Havana - Walking El Prado

Monday, January 30, 2017
Havana, Cuba
Our flight left Gatwick at 12.30 and we arrived 10 hours later at 17.30. We were surprised that within a couple of hours of landing, we had collected our luggage and cleared the airport, changed some money and got a taxi to our first casa particular, Reservas El Cristo. Arriving after dark meant we could make much out during our drive to the city. We were welcomed by Fidel who showed us our room with a balcony overlooking Plaza el Cristo. We took a quick turn round the block to stretch our legs and the evening was positively balmy after England. We returned for a home cooked dinner of pumpkin and eggs for Chris and marinated and grilled pork for me, served with salad and plantain fritters called tostones. We also had beans and rice called moros y cristianos - the black bean for the Moors and the white rice for the Christians and washed it all down with a beer. After our long day, we called it a night and dropped off to sleep listening to live music coming from the bar over the road. We both slept well, easy I suppose after so many hours up and a comfortable bed. Breakfast was mixed fruit then scrambled eggs and bread and we shared it with a couple of ladies from California heading home after a great stay in Cuba.

 


Our first priority this morning was to change some money, as we only changed a small amount at the airport and then to buy our bus ticket to leave Havana the next day. There was quite a queue at the bank, with several people already waiting outside. After 20 minutes we were able to go inside and another 20 minutes before it was our turn. There were five clerks serving, but it just seemed to take ages. There are two currencies here, the CUC$ or Cuban Convertible Peso, which is pegged against the US$ so of the same value, and the CUP$ which are National Pesos used by the locals and worth much less. Solvent with a supply of CUCs we headed to the Cubanacan desk in the lovely Hotel Ingleterra, only to be told it had moved to the the almost as lovely Hotel Plaza across the square. We were a little concerned we might not get seats, but our worries were unfounded, and we left with our ticket.
 
Returning to Parque Central, we we able to relax and take in the view, with the Gran Teatro and Hotel Inglaterra ahead, and a huge number of vintage American cars in an array of colours, jockeying for position and eager for business taking tourists round the city. We asked in the theatre about a tour and we shown round the newly restored building which contains not only a theatre hall dating from 1837 and home to the Cuban National Ballet, but also lavish space once used for socialising and dancing. We looked out of the balcony on the Capitolio building which is undergoing similar treatment and houses the National Assembly.

 
 



We started walking down the Paseo del Prado, fondly just called El Prado, which is an elegant boulevard with a tree-lined pavement down the centre and residential neo-classical buildings in a variety of colours and degrees of delapidation either side, and watched the cars cruising by.



Reaching the end at La Punta, we looked one way and see the Malecon or sea wall in an elegant curve towards the district of Havana called Vedado punctuated with skyscrapers and the other way towards the Castillo de les Tres Reyes del Morro.



We turned back and thought it was time for some history to help give our time in Cuba a little structure and we went into the Museo de la Revolucion, housed in the sumptuous presidential palace of the 1950s dictator Batista, with memorial outside to the Heroes of the Revolution, Castro, Cienfuegos, & Che Guevara




We walked round the displays which were almost entirely in Spanish, with the odd caption in English. There was one small part about the reforms made after the revolution which looked like it had been newly curated and was ok, but for the rest, there were a lot of black and white photos of men in fatigues with guns, battle plans and various personal bits and pieces. There are still sprays of bullet holes in the courtyard which leads to the Granma Memorial, named after and displaying the boat Castro and his men took from Mexico to begin the revolution, a flame burning to the fallen and various relics including a couple of home made armoured vehicles.



Having learnt so little about the history in the museum, I did some reading and here is the history spot which you may wish to pass over, but is as concise as I could make it to introduce a couple of the main men and events.

Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba in 1492 and claimed it for the Spanish. Colonisation followed with settlers from Europe and slaves from Africa working to cultivate tobacco and sugar making Havana a strategic port in the Caribbean. The British conquered Havana in 1763, enabling Cuba to trade with countries other than Spain, then swapped Havana for Florida a year later, but free trade in Cuba remained when the Spanish returned.

The struggle for Cuban independence began in 1868 when a landowner 'called Cespedes freed his slaves, beginning the Ten Years War which ended in failure. Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1886 and the Second War of Independence began in 1895, led by Jose Marti. The Spanish-American War resulted in a Spanish withdrawal from the island in 1898 and following a period of US military rule, Cuba became independent in 1902 but still under domination of the US.

Several governments followed, and while there was some social reform and modernisation, there was also corruption and discontent. In 1933, a young sergeant called Batista staged a coup and brought military support to several successive presidents, and was also president himself, but in 1952, fearing he would not win the election, Batista took control in a military coup. He seemed to have lost any zeal for social change, organised crime became ingrained and this period of leadership became a violent dictatorship.

Fidel Castro led the subsequent revolutionary movement which succeeded in 1959 and there was a period of reform with education and healthcare, but the regime became intolerant of opposition, and many tried to leave Cuba. Cuban-US relations soured, and the US tried to regain power at the Bay of Pigs but failed so declared a trade embargo. Castro entered a pact with the Soviet Union and introduced a repressive Communist regime. As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US stated they would not invade Cuba and tightened the trade embargo. Cuba became economically dependent on the USSR so when the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 the situation in Communist Cuba became desperate so Castro was forced to allow some free enterprise and also opened up Cuba to tourism. Fidel Castro resigned in 2008 and his brother Raoul Castro took over, bringing more reforms and restoring diplomatic ties with the US in 2015, however Cuba remains a dictatorship.

Next we headed into Habana Vieja, the old town, arriving first in Plaza de la Catedral, dominated by the best example of Cuban Baroque style, the cathedral, and surrounded by aristocratic residences.

 

Santeria is the most widespread of the faiths imported by African slaves and is still an important part of the national identity today, happily sitting side by side in the same plaza as the cathedral. Practitioners dress all in white, with a coloured bead necklace and we saw such a woman sitting at a table, presumably waiting for someone to request help and advice.


 
There are four squares in the old town, and after wandering down an alley, we found ourselves in the Plaza de Armas, the oldest square, and took a look in the Museo de la Ciudad housed in one of the lovely old colonial buildings with Columbus taking central stage in the courtyard.

 


We decided we had walked far enough and since we were conveniently passing El Floridita, home of the Cuban daiquiri and famous Hemingway haunt, we thought we'd try one out. It was really busy and we were lucky to get stools at the bar but it meant we had ringside seats as we watched the barman pouring cocktails. Our first daiquiris were delicious and we sat listening to the band, under the eagle eye of Hemingway, propping up the bar in the corner!

 
 


Later we had dinner in a small paladar, which in the 1990s were small restaurants offering home-cooking often in people's homes. With a recent relaxation of restrictions, paladars are more widespread but are still small private restaurants. We chose Hanoi as it offered a vegetarian set menu of beans, rice and salad for Chris, and I had camarones empilados or prawns in a tangy tomato sauce, with rice and salad. We also had our first mojitos ... and they were very good and very generous with the rum!

Tomorrow we are moving on but we will be seeing more of Havana later ...

Comments

Yoka
2017-02-06

Wonderful looking buildings!

2025-02-15

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