Trip March 20-25
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| Cheers to 25 years! |
It
has taken me 2 full weeks to start this blog, simply because the trip was so
full, fun & intense. The intensity
had to do with time, not with the usual “expect everything to go wrong”
warnings. I have patiently gone through
photos, trying to decide which ones tell a story, & not have it be a Trip
Advisor story but ours. This is no easy
task when you are sorting through about 500 pictures many of which are quite
nice, & trying to figure out what you loved because it was weird (which I
am) or odd (which I also love), but also which would share our 25th
anniversary in a way that could be meaningful to my family & friends.
First
of all, the disclaimers: 1. I am not a cruise ship fan. I think that I would probably have a very
difficult time on one and they give me the creeps. This is personal, and fortunately I share
this dislike with my husband; but amazingly (as this is Cuba after all) there
were two cruise ships (400-500 of our best friends each) in the dock (about 4
blocks from our hotel. We tried to decide how we could escape.
( It turns
out that cruise ships have been going in & out of Cuba for years.
Fortunately, only one event had lots of cruise people, & the event itself
was wonderful & didn’t matter how many people crossed that crowded
room. 2. I have a bad back, & to
have 2-3 hour delays in flights when you have to sit on a red, orange or yellow
plastic chairs makes me cranky. 3. When
an expensive hotel doesn’t have a bottled water for either of us, hot water,
internet in the lobby, or working TV for 4 days, I can be cranky, especially
when the hotel tries to pass their roof rooms off as rooms with balconies though
you look out your window at only the elevated roof of the hotel and not
anywhere else, and your suite is just a slightly bigger room with a couch. I
like light and I like air, and we had very little of either.
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| view from rooftop of man feeding his chickens |
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| The little cupulo where drinks were prepared |
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| view of the Cathedral from our rooftop |
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| Stained Glass ceiling Our view from room |
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| Elevator antique &you get trapped at least once/day |
Finally, everyone
discouraged us to drink tap water or even brush teeth with tap water, yet we
had a 3-4-block walk to buy bottled water because the hotel did not provide it.
(no grocery stores near) 4. When the concierge does not know where any of the
restaurants are located that you wrote down, you are a bit annoyed at this
concierge who should know the names of at least a few restaurants, even if they
aren’t the ones you wrote down, and you are a bit confused about her job description. (But you are cranky at yourself for not being
smart enough to write down the addresses and phone numbers of the places to
which you really wanted to go.)
With
those disclaimers past, by & large this was an amazing trip. Even my frustration with our hotel was
lowered by the fact that we never had a power outage; we did have air
conditioning (maybe too much), we discovered that we could have a good breakfast
when we persuaded the on-site pancake maker to also make fried eggs or omelets,
we found good food restaurants and fantastic food at the Hotel National despite
the concierge, and one of the workers at the hotel was a continuous life saver.
Thank you Tomás.
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| Tomás our good Concierge & Life Saver |
We had been told that
Immigration and Customs would be rough, and the only rough part was the Delta
Agent in Atlanta. (Yes, we have complained)
We arrived in Cuba.
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| Cuban Airport |
The Cuban Immigration Agent welcomed us warmly, stamped our
visas & sent us right on to get our bags.
(It was actually one of the easiest immigration moments I have had despite
travel to many countries). We waited to change money for over 30 minutes
because there are so few legal places to but even then it was
not mean spirited or angry. (Be prepared
to change money at 6% if you are changing $.
It may be worth it if you can get Euros for free as they have a small
exchange rate!) People expected the wait, and it was fun to “people watch”
during that time. And, the Cubans
were happy to see us. I have been many
places, and you get your feelings from outside the airport about a place, and
mostly they are accurate. There was a lot of joy outside this airport.
Our
taxi driver made it clear to us that everyone supports the revolution (whether
this is true or not, we never heard a word opposed, & from the drive in, it
looked like people were pretty happy & easy going. The old cars were fantastic looking &
people were headed to baseball mounds for a good old game of the all American
sport.
