First Impressions and Walking Havana Day 1

Havana, Cuba
Monday 2 January 2012

Ola car in front of Hoastal Peregrino

Just as we had been warned, Cuba is a living museum of 1950s American cars. It was dark by the time we left the Havana airport but we could see that the cars we were passing in our taxi as we drove into Havana were large, well kept but ancient models of Fords, Chevrolets and other models no longer seen in North America outside of Classic Car shows. As we got closer to our chosen home for the next days we couldn’t help but notice that the rows of once-beautiful colonial buildings all looked in desperate need of an overhaul. Even in the dark of early evening it looked enticing. We looked forward to wandering the city the next day.

When Ray checked the Cubana Air website Monday morning he discovered our departure time for our flight from Cancun to Havana had delayed one hour to 3:30 PM. We quickly sent off an email to our hosts in Havana so that they could notify our expected pickup at the airport of the change. We got a bus to Cancun Airport, purchased our Visa for Cuba, paid the requisite departure tax and checked our bags with the airport. The departure time of our flight now said 2:59 PM, but we weren’t concerned. If the flight was to leave earlier than we had thought that was OK. We were there in plenty of time. There was never any explanation given for the unreliability of the departure time, maybe it was just Cuban perception of time, but the website departure ended up being closer to reality. It was nearly 4 PM by the time we finally took off from Cancun but the 1 ½ hour flight was uneventful and our taxi driver, a helpful young woman was waiting for us.

Our first order of business was to get money. Cuba is a cash society and operates, at the tourist level, with currency called CUC, which is approximately worth the same as a Canadian or US dollar. It took us about ½ hour standing in a long queue of tourists, to change our Canadian into CUC. We stood behind an American woman from San Francisco who pointed out her boyfriend guarding their luggage and two hard cased bicycles. They were planning a two week bicycle tour around the Eastern section of Cuba. We had just discussed the relative merits, and problems, of bicycling in Cuba with several of our Ottawa friends, so we were very interested in what their plans were. I am sure they will do well. They seemed well prepared and young enough to weather bad road conditions and difficulty getting food in small towns.

Private ownership of homes is a new phenomenon in Cuba so many of the buildings have decayed exteriors. When our taxi driver let us off at Hostal Peregrino, it did not look very promising. The first floor looked well cared for but the ground floor windows were boarded over with plywood. Our taxi driver rang the doorbell, and a key to the front door was lowered on a rope. After unlocking the street level door, we walked up a long, doubled-back flight of stairs to the next level. Our knock on a door with a Hostal Peregrino sign bought Julio Roque to welcome us into a sitting room filled with comfortable couches and lots of knick-knacks. Like many of the Havana buildings, we were to learn, the exteriors mask the comfortable interiors. We felt instantly at ease.

Julio, interrupted multiple times, by his cell phone and by queries from his wife, Elsa, gave us a briefing of what we would expect at his establishment and the does and don’ts of touring Havana. Julio and his wife have run a Casa Particulare (rooms in a private home) for 12 years. With the relaxation of private enterprise rules they have expanded from the original 2 rooms they were allowed to rent. A year ago they purchased their current home where they have 3 tourist rooms and an apartment, and have additional rooms in an adjacent building. Julio arranges travel arrangements, gives advice on a myriad of topics and helps Elsa and their kitchen staff serves breakfast and dinners in their dining room. During the high season, which extends from just before Christmas until May, overflow guests are housed in neighbouring homes. We were part of the overflow. That was fine with us.

Julio notified our new hosts that we had arrived and they were soon at his door ready to escort us to their home. We chatted to Tatiana, who speaks good English, and her Spanish speaking mother, Christina as we wheeled our suitcases down the street and around the corner to the home where Christina and Tatiana’s grandmother live. The residential streets were full of people gossiping on the sidewalks and dancing to music coming from several doorways. This was the last night of a three day New Year’s Holiday and everyone was still celebrating.

