Havana Cuba Day 5

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I thought that the mango juice I had in Peru was great, but had some pretty good freshly squeezed juice for breakfast. Again, excellent coffee.

After breakfast walked from the casa along a long street from Vedado through Central Havana and China Town to the Capitolio. Only saw one Chinese looking person in and only a little bit of Chinese looking writing in China Town, but have to admit only stuck to the main road, so maybe there would be more elsewhere. Along the road the buildings were pretty run down, and the narrow footpath was pretty broken up. Heaps of people on the street just sitting around, others waiting at food shops or for buses or for who knows what.

Get to the Capitolio, sweating so wipe my face with a tissue, bits of dirt from the street and petrol and diesel fumes show up.

Do a touristy thing and get my photo taken by a photographer with some sort of old fashioned instant camera on the steps of the Capitolio. Think an exposure is made on to photographic paper to make a negatice. Then, the photographer puts the negative in front of the camera and takes a photo of it to make a positive. He imposes a picture of the Capitolio in the background. The resulting picture is not perfect, but I am amazed he can do it so quickly.

My map says one of the top 10 things to visit in Havana is La Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced. So I walk there from the Capitolio. More narrow streets, cracked footpaths with dog droppings. Get to the church, a few bicycle taxis, flower and candle seller, religious trinket seller and not much else. Only a few people inside.

Decide to go to the Museum of the City but stop for a break at an Ice Cream Shop. Vanilla Banana Split with bits of tropical fruits, and a bottle of water for about 3.50 CUC.

The Museum of the City is in an old Colonial Building, 3 stories tall, and built around an open courtyard - plants, trees including Royal Palms, and also peacocks and peahens.

All the displays seem colonial, don´t understand much as mostly in Spanish. More staff than visitors. Sit for a while in the museum, nice respite from the heat and crowds in the streets.

Go to another art museum, this time world collection. Latin American Art from Colonial Period, Spanish Art. Asian, Egyptian, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities. French Art, Italian Art (including a Caneleto of the Thames), British Art and German Art. Don´t think that they have security cameras in the museum because when you enter a gallery one of the attendants gets up from the entrance and makes sure they keep you in view as you walk around the room.

Surprised that I have spent 3 hours in the museum.

Walk back along the Malecon to Vedado, feet sore from all the walking so go slowly. Still not much happening on the Malecon, a few more people than yesterday morning. The sea splashes rather than crashes over the Malecon wall. People fishing, a few kids actually in the water, but mostly people just sitting on the sea wall. Old buildings looking pretty run down.


Want to see more photos?

Have a look at my website here: http://www.firemanonasailingship.com/photos/

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Photos

Capitolio
Capitolio on a sunny day.

Comments

[anonymous]

I wish i was there
so how many musuems have you been to so far..... glad to see that your enjoying yourself, and ofcourse getting tired and dirty at the same time..hehe i've been doing a bit of readin from my spanish book so when i get more confident might email ya a few sentences. so where are you off to next? keep us posted i love reading your journel and more pictures please....hehe i'am a visual learner Adios - Priya

[Dreamer]

Museums
I really like to go to museums ... why? Probably this explains it ... when I was in the Universal/World Art museum in Havana, got to talking to one of the attendants. I asking her if she gets many tourist there (I think that I have mentioned that alot of the time there seemed to be more staff than tourists). She said yes, but said not so many from Europe, as they mainly go to the Cuban Art Museum. She said the reason why is that they can see great World/European Art in their own countries but can´t see much Cuban Art. Well for someone from NZ, we can´t see much famous World Art ... well I mean you can´t just walk in to Auckland Art Gallery and see stuff by Da Vinci, Raphael, Picasso, Van Gogh etc, which is eactly what you can do when you visit Art museums overseas ... eg. National Gallery in London. So that is why I take the opportunity to visit galleries and museums ...