He gave us a general tour
as we made our way to the hotel. Cars moving down the Havana Vieja
(called Old Havana-) had a very hard time negotiating through the maize. The
good piece of this is that, different from Italy, there was no speeding through
these narrow streets, & pedestrians obviously had the right of way
everywhere.
After
our check in, we took a short walk to the old Cathedral Square. (buying water) We walked around the narrow streets in this
area & marveled how clean everything was, how marvelous secrets like
museums, fantastic old houses, shops & music & more music lay behind
plain doors and dark narrow hallways, and/or dark stair cases.
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| Typical street in Havana Vieja |
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| John in Cathedral Square near Cathedral |
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| Dancers ready for action |
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| Beautiful old Cathedral interior |
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| Hmmmm Read sign- |
So basically the sign right in front of that wonderful view inside the Cathedral states: "You are in a Catholic Church...No Shorts Too Short. God Bless You!
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| John in the Cathedral Square |
Weather changed as we left for dinner.
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| Bicycle Taxi in the rain |
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| John and Trish at the Restaurant |
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| Van Van Bar and Restaurant deserves "Kudos" |
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| Bar and Restaurant Van Van |
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| Bicycle Taxi home |
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| It is a bumpy journey (not alcohol I promise) |
We
had a crazy fantastic ride in the pouring rain via bicycle taxi to the Van Van
Restaurant (I did write this address down), another old haunt that provided a
delicious dinner, new beer options & friendly staff. Clearly this place deserves its 4 stars from
Trip Advisor. The rain stopped & our
new bicycle taxi driver loved describing Havana Vieja to
us on our drive home.
I
had already planned that at least a large part of our next day—Annversary
#25—would consist of the Hop on Hop off Bus.
Our hotel had never heard of it, but thankfully directed us to the “tour
office”, which was a tiny little cubicle near the Cathedral.
For 1 CUC ($1) sold
us a map of Havana, YES!!!!, and directed us to the Hop on Hop off bus
stop.
The directions were vague but we found it.
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| Fort of San Carlos of Cuba |
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| Christ of Havana |
We had a beautiful view of the Fort, the
Jesus and the cruise ships (gulp) And for 5 CUC pesa each ($5)
were able to see the entire city of Havana by bus. We could get on & off & on again for
nothing extra the entire day. The plan is ride around the city once and mark all the places we wanted to see before
“hopping” back on. I had my map to know where we were all day. It took a bit over 2 hours to get through the
whole trip once. We sat upstairs &
had a terrific view of this huge new & old city.
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| Havana old and new |
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| Lighthouse near Fort |
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| Beach house on Beach Front |
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| Hospital Garcia |
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| Hotel National |
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| Church of Santa Christa in Old Havana |
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| Revolution Square Old Cars |
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| Park Central with Music Theatre |
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| Music Theatre turrets |
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| Avenue of the Feet! |
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| Forever the Revolution |
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| Hemingway's Hotel Floridita |
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| Supposedly another Hemingway drinking place and sleeping |
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| Ricky Ricardo's CopaCabana? |
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| Monument2 to Maxim Gomez |
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| Aquarium |
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| US Embassy |
I loved the comments (Cuba put all
the flags of the world on huge wide poles in front of the US embassy to keep embassy
employees from seeing out of the windows), (the Hotel National is where the US
mob + Frank Sinatra regularly met and sang before the Revolution…) (Hemingway
used to drink here, and here, and here—most notably the “Floridita Bar” –come
drink a daiquiri the same way Hemingway did--- or here, this was really the
place that Hemingway really drank---come have a great drink with us, & oh
by the way, did you know that Hemingway was a spy for Fidel?) Lots more.
Buy the time we were ready to get off & on, we had mapped out a few
places for the rest of the day. I could go on and on and on...
My
highlight was not Revolution Square though it was an architectural beauty....
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| Patricia and Ché |
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| Patricia and Fidel |
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| Revolution Square really a monument to José Martí |
But, my highlight was the cemetary(Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón). I think
that I could blame my brother (who loves graves) for this. The cemetery could easily claim one day, but
we had one hour.
