What a City!

Doug and I had a superb week visiting the home of the Cuban Revolution . He's going to write something erudite for his College Newspaper, so I won't try to compete and will just give a rough diary of what we saw and what we got up to.

Firstly, a big THANK YOU to Alison, who was able to lead us to a few places we might not have gone to, and whose understanding and explanation of what's going on was in line with her current posting there for CNN. She also lived there for a year a while ago and was ready to answer our incessant questions of why, what, where, about the regime, life there, etc... She's a good drinking companion, too, as I had found out when we met originally in Oaxaca in December 2005 when we were both at the same Language School.

We dived straight into things on our first night, and after a meal in the centre of town took a taxi out to a Night Club where we met with a colleague of Alison's and his girlfriend. I very quickly discovered what a magnet being an "older man" was, being propositioned by a series of very beautiful young Cuban girls. We danced and drank and drank and danced until the small hours, and then left Doug about 3.00 a.m. He was in the room when I woke up then next morning...

Sunday morning didn't really happen after the adventures of the previous day, so we met up with Alison in the early afternoon and took a 25-minute taxi ride to Playa del Este, Havana's main beach, which was swarming. On the way, we got into conversation with our driver, Macari, and discovered he had worked in Russia for six years in his previous profession as a railway-train engineer, but had decided to go into taxi-driving instead . (He earns hard currency). We just chilled on the beach until sunset, swimming and taking the sun. Of course, when we came off the beach there was a massive demand for taxis, but very few in sight, and we had to wait 30 minutes for a ride home sharing with some irritating Italians. In the evening we went to a Paladar (one of the restaurants run as private enterprises -maximum 11 guests - in private homes) down by the waterfront. We discovered that there was no fish (the fishermen were on holiday) or chicken. This basically meant that there was hardly anything available from the official menu, but there were some fantastic camerones (prawns) and Langoustine which we tucked into with excellent wine.

On Monday we made it out of bed in time for the Hotel breakfast and then walked down to the Museum of the Revolution and had a fantastic time wandering around for a few hours. Before we went in, though, we walked down to the impressive statue of General Maximo Gomez, and while looking at it got into conversation with a man who was out with his young son . He mentioned that there was a man who lived in the statue. I was dubious and thought it was the introduction to some scam, but he pointed the man out, and within a couple of minutes we'd been invited into the bowels of the statue where this man had lived with his wife for 40 years. He claimed to be the only statue-dweller in the world, and I have no reason to doubt him. He should be in the Guiness Book of Records!

The Revolution Museum itself was in the old Presidential Palace - very grand and pretty well preserved - and the exhibitions were extremely well laid out and with explanations in English using the full range of revolutionary vocabulary...

In the afternoon, we went to the Palacio, a huge Parliament building which reminded me of the Vittorio in Rome - probably because it was also built by a Fascist Dictator around the same time (late 1920's)

The entrance floor just has a MASSIVE hall with the BIGGEST statue I've ever seen, and I commented to Doug "It must have been done by an Italian" - and sure enough it had been. I got Doug to stand by the base to give an indication of the size .

The next floor up held the council chamber and other rooms no longer used, so converted into gallery for sale of Artisan's work.

In the evening Alison was working late so Doug and I went off and had excellent Italian meal - I had good lobster for 2nd night in a row.

On Tuesday we went in search of wireless internet and found it at the Hotel Saratoga and sat there for a couple of hours before hitting the streets again for more sights. One was the Simon Bolivar Museum where we were initially a bit confused as there didn't appear to be much about the great Liberator and just a collection of hammocks and random items. We persevered, though into the second section where there was selection of little model-scenes from his life which we thought was a bit strange because it included tableaux of his love-making in a hammock! It wasn't until we got to the third section where there was a set of very detailed story-boards which told his life that everything became clear....

We also went up to the top of the Edifico BACARDI, a wonderful Art Deco Building . (The Bacardi family left at the time of the revolution and as a result BACARDI does not use Cuban sugar)

In the evening we took a motorised crash-helmet (see picture, I can't remember what they call them, and met up with Alison and after a couple of Daquiris went off to another to Paladar restaurant. Unfortunately there was a power-cut in the area we headed for, and it was only on the third attempt we managed to find somewhere open - but had the privilege of being the only diners. We had gone in that direction as we wanted to sample one of the Casa de Musica's, places where there is live salsa music/concert every night. Luckily the place we'd ended up eating in was only a few blocks away and so we walked (the streets feel totally safe). We had to wait 30 minutes before the doors opened and then sat drinking Mohito's for the next hour or so until the music started. Alison had to work the next day so couldn't stay to the end, but Doug and I did and we didn't get home until past 3.00 am.

On Wednesday we didn't make it up (again) for the Hotel breakfast, and so went to our back-up the Bosque Bologna (Bois de Bologne) where we ordered eggs and sausage as we had on Sunday Morning. 15 minutes later the waitress returned to tell us there were no eggs - or saugages - so we ordered some juice and fried chicken. When the chicken eventually arrived, we were told there was no more juice. You learn to live with these things in Havana. We were entertained by the live music, though, and on the wall was further testimony that this was also one of Hemmingway's haunts.

