Day 5: Havana
- Breakfast at the hotel
- Meet with members of a local car repair cooperative
- Visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Central Havana
- After lunch, meet with the dancers of the Santa Amalia Project
- 7:30 Dinner at El Aljibe
Day 6: Havana / Miami
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¡Adios, Cuba! After breakfast, bid farewell to Cuba and board your flight to Miami.
Our first stop of the morning was Cooperativa Reconstructora de Vehiculos, a private cooperative that does auto bodywork. The cooperative was on the outskirts of town so it was about a 20 minute drive to get there. Below are a few shots of Havana from the drive.
Next door to the cooperative was one of the few auto dealerships in Havana, a Peugeot dealer. A new car costs about $30,000, which is way beyond the means of almost all Cubans. Almost all of the new cars in Cuba are owned by foreigners or diplomats.
When we arrived at the cooperative we had a presentation from the head of the cooperative, explaining how it works. It's essentially a semi-private business (one of the few in Cuba), that the members of the cooperative invest in. Their business is taking older cars that are in really bad shape, and restoring them so that they can be used by businesses and government agencies.
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| Head of the cooperative explaining how it works |
We then got a tour of their operation.
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| An unrestored 1952(?) Chevy |
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| A restored Russian Lada. This is the best shape I have ever seen a Lada in. |
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| A Lada desperately in need of restoration |
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| Interior of a car before restoration |
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| A partially-restored Lada |
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| Partially restored 1957 Ford |
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| A sewing machine used to restore upholstery |
From the factory, we headed back to the center of Havana to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. If you are a big art fan, it was probably incredibly interesting. However, I am not a big art fan. Since no photography was allowed in the building, I can only show you the outside and interior courtyard.
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| Entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts |
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| Courtyard of the Museum of Fine Arts |
Across the street from the Museum of Fine Arts was the
Granma Memorial, which, despite it's name, is not a memorial to the grandmothers of Cuba.
Granma was a boat that the leaders of the Cuban revolution took from Mexico to Cuba to start the revolution. The memorial contains the boat and other artifacts from the revolution.
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| The Granma is inside the building |
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| Other artifacts from the revolution |
After visiting the museum, we headed to Sloppy Joe's Bar (another Hemingway hangout) for lunch, and free mojitos. No Cuban band, and no
Guantanmera.
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| Inside Sloppy Joe's |
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| What a Cuban Sandwich looks like in Cuba |
We then got in the bus and headed to the outskirts of town for our next cultural event. We passed a few interesting sites along the way.
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| A 1952 (I think) Chevy |
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| The Cuban Capitol building (El Capitolino) |
The next several shots give an indication of the conditions on some of the less touristy areas of Havana.
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| A street in central Havana |
Our next stop was in the La Vibora section of Havana to visit the
Santa Amalia Dancers. This is a group of people, now mostly in their 70's and 80's, that got together in the 1950's to listen and dance to jazz music in a local house, and still do. The music and dancing were contagious, so much so that even I took part.
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| Some housing in the La Vibora neighborhood |
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| In the "jazz club" which is actually a living room in a house |
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| Santa Amelia dancers doing their thing |
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| After the room cleared out |
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| The dancers say goodbye to our group |
The next few shots were taken from the front porch of the "jazz club" and give a feel for the neighborhood.
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| 1955 Plymouth and a 1954(?) Chevy |
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| A (presumably government-run) corner hamburger stand |
We then went back to Old Havana, where the bus dropped us off at a craft market. After some shopping, we had to take a taxi back to our hotel. There were several taxis lined up outside the market, but we headed for a "classic" model, a 1954(?) Chevy.
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| Our taxi |
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| Inside the taxi. I think the CD player was an aftermarket addition |
Our route back to the hotel took us along the shore on the Malecon.
