A week in Havana

[Deleted]

At a street market of absolutely no interest, I met a young Cuban who wanted to practice his English. I had already gotten rid of several such people who wanted to act as "guides," etc., but this one managed to convince me of his sincerity. His English was already quite good, but he was also learning French and Italian. His name was Alexeis ("call me Alex").

We talked quite a bit, and of course he would have liked to make a bit of money -- he naturally told me of the "home" restaurants which could welcome 4 or 8 foreign visitors, and also of the private residences that were authorized to rent out rooms for $10 or $20 -- a fortune for them.

But I had pretty much locked myself into the Hotel Sevilla, including the dinner buffet, so I declined his offers. Nevertheless, he told me the name of his street in Vedado and said that he would be happy to talk with me again if I passed that way.

And in fact, I found myself on his street 2 days later and he was sitting on the wall in front of his house. He ushered me in immediately to meet his parents. It was kind of embarrassing because his mother ran to get an electric fan to plug in and set it directly across from me. This was clearly a luxurious honor, using expensive electricity. Coffee was brewed and a photo session occurred.

I learned that Alex was the baby of the family and that he had 8 brothers and sisters. His mother was 40 years old.

They had built a guest room for tourists upstairs, and they showed it to me. It was immaculate, with a modern bathroom, fan and nice furniture. It was $20 a night. It was a completely charming family and I was sorry not to be staying there.

[lagatta]

I love those people - who can blame them for wanting to make some money? Hope Alex's studies go well. Mum is charming but a bit careworn - biologically I could be HER mum, if I'd been a very young teenaged mum myself!

There are generations like that among the Indigenous nations here.

I'd be happy to stay in their guest room, and I promise I wouldn't abuse the fan or waste loo water, letting yellow mellow...

Make sure you take nice gifts for such people (as my friend who often travels to Cuba for "digs" does). There are many shortages of things people in Western Europe or North America take for granted.

Studying French and Italian are important for the tourist trade, and also simply a cultural plus.

[hwinpp]

That assortment of books looks exactly like what they used to have in the bookshops of Algiers.

Funny thing was there were quite a few Cubans living there, it was freer than Cuba.

[lagatta]

But it isn't now, for other reasons.

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

[tillystar]

Oh k this has got me so excited! We were due to make a trip to Cuba in November and had to delay to April now, I have been so disappointed but now looking at these wonderful pictures my excitement is renewed! We plan on staying in. hotel sevilla in Havana and then casa particulares (private homes) when we are in the countryside - I am even more pleased we chose the casas now - thank you!
The first thing I thought when I saw your picture of capitol building was "st Paul's cathedral"!

[tillystar]

While planning we found out that there are now extremely strict rules about the levels of medical cover visitors must have on their travel policies as the country was being used by many "health tourists" taking advantage of the excellent healthcare system.

[bjd]

Just looking at these pictures makes me want to go to Cuba. Especially since in today's paper there was an article about hopes rising in the States about loosening the embargo. I suppose that would provide a huge increase in package tourists and cruise ship day trippers.

Tilly, how did you find out about staying with families? Any time I have looked at travel to Cuba, all the French flights go to Verdadero, and that is something I just don't want to do.

[Deleted]

As much as I don't want Cuba to be "spoiled" by a massive influx of tourists, these people need for their country to develop as fast as possible, and if it takes cruise ships and daytrippers, so be it.

[livaco]

Great pictures! I spent some time in Cuba back in 2001, mostly in Cienfuegos, but we were in Havana a few days.

We drove to Toronto and flew from there. We stayed at casa particulares. The first one we ended up finding from someone we met on the plane. Then the others kind of fell into place. As in -- they'd ask us where we were heading to next and tell us the name of a friend or relative we should stay with. The places were all good, but I did break out of that after a while, and just stayed at a regular cheap hotel for one night (not a resort).

I agree that the food wasn't that great. Unfortunately I was at the time a vegetarian, so it was black beans and rice pretty much every day. We did get the opportunity to spend Cuban pesos in a very few places (not the convertible ones -- those you could spend anywhere, but why bother just use US dollars..). When we did it was incredibly cheap. For example there was the woman sellling pizzas from a window and charging Cuban pesos which meant they cost pennies.

Visually the country was amazing. I loved the old cars and the billboards of Che Cuevera and socialist messages.

We did go to a resort during the day one day. That was because we were traveling with our 9 year old son and he REALLY wanted to go swimming in a pool. It was fun for a day, but is not my kind of traveling. The people there had plastic bracelets that let them have food/drinks at their resort. But each to his own.

[bixaorellana]

That's very interesting about the health-care tourists, especially since they must all be from capitalist countries. As a US citizen, I get a bitter laugh out of that.

Yikes, Bjd -- yes, I want to see it before they turn it into Key West.

Livaco, you all seemed to have developed a rapport with all the people with whom you stayed. That, & Kerouac's story about Alex and his family make me even more curious about the people. I've heard two somewhat contradictory things. One is that Cubans in general are warm, open people. The other is that the population is fearful and careful of what they say to outsiders. Are both those things generalizations to be dismissed?

You all probably know this, but "casa particular" is simply regular Spanish for "private home".

[tillystar]

Tilly, how did you find out about staying with families?

You can google "casa particulares cuba" and lots of sites will appear, but we used this site to get a good idea of places to stay as the homes have lots of reviews. Most of the reviews it seems the people are warm and open as Bixa said and the guests have "developed a rapport" with their hosts , but all different some places people will rave about the food (although more often not!) or that the family had lots of kids, or another took them to vist their farm. I spent far too long reading them all and getting very excited!

www.cuba-junky.com/cuba/cuba-casa-particulares.htm

[Deleted]

I felt an imperious need to visit the former Havana Hilton. It opened just one year before the revolution. It has been maintained in a totally perfect replica of its opening year, at least in the lobby. I would love to see what the rooms are like.

