Cuba--The Cars, The People, The Beauty

You went to Cuba. Did you see the cars?

That is the first question everyone asks when they discover that we visited the beautiful island of Cuba, rich in history and beautifully adorned with vistas that make you want to linger. Cuba is much more than the old cars that are tuned up and polished with love but it does say a lot about the people of Cuba.

Havana was the place we saw the most cars. It is a little more affluent than the other two ports we visited. In those ports there were more carts and horses but then they did not have the big city atmosphere of Havana either. In Havana, the cars were often used as taxis or for tours of the city. We saw tourists stopping at many of the same places we did by bus only they were getting there in old convertible cars some of which had not originally been convertible.

If the contact we had with people showed me anything, it illustrated how resilient the people are. They have been through good times but also some really hard times. They live on ration cards receiving supplies of food from the government. They are now beginning to receive some promise of earning more money through setting up their own businesses and many are getting into the tourism area that is helping to improve their economy.



One of our fellow passengers told us their guide had said that a country is not its government. A country is its people. It reminded me of a tour guide in Viet Nam who said to us that when people mention VIet Nam they think war but Viet Nam is a country. I hope others will judge our country not by the wars we've fought or the things our government does but by the hearts of the people who make up the country.

I saw kindness, resilience and ingenuity. Our tour guide pointed to a car as it went by and said she is amazed at how they keep them running. Lift the hood and you may find parts from a coffee maker keeping the engine going. The kids who don't want to stay in regular school are enrolled in learning a trade--restoration of old buildings. As the kids learn, they are also providing labor to prepare Havana for their 500th anniversary in 2019. In a few years, many of those beautiful architectural buildings will be returned to their original appearance.

There is much more of Cuba to be explored I'm sure than just the taste that we received. I have no idea what life is truly like, especially away from the ports that we explored. As a tourist you see what is offered to you. But I think we got a glimpse of the real Cuba in the people we met. There were times that we sat in a church or cathedral to get out of the sun. As we did, I prayed for the people of Cuba. May God bless them.

Port of Call: Havana -- Plaza de Armas

Our last stop on our walking tour of Old Town Havana was the Plaza de Armas. It is the oldest plaza of Havana and dates back to around 1519 when Havana was first established. The name has to do with military arms and is where there were military parades, music concerts, and formal evening promenades.

The Plaza de Armas was the administrative and political center into the mid-twentieth century. The buildings surrounding the square are representative of four centuries but the one that caught my attention was the one with a great story behind it--or perhaps I should say in front of it.

The wooden street.

The Placio de los Capitanes Generales or Palace of the Captain Generals was a beautiful building that is not a museum. All of the streets around the plaza are cobble stone except for the stretch in front of the palace. As our guide told us, one of the generals (or governors) had a wife who complained that the noise of the horses and carriages kept her awake. In order to have peace in the family, he ordered that the cobble stone in front of the palace be replaced with wood.

This plaza had quite a nice park with trees and flowering bushes. In the center was a statue of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the man who began the process of independence from Spain.




The other interesting building on the plaza is El Templete which almost looks like a Roman temple. It is on the site of the first mass ant the town council of Havana on November 16,1519. There is a ceiba tree in the courtyard that marks the place where the mass was held. Every year people gather near midnight of the 15th and as the new day arrives they circle the tree three times and make a wish for the future as a celebration of the anniversary.




A lady dressed in bright clothing was wandering through the tour groups and encouraging people to take pictures with her for a CUC ($1 USD). Our tour guide had told us about these ladies who wear very red lipstick so they can plant a bright red kiss on your cheek for the picture. It was obvious that the cruise industry is having an impact on their economy as the lady stopped our tour guide to ask when the next cruise ship was expected.



While some on our tour went off with the tour guide at the end of our tour to buy some scarves at a store that wasn't on our prohibited list, we told her thank you, gave her a tip, and made our way back to the ship which was a short walk along the Malecon, the sea wall that extends along the water's edge of the harbor for almost 5 miles.

The day was heating up or I may have been tempted to explore on our own a bit. Old Town Havana was fascinating.

