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Published: August 7th 2007
Cuba is a very difficult place to describe; you really need to go there to see it for yourself. Most of the buildings are old and in urgent need of maintenance but there are some renovated ones that seem to be quite presentable, the works are financed mainly by grants from UNESCO but they do raise some of their own from use of things like renovated hotels and restaurants.
The people in Cuba seem to be quite content with their lot but most of them do not know of anything else. General health seems to be quite good; we noticed very few overweight people and were reminded of those on wartime rationing diets in UK.
In some ways, the USA sanctions have been good for the population. They do not have MacDonald’s, Starbucks, Junk food, chewing gum, graffiti and similar modern nasties. Young people seemed to be very fit and many were enjoying active sports particularly ball games. Things are likely to change very soon and they may not be for the better.
We did not notice much litter or waste, this might be because many things are recycled. One street vendor was busy recycling and selling disposable cigarette lighters, as well as refilling the gas he was able to replace flints using a few home made tools. He had two prices, one being lower for a trade in.
I’ll start of with a few pictures of renovated buildings.
This outdoor restaurant seemed to be of high standard and have reasonable prices for the quite comprehensive menu. Most of the food in Cuba is organic because they do not have supplies of fertilisers.
This mural is on the side of a building in a busy street; it has not been marked or defaced at all. In many places, it would have been soon covered in graffiti.
Not many vehicles in Cuba so some streets are now for pedestrians only.
The vehicles are mainly older ones, plenty of Ladas, large old American cars and trucks kept going by ingenuity and prayer but here are a few of the more modern ones.
I’d estimate that this bendy bus would be about ten years old but well maintained.
Many motorcycles similar to this one around.
We now move on to a few older things starting with this old car which might be a taxi from time to time.
This vehicle was being used to collect garbage.
One of the famous Camel Buses. We didn’t travel on them but they do seem to be mainly standing room with just a few seats for disabled people and pregnant women. At peak times they are very crowded and can carry just over 200 people.
I remember vehicles similar to this in UK after the war. This one had a Vespa logo but it might have been added as a joke.
Don’t laugh; we might all be using these soon. Tourists are not allowed to travel in these; if we did, the operator would be liable to a huge fine.
Now for some of the older parts of Havana. We did not go on any conducted tours, instead spent many hours walking and sometimes talking to the locals, this was hard, we have no Spanish and very few can speak English.
This would be a good example of the average street in Havana.
About the only graffiti that we could find in Havana, most of it seems to be patriotic.
Seems to be the local taxi depot
This railway line to the docks was abandoned years ago when the sanctions began to hurt.
Not sure what these people were scavenging for but it must have been worthwhile because they seemed to spend about three hours in the area near to the main passenger terminal.
The poster on the left hand building wishes Castro A happy 80th Birthday. The poster on the middle building give details of a proposed renovation subject to receipt of funds from UNESCO.
Commercial District
This church may still be in use; we could see in but not find any signs
Across the road from the previous picture. They seem to be able to find paint for religious things but not for their own homes
Most of these buildings were unoccupied
This building is alongside the waterfront and is about to be restored
Some old cars
This building has been painted but will soon need another coat
This sculpture is found on the Marine Walk alongside Havana Bay. There are many similar sculpture around Havana, they seem to be made up of bits of industrial material.
With low wages and high unemployment you still see street cleaning being carried out manually.
The guy on the left seemed to be the supervisor. This was Sunday morning so he might have been after some overtime.
An unusual yellow taxi. Not sure of the country of origin but they seemed to have two stroke engines, the passengers might not get too wet in inclement weather but the driver, mainly ladies, certainly would.
These were fairly common in UK about 40-50 years ago.
I’ve travelled a bit but have not seen traffic lights like these. The large number indicates the number of seconds until the next change of lights. Don’t think these would work where I live in Australia or most western countries, motorists would probably treat that number as a challenge than a warning.
Fort at the entrance to Havana harbour
Rather a nice walkway to the old capital area, it has a terrazzo floor with seats at the side and seems to be kept very clean.
The tourist brochures and guides describe the as Ernest Hemingway’s home. I had read that originally he lived in one of the better hotels and only moved here towards the end.
The next three pictures indicate that if communism arrives in your country make sure that you get on the committee.
A few years ago Cuba started to talk to the Americans and they agreed to set up an Interests Section in each others country. Perfectly legal but not quite in accordance with the spirit of the agreement the Americans installed an electronic tickertape to display propaganda. The Cubans retaliated by installing these black flags in front of it, each flag represents one year of sanctions.
This is the Cuban Capitol building similar to the one in Washington.
We visited the Palacio de la Revolucion, this is a Military sensitive area and it was not possible to take too many photographs. It was a couple of days before the Mayday Parade and the area was buzzing with soldiers involved in organising things. Their AK47s or similar enabled them to be quite effective in enforcing the rules so we did not stay too long. The first picture is the monument to the revolution; it seems to be also a communications tower bristling with aerials and satellite dishes.
The above doesn’t need much explanation. We thought the building was a block of home units but on getting closer, it seemed to be military offices.
I’ll close now with a few pictures showing what most of Havana is still like.
It will be interesting to see what the future will bring for Cuba. Something will have to happen fairly soon because everything seems to be falling apart. We arrived by a small white cruise ship (550 passengers), in no time the sides were black from oil slicks in the harbour. We were told that a few years ago the pipelines to the refinery started to leak and they do not have the money or the ability to fix them. The day after we left Cuba our boat came to a halt, the captain announced that there was a problem with some oil supplied by the Cubans and they had to carry out repairs. It was quite scary when we realised that we were floating in the Bermuda triangle without an engine.
As I mentioned everything in Cuba, the building, the infrastructure is falling apart and it will take a great deal of money and effort to fix it. It is a long time since the revolution, many of the original inhabitants expected it to be over soon and they remained in their homes, they are now prisoners in their own country. The majority of people born since the revolution see be be quite happy and they look fit and healthy but they have not known anything else. When the second revolution arrives, there will be a great upheaval and like the first one, I fear the ordinary people will suffer most.
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claudia
non-member comment
i love it
dude im from cuba and i loved it you talk good about it and yeah the castros r realy mean