We then went off to the excellent Museum of Cuban Art where the collection dates from the Spanish colonial times through the far more interesting revolutionary and modern art. Outside the entrance is a sculpture of three screwdriver heads.

In the evening we found the Cathedral Square and the El Patio restaurant. Alison was feeling ill and didn't join us. We had a quiet evening and went back to the Hotel for one of many games of Scrabble.

Having had an early night we were up in good time on Thursday go and hire bicycles after breakfast, but when we got to the shop we were told there was no hiring that day. Strange, since the people and the bicycles and people were there, but we opted to take a trip over to the other side of the bay and explore the two castles. One of them cost so much that the King of Spain was convinced it must be so massive that he could see it by telescope from Madrid.

We went back to the Cathedral square and Doug was persuaded to have his photo taken with a dressed-up dog, and then we went off to the "Chocolate Museum". Actually, it's not a museum at all, just an excuse for over-indulgence in the brown stuff, and we had cup of the most delicious chocky. Click here for what it was like.

In the evening we had a Daquiri or three at a nice café and then went to a superb Middle-Eastern restaurant (Alison was still sick) and afterwards were accosted to go and have a late-night drink in the Florida Hotel. "Come on in" said the greeter in the street, "there's live music and 200 people there". Well, we'd read in Lonely Planet that there was a lively bar, but had walked past it a couple of times at night and concluded that the place looked dead. Still, we went in and sure enough behind there was a live band and, well, 75 people enjoying themselves. There were quite a few European girls enjoying the company of local lads and we stayed a while drinking and people-watching.

Friday was our last full day, and I was determined to rent bicycles, so after an early breakfast we went over to the bike shop only to be told that we couldn't rent them before mid-day! We went and had a game of Scrab and as we walked back to the bike shop I didn't put the odds at much more than 50/50 that this would happen, but ten minutes later we were off for probably the best day of the week.

The sea-front is only ½ a mile from the Hotel, and no sooner were we there than we spotted a couple of trombonists practicing. We stopped and took photo and then went on along the front, avoiding the occasional waves that crash over the sea-wall. The USA doesn't have Diplomatic relations with Cuba, but because there are so many Cubans in the USA there is a "US Interests' Section" compound which handles visas, etc. It is also the site of some interesting revolutionary propaganda. (see below for "Revolutionary Cuba")

We aimed for the Havana Necropolis, the City cemetery with over 1,000,000 graves laid out with streets and avenues like a real city. The main road was bordered by the most ornate and massive tombs I'd ever seen housing the rich and famous from (mostly) the pre-revolutionary period. Some of the architecture of these mausoleums was stunning, and in the main pretty well-maintained.

We spent an hour or so looking around the cemetery, and then went to the José Marti tower in the Place de la Revolution. This massive concrete tower was built in honour the 19th-Century revolutionary, and overlooks a large space used for military parades (and where the Pope gave Mass when he visited).

We then cycled back to the City Centre through back streets, calling in to look at a market on the way. There was lots of product, but not a patch on the markets you find in Mexico.

In the evening, Alison was recovered and we met up for several Daquiris before going back to the El Patio restaurant in Cathedral Square. We said our thanks and good-byes to Alison and dropped into the Florida bar again for a nightcap, where Doug was accosted by a Cuban girl who claimed to be a student at Glasgow University. We weren't sure, but had an amusing hour or so.

Just a few random thoughts and observations:

Schoolchildren
Evidently schoolchildren in Cuba get free milk until they are 7. One day we saw gaggles of schoolkids each with a loaf of bread. Perhaps they get free bread as well?
While we were walking around, I reckon we saw about five times as many schoolgirls than schoolboys. The girls' uniform is very smart with brown micro-skirt.

Security
Everywhere feels really safe, and there seems to be a minimum Police presence, a great contrast to the many Police pick-up trucks you see in Mexico with two or three Policemen in the back with shotguns and automatic weapons. I think we only heard one Police siren in the whole visit.

Environment
With low car-ownership, the roads are pretty empty so there's none of the choking pollution you find in old Colonial Cities elsewhere. There are many 1950's vintage US gas-guzzlers on the road, but they seem pretty clean. Thankfully the revolution was before planned obsolescence was adopted by motor manufacturers. We were mainly in the Old City where it's mainly pedestrian, but on our venture out on the bicycles the air quality was pretty good on the roads (admittedly Havana's on the sea with a good breeze most of the time). During the whole week I never saw a helicopter or plane flying over. A few years back there were food shortages as a result of withdrawal of agro-chemicals. As a result most of the food is organic, and a lot is grown in City areas.

Imagery
For me the overwhelming pre-visit image of Cuba was Fidel, but in Havana there are very few images of him. However, Ché is everywhere (although we didn't find a statue). There are loads of statues of José Marti. There is NO commercial advertising, so the big posters promoting the revolution don't get lost in a sea of exhortations to consumerism.

Cigars & Rum
I had planned to visit the places where they make both, but we were frustrated on both counts. There are no visits to the Rum distillery or Sugar Mills on grounds of secrecy (!). The two tobacco factories that do tours were closed until next week, but we didn't manage to discover whether this was due to holidays, out-of-season, or what. Another good excuse to return.