A glimpse of Cuba (1)

It's been a few days since the trip ended and although I enjoyed it I can't say with overflowing excitement that it's the best trip or place on earth..... but I think where Cuba is today is already very good (when I compare it to how China was back when it first starting opening up from it's self-enclosed Communist shell) and it will get even better as it's relations with the USA improves. I just want these posts to be a memory of how Cuba is in 2016.

This trip was one that I was very much looking forward to because I was first introduced to the idea of visiting Cuba when I was in high school and saw the movie "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights", it seemed like such an interesting place in the movie. And then in 2015 I met a friend who used to live and study in Cuba and she suggested I join her on a trip to Cuba - unfortunately things didn't work out as planned and no date was set. The good thing was that my cousin and aunt were interested in going too so we planned a trip.


Day 1: Varadero

We flew into Varadero, which is a pennisula on the northern coast of Cuba. It's an all-inclusive resort destination for foreigners (many from Europe and Canada) and for Cubans too - although we didn't really see that many Cubans vacationing, most of them are working in the resorts or tourism industry as tour guides and drivers.

left photo: going through immigration upon arrival in Cuba

We stayed at Grand Memories Resort and it's rated 4.5 stars (but that's Cuban ratings... so about 3.5 stars, or less, internationally). Most of the resorts are owned by European companies - I don't know why they don't make them better? The rooms for some reason feel like you're living in a motel rather than at a hotel or resort.... Also, electricity outages are quite frequent (almost daily) which means no air con at times, but we're not in the hotel room most of the time so it's ok, and the hotel tries to get the electricity back up and running ASAP.

Our first day was just getting settled in and walking around the resort - it's big, but there's not really much to do. Just the swimming pool, beach and the buffet area where you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner.


Day 2: Havana

Varadero > Havana > Plaza Vieja > Plaza de San Francisco > Plaza de Armas > Plaza de la Catedral > Del Morro & La Cabana > Walking through Old Havana (Habana Vieja)

We started off our trip with a 2 day visit to the capital city - Havana. We were picked up at our hotel at 8:00am by a driver and tour guide and rode in a vintage car to Havana. The ride is about 2 hours to Havana. It was actually quite comfortable, even when we fit three people in the front row and three in the back. Also whenever I opened/closed the door I did with as much care as possible. The air conditioning was later installed, but it didn't actually blow out icy cold air, rather it blew out a cool breeze that felt almost like wind so it was never overly cold in the car.

Tallest bridge in Cuba

On the way to Havana, we made one rest stop near the border of the province Matanzas where the tallest bridge (above photo) in Cuba is. Although there's not much to see here, but you get a sense of Cuba's lush green-ness, which is something that I appreciate because in many tourist destinations you may not see as much green or it's not in a great condition.

After a long ride, we finally arrived in Havana (there was a detour because the main road into Havana was under construction), and we walked through Havana's four plazas - Plaza Vieja, Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza de Armas and Plaza de la Catedral. Plazas are like squares that you'll find in other cities, Plaza Vieja was one of the marketplace squares during colonial times.  Most of the streets and alleys that we walked through are still cobblestone paths, from Plaza de San Francisco to Plaza de Armas we walked on the first cobblestone street in Havana.

 above left: walking through the streets of Habana Vieja (old Havana)

above right: the interior garden of a hotel whose theme is monastery

below: bar of the monastery themed hotel

 

 above: two sides of the Plaza Vieja

below: buildings around Plaza Vieja

 

 above: Plaza de San Francisco - the building is the Ferry Terminal, to the right of this building is a church, to the left of this building is the Stock Exchange building, now it is just an office building

below left: the first street laid in cobblestone in Havana

below right: just a courtyard in a private house that we passed by - nearly every house in Cuba has some kind of interior garden/courtyard

 

Plaza de Armas

In Plaza de Armas you'll find a plaza that has lots of trees offering shade from the hot sun, and lots of antique and second hand book sellers around the plaza. There's also a temple structure (called the Templete) that marks the spot of the first meeting in Havana (where they decided to build a city and how to build it), the Castle of the Royal Forces - which is the Fortress of the first Spanish Governor in Cuba during the Spanish Occupation, the house of the first Governor is also next to the plaza and the street is make of wooden pieces because it muffled the sound of the horses and carriages so that it did not disturb the Governor's wife's afternoon nap...

 above clockwise from left: the Governor's house during Spanish Colonial Occupation, the wooden pieces of street outside the Governor's house, a tree that was used for hanging executions, one of the many stalls around the Plaza de Armas selling books and antiques

below: the Templete, marks the place of the first council meeting and mass in Havana

On the way to the last plaza - Plaza de la Catedral, we passed by the Hotel Ambos Mundos where Ernest Hemingway stayed at when he first arrived in Cuba. Here he began writing his book "For Whom the Bell Tolls".

Around the corner from the Plaza de la Catedral is Hemingway's favourite spot for a Mojito - La Bodeguita Del Medio, also around the corner from where we were staying in Havana.