Port of Call: Havana--Plaza de la Catedral

On our way to the Plaza de la Catedral from the Plaza Vieja we stopped in at the Hotel Ambos Mundos made famous by Ernest Hemingway. I was excited when our guide said that we were going in. We had passed on a Hemingway tour in favor of getting a more overall picture of Havana and I was envious of some of the reports from those who had taken the Hemingway tour.

The hotel was built in 1924 and Hemingway lived there for several years in the 1930s. His room was on the fifth floor from which he had views of the Havana harbor where he fished frequently on his boat, Pilar.





He rented the room for $1.50 a night and stayed until he moved his winter residence to a hillside just outside of Havana. He began his novel, For Whom The Bell Tolls, in room 511 which is set up as he would have had it and houses a small museum. Tours of the room/museum are available daily.

The hotel still books guests and as we entered the lobby there were some at the small bar and sitting in the comfortable sofas scattered around. What fascinated Bob and I immediately was the old elevator. It was one you see in old movies all the time--a cage in the middle of a taller cage of bars that stretched from one floor to another. I took one picture before I realized it was actually functional. When the elevator came down, I took another.

After examining the elevator, we moved to a small corner in the back of the lobby that had pictures of Hemingway and the man who was his fishing buddy, Gregorio Fuentes, who many think Santiago in the story, The Old Man And The Sea, was fashioned after. The hotel stop was a little bit of Hemingway and I enjoyed it.

One of the other interesting things we saw on the way to the Plaza de la Catedral was a gun museum. Guns are not allowed unless you are a collector and can pass the rigorous screening. Add Cuba to the growing list of countries who have strict gun control.




Along the way we also stopped for a few minutes to admire a huge mural that while it looks like a painting, it is actually an amazing mosaic made of small stones. It depicts 67 figures of art and history in Cuba. The small rocks were soaked in acrylic resin to get the 13 shades of the four basic colors in the mural. It is also a mirror image of the building across from it.


We wandered around a bit and went into the Cathedral to sit for a few minutes and enjoy the decor. Outside, from across the plaza, you can see that the two towers are different in size. When they were building the second tower, they realized they had to make it smaller because it was encroaching on the side street. Bells from the towers were out on the plaza in front of the cathedral as it was being renovated.

Port of Call: Havana--Old Town

An early breakfast (7 AM is early when you're on a cruise) and we were soon on our way to meet our guide for our walking tour. We went through a similar process of showing passports and bags scanned but they seemed a little more laid back that morning. Our Enrichment Lecturer, Sandy Cares, had said that the women security personnel had an unusual uniform. She was right. They were in a tight and very short khaki skirt with either black fishnet or lacy patterned hose. Still, they pulled off a professional, all business, demeanor as they checked us through.

We met below the terminal again but this time we didn't board buses. I was so happy to not be on a bus. Now I could take pictures without worrying about the tinted window, reflections, and movement. Once we were all assembled, our guide introduced herself and we started out crossing the four lane boulevard in front of the terminal with the help of a traffic control person.

Right across from the cruise/ferry terminal is the Plaza de San Francisco. Of course every plaza was to have a church and this was named for the church that sat at one end. Our guide took time to caution us about the people we would encounter on our walk. There would be vendors and people who were dressed up wanting a CUC ($1 USD) for a picture of them. Others might be making sketches of us and then offering the sketches to us for payment. As she spoke, a man in a clown costume with a small dog sitting on top of his head approached us. She greeted him with a smile and said something in Spanish. He smiled back and moved away a bit. This would be repeated several times throughout our tour, twice when she embraced the vendors and apparently asked them to give us some room. I have never seen such kindness in a tour guide toward those who are trying to sell things to tour groups. Also, I've never seen people who are desperate to sell what they have to offer actually give space to the tour group. We never felt haggled or unsafe or bothered even when it was someone just begging which didn't happen nearly as much as I thought it might.

We wandered around the San Francisco plaza a bit and of course took a picture with "El Caballero de Paris" Jose Maria Lopez Liedin. There are all sorts of stories about him but the one that seems to emerge the most is that he was a dreamer who wandered the streets sharing dreams and stories with anyone who would listen. It is said that if you touch the beard, hand and shoe of the bronze statue your dreams will come true. They are obviously the shiniest parts of the bronze.

