One day I cycled to the Plaza de la Revolución, one of the largest plazas in the world at 72,000 sq meters. It was started before the revolution by Fulgencia Batista, the US supported dictator of the day and completed in 1959, the year Fidel came to power. It is surrounded by what I think is called brutalist architecture, imposing, grey buildings, the seat of the communist party government buildings.
Opposite the memorial are the offices of the Ministries of the Interior
and Communications, whose facades feature matching steel memorials of
the two most important deceased heroes of the Cuban Revolution: Che Guevera, with the quotation "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" (Until the Everlasting Victory, Always) and Camilo Cienfuegos (sometimes mistaken for Fidel Castro, with the quotation "Vas bien, Fidel" (You're doing fine, Fidel).
The plaza is dominated by the José Martí memorial. José
Martí was a poet, journalist and father of the
Cuban independence movement and one of the most iconic personalities of
modern Cuban history.
From the Plaza I rode in a big loop following the bus line. As I rode toward home along the Malecon, I noticed a big fancy building up above and went to investigate. It turned out to be the Hotel Nacional, a big hotel built in the 1930s where notable movie actors and dignitaries stayed during the heyday of the US supported dictators, people like Hemingway, Errol Flynn, Winston Churchill, Tyrone Power, etc. Now a UNESCO site, it's a state hotel with allegedly crappy rooms, underpaid staff and 1% guests from near and afar swilling rum, puffing Cuban cigars and living large.
Viva la revolution!
Meanwhile..........
Plaza de la Banderas - Plaza of flags. Funny, only one flag flying: Cuban. hmmmm.....
The Malecon is a highway that parallels the shore for many kilometers built in 1901 during the American occupation of Cuba as protection from the ocean waves. What were once elegant colonial buildings along the Malecon are now hotels and crumbling semi-ruins, still inhabited. There is little access to the water and traffic whizzes by on the four lane highway making crossing perilous especially as there are no crosswalks or traffic lights for most of it.
Fishing is popular from the Malecon........... hope springs eternal. Apparently the water is very polluted so it's probably a good thing that fishing isn't good.
A photo shoot
Can you say "cruise ships"
Public art on the Malecon
Look who's here
Some beautiful trees
Banyan trees
The University of Havana
That pretty much encapsulates my first couple of days in Cuba. Further explorations to follow.
Well, it's taken me a bit longer than I anticipated to get around to posting again about Cuba. I know you've all been on tenter hooks awaiting the next post. Many distractions. It's hectic being on vacation.
My first days in Havana, in fact all my days, were spent browsing around the neighbourhoods, visiting the attractions and historic sights of this city of just over 2 million. Here are some photos and videos of some of what I saw.
La Catedral de la Virgen María de la Concepción Inmaculada de La Habana
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDYOSkoxgoE
Turning a buck with the Dachsies
Enjoying the sights
Strong police presence in Havana. Generally helpful and friendly. And honest.
Among the major attractions in Havana are the forts on the hill across the bay from the old town at the mouth of the harbour, built to protect Havana from raids. The most well known one is Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morro_Castle_(fortress) The one I visited is the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña known as La Cabaña, less well known and less touristy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Caba%C3%B1a I had my first experience of public transit to get there. Most locals seem to use the car share system: flag down a car, usually one of those old American beaters, and pile in with others going in the same direction. But there is also a bus system that uses big Chinese-made articulated buses. They cover a large part of the city in a big loop but there aren't many different routes. After a considerable wait, one arrived and it was like the Mexico City subway at rush hour: a packed bus arrives and you just push your way in. Fortunately it was a short ride through a tunnel that is the only route across the harbour. This is not the customary way for tourists to get to the forts, or anywhere for that matter. In fact, I never saw another foreigner use the bus and I sometimes got weird looks from the other riders.
There was no indication of how to get to the forts so I asked a woman who'd gotten off the same bus and she took me along with her and pointed out the way.
Fort Morro
La Cabaña is quite impressive, with great walls and rows of cannons and nice
Got off the plane and searched high and low for a taxi driver holding a card with my name. No taxi driver. Oh dear. Went to look for an ATM and found one upstairs (broken escalator) and it worked! Went back downstairs and the taxi driver was there
Taxista was an older guy driving a Datsun-like car about the same vintage as the driver. I thought there was little traffic and it seemed pretty sedate after CDMX but he began to rant about it right away. He also went on about 'that devil" Castro
and the terrible condition the country was in. I was surprised to hear that from the first Cuban I encountered.
Most cars are those old American
beaters but lots of new ones too.
Car makers I didn't recognize, Geelys from China. Personally, I don't find anything romantic or attractive about the old American cars. They spew out huge clouds of noxious fumes. Getting stuck behind one on a bike is horrible. They'd do a lot better on bicycles.
I didn't expect lavish accommodations but
was disappointed at how minimal it was. A windowless box. The hostess,
Juana, was out but Lionel, I guess the manager, greeted me and answered my questions. There seemed to be an extended family living there and I really don't know who was who.
The Casa Arco Naranja
The
internet thing here is very strange. One company, Etecsa, state owned,
has total control. You purchase a card which has a code that you use to
access the Internet at specific wifi hot spots: parks, plazas and some
hotels.
It's not obvious where to buy cards and when I asked Lionel how
to get a card, he said to just go down to the little plaza down the
street and someone would be selling them. I found the plaza and it was
filled with tough looking Cubans and bewildered looking foreigners. An
obviously local woman muttered “wifi?” out of the corner of her mouth. I
said, yes, and she led me over to a furtive looking guy who
surreptitiously brought out a card and handed it to me for the cost of
$3.50 convertible pesos, equivalent to about the same in US, for one
hour. Lonely Planet said the card would cost $4.50 CUP so I thought I
was getting a deal. Finally, today, a week into my Cuba trip, I learned
that the Etecsa stores sell them for $1.50. And the internet connection is very poor. Many times I couldn't get on all day. “Vive la revolution” I'll
say for the first of many times. I noticed immediately the stores had
very little for sale and there were lines for everything.
Everything
looked dilapidated.Tough looking, scowling guys and beautiful sexy women. Hard
looks. Wish I had some photos of them but felt uneasy about that.
My neighbourhood, Havana Centro, a gritty, high population density area:
I thought my Spanish was getting better but they speak a dialect
that I've heard that other Latinos can't understand either. And the
speed at which they can talk is astonishing. It sounds like those
disclaimers on TV drug ads.
Lots of beautiful old colonial architecture. Havana must have been really something in it's heyday.
The Capitol
So, these are some first impressions. More shortly.