Across the street was Havana's principal cinema.

[Deleted]

I confess that it was a real pleasure to laze around in the Hotel Sevilla pool with a couple of beers after being out in the streets all day.

I stayed in touch with Alex for a few years after my trip. He was doing quite well in the tourist industry and founded a family with his girlfriend.

[lola]

Wonderful, Kerouac.

I have a close relative who is said to have fled US justice by going to Cuba years ago, never to be heard from since.

My small town high school Spanish teacher left Cuba in the 60's. She was a pampered maiden there, waited upon. It must have been a shock to be suddenly earning her bread among us young dullards. Though she hated Castro, she told me a few years ago she thought relations should be normalized.

US policy towards Cuba seems bizarre.

[bixaorellana]

Yeah ~~ what is the deal with that? I mean, it's hardly as though Cuba can any longer be consider a stepping stone which the Soviet Union can use for jumping onto the US. Is the embargo & all in homage to our "fallen president", our "martyred" hero of Camelot, the handsome pt boat captain who almost got us blown to kingdom come with his outsized ego and macho posturing?

[Kimby]

Wow, this thread has everything!

Besides being a delightful photo-essay of a place many of us may never get to, it also brings to mind so many Image Bank themes: Clouds!, Rainy Days, Reflections/snoitcelfeR, Wrought Iron, and that's just in the OP! Add in Color (23, 34, 35) Clocks and Local Transportation (34) Statues (35)....

I would love to see some of these great pictorial travelogs cross-posted on other threads to increase traffic to the Compass Points threads. (Post a great cloud photo on Clouds! with a link to this thread, e.g.)

If the original poster is too modest to do this, the admin should just do it, IMO. I might have missed this thread if I hadn't seen it in 80 recent posts.

Thanks K2.

[bixaorellana]

I keep coming back to this thread, as there is so much to take in here.

What a pleasure to see a follow-up on Alex, for instance. Gosh, Cubans are such good-looking, vibrant people.

Ug on the Habana Hilton. Is it as huge, hulking, and inappropriate as it looks in the pictures?

I meant to ask earlier -- in the picture right after the bus (& train?) station photos in #34, the buildings look quite well-kept and freshly painted. Any idea why those are so spruce? And in the first picture of #35 -- is that part of the original fort system of Havana on the far left of the photo? What about the rest of that interesting building?

It was nice that they showed a French film in your honor! I just hope that you didn't waste so much time in the lovely pool and neglect your studies at the guerilla school.

[Deleted]

Yes, but a French movie filmed in Brazil and Venezuela.

The train station area had benefited from some of the first renovations. All of Old Havana should look like that when the renovations are completed.

I'm not sure about the fort, but all of these old Spanish inspired (and formerly controlled) places have plenty of forts. I regret that I did not go for an official visit of the main fort when I was there, but it gives me a reason to go back.

[lagatta]

My, Alex all grown up with a beautiful spouse and baby!

I thought the embargo was a reflection of the pivotal role the Miami expat community could play in US elections, but it seems many of them, while still opposed to the Castro regime, have changed their mind about that.

[Deleted]

Well, a lot of them are intelligent enough to have realized that what made most of the other communist regimes fall was finally opening up to them and letting the citizens have a taste of our delightful (?) way of life.

The embargo has kept Castro in power at least 25 years longer than he would have lasted without the embargo.

[joanne28]

Could someone explain the embargo to me? I don't know how many Americans were killed by the Cubans but I'm sure it's nowhere near the 58,000+ that died in the Vietnam war. Why did the U.S. recognize Vietnam but still has an embargo on Cuba?

I find it bizarre thinking.

[Deleted]

Exactly. It is one of the most incomprehensible American decisions in history -- considering the good relations with so many other unpalatable countries.

[bjd]

It looks like the USA doesn't mind unpalatable countries as long as they are not run by Communists.

I may be mixing things up here, but I think I read years ago that at first Castro wasn't really a Communist and that things were indeed really bad in Cuba -- Batista's dictatorship, vicious secret police and a huge amount of foreign ownership of the economy. Given the US reaction when the Cubans started expropriating private businesses, plus the support of the USSR (remember it was the Cold War), it's not surprising that Castro became a Communist, if that was the way to get Soviet funding and support.

[Deleted]

No, Castro was never a communist until the United States more or less pushed him into the arms of the Soviet Union. The U.S. was demanding compensation for the mafia-run enterprises that Castro nationalized or closed.

[bixaorellana]

Joanne, it's not about getting even for Americans killed -- it's about preserving the "sanctity" of the Monroe Doctrine. Bjd is partly right about unpalatable countries & Communists, but mainly it's because the USSR was seen as a European country getting a toe-hold into the US's bailiwick.

And Kerouac is probably slapping his forehead right now, because he'll recognize that correlation.

Click on this article, then use the Find feature to access the Cuba references:
www.answers.com/topic/monroe-doctrine

[Deleted]

Not at all. The USSR was not a player at all until the US got nasty.

[bjd]

From the first paragraph in that link, the US decided all by itself that it had the right to intervene in any place in the Western Hemisphere. This was no international treaty agreement, but a unilateral decision made by Monroe in 1823 and reinforced by T Roosevelt in 1904.

Great way to make friends and influence people.

[bixaorellana]

How do you figure that, Kerouac? It was a presence in terms of friendship with and aid to Cuba before the missile crisis.

Yes, Bjd, you have succinctly summed it up. Even when I was a kid in school and first heard about the Monroe Doctrine, my immediate reaction was shock at the arbitrariness of it.