There were several dogs roaming around and sometimes coming up to us in a friendly approach. We noticed that a few had a collar with a white tag attached. Our guide explained that these were actually employed by the historical department. Sort of good-will ambassadors. People were asked to love them and feed them. She didn't explain what happened to the ones without a tag. A little research showed me that there is a movement underway in Havana to neuter strays and vaccinate them and encourage people to adopt them. Here's a link to the story I found.

The only traffic in the Old Town area consisted of a few trucks where there was some restoration work going on. The rest of the time it was all pedestrian and made for a comfortable walk as we moved on to the next plaza.

Port of Call: Havana--Parisien Cabaret

In hindsight, I wish I had researched the Hotel Nacional de Cuba a bit more before our evening out in Cuba at the Parisien Cabaret. The only thing I noted from our Enrichment Lecture was that the hotel was based on the Miami Breakers Hotel. I would have done a bit more exploring had I known more of its history.

The hotel is built on the ruins of the Santa Clara Battery on a hill overlooking the ocean and which dates back to 1797. Part of the battery has been preserved in the gardens including two of the cannons. Of course it was dark when we were at the hotel and even though we glimpsed the garden, I didn't notice them. There was a lot more to see inside.

Hotel Nacional was opened in  December of 1930. It had American managers connected to other large hotel chains at a time when Cuba was a desired destination for American tourists. It was the site of a bloody siege in 1933 during the time when Batista was taking control.

A Chicago developer acquired the hotel in the 1940s and it was a part of the Kirkeby Hotels for over a decade. In 1946 the hotel hosted the Havana Conference which was a gathering of mob leaders organized by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky and attended by many other prominent members of the mob. It was dramatized by Francis Ford Coppola in the Godfather II movie.

In the 1950s the hotel changed hands and was invested by other Americans some of whom belonged to the mob as well. A casino would be added to the hotel as just one of many established in Havana.

The Parisien opened in 1956 with a performance by Ertha Kitt who was also the first black to be allowed to stay at the hotel. Earlier Nat King Cole had been refused a room even though he was performing at the Tropicana.

Fidel Castro nationalized the hotel in March of 1960 shutting down the casino there as well as in other hotels in Havana. The hotel was used mostly to house visiting diplomats until 1991 when the fall of the USSR forced the Cuban communist party to open again to tourism because of the need to boost the economy.

The Hotel Nacional has had many famous visitors in its more than eighty years of existence. Frank Sinatra, Rita Haywood and Ernest Hemingway among many more are pictured in the small museum by the bar.

We walked into a beautiful lobby with glamorous chandeliers and were ushered into a large ballroom to meet some of the cast members of the show we were here to enjoy. Our glamorous show was held in a room that we were told seated 350. Of course to get that many in, we were quite cramped at the tables set up. The show was energetic and colorful with a large cast and a lot of costume changes. Along with the singers and dancers were acrobats, a drum player and a contortionist.



While it was a great night out, we were glad to be back to the ship and hustled into bed as it would be another early call in the morning for our walking tour of Havana.

Port of Call: Havana--San Carlos Fortress

Founded in 1519, Havana, by the seventeenth century, became a shipbuilding center for the Caribbean and a center for trade, To protect the harbor the Spanish began building fortresses. We passed by a small one at the entrance to the harbor and then not too farther on, a very large one called Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana. On our Highlights of Havana tour our bus wound its way around to the fortress for us to get a close up look.

Unfortunately our tickets did not include an inside look but we were able to explore the courtyard outside the fortress and of course, as in all good Caribbean excursions, were given an opportunity to shop.

First our guide took us into an exhibition room with pictures that explained the process of growing, harvesting tobacco and then rolling the leaves into cigars. Along one side of the wall were some of the world's longest cigars. Jose Castelar Cairo holds the record for rolling the longest cigar. It measured 295 feet and was rolled in 2016 to commemorate Fidel Castro's 90th birthday. There were lots of other hands involved in the rolling but Jose engineered the whole thing. I can't imagine how long it would take to smoke it.

