Havana, Cuba!

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Geo: 23.1168, -82.3886

OMG! We had a 4 a.m. wakeup call. That sure came fast. Jeff and I stumble around making sure all our official documents - passport, visa, and customs form are readily available. Our flight to Havana is a charter which is, apparently, shared by at least one other tour company. A short 90 minutes later we land in Cuba.

We got our luggage and after clearing all the official steps (which was quite easy as there was a "Nothing to Declare" aisle and the health people didn't even collect our forms), we head for our coach. Right about here I lose Jeff who has spotted them - the very famous old American made cars.

Most are beautifully restored and these serve as taxis, others, in various degrees of reworkmanship are privatly owned. Our coach is a big roomy bus with reclining seats, footrests, seat pockets, a bathroom, individual lights and climate control.

Our tour is with SmarTours and we are here on a "people to people cultural exchange." Lidea is our in-country guide and Stevyn is our SmarTours guide. We're off and we hit the ground running!

First stop: Plaza de la Revolucion (Revolution Square). Originally called the Plaza Civica, the square was renamed following Fidel Castro's successful overthrow of the dictator Batista in 1959. The plaza is dominated by an obilisk set atop a hill. At the foot of the obilisk is a statue of Jose Marti, one of the heroes of the Revolution.

The Plaza was originally setup not only as a political gathering point, but also as the cultural and administrative center as well, so there are several important buildings here.

A huge wire sculpture of Che Guevara hangs on the front of the Ministry of Interior building (where Guevara had his office in the 1960's). Next to that is the Museo Postal Cubano on which is mounted another huge wire portrait, this one of Camilo Cienfuegos, another hero of the revolution. The national library is also on the Plaza.

Though the Plaza is an important tourist stop, it wasn't crowded at all. There were several tour busses and many, many old American cars, and cute little egg shaped taxis.

After wandering the Plaza for a bit, we traveled to Hotel Nacional, an incredible Art Deco building.There was simply no way to get photos showing the size and grandeur of this building which is really too bad. Lots of little details.

It was gorgeous.

Our lunch today is at a famous place called Sloppy Joe's. Seriously. Okay, it wasn't really sloppy joes but did turn out to be ham and melted cheese sandwiches on hard crusty rolls. The idea, as a semi-strict vegan, of eating ham and cheese was a bit challenging mentally but considerably more so physically since part of the ham was the processed type. Luckily it came with fries and we are allowed two free drinks: mojitos (rum!), beer, bottle of water or soda. Everything is better with rum!

Sloppy Joe's was a favorite haunt of Americans - including Hemingway and was closed after the Revolution. It has the longest mahogany bar in Cuba, which may explain Hemingway's patronage. It reopened just two years ago and, like Cuba, feels like a time-capsule - it reopened looking exactly as it had the day the doors were shuttered. Unbelievable.

After lunch our next stop is the Necropolis de Colon or the Columbus Cemetary. Built between 1871 and 1886, the cemetary is filled with with sculptural funerary art from traditional to eclectric to contemporary, and it is a national monument.

Our cemetary guide was wonderful!
His English was very good and he had a nice sense of humor. He mentioned the upcoming US elections and said that in Cuba "It isn't that hard. We have one party, one candidate. Very easy." It was pretty funny.

The cemetary was remarkable - all marble (well, almost) and our guide showed us different types of marble from the area. This is one of the largest cemetaries in the world (135 acres) and roughly 2 million people have been buried here with about 40 additional funerals taking place every day...and a funeral procession did arrive as we were touring. How, you may be wondering, can 2 million people be buried in 135 acres? The answer is NOT that they are stacked - but the graves are reused. I forget the timeframe (maybe a couple of years) that a body lies in a grave before it is dug up and either placed in an urn in a mausoleum or the urn is placed into a family vault.

Which brings us to the story of Amelia Goyri de la Hoz, "La Milagrosa" (the Miraculous One). Amelia and her baby both died during the baby's birth and as was the custom were buried together. Supposedly her husband visited her tomb everyday. He would knock on the vault three times - and when he left he never turned his back on the tomb. Local legend also says that when Amelia's tomb was opened a few years later, Amelia's body was found intact and she was holding the baby in her arms. Needless to say, her body has been kept where it was originally interred, and it is now a pilgrimage site for women wishing to become or who are pregnant. To ask Amelia's blessing, you walk up to the tomb, stroke her marble robe, use the knocker to knock 3 times, and walk backwards away from the her grave.

Though given the opportunity to 'ask our favors', I didn't participate in the ritual until after the tour ended and everyone else had dispersed. I'm not superstitious, but will take any opportunity to hope for peace in Syria.

Finally, we are heading for our hotel - remember, we've been up since 4 a.m. and have been touring all day. When we were told this is an educational tour, they weren't kidding.
At our hotel, the Melia Cohiba Hotel, we are greeted with welcome drinks (more mojitos!) and have 90 minutes to relax before meeting in the lobby for dinner.

The hotel is upscale and modern. The sort of place you would expect foreigners to stay, still, the Cuban infrastructure places its limits. The water is not drinkable and toilet paper goes in a bin, not the toilet. No big deal for Jeff and I, or many in our touring group as everyone appears to be well-traveled. When we get to our room we unpack a little because we will be in this hotel for 3 nights which is our longest stay in one spot. We put a ziplock bag over the sink faucet (that way we have to mentally think about the water before using it). I'm surprised to see a bidet in the bathroom and robes in the closet. Definately upscale. The bed is funky because it is two king-sized beds pushed together - plenty of room there! We discover a "pillow menu" on one of the bedside tables; I've never seen a pillow menu before and am tempted to call downstairs to get one of each but refrain.

We have important business to accomplish - changing money and buying water. Money first obviously. There are two currencies in Cuba- one for Cubans (cups) and one for everyone else. The tourist peso is a "cuc" (kook). Having done our research months ago we are prepared to exchange Canadian dollars and Euros for our cucs. Of course we do have U.S. dollars but those are our emergency fund because exchanging US to Cuban incurs not only the exchange fee, but also an additional 3% fee. We get our cucs and, bumping into Leroy in the lobby, decide to walk across the street to the mercado to buy big bottles of water. Every day on the bus each person gets a small bottle of water, Stevyn (our guide) has suggested 3 large bottles of water to supplement our daily ration. We buy four.

Our hotel is about a block from the Malecon (boardwalk?) and the waves are HUGE and are crashing OVER the seawall. Crashing over the wall to the extent that the street is flooded and seawater is flooding down the gutters. Lidea tells us that this is very unusual and I wonder what this town would look like if a hurricane came through.

Our 'rest up' time has almost run out so we put our water in our room and hurry down to the lobby for our special rides to dinner. And here they come - a parade of those wonderful vintage cars! There is a scramble as everyone tries to take photos and jump into their favorite special car at the same time. I'm so happy that Eve and Leroy, Jeff and I are in the same convertible.

Our dinner was wonderful: salad, choice of fish, lobster, beef, spanish rice, and smoky wood baked bread. The fish was good, but the dessert - guava stuffed with coconut rice and cheese on the side was delicious.

After dinner, our trusty bus is waiting for us and we waddle aboard.

Today has been jam packed with history (and food) and we are exhausted.
Bedtime

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