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Published: March 19th 2011
Nights Out In Havana
Despite having five weeks in Havana there is no shortage of things to do in the evenings. Apart from the more obvious attractions in the centre of the city there are many small theatres, cinemas and cultural centres in the surrounding areas. Many of the bars, even away from the tourist areas, will have some sort of live music even if it is only a couple of guys with out of tune guitars trying to earn a few extra pesos.
Drinking Beer
Drinking beer is a really good way of improving your Spanish. I find that after drinking a couple of beers I start to become really fluent in Spanish and that beer drinking is an important part of the learning process.
During my first few days in Havana I am under the impression that there are only two beers available –
Bucanero and
Cristal. {
Cristal is my preference of the two and tastes much better from the bottle than the can}. It’s not until my third week in Havana that I find out that there are other beers available. Bucanero and Cristal can only be paid for in CUCs {
the tourist 
The Big Beer Challenge
Turned out to be not much of a challengecurrency} so as long as I look like a tourist these are what I’m always offered in a bar. In my third week here I discover that there are three more beers,
Muyabe, Tίnima and
Cacique, which can be paid for in Nacionals {
the Cuban currency}. The search is on! Each evening we move on to a bar slightly more downmarket than the evening before in an attempt to find these beers and {
this is more difficult} find a bar that would accept our Nacionals.
We find one bar in one of the big old houses, the
Nerei, where we can sit and drink on the porch where there is a nice cool breeze. The barman tells us that we can only drink Cristal and that we have to drink it in cans. We settle for this but soon after he takes our order we see him running out of the house with a shopping basket. He returns a few minutes later with three cans of Cristal in the shopping basket – surely if he was going out to buy the beer anyway he could have given us more choice?? A few minutes later we see him running out
Solo De Gato
I hadn't really got a clue but I still gave them a standing ovation of the house again. We wait expectantly to see what he returns with and, rather worryingly, it’s a cat!
Not too far from the Habana Libre and near the Malecon is
La Torre, a bar and restaurant on the top floor of one of Havana’s taller buildings. The bar is severely air-conditioned but provides good views of the city during the day and at night. The lift up to the bar also has the best lift music in Havana.
The other variation from the standard beers is one of the bars in the
Plaza Vieja {
it’s easy to spot!} which serves its own beer in 6l or 10l long plastic tubes – a challenge which we easily completed.
A Night At The Theatre
Away from the centre of town Havana has many small theatres. On my first week in Havana I go with a group of other students to the
Teatro Bertolt Brecht in
Vedado to see a production of
Solo De Gato which I
think is a locally written play. I’ve been promised lots of singing and dancing and not too much dialogue!
We’re disappointed to find that we can’t buy tickets in
At Teatro Bertolt Brecht
He was pleased to see us and discuss his play advance and that they only go on sale an hour before the show but it turns out not to be a problem and we have no problem getting in and admission is only 5 CUC.
After 2 minutes I’m completely lost! I find myself being able to pick out the occasional Spanish word but I’ve no idea what the plot of the story is and I concentrate for short periods of time and then just watch for a while. I have some cause for optimism, though, in that
Kristen, sat next to me, is laughing and all the jokes and some of the other students who have only been here a couple of weeks seem to have got the basic plot. If the play is still showing when I finish my lessons I may come back to see if I understand any more.
On the way out we are stopped by someone {
I think the writer or the director} who wants to talk to us about his play – I guess we must have been spotted as a group of tourists! But he seems to appreciate that we have found our way to his theatre.
Salsa
Club 1830
Salsa dancers put on a show A lot of the other students studying Spanish here are also taking Salsa lessons. For them this seems to be just as an important part of the experience and trips to Salsa clubs are a regular event. For someone who struggles even to master Dad Dancing the Salsa isn’t so important to me but one venue that I like and go along to a couple of times is
Club 1830 {
An unfortunate name!}. It’s based at the last house on
The Malecon. It’s an open-air venue with the breeze from The Malecon giving it a much nicer atmosphere than in the smoky or air-conditioned rooms of other venues. On my second visit I even take a few faltering salsa steps on the dance floor! I limit myself to trying to move my feet to a count of 7 but that requires all my concentration. {
Thierry is clearly more advanced than me – he is able to move to a count of 8!}.
