Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Havana

We only docked in Havana for one day, but it was so memorable.

I really wanted to just walk around La Habana Vieja (Old Havana) where the ship docked and take photos but with all the US government warnings on the brochures they gave us about mixing with the locals, not going into any military or government facility, etc. I was a bit nervous because at the time I only had a green card. Being the dutiful Canadian I thought that the US government would know exactly where and what I did in Havana and not let me back in. Sounds silly but there were a lot of things going on with immigration at that time that made a lot of green card holders nervous. So, we book two excursions. Later the cruise staff said they have to give everyone the doom and gloom from the US government, but everyone ignores it. Wish I knew and hadn’t been such a baby.

The first excursion was an art tour. The bus took us to two beautifully decorated neighbourhoods, then an art museum, followed by my favorite place to be … the cemetery… and we ended the day at a hotel for drinks.

I'm not sure what the neighbourhoods are called, barrios come to mind but that's more of a Southwest word, but its does fit what they were. They have these co-op neighbourhoods that are highly decorated with tiles on all the walls and buildings.

The first one we went to was called Fusterlandia where the famous artist José Fuster created a magical, dream-like environment by decorating his whole house in vibrant tiles. Eventually his neighbors joined in and the whole area has become a colourful wonderment to the eyes. It has also uplifted the economy of this poor neighbourhood because it is filled with little shops full of kitschy touristy items that I'm afraid to say that I bought...couldn't help myself but I just loved this little photo.

I bought it for two reasons: it's helping the local people, and it looks really cool on my teal bedroom wall. I seriously couldn't take enough photos of the place; my artistic senses were on overdrive with all the colours.

The next barrio was much the same but this one had a cultural centre for local teenagers where they could hang out and learn art, and on the weekends, they had music and dancing. They had a local band playing while we were there, and we got to dance and drink a local punch. I also met this wonderful gentleman who was just hanging out laying on the bench. He told me that he had moved to Cuba from Africa. I bought a great Havana t-shirt from one of the students. It’s become one of my fav shirts now that I’ve lost enough weight to fit into it.














Nest stop was The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) a museum dedicated to Cuban art. 


It was a modern art wonder. The Cubans do love their modern art, especially cubism. I was gleefully told by the guild that it was because the Soviets hated it so much. The Soviets tried to foist their revolutionary artwork on the island, and they were having anything to do with it, instead embraced all forms of modern art. I noticed a theme that the Cubans loved thumbing their noses up at the Soviets. 

I got another surprise when I was there, our guide was obviously gay, he wasn't hiding it at all and that's a big change in Cuba. A few years ago I saw a documentary about what it was like to be gay in Cuba and bottom line, you were either deep in the closet or in jail. To see a man that was not hiding his sexuality was quite the surprise. The guilds were telling us that things have loosed quite a lot since Castro died. At the time we were there, his brother Raúl had just stepped down and the communist grip that he started to loosen was getting even more slack (they had just been given access to the internet just before we arrived). 

The guild also said that Castro was well loved, and they went in deep mourning when he died. It’s hard to tell what the truth is and what isn’t since they were catering to the tourist industry and didn’t want to put on a sad face, but I did find the guides quite open when questioned even about communism. Not what you would assume of a communist country—my only reference being from the movies and growing up in Southern Florida where all the exiled Cubans lived. I did notice that at the end of the day there really wasn’t much difference between them and us. Their day to day lives were no different than us, they loved, they laughed, they cried.


Across from the museum was a little outdoor military museum with planes and some tanks. I gestured through the fence to this soldier if I could take his photo and he nodded yes. Now he did fit the communist movie stereotype! After we left the museum, we went to a tobacco shop to buy Cuba cigars. I bought a few for Bruce's BFF who loves a good cigar.

Then on to my favourite place in the whole world—I do love a good cemetery, and this one was outstanding. Unfortunately, we were only there for 30 minutes and it was huge! But I got a few good shots of the massive statuary.









The last place the tour bus took us to was The Hotel Nacional de Cuba, the famous hangout of the Mafia (and seen in the Godfather II movie), movie stars, and general big wigs, for some refreshing mojitos. Cindy and I were feeling a bit of déjà vu as it’s the same look as The Breakers in Palm Beach, our old childhood stomping ground. When we were in grade six, we used to crawl over the huge cement breakers that separated their private beach from the public beach and hang out all day drinking free sodas. No one questions kids.




Then we were off to cruise around the city in antique cars. As much as I enjoyed the excursion, I was having an issue with the pollution. It wasn't bothering me before, when I was walking around the ship’s deck or on our first excursion but being in traffic in a convertible was a bit much. They don't have unleaded gas there so the car fumes were bad. And naturally I didn’t think to bring my inhaler. But the drive around town was quite nice and we got to see a lot of the old buildings and parks.



At the end of the car tour, we stopped off at the same cigar shop. I guess they get a kick back from all the tours!

Many of the infrastructure there is crumbling but there were signs of upgrades, there were cranes in the skyline everywhere we went. The guides told us that when the Soviet Union collapsed, they went through an economic downturn so many of the old colonial buildings were crumbling. But to me they weren't ugly, I thought of them as old colourful grand dames, beautiful in their wrinkles! They hid a lot of the damage by slapping colourful paint on the buildings. It reminded me of Charleston or New Orleans where the buildings are old and not in the best of shape but beautiful in their own way. They were having an upswing from US tourism, but we were one of the last cruise ships before the embargos started up again, so I have no idea what it is like down there now.








There is a China Town in Havana!





 Fun fact: Cuba has two currencies and two stores. To confuse everyone both currencies are called peso. One is the Cuban peso and the other is the Cuban convertible peso often called dollar. I heard that they were fazing out this system by the end of 2021. The two stores are the government store and the black-market store. The government one is cheaper but often is low on supplies, so there are still shortages. 

We saw long lines for buses that were always late, but the Cubans were kind of blasé about it. You’ll find that all over the Caribbean though, no one is in a hurry. We used to call it Island Time. I also saw a Army general on a moped, medals and all, that totally made my retired Navy self laugh out loud!

The other surprise I got was the number of churches there. Another myth about communism blown away. Right across the street from the ship terminal was a beautiful Orthodox church. 

I asked the tour guide how many churches they had and she said quite a few, mostly Catholic but that they also had Baptists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Episcopal, Methodists, Quakers, Lutherans, Greek and Russian Orthodox, Jehovah's Witnesses and, as the guide said, “And even one Mormon church.” I knew they had Episcopal churches down there because around that same time the Episcopal Church of Cuba was readmitted into the US Episcopal Church, but I have no idea why I didn’t think there were other denominations there.

They were immensely proud of their little island country, they have a great sense of humour like their attitude towards the Soviets. Can you image the Soviet party leader tourists that went to Havana, what a cultural difference between the two! That 70s Wendy’s Swimware commercials came to mind when the guild was talking about the Soviets in Cuba. And they are proud of their education and medial systems which are top notch. They have some of the best doctors and labs I was told, and everyone can get a college education. The problem though was that because of the embargos, etc. there weren't many jobs for the highly educated. For example, our car driver was college educated but he made more money driving tourist around in his antique car. And a lot of their doctors can only travel to places like Mexico to work.

So, we got back to the ship and I was coughing up a storm. Oh great. I had to go to the ship's doctor and get some antibiotics and other medication just to survive the trip home to California. I was sick for about a month after that with my usual lung infection. But I did have a good time.

My one day in Jupiter before I caught a flight out, I finally got some grits and shrimp. I was a happy camper.