored the huge old building into an active community centre for families, young people, the physically and mentally handicapped and the elderly. Apparently there are 18 permanent apartments for the elderly in this extremely large building.

I have a photo of only a bit of this building (above) and I have included one of the square and buildings on the opposite side of the square from the convent, one of which we thought might have been a railway station. In this photo the convent is on the right. The near building on the left appears to be unoccupied, while the far one on the left and at least some of those at the end of the square seem to be family dwellings.

I don't want to dwell on the extent of structural decline because there is so much that is positive here in Havana, but to give a bit of insight into the severity of the decline in some areas of old Habana, for those who haven't been here, I have included a couple of photos made of buildings we passed on our way to the Convent. The buildings in the photo on the right are likely homes.

Left is the entry and stairway to an upstairs dwelling. While this entry has no doubt seen better days, it is clean and functional and, as we have seen, one must be careful about drawing conclusions about the living conditions based on the entry way as it does not necessarily reflect what lies beyond it.

The third photo taken along the same street shows extreme ruin, and, while this degree of structural collapse is by no means ubiquitous, evidence of significant decline is apparent in much of old Habana such that, to me (as I think I said before), the task of rejuvenation seems enormous.

On the way to our next objective, the Museo Casa Natal de José Marti (more about José Marti later), we came across a busy and colourful vegetable market with an abundance of enticing produce.

The flower stall here is just outside the vegetable market, shown in the photo below. 

The array of both fruit and vegetables was impressive and, though we didn't buy anything, it was tempting. In addition to this kind of market there are also numerous vendors with carts of produce on the streets in both Havana and Cienfuegos.

In this photo (right), the woman sitting is selling plastic bags and on the right a bicitaxi driver is reclining while waiting for his next fare.

After the market we found the train station which we walked quickly through then on to the Capitolio, without finding the Museo Casa Natal de José Marti. 

Immediately adjacent to the Capitolio is the exquisite 2000 seat Gran Teatro de Habana which Cuba claims to be the oldest functioning theatre in the western hemisphere. As I hope the photos tell, the architecture is quite spectacular.

Gran Teatro de Haban

From the Teatro we walked down the Prado to the Hotel Sevilla for drinks in the courtyard, then to the roof for the view and some photos including a bird's eye view of the Prado which I think I showed in an earlier blog.

Then down Calle Obispo to the market near our hotel where I picked up a small gift for Ruth. For lunch we went to an upstairs bakery, Santo Domingo, which is recommended by the Lonely Planet guide. The food was fine but neither the food or the ambience was special,

Plaza de Catedral de San Cristóbal

Catedral de San Cristóbal

After leaving the bakery, we were considering going back to the hotel but decided to go by the Plaza de Catedral de San Cristóbal de Habana where we had enjoyed a beer and ice cream on our first day here. The cathedral, said to be one of the oldest in the Americas, was designed by an Italian architect and construction, launched by the Jesuits, began in 1748.  The church was completed in 1787, some time after the Jesuits had been expelled from Cuba. Once it was completed the diocese of Habana was created and the church, which retains a religious function, became a Cathedral. The remains of Columbus were interred here before being removed to Sevilla, Spain, in 1898. Note the Moorish influence in the design of arches in the photos above and below 

Plaza de Catedral de San Cristóbal

From the plaza we set out for the hotel when we heard band music and crowd noise which sounded like it was nearby - we turned onto the next street and found a boisterous, colourful and somewhat loosely organized parade of people in a mix of bright costumes and street clothes, with banners and mucho music!

In the midst of all the activities as we stood along the edge of the street, a woman in bright yellow came very purposely toward us and I grabbed a photo of her approaching. She went directly to Bob, put her arm around him and kissed him on the cheek! This is definitely one of my favourite photos from this visit to Cuba.

Though we tried to learn about the reason for this parade, we were unsuccessful.

Back at the hotel a bit later, Bob discovered that his new camera would not turn on. He had had a bit of difficulty earlier in the day when it seemed to freeze after he had taken a few photos and nothing he could do would turn it off. So, he removed and replaced the battery and that seemed to fix it, but in hind sight it would appear that it was the beginning of the end for the camera. Very distressing! Fortunately he still has his iPhone which is equipped with a pretty good camera.

After a bit of rest we decided on a restaurant near our hotel, La Imprenta, which was recommended by the Lonely Planet guide. And it met expectations - the food was both good and of manageable size and, except for our slightly irascible waiter and the less than comfortable wooden chairs, the ambience was also very pleasant.