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| Along the Malecon |
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| Hotel Nacional |
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| More sights along the Malecon |
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| Our taxi driver, proudly posing with his taxi at our hotel |
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| Caution is required along the Malecon. |
Our next event was a "farewell" dinner at a restaurant in Miramar, the richest suburb in Havana. Lisette, our American guide, said that she had a surprise for us, and told us wait at the front door of the hotel. We waited for about 10 minutes, nothing happened, and Lisette started (slightly) freaking out. But then a fleet of six fully-restored 1950's American cars pulled up. We got in (4 to a car) and were treated to a driving tour of Havana, eventually terminating at the restaurant. Cool!
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| Our car, a 1955 Chevy, arrives at the front door of the hotel |
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| Inside our car--nicely restored |
We first stopped at Revolution Plaza, where we had been the previous night, on the way to the ball park.
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| Two beauties from the 1950's |
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| Under the hood of one of the cars |
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| Ministerio de Comunicaciones, with an image of Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos, |
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| More American classics, from the 1950's |
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| Not sure what year/model this is, but it's a classic |
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| The entire fleet |
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| Jose Marti (the "father of Cuba") monument in Revolution Plaza |
After admiring the cars and the monuments, we headed to the restaurant in Miramar.
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| "All is Lost" is showing at the Acapulco Theater |
Miramar is where most of the embassies are located and where most of the foreigners live. The housing was luxurious, by Cuban standards.
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| Street corner in Miramar |
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| Housing in Miramar |
Our dinner was at
Al Ajibe, a privately-owned restaurant in Mirimar. More free mojitos!
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| At Al Ajibe |
Our final activity was a trip back to Old Havana to see a Cuban music show. About 15 years ago, the movie
Buena Vista Social Club re-popularized Cuban music from the 1940's and 1950's, and since the movie, several members of the group started their own "Buena Vista Social Club" acts, playing in various locations in Havana. We attended a performance one of the groups at Cafe Taberna in Old Havana.
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| Old Havana at night |
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| Front desk at a hotel next to the night club |
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| Outside Cafe Taberna |
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| Mojitos on the assembly line at Cafe Taberna |
The performance was excellent. I really had the feel of being in Havana in the 1940's, and the music was great. You can see a video of part of the show (not from me) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yo7OSSj_Wc. I regret to say that they
did play
Guantanamera.
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| The band in action |
They even got a conga line going, featuring the lady in pink.
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| The bar at Cafe Taberna |
After the show, which ended at about 11:00 PM, we walked back through Old Havana (feeling perfectly safe), to a taxi stand. A few shots of Old Havana at night are below.
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| Brenda negotiating a cab at 11:30 PM in Havana. Don't tell her mother. |
Instead of going directly to our hotel, we went to the
Hotel Nacional to have a drink with some other folks from our tour. The Hotel Nacional is a classic hotel from the 1930's, with a long list of famous guests.
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| Front of the Hotel Nacional |
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| Lobby of the Hotel Nacional |
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| Main dining room in the Hotel Nacional |
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| Classic elevators |
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| Back in the lobby |
We had drinks (mojitos, not surprisingly) on the back patio of the hotel.
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| Rear view of the Hotel Nacional |
Well after midnight, we caught a taxi back to our hotel.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Today we were due at the airport at 9:30 for a 1:30 PM flight.
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| More mayhem on the Malecon |
Here are some shots of various locations in Havana from our ride to the airport.
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| 56 Pontiac! |
The Havana airport has a special terminal for charter flights to the U.S. and other countries. Check-in and security were a breeze.
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| Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I've been |
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| Check-in counters |
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| Cuban cigars, which I can't bring back |
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| A big plane to handle the daily flights between Cuba and Angola |
The flight to Miami was short and uneventful. In Miami, we breezed through immigration and customs--they never even checked our luggage. I could have smuggled a few boxes of cigars and bottles of rum in, unless they have cigar-sniffing dogs.
And thus ended our journey. If you have the chance, go see Cuba before it turns into just another Caribbean tourist trap.
