Havana 23.08.13N 82.21.45W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Fri 11 Apr 2008 11:56
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For the past two weeks, Chris and Tony of
Waylander and Yvonne and me from Chaser ll have been touring
Cuba by car. Cuba is a strange country, something we have discussed many
times trying to understand it, but more on that another time.
We arrived in Habana mid afternoon, our first task
was to find a room for the night. We had been given an address that had two
rooms available by the car hire company, so we checked that out first. Our aim
was to seek out Casa Particulares (private houses that rent
rooms). The address we were given only had one room but the owner
telephoned other places for us and showed us where they were. This is in old
Havana, much of old Havana is beautiful, unfortunately this part wasn't. We were
in a scruffy street with equally scruffy apartments and dirty staircases leading
up to the accomodation. The family house had two rooms for rent but only one
available that night, but the following day the two were available. The house
was actually quite nice and each of our rooms had en suite bathrooms,
with as they say hot and cold water 24 hours a day. We agreed to take them
the following nights but needed somewhere else for the first night so our host
showed us another apartment in an equally run down area, more a tenement block
and the rooms rather poor, clean but small with a shared bathroom with the
family, it was only for one night. Breakfast was included here, so the
four of us enjoyed fresh fruit and juice, eggs, bread, tea or coffee in the
morning, but Yvonne and I didn't bother with the shower.
These private houses are either state owned or
privately owned. If the tennant has rented it for more than 20 years then he is
'given' it although as yet he can't sell it and has no papers to prove it's his,
but apparently a new law will shortly be pasted by the 'Raul Castro' government
where these people will be able to sell the houses or cars if they have one,
maybe not to foreigners but certainly to Cubans.
After breakfast we put our bags in the car and
moved to the more 'luxurious ha ha' apartment. Although run down, with a dirty
albeit marble staircase, our house was quite large with very high ceilings and
doors. All was prepared for us, so once again we handed over our passports and
cruising permits/visas to the owner Alberto. We had comfortable clean rooms with
a lounge in between where we could sit in the evenings if required. Remember we
are in a Communist state, but nevertheless free enterprise has been allowed in
some areas of business, I suppose to help subsidise the living standards of the
Cuban people. The Cuban man or woman would be paid by the state somewhere
between 10$ and 20$ per month. This would depend on their occupation, a
farmer for example would receive 10$ but a doctor or lawyer may receive 20$ per
month, obviously not enough to live on. Each family does have a ration book
where they are provided with beans, rice, bread etc, electricity, water is
provided by the state, so too is health care and education to the age of late
twenties. Ten dollars though doesn't go far, a pair of cheap flip flops
would cost 4$ so I imagine this is why free enterprise has been allowed but
carefully monitored. Our host in this family house rents out two of his rooms at
25$ per room,per night, he must pay the state 5000$ per year once he has agreed
to be a 'private house' whether he is fully occupied or not.
We spent 3 nights with Alberto, each morning he
would provide a beautiful fresh and substantial breakfast for 3$ each. Like any
big city Havana is bustling, horse carts, rickshaws and old American muscle cars
roam the streets to all hours, delivering or transporting something. The old
town of Havana comes to life, we wandered the streets till midnight sampling
some of the Cuban products, it could be just a pork roll, but mainly it was the
Daquaires, the Mojitos or the Cuba Libres. Each bar had different bands playing
a kinda calypso jazz called 'Son' and 'Salsa'. One evening we walked into 'China
Town' lined with restaurants touting for business. We moved outside the area up
a back street where we were asked if we wanted Chinese food by a waiter on the
path. The frontage and staircase didn't look very appealing, in fact positively
awful but he assured us the food was good, so up we went to take a look. At the
top of the stairs another waiter opened a door and welcomed us into to a
beautiful well laid restaurant, we agreed to stay and he showed us a table. The
place for full of local people, yes I know, we said the same, how can they
afford it? but it seems some can. The prices were good by European standards and
the food was excellent.
Our days were spent visiting some of the more
cultural aspects of the city, and there is plenty of it. The architecture is
amazing, so extreme and decadent, but this isn't what socialism is about and
consequently little money is allocated to maintain these beautiful old
buildings. The museum of the revolution was previously the presidential palace
of dictator Fulgencio Batista, another enormous and amazingly ornate
building. All these buildings you have to pay to enter, maybe one or
two dollars, and perhaps an extra dollar if you want to use your camera. Each
room, and there are many, sits a woman watching the visitors, maybe to make
sure they don't take a photo without paying, but they do little else. The
building although showing its age, needs a good clean more than anything,
which the staff could do instead of sitting around all day, but they
didn't consequently the floors were dirty and the marble stairs and
handrails discolouring, such a shame. In fact this is an observation we
made, Cuba has so much wealth at its fingertips but it is being let go to
waste, but in some respects unnecessarily so. The old car museum, a typical
small example of the waste. Some beautiful old cars and motorbikes from 1910 to
1970, but the tires were flat, the bodywork dusty, and the chrome rusting.
Nevertheless there were four or five staff working there all day either
selling postcards or watching to see you weren't taking a photo without paying
for permission.
We had previously heard we could buy an American
Visa in Havana, I know it seems strange, afterall there is no American presence
in Cuba, the blockade ensures no american products are sold here and the US
government fines heavily any American citizen visiting Cuba because they are
considered to be supporting the enemy by spending their dollars. Still, we did
see US products, we did see US people albeit very few and as for the US visa
that was prepared for us within 24 hours by the non existent US embassy hiding
under the guise of a Swiss embassy that doesn't exist either. So we now have a
ten year US visa which is stamped 'Issued in Havana', how bad's
that!
Our stay in Havana also included a visit to one of Ernest Hemmingways favorite
bar/restaurant El Bodeguito del medio, Tony loved the menu there! We also drove
out to Hemmingway Marina, a must see place for a sailor, but a little
disappointing, Cienfuegos Marina is much nicer.
We had enough culture for now so the following day
we packed our bags to drive west to Viñales.
This is our updated blog of Havana now
including some pics. You'll see its a good place at night and safe to walk the
streets and enjoy the music and bars. You can see Yvonne having a drink problem
and Chris too rather tipsy I think you could say.
In the revolution museum, a beautiful
building, gorgeous ceiling, and a picture of me and Ern (Ernesto 'Che' Guevara),
and outside Tony practising to be a mail man.
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