Next to the tobacco room and down a few steps was a shop where you could buy cigars, rum, and coffee. It was obviously on our approved OFAC list or we wouldn't have been directed to it. If I am understanding all those rules correctly, it meant that money spent there was not going directly to support the government. Our guide had hinted that Jose Castelar might be there but instead of the man for real, we got a real likeness of him in the form of a wax figure standing behind a table that held tools for rolling cigars.

Walking into the shop you immediately smelled the tobacco in the cigars--a much nicer smell than a burning cigar although Bob and I have fond memories of that smell from our grandfathers and fathers smoking them. We wandered through quickly and went back outside. It was a crammed space with all those people. Outside we climbed up to a spot where we thought we could get a view inside of the fort but it was not possible. There was a nice view of a lighthouse though.

Our last stop of the tour was at the Christ statue that stands above the harbor entrance. While not as large as the one in Rio, it is still quite impressive. It was designed by a woman sculptress, Jilma Madera. The story goes that Batista's wife commissioned the statue in the hope of protection for them. Fifteen days after the sculpture was installed and dedicated, Fidel Castro entered Havana and Batista and his family fled. A sign by the statue that explained its origin said that the pieces were sculpted in Rome and each blessed by the Pope.

While we lived a lot of the history that was going on in Cuba and involving the US, neither Bob or I recalled a U2 plane being shot down but as we left the statue we passed by some sort of military base or museum and displayed near the road were the pieces of the plane that were recovered. I looked it up. Yup, we did have a spy plane shot down over Cuban waters. It happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. There had been several missions flown that had taken pictures and confirmed the build up of Russian missiles in Cuba. On this mission, the Soviets ordered the plane shot down with a surface to air missile. The pilot, Air Force Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed.

Our return to the ship was as complicated as getting off. Several times our passports were checked along the way and again our bags went through x-ray machines and we walked through metal detectors. And yes, this time my new knee set it off. I pointed to it and the girl ran the wand over it and it went off. Without a smile she just waved me on.

Port of Call: Havana, Christopher Columbus Cemetery

Continuing our Highlights of Havana tour, we stopped at the Christopher Columbus Cemetery. Our guide began a narrative about all the marble statuary in the cemetery but I lost interest. We stood so long in one place that my legs were beginning to complain. I started moving around a bit and snapping some pictures. The statuary was nice and made of beautiful white marble.

If Christopher Columbus was ever buried there it would have been for a short time. From all the stories we've heard his remains made quite a trip to many different places. There are two graves that were of significant interest though. The first was that of Amelia Goyre de la Hoz better known as the Miraculous Lady.

Amelia and her baby died in childbirth and she and the baby were laid to rest in the cemetery. When she was buried the baby was placed at her feet. Her husband was so distraught that for the rest of his life (17 years) he came to the grave every day and knocked on the gravestone to let her know he was there. He walked backwards as he left to gaze upon her longer. For some reason later, the grave was opened and it was discovered that instead of the baby being at her feet, it was in her arms.

Many make pilgrimages to the grave bringing flowers. They knock on the grave and hope that the miracle lady will fulfill their wishes--usually for a loved one or to have a family. They follow the husband's ritual of knocking on the grave and walking backwards when they leave. Our guide invited us to partake in the ritual if we wanted to ask for a baby. Then he looked around and said, "Well, maybe grandchildren."

The other monument that was significant was one dedicated to firefighters. The main dedication is to the firefighters who lost their lives in the great fire of May 17, 1890 in Havana. Apparently the firefighters ran into the building to fight the fire and the owner had neglected to tell them there were explosives stored there. Firefighters with at least five years of service can be buried there.

At the top an angel holds a fallen firefighter and around the base of the monument the faces of those lost in the great fire are on plaques. The chain around the monument is hung with teardrop shaped ornaments.

Several foreign nationals are buried here as well, notably some from the explosion of the USS Maine.

Port of Call: Havana!