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| Necropólis Cristóbal Colón |
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| Mother Theresa Chapel in the Cemetary |
A cemetery cleaner
picked us up & gave a fantastic tour to his favorite graves.
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| Replica of Miguel Angel (of piety) but obviously the family Herrera-Ortiz |
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| personal favorite-Medical Students who died as Martyrs during 1906 |
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| grave of José Mata |
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| Gravestone of coral |
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| Our grave tour guide and cleaner |
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| Grave of Ibraham Ferrer Buena Vista Social Club Singer |
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| Inside Chapel |
These included one of the original singers
with the Buena Vista Social Club, young doctor martyrs from a mass death
(plague or revolution) at the turn of the century who died, martyrs of another
revolution who died, martyrs from the revolution with the Spanish who died,
babies who died, precious women in families who died, entire famous Cuban
family tombs, etc. The goal seemed to be
that with the exception of the martyrs, each tomb had very individual
headstones. Some used coral; some used
glass, or gold. The martyrs were always
headless. The center of the cemetery was
called the Mother Theresa Chapel & she was prominently featured caring for
the poor & dying. There were also
pictures of the Former Pope, and other Bishops and other famous Catholics. It
was a beautiful chapel, and a restful place after the hundreds of glistening white graves that we had walked by, around. Our self-appointed guide left us after a few
pesos & some Polaroid pictures of himself. I was very sad that we did not
find our way to the 1957 Martyrs of the assault on the Presidential
Palace! We just did not have time.We caught our bus back to Central Plaza where joyous music was playing
& people were gathering for evening fun.
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| Capital from Park Central |
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| Park Central |
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| José Marti Park Central |
We walked to our hotel and headed out to our anniversary dinner at the
Hotel National.
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| Anniversary on Bicycle Taxi |
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| Musicians at dinner |
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| 25!!!! Who would have thought!!!! |
Our
next day consisted of a trip out of town.
I feel we should have made a full day of it, but we just didn’t realize
what we were missing. We found our way to a small gallery in which the artist made amazing
ceramics. If I had not had my trusty Trip Advisor
address, we would never have found this lovely studio.
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| Fantastic Gallery |
After a while we headed to the Hemingway
Marina, thinking that it would give us some Hemingway views, but we realized
when we got there that it is another rich person’s place, and that this is
where the new secret Americans are living and making many dollars without notice
from the US government (I guess). Our
taxi driver thought that we might find some art at the old hotel there but
unfortunately it was boarded up and clearly closed forever. So, we headed to
the Hemingway house, which was amazing.
I
highly recommend seeing “Papa Hemingway” and though it does not show the best
side of Hemingway, what actually is the best side? He always was troubled, he always was a
testosterone driven man, the Africans did not love him because he went to kill
not to revel in the African wildlife, but this movie also shows the last days
before the Revolution and his bravery amidst the insanity that was the Batista
days. See it, and you will really
appreciate this house, because the movie was a set, but nearly identical, and
you can imagine seeing the actors wandering in and out, the driveway, and the
grounds. Hemingway's role as a spy for the revolution was a part of him that I had not known.
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| Band outside Hemingway house |
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| Graves of Hemingway's dogs |
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| Living room |
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| Entry way |
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| JB in front of Hem. house |
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| Patricia in front door Hemingway house |
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| Pilar the boat |
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| Pilar inside |
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| John & Pilar |
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| View from Hemingway house |
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| Fun photo on our way back to Hotel |
When we got back to Havana City, we toured the Fort of San Carlos across the bay. This, too was fantastic,
but I think we could spent another day there!
Here we were amidst British Domination over the Spanish as well as the
Bay of Pigs. I loved hearing Trevor Noah
saying that the only reason the Brits needed to colonize other countries was
because of the weather. I felt this as I
read inside the fortress about the battles fought and won over Cuba, the tiny
country south of Mexico.
