Our first full day at sea we went to the Moonlight dining room for an 8 am breakfast. We shared the table with David, a retired Broadway actor who, after he left acting, recorded map reading for the blind. As he pointed out, creating usable audible maps is complicated.
After breakfast we went on deck to watch the Havana horizon come into view. How exciting!
As we got closer we could see the ocean really beats against the shoreline.
Off to the port side was the Christ of Havana statue, a beautiful 66 foot white marble statue put up in 1953.
As our ship came closer to Havana, details of the city came into view. It looks like a mix of old and new, and I was surprised how colorful it is.
We got our things together (Seaship card needed to get back on the ship, passport, and Cuban visa) and went to the casual dining area to wait our turn to leave the ship. When they called our group we walked off ship and into Cuba's processing station to get in line. When our turn came, each person walked up to the attendance who stamped the passports, kept the paper visa, and took a photo to match to the visa. The line moved reasonably quick and we were soon in the currency exchange area. Cuban money is not good anywhere except Cuba and you can't exchange it anywhere else so there was no point in getting too much of it. We traded $120 for $105.5 CUC. CUC is basically tourist money, while CUP is for local Cubans, who would much rather have CUC since it's worth more. US dollars were a bit weak against CUC now, unlike Canadian dollars.
We got on the bus and met our tour guide Yadi, a young woman who spoke English very quickly and with a strong accent. Our bus was air conditioned and had a bathroom. Although it was mid-morning, the first place we went was to a restaurant to have lunch. We were delighted to find the restaurant is in a gorgeous old building, currently under repair. It's actually the National Museum of Fine Arts, although the museum part was off limits to our group today. Never mind, the atrium area was breathtakingly beautiful with a huge stained-glass ceiling, partially covered for work.
I was very surprised to see that on one side of the ceiling, there were breaks around one of the second-story columns, big enough to show the outside sky. Today sunshine was pouring in, but there have to be other days to contend with. What a shame to let this treasure get in this shape.
I commiserated about this with one of the two awesome lions at the bottom of the staircase. He reminds me of a similar lion in Florence.
Our group walked up the stairs, turned to the right, and walked down a hall into a charming restaurant. The bar was striking, with lots of ornate tile work.
Two lovely and very skilled young ladies provided gentle background music, ranging from classical airs to the Pink Panther theme.
Lunch started with some excellent Mojitos, a plate of artfully arranged butter, and hard bread. Then we were served an appetizer of a sort of noodle ambrosia, followed by either a fish dish or pork with plantains, rice and beans. Aaron and Randy had Presidento beer but I enjoyed Mexican Coca-Cola. For dessert everyone was served a dish of cold rice pudding, which was excellent. Our tour guide Yadi visited each table to tell people where the bathroom was (down the hall and around the corner) and that tipping there was expected - a dollar would be OK, even if it was just a US dollar and not a CUC. Since tipping was OK, the guys tipped our waitress $10 and tipped the musicians another $10. I tipped the restroom attendance $1 for a single piece of toilet paper. I always bring kleenex when traveling so I was prepared for that, but not prepared for the toilet, with was clean but had no seat. Oh well.
After lunch we paused one more time to admire the broken beauty of the staircase area. In pride of place is a big light sculpture.
Off to the side is a plaque that states "This work highlights the glorification of the unity of the people and their love for the land." There are some key words there remind us that, regardless of the cruise ships, this is a socialistic country.
Outside our group gathered in the street, admiring nearby classic cars that Cuban men are so proud of. And they should be - as an island, everything on Cuba has to be shipped in from elsewhere. Cars, parts and tools must be hard to come by. A lot of these are American but there are several Russian cars, too. And most of them are for rent to tourists for a personalized tour by the local driver.
And we also saw some of the little round yellow taxis - so cute!
Yadi was anxious to point out the fine Gran Hotel Manzana, across the street from the Museum, as one of the hotels that the US government has ruled off limits to Americans. When I stood on the sidewalk in front of the hotel to get a better photo of the museum, she called out to sarcastically warn me that I would be in trouble back home if anyone knew I stood there but she wouldn't tell on me. I thought that said more about the "big brother" approach of Cuba than anything else.
Across the street is a statue to Jose Marti, a treasured Cuban national hero. He is an important figure in Latin American literature, writing about freedom and liberty. After his death one of his poems was modified into the song "Guantanamera", which is Cuba's most beloved patriotic song. Surrounding his stature are Royal palms.
This was the 499th anniversary of Cuba (next year should see a lot of celebration!). Yadi pointed out the nearby capital building, assuring us that it is taller than the US capital building.
We got back on the bus and headed to an art district. Along the way we passed block after block of buildings that at one time had been beautiful but now were a mess. Yadi said that although many of the buildings in the old section are dilapidated, they are being restored and besides, they are beautiful inside. As we drove along we were able to see inside many buildings and they were even worse inside.
The art district was the Callejon de Hamel, a one-way alley filled with some unusual art. Salvador Gonzáles Escalona makes art out of whatever he finds and the results can be striking, although none of it is something you could buy and bring back on a cruise ship.
Entertainment was provided by a small group of musicians and dancers, with introductions by a guy who told us how each dancer represents a deity in one of the local religions. He assured us that the drums the women were playing weren't really "sacred" drums because women are never be allowed to play those.