Our ship, the Oceania Sirena, arrived in Havana just as the sun was rising. We were already up on deck because our first excursion into Havana was at 8AM. As we ate breakfast on the back deck of the buffet, we watched the sun rise and wondered about what we would see here. Old cars, to be sure.

We were actually docked at a cruise terminal, the only one of three that was operational. The other two docks appeared to need extensive work to get them functioning. There was some talk that the cruise lines had tried to encourage the Cuban government to fix the others so more ships could be accommodated. I'm sure it will happen eventually as tourism grows.

The routine was pretty much the same as the other immigration areas. Our passports were checked and our bags and purses x-rayed. I think they took pictures of us as well but I don't remember now. There were 49 steps down to the street level where our buses waited. We had been warned that that of the two elevators that were there, usually only one worked. I took the steps. I don't trust elevators when they don't have a good history of operation.

Our excursion that morning was called the Highlights of Havana and was basically a bus tour so some of my pictures are kind of funky as they were taken through the bus window and sometimes while moving. Our guide was an older gentleman and very interesting to listen to. We were starting to get some conflicting explanations of life in Cuba but I think that was because of each guide's perspective and of course the area of the country where they lived.

Our room stewardess had told us she loved Havana because of all the pretty colors. She was right. The buildings were pretty pastels. It was a bit like the other cities we had visited in that there were still areas where you would have a very nice building flanked by two that were crumbling. Havana though was in a little better shape.

The roads here were wide boulevards and there were lots of parks and green areas. We passed several very large and nice looking hotels including the Hotel Plaza. At the Revolutionary Square (every city seems to have one) we saw a large monument to Jose Marti and we passed by several ministry buildings with large profiles of revolutionary heroes on the facade. I recognized Che but not some of the others.

By the way Che Guevera was only 39 when he was killed by the Bolivian army. He was actually from Argentina but fought in the Cuban Revolution with Fidel Castro. He went on to fight in other countries to promote peasant based revolution to combat injustices in third world countries. The iconic picture of Che was taken in 1960 by Alberto Korda seven years before Che's death.

We stopped a moment in front of the University of Havana to see the steps and the statue that was sitting in a chair with her arms outstretched. I didn't get the significance until I looked it up. The statue is called Alma Mater which means "nourishing mother" in Latin. Who knew!? The face of the sculpture which we were too far from to see is said to be of the daughter of a professor at the time it was made. This is also the university where Castro went to school.

A stop at the Christopher Columbus Cemetery would bring a few more interesting stories.

Port of Call: Cienfuegos, Cuba, Old Town

The first part of our tour in Cienfuegos was a dolphin show. Now we found ourselves going into the city on our way to the old town section. Cienfuegos is laid out in an amazing grid of streets and boulevards. The boulevards have large promenades in the center with benches and trees--a gathering place for a bit of peace and rest in the middle or at the end of a hot day. As we passed a building reminiscent of our trip to Russia, our guide explained that at one time the Russians were planning to make the city nuclear powered and had built residential buildings for their employees. Of course when the USSR fell apart, the Russians pulled out of the project.

We stopped in the middle of the historic part of the city, Parque Marti, named for the poet, journalist and patriot, Jose Marti. Like the square in Santiago, this one was surrounded by beautiful old buildings. The buildings all had colonnades in front of them allowing for plenty of shade to walk from one place to another.

Our guide took us into the Tomas Terry Theater which was under extensive renovation. The story of how Tomas Terry became wealthy is tied into the slave trade. He was quite a business man. He bought slaves cheaply that were not in the best condition and nursed them to health and then sold them at a much higher price. His estimated worth at his death in 1886 was 25 million dollars. In 1863 he attempted to get his theater built but it was not to happen until after his death when his family carried out his wishes. A statue of Terry graces the entrance of the theater.

After we wandered around the parts of the theater that were accessible, we went back to the Parque Marti and our guide pointed out several buildings including the beautiful Palace Ferrer and the Cathedral. We were given some time to wander around on our own and Bob and I walked completely around the square which had several art galleries with local artists' work for sale.

The Ferrer Palace was built by a wealthy Cuban family in 1912-13. They eventually moved on to Havana but it is said that Caruso, after singing at the Tomas Terry Theater, went to his room at the palace and sang from the balcony. You could have heard him for free by listening on the square below.