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| Patricia View of Harbor from Fort |
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| Jesus, Havana Statue |
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| Ché Gueverra's House in Cuba |
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| Old Spanish Fort won by the British |
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| Guns from Fort |
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| Narrow walk ways in fort. John is claustrophobic so he was a hero to walk in this fort |
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| John Waiting for me to finish reading |
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| Missals from 1962-the missile crisis. |
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| Another Missile |
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| Perfect date. Gulp |
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| The big Missile |
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| JB and Missiles |
Amazing Monument to the Defense of Cuba
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| Explanation of monument |
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| KM Zero |
We
went to a good dinner at Kilometer 0
(why the name?) and then to the Buena Vista Social Club.
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| Buena Vista Social Club |
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| John with Mojitos at Buena Vista Social Club |
Despite the huge crowds and perhaps the
mojito that caused my “Havanarrhea” on the way home, I loved it. The wait staff
moved us when they realized we were not there for food to a table farther from
the stage, but right next to the door that the singers came through on and off
stage. It was amazing. I loved the music and could have danced all
night, but reality and John’s desire for early bed got us home at a reasonable
hour.
Our
last day in Havana was interesting. I
knew that there was a fine Arts Museum in Havana but John couldn’t find it in
our book (turned out that two pages were glued together!) so we went to small
galleries. This error was probably
better. We just had fun and really saw
in the small galleries the influence that West Africa and the Yoruba peoples
and their culture had upon the indigenous peoples of Cuba. Felt somehow familiar to East Africa and New
Orleans. We added a ride in an open 1947
Chevy coupe, and the day was complete. We
had a moment when we tried to go to the “cigar museum” and some probably
thieves told us it was closed for tours and we should come with them. Over our better judgement, we went with them,
wandering in and out of alleyways and finally into a room filled with boxes of
cigars that they were selling. They were
disgusted that they had wasted their time with us, who bought no cigars (we
have too many it turns out already.) So we ended our day and began the last with a look at the horses and carriages and the museums that we wanted to see.
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| Park Central gathering of Bicycle Taxis |
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| The Plaza Vieja (not so hidden treasures) |
This plaza was filled with school children playing ball, jump rope and running around. Tourists intermingled around the amazing Statue of the giant rooster with the nude woman in high heels riding him holding a giant Fork. The symbol is supposed to demonstrate the power of women. The children paid it little mind!
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| The Tobacco Museum. Fabulous except for the lady asking for money, but quietly in a corner |
Look at these Box covers for Cigars. WOW!
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| One of the tiny Museums of Anthropologie orArchiology |
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| Us in our fab Chevie Open Air 47 |
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| And here it is! |
Leaving
Havana was actually fun. Our taxi
driver, Dani, was fabulous. He was
driving a 1954 Chevy Cavalier and told
us the whole history of his family and the car.
Everything
was fine until our check in Priority Delta lady whispered, “Your plane is 2
hours late, just sayin’ ”. We asked
where the lounge was and she said “no lounge, except there is an international
lounge that you can pay to gain access to” and gave us directions none of which
were correct and we found ourselves through customs with no lounges except a
Virgin Atlantic that would not allow us in.
So we were back in plastic chairs for 4 hours. My sweet husband had paid to bump us to
business class, but all lost on me because after the first bite of food, I knew
that either I was going to die, vomit or faint.
I managed to get to the bathroom where I put my head between my legs and
managed to get some air back (in the bathroom this is not easy). The rest of the trip to JFK was foggy. But at
least our flight attendant brought me soda water and ice packs for my head and
I had the room to put my head down to get air.
We
arrived in NYC to find that our own flight was 2 hours late so instead of
racing to catch our flight, we spent two long hours in the lounge. When our plane came
in, I felt so sorry for the confused people getting off the plane with
international connections to contend with, many of which had already departed. We helped as best we could to guide them for
help because the Delta desk was not interested in helping them at all.
People
do not be afraid of this country, the confusion and craziness. They want us, and they love nice people. Music is everywhere and it is all fun and
good, and you can drink or not, but do not drink the water or have mojitos with
ice cubes in them or daquaris with ground up ice. Use Trip Advisor as much as you can, and be
sure to write down addresses. If you do,
you will be just fine. Learn from my experience.
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