Christina’s apartment was a short flight up from the street on one side of a narrow central courtyard strung with clotheslines. Our room, one of two she rents out, faced the courtyard. It was simply furnished with a double bed, a small table and chairs, and a bathroom with a hot water shower. It looked clean and comfortable.

It was a lot colder in Havana that what we were used to in Puerto Morelos. A cold front had come in, from Canada, of course, bringing lower temperatures and high winds. For the first time, we needed our fleece sweaters. We left our luggage in our room and returned to Hostal Peregrino for dinner. The dining room accommodates 10 people at a time and there were at least three sittings that night. Regardless, the meal was very good. Ray and I had a fresh fillet of fish and helped ourselves to side dishes of rice, beans, salad, other vegetables and fruit. There was even a good pudding for desert. Our dinner conversations centered on our individual travel plans and experiences. That is the extra benefit of staying a place that encourages meeting other guests. We get recent recommendations and travel tips. We will put the advice to good use.


Walking Havana, Day 1
Tuesday 3 January 2012

Che Guevarra and friends

Our first full day in Havana was windy and chilly, especially along the Malecón, an 8 km long sea drive laid out in early 1900s as promenade for Havana’s middle class. A cold front from Canada, so we were told, had descended on Cuba and the high winds were whipping the sea into a frenzy. We were at the mouth of the harbour, next to the Castillo (castle) de San Salvador de la Punta, built between 1589 and 1600 to defend the harbour. The Castle, now a museum, stands facing the Castillo de Los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro (Three Sacred Kings) guarding the opposite side of the harbour from pirates and foreign invaders. Waves crashed over the low sea walls, flooding the walkways and parks lining the Malecón. The waves were so strong in some areas that sections of the Malecón were closed to cars. We stood transfixed, trying to get the perfect photo of the highest waves to hit the walls. We did make sure we were not in the path of the breaking waves.

We have spent the last three days exploring Havana, mostly by foot. Our Casa Particular is just a few blocks from the Prado, the Paseo de Marti, named for the poet, and early revolutionary, José Marti. There are statues all over the city honouring this important Cuban. The Paseo dates from 1770, designed as a European-Style Boulevard as splendid as any in Paris or Barcelona. Bronze lions, added in 1928, guard the beginning and ends of this pedestrian walkway, set in the middle of a busy divided motorway. At the junction of the Paseo and the Malecón were several parks with statuary and fountains commemorating historical people and events. One was the Memorial de los Etudiantes de Medecina. A fragment of a wall encased in marble marks the spot where 8 Cuban medical students were shot by the Spanish in 1871 as retribution for the alleged desecration of a Spanish Journalist (they were not responsible). A short distance from the Castle we came upon a statue of Pierre LeMoyne d’Iberville, born in Montreal, who died when his ship was attacked at anchor in Havana harbour in 1705.

Our route back to Havana Center led past the Museo de la Revolutión, housed in the former Presidential Palace, built between 1913 and 1920. The interior, designed by Tiffany’s of New York, is one reason to visit. The Salón de los Espejos (Mirror Room), based on Palace of Versailles, is a highlight. The other reason to visit is to understand present day Cuba.

We passed by bullet holes in the marble walls of the grand staircase leading to the exhibits. The holes are the result of a March 1957 unsuccessful assassination attempt of Batista, the hated President of Cuba. The exhibits on the top floor of the ex-Palace are a chronicle of Fidel Castro and his fellow revolutionaries from 1953 to their eventual victory in 1959. The middle floor boasts of all the reforms and good works of the new socialist government in the 1960s and 1970s.

In a park behind the museum is the 18 M yacht the Granma, encased in glass. Fidel Castro and 81 other revolutionaries travelled in the yacht from Tuxpan, Mexico, arriving in Santiago de Cuba in Dec 1956. Vehicles used during the revolution and Soviet alliance surround the Granma.

We took lots of photos that day of the ornate buildings, including the huge Capitalio Nationale, sporting a dome even grander than the one on the US Capital building in Washington. The baroque Gran Teatro de la Habana, one of the most ornate buildings in the center also caught our eye.