The highlight for me though is the dancing displays that usually take place at some point in the evening. I’m not sure if the dancers are professionals or if they are just really keen dancers but
some of the performances quite stunning. {
The dancers at the Sunday shows are more impressive than at the Thursday shows}
Buena Vista
I pick up a flyer advertising stars from
Buena Vista Social Club at the
Café Taberna in
Havana Vieja. I have seen the tomb of one the original members of Buena Vista in the Necropolis de Colon so I’m not sure how authentic this will be.
Iselin and I go with two of our teachers from the school {
who are two of the few Cubans in the audience}. We learn that the singers are all stars of Cuban music from the ‘50s who are still strutting their stuff {
in one case, literally!!} and are mostly associated with
Grupo Roberto Faz.
Fernando is quite amused to find out that his pin-up girl from when he was a teenager is still performing and there is quite a bit of banter between our teachers and the performers.
In fact I think the performers are quite pleased when they realise that there is someone in the audience who is familiar with their material. The music was Cuban music from the ‘50s and I did find myself in the
Cafe Taberna - Armandito and Rolito
Perhaps it's time they dropped the "ito"? conga line at the end of the evening but I think an enjoyable evening was had by all!
A Night At The Ballet
The Cuban ballet is {
I think} quite well renowned so a trip to the ballet is a must– my expertise on ballet is
extremely limited but I believe that the Cuban Ballet is quite famous. After a couple of failed attempts I manage to get tickets up in “the gods” for the Sunday matinee performance of
Don Quixote. For a few days before the performance I am annoying everybody by asking them about the basic story of Don Quixote in the hope that I might understand what is happening in the ballet. The story of Don Quixote seems to be quite popular in Cuba – there seems to be quite a few statues of him.
On the day of the ballet we arrive to find queues of young Cubans without tickets waiting by the side entrance which is our way up to our seats in “the gods”. Soon after we take our seats we hear people running up the stairs and the young Cubans arrive and fill the empty seats. Hopefully they’ve been
At Cafe Taberna
Elva Calvo - Fernando's pin-up girl allowed in for free or for a very small price to fill the empty seats – I’m sure that the price we’ve paid for tickets would be beyond a lot of Cubans. And the ballet seems to be very popular here with a lot of young Cubans in an enthusiastic audience. There is big applause for the two principal dancers when they first appear on stage and equally enthusiastic applause whenever they perform a technically difficult move.
I’m not so knowledgeable. I assume that the young guy dressed in white with the particularly tight pants who got the big reception from the audience and who performs all the fancy moves must be Don Quixote. Then about 20 minutes into the performance a new character arrives who looks very much like the Don Quixote I was expecting! And another of the characters {
the leading lady’s father, I think} looks remarkably like a character from an American ‘70s police drama! Anyway, at least I followed the plot enough to understand that they all lived happily ever after and there was a big dance-off at the end.
…and The Bits I Missed
I think
The Tropicana is one of
A Night At The Ballet
Three "culture vultures" eagerly awaiting the start of the ballet the bigger tourist attractions. It’s a nightclub with a glamorous cabaret show left over from pre-revolution days.
But at 70 CUC for a ticket I decide not to bother.
Missing the
baseball was a disappointment. Baseball is the major sport in Cuba and I was hoping see a match while here. When we tried to go we found out that the floodlights weren’t working and that the matches were being played in a different town. It seems that the floodlight improvement is a long-term project and I’m not going to get the chance to see a match in Havana.
The
Casa De Musica is mentioned in most of the guidebooks as one of the better music venues. There are two venues in Havana, one in
Havana Centro and one in
Miramar. I didn’t visit either but other people who went were disappointed – at both venues for the night shows there were large numbers of prostitutes looking for business with the foreign tourists/businessmen. I’m told that this problem isn’t as bad for the afternoon matinee. For the matinee the admission price is considerably cheaper which means that there are more Cubans in the audience who go there
Don Quixote
They all lived happily ever after.
Fueron felices y comieron perdices for the music and the dancing.
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Kristin Eriksen
non-member comment
Amigo!
Wow I am impressed! Just stumbled into your blog by accident end I enjoyed it very much. Sets me back to the few, but very nice days we spent together in Cuba. Although I admit that my thoughts most days linger in Havana so I am working towards spending more time there too. Very impressed with how fast you learned spanish too - you must be an expert by now. Hope to hear from you whenever the opportunity is right. Buen viaje! Salud