While the cathedral looked impressive from the outside with its red domed top, the inside was not nearly as nice as the one in Santiago de Cuba. We stopped in briefly and then continued on our way around the square.

Ferrer Palace

Our time on the square was up and we gathered at our pick up spot to board the bus for our next stop. We drove through a place called Punta Gorda which had several large mansions built before the revolution. The architecture was quite beautiful.

At a place that looked like it was perhaps some sort of school for the arts, we went into a large room that was set up with chairs and we were introduced to a group of ladies who played flutes (and one guy who played percussion). It was quite a concert filled with nice music and a bit of humor. The ladies had been playing together for seventeen years. None of them looked much older than twenty-something.

A mansion at Punta Gorda

After our concert, we returned to Parque Marti and were given directions to the "mall" which was a pedestrian street lined with little shops of souvenirs and art work. The middle of the street had kiosk after kiosk of souvenirs. We found a small painting of old cars that we bought. We're not big on souvenirs but that would at least give us something to remember Cuba by.

As we neared the waterfront, we noticed quite a few horse and carriages waiting for anyone who would like a ride back to the ship or around the town. Tourism is growing and I think the Cuban people are beginning to get a good handle on it.

Port of Call: Cienfuegos, Cuba

Cienfuegos is most likely named for the captain general of Cuba from 1516-1519, Jose Cienfuegos and not for a hundred fires which is how it translates. Its population is only about 170,000 but its deep water harbor makes it an excellent port for imports and exports. It was described to us as an industrial city with colonial charm. I wasn't sure what to expect but what we found was truly charming.

The doctor is behind the guy in white. I missed the shot.

Our Enrichment Lecturer, Sandy Cares, had told us what to expect at this port for immigration. Something new was that a doctor and nurse might be stationed outside the entrance to immigration and may use an infrared thermometer to make sure no one who is ill is coming ashore. We've seen this done before in Japan, for one. As the day was already heating up as we approached immigration and we were in the sun, I wondered if they could get an accurate reading. The doctor and nurse were there but it didn't appear that they were taking temps.

While the immigration building was quite small, the process moved quickly. Bob needed to get some of the larger CUC bills changed to smaller denominations so he went to the exchange window and they were happy to do that for him.

We boarded our designated bus for our tour. I wondered if they were the same buses we'd used in Santiago. (The buses we'd used for our Christmas Markets cruise last year followed our boat up and down the river.) Our guide this morning didn't speak quite as clearly as the previous day's guide but she was still quite understandable. We would have about a half hour drive to the outskirts of Cienfuegos to a dolphin show. When we booked our excursions, this one was an alternative to spending a whole day on an excursion to Trinidad. We're not fond of all day excursions and this one would get us out in the country a bit.

Audience participation.

The roads we took were a bit bumpy but in somewhat good condition--better than some of the roads we'd experienced in Costa Rica. This area has a French influence as the founder of the city, Louis de Clouet was a Frenchman from New Orleans and there was a French migration from Haiti and many French coffee plantations were established. We didn't see any coffee plantations but there were a lot of mango orchards along the way.

One of the other interesting facts we learned about this area is that it supplies artisanal charcoal. It is made from an invasive plant that was introduced to Cuba from South America. In clearing fields for agriculture, the Marabu plant can be taken and carbonized and used as a good quality charcoal. It was the first export in 50 years to make it to the US.

The dolphin complex was very much like those we've visited in the states. Not exactly Sea World style but very nicely built for the dolphins as well as the viewing audience. It was an educational facility as well explaining the life and habitat of the bottle nosed dolphin.

One of the trainers explained their mission and answered questions about the dolphins. Considering the language barriers he did an excellent job. The show was amazing. Dolphins are just amazing in their own right. One of the things we remarked about however was that they used a lot of people from the audience. I don't believe they were plants in the audience but one girl did have a bathing suit under her shorts. I was just amazed that there was apparently no signing of wavers and the interaction with the dolphins was without a trainer in the water.

Once aboard the buses again, we were on our way to the city for our walking part of the tour.