It was interesting and the drummers/singers were pretty good. Afterwards the dancers walked among the crowd asking for donations. At this point another man got very pushy, telling Gary that he wanted his hat, then his glasses, and he didn't want to take 'no' for an answer. It was really uncomfortable so we all walked out of the alley, back on the street. The housing here is definitely not beautiful, inside or out.
Yadi came out and said everything was "perfectly safe because nobody would put a gun to your head". She may be right about the gun but we still didn't like it. As we walked around the corner she pointed to an older man sitting on a rough chair on the sidewalk, using a tv-tray as a work station. She said "this is what you will never see in the United States - someone refilling lighters. This man is an entrepreneur." I thought he looked desperate.
On to the next area! We arrived at the Revolution Square. At one end is an enormous memorial to Jose Marti. Yadi referred to it as a combination museum/mausoleum but I don't think he's actually buried there, so maybe that means it's in his honor.
Opposite that are two tall buildings with famous sculptures on them. One is Che Guevara with a quote that translates as "To victory, always".
The other is Camilo Cienfuegos. Yadi translated his quote as ""so far, so good, Fidel", which is what he said when Fidel Castro asked him how he, Fidel, was handling things.
The square is used for many things but today it was a vast, open space with a few tourists wandering around.
Nearby is the Ministry of Interior, which is a military function here. A taller yellow building is the army ministry, where Fidel's brother has his office. Yadi pointed out a shorter building as the Economic Building, which, she joked, explained why the economy was smaller than the military. On the way back to the bus we walked past more gorgeous cars.
The bus took us to a small store to buy rum and cigars. Yadi warned us to not buy from guys on the street. She said "I don't call it a black market, but it's a gray market. It's illegal to sell cigars or rum outside the store but men try to do it anyway." When we arrived we found a slight problem; apparently this is the only place that tour buses can stop at, and there was already a bus-full of people in the store. No matter, Yadi herded us in to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
She tried to tell us stuff but it was almost impossible to hear what she was shouting about over the hum of customers and salespeople. But I did hear her say that it's better to buy darker rum, which is 5-7 years old. She recommended Christian Mountain coffee and Cohibas cigars. According to her, some cigars got their names from "readers", men hired to read to workers, to educate them and pass time better. That might by how "Romeo and Juliet" cigars got their name.
After everyone bought what they wanted we got on the bus again and went on a longer ride to a village in the northwest area. It was super depressing to drive past miles and miles of poverty. Many of the places along the road look so run down, and most buildings have broken pieces. Fancy iron rails are rusted. Everything here speaks of a society lost without anything constructive to take its place.
On the bus Yadi shared more about Cuba. There are 15 provinces in Cuba. She said the actual city name is Habava but it has been englisized into Havana. The President is voted on by all levels of government, not by non-government folks. One liter of diesel fuel costs 1 CUC, which is a little over a US dollar. We drove past a huge cemetery with lots of marble slabs - I really wanted to stop there. There are 29 cemeteries in Havana and 21 are still active. As we passed through one area, she said it was illegal to cut down trees there. Some houses are privately owned (they didn't look any better than the government owned ones). The average salary is about 40 CUCs, which Yadi admitted was not enough to live on, even with free education and free health care. Remittances from friends and family (usually in US or Russia) are very important to folks here. Or they get 2 jobs. It costs between 4,000 and 100,000 CUCs to buy a house. When referring to huge luxury hotels by the sea, she said "in the 40s mulattoes could not go into the exclusive hotels but of course later (I assume she mean after the revolution) he probably built one for himself and his friends". (I doubt very seriously if the common man, regardless of his race, was building or buying mansions after the revolution.) Baseball, imported from USA, is the national sport and people love playing dominoes. There is a China Town in Havana - Chinese came over to build the railway after slavery was abolished in 1886, when Cuba needed a low-pay labor force. She also said "Since Cuba is a Socialist country, please don't give money or gift to people, especially children."
By then we made it to Fusterland. This is the work of Jose Fuster, an artist who loves mosaic. He decorated his studio, his house, and his yard.
From the top level I could see a sight that represents Havana to me: a proud declaration in praise of Cuba, surrounded by decay, partially covered by art.
He branched out to the neighborhood, creating a good area for tourist shops, of which there are several. Here, finally, were some arts and crafts small enough to buy and bring home; I got a $5 pair of earrings.
There was a big pile of rubble in the middle of the street that the bus driver had to slowly ease over. Some people have an old-school way to handle road problems!
Unfortunately we did not get to visit the San Jose craft marketplace in the old train station, which is a place I really wanted to see. On the drive back it got dark outside and Yadi turned the lights on in the bus, which meant we couldn't see anything outside. When we got off the bus we were back where we started, so I exchanged my remaining CUCs for US dollars. We decided to walk over to the area where we'd been earlier, by Jose Marti's statue, and see what was beyond that. We found a lovely church - the San Francisco de Asia Basilica, with a statue of friar Junipero Serra against it's wall.
Crossing the open space beside it, we walked down some narrow pedestrian streets. Cars are kept out by a barrier across the end of the road, made of cannons, buried open end down. There were several intriguing and nice-looking shops, mostly closed for the day. This area is strongly reminiscent of Spain.
We found a man operating a churro cart. Fresh hot churros, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, are always a good idea!
We enjoyed the short walk on our own more than we enjoyed the tour but eventually we had to return to the ship, where we had a fine dinner of seafood vole a vent, escargot (outstanding as always), lobster bisque (not great), beef carpaccio, duck a l'orange, beef tenderloin (great) and yummy carrot cake. And a cute little towel elephant in our room!