 

Plaza de la Catedral

When we visited different cities in Cuba (where we only did two of these trips), we opted to stay in Casa Particulars - which are essentially private rooms rented out. It's very common in Cuba and a very cost effective option that allows you to meet local Cubans, see how their homes are and also taste their home cooking (for a price - we didn't as we wanted to eat the cup noodles we had packed for the trip). The place we stayed at in Havana is pretty modern, they had just recently renovated and I think a lot of the new things in their house is from the US..... as the landlord told us his wife is living in the US now. And he stressed to us how we must lock the main door and be careful when using the key as he cannot get the key replaced and the lock is from the US.

 above: Calle Cuba, the street we stayed at in Havana

below left: all casa particulars can be booked in advance or you can also just show up and look around - there are LOADs and when you see the sign above the door in blue that means they cater to foreigners looking for a room to rent (if it's orange then it's for local Cubans)

The location is really convenient as I walked from there to explore Havana further on my own, it wasn't hard to find again afterwards. Actually I find Havana (or Old Havana, the inner city) to be fairly easy to navigate. The roads and streets are usually clearly marked. However, at night, it was quite noisy because we were in such proximity to bars and stuff we could hear music and people and cars on the street late into the night.

Also, most places in Cuba probably don't have an elevator..... and it just so happened that our apartment was on the top floor, it felt like we walked up 5 floors to get to our apartment, but it probably wasn't 5 floors.... the stairwell looks like the old buildings in HK, where the stairs go along the walk and there's a "hole" in the middle, which they can actually let down a rope and hoist our luggage up.

above: our typical tourist lunch/dinner in Cuba consists of lobster, shrimp, meat from the grill,
fresh raw vegetables, rice and that little small bowl of black beans in a watery sauce (in the lower right corner),
it's a bit familiar if you've had mexican food before

For lunch, we went to the other side of Havana to an area known as Casablanca. It has a great view of the city of Havana and also has two fortresses there - The Castillos de Los Tres Reyes Del Morro (Castle of the Three Kings of the Headland) and Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana (Saint Charles of the Flock Fortress).

Del Morro was used to keep Havana save as it was the entrance from the sea into Havana. It even had a chain that stretched across the water to prevent pirate ships from sailing into the harbour.

La Cabana is the largest fortress in the Americas and every evening at 9:00pm there's a canon ceremony where even across the waters in Old Havana you can hear it when it goes off.

 above: Along the coast, is a long stretch of pedestrian walkway known as the Malecon. It's a popular place for Cubans to hangout after sunset.

We had some free time to explore Havana on our own and everywhere you go you will see graffiti, posters, images, and references to Che Guevara.

There are also lots of statues of generals and people who fought in wars for independence - which happened quite a few times even in Cuba's short history.

 above: Che

below left: Maximo Gomex - one of the generals who led Cuba's fight against the Spanish (end of 19th Century)

below right: a self-portrait of Jose Marti (he was known for his large forehead) - Cuban National Hero, he led the revolution against the Spanish

Walking around Old Havana, you also see lots of beautiful buildings - some have extravagant exteriors whilst others look like crumbling buildings but when you look inside, the walls / ceilings / doors / stairwells are beautifully decorated.

 above: Walking along the "Prado" (official name of this street is Paseo de Marti) - a long, wide street for pedestrians in the middle of the city, this separates Old Havana from Havana Centre (the newer part)

clockwise from top left: a street with the previous Presidential Palace in view (now the Museo de la Revolucion), an entry way that is covered in browned paper with lots of handwriting, colour houses of Havana, vintage classic cars along the streets of Havana

below: a row of colourful houses near the Prado
 

Before coming on this trip, we did a lot of research and one of the things you know is that you will not be able to get internet access here. You can get roaming for your calls, but it's extremely expensive - it cost me CAD 3.50 per minute.

However, whenever I communicated with the guides and booked accommodation before the trip it was through email, so I wondered how the Cubans were able to respond so quickly to me if there's no internet access. Actually, they do have internet access, but it's in public areas like in a park or on the street outside a museum or hotel. You'll see large groups of Cubans sitting or standing around holding up their phone.... they are usually facetiming. You also need to purchase a "wifi card" that's kind of like a phone card. CUC 2 (cuban convertible pesos) for 1 hour of wifi access. We bought them and it does work, but usually it takes a few tries, also for some phones I found that it works if you power off your phone and then turn it back on, or sometimes it requires even turning off your carrier, data and wifi to "reset" and then try logging in again.

But actually I didn't need access to the internet, our days were full of stuff to see and do, here are some more photos around Havana.

 above left & right: the interior of a ballet school in Havana, notices posted about auditions

below: the courtyard inside the first Spanish Governor's house, different items being sold in Plaza de Armas

 above left: an interesting mailbox - letters are dropped into the mouth

above middle and right: a high-end ice cream store in Havana, there's actually air conditioning in this small store! We had an affogato