We should have taken the bus! – The Cuba Experience – Part 4

Well greetings once again, first thing first I don’t think I broke my thumb in the end, I think i just badly bruised it as you can check out on this photo.

17 hours away to Havana from Baracoa by bus and to be honest at this point we were both getting sick of the bus so for $100 we bought a flight from Santiago back to Havana which only takes 2 hours. For some reason I didn’t realise the airplanes would be relics like the cars.
I saw a couple of bi-planes in Baracoa which I believe they use for short distant flights. Entering the departure lounge I could see my ride to Havana, a 1970 Russian Yak – 42 which on closer inspection had a lot of paint coming off the side of the body. I’m not sure if that makes a difference in the way it flies but I was shitting my pants. I swear the more I travel by air the more nervous I get, especially after that dreadful landing 3 weeks ago. Cubana hadn’t had a crash since 1999 so does that mean they have a great safety record now or…… are they due for another tragedy? I was praying that it was the first one. Climbing aboard this communist antique you had the feeling that the Russians didn’t really have comfit in mind when building it as Chris and I both squeezed ourselves in to the seats and my seat belt wouldn’t buckle up so you can tell I was getting a tad nervous at this point. I’m sorry to say that there was no drama to blog about as really the ride was so smooth and quiet all the way to Havana and even the landing was text book.. Still, I would rather take the train over a airplane any day.

We get to Havana and stay at the first Casa we tried to stay with 3 weeks ago, I must say I really like this family, they are really welcoming and happy to see you every time you meet them. Chris crashed out as he still wasn’t feeling 100%, Poor guy really hasn’t seen much of Cuba since he has been here. I headed out to the Malecon and had a walk around Old Havana which is just a superb place, Where ever you look people are out on the streets doing all kind of things, from ripping out engines of cars to queues around pizza stands waiting to get there hands on a greasy Peso Pizza. I have taken so many photos of Havana and if I was here for another month I don’t think I could get bored of the streets.

Chris was seeing the doctor today so he had to wait at the Casa but I had a packed day of sightseeing to do around Havana. First up was the most excellent Revolution Museum. This museum in my mind is worth the $5 entrance fee. It has a lot of information and loads photos of Che smoking cigars and looking like ‘the man’ which is always good in my books.
Joey, this is for you. Che’s original hat (that he wore in THAT photo) and rife, you may lick the gun Joey, how does it taste?

The building the museum is housed in was in fact the palace so you can imagine there are some grand halls and rooms. Most of it when I visited was being refurbished so only the Hall of Mirrors was open and what a magnificent room it is, It kind of reminds me of Shortman and I living room in Kensal Green…… except there was no photo of R Kelly crying above the fireplace.

The thing that made me giggle about this museum was when ever they referred to Batista or the American Presidents they would call them ‘The Tyrants’. Which brings me right on to the next sightseeing place of interest, the US embassy. Why would I go to the Embassy? Well, when two countries really can’t get along and wagp fingers at each other over the straights of Florida you know there are going to be fireworks. So what does Fidel and his pals do, put massive billboards all around the embassy likening Bush to Hitler and right in front of the balcony of the embassy are two huge billboards which I think are something to do with Cubans being held in the US but I can’t be sure as my Spanish is crappy, Ivan if you are reading this any thoughts? I’m sure as long as Fidel and Bush are in charge I doubt there will be any talking in the near future and in some comedy ways I hope it stays like this for a long time as it is like school playground humor.

The next fun packed day for me was to visit the Capitolio Nacional which was the Cuban Congress building but is now the Academy of Science and Technology. In the main hall a 17 meter high statue of a women and is the 3rd largest indoor statue in the world. The impressive dome, marble hall ways and a 24 carrot diamond that is set in the floor are some of the things this building has to offer. It also has a grand library which Harry Potter would get excited about.

It next place of visit was the oldest Cigar Factory in Havana. I had just missed a tour with a bunch a Germans, thank god so I had my own tour guide to take me around the factory, a rather fly young Cuban guy smoking a thin cigar showed me around the for the next 45 minutes. I thought the working conditions was going to be a sweat shop as the Lonely Planet had made out and maybe it was and that the whole tour was a cover up but what i saw were hard working Cubans hand crafting the worlds best cigars. The Factory is on 3 floors, The first floor is the bar and smoking room so I quickly get taken up to the second floor. As I walk in I swear I could be in a club with the sounds of Beyonce and Shakira pumping out of the PA system shaking and rattling the foundations of this ancient building. The 2nd floor is like a school, teaching young Cigar newbies how to roll. It take 9 months before they are allowed to get on the shop floor and only then they are only let loose on the small cheap ones. They must produce a minimum of 350 small cigars in 8 hours. On floor 3 is where the expert rollers work making the very expensive cigars. $20 in Cuba for one of the top cigars so I’m not sure how much it would go for in the UK, far more I should imagine. The skill and time that goes in to making these, well lets face it, Cancer sticks is mind blowing. The amount of detail that goes in hand rolling and then packing them for shipment is quite unreal. Its more like an art form. One thing that amused me was most of the rollers don’t smoke but get given 3 cigars a week to take home and smoke. Most of these end up being sold on the black market just outside the smoking shops for half price.

After all this sightseeing it was time for a drink, another place I wanted to visit was was the watering hole of Ernest Hemingway. Its funny that Ernest and myself have so much in common, 1. We are both great writers of the world errrrr…… But he can spell and i’m sure his grammar is a vast improvement on mine. The other thing we have in common is that we are complete and utter pissheads, so rocking up to the bar mid afternoon and not leaving till midnight only drinking mojitos which was Hemingways choice of drink in this bar. Bus loads of german and Dutch All tour groups stop here to take photos of the autograph of Hemingway on the wall and not the drunk blogger in the corner trying to salsa dance with some of the locals.
Now I’m going to go off on one, like I said Hemingway and I are very similar (oh here we go again Sam) so I was thinking when I die and become a successful photographer and blogger do you think people will visit my old watering holes? I could put my autograph above the bar in Twisters and i’m sure there would be queues of tourists wanting to take photos of where Random sat and had a glass of absinthe….. or two. I already know what catchy and thought provoking saying I could have up on the wall ‘Is it Absinthe hour yet?’

The last full day in Havana and Chris was feeling a bit better so we took in the last few sights. The Plaza de la Revolution which to be honest was a bit rubbish and looked more like a building site instead of the main plaza in Havana, still i think if you attended a march on May 1st then it could be rather spectacular with 1.2 million Cubans lining the streets listening to what Fidel has to say about the US.
We also took in the John Lennon statue which was rather life like, Fidel made Lennon a Revolutionist after his involvement in the anti Nam war demos. A few more hours walking around taking photos and last minute shopping for Havana Rum before one last drink at the other bar where Hemingway used to drink. El Floridita, i’m sure now is very different to when Hemingway used to come and drink his Papa Hemingway and at $6 i’m sure it wasn’t that expensive in his day. This is also the birthplace of the frozen daiquiri so I had to try one of them as well and I will say they were both divine.

So thats it, the next day we were jetting back to Cancun after a long an interesting few weeks. I don’t think Chris had as great time as he was sick for 2 weeks of it but I must say I found Cuba to be one of the most thought provoking places in this world. Coming from a capitalist nation I find it hard to understand the communist ideas, whenever I think I have worked Cuba out I see something new and I can’t explain it. I came to Cuba with a few questions and have come back to Mexico with a thousand more that need to be answered. Did I love Cuba? More than you can imagine.

The List
1. Havana, it is now entered my top 5 cities of the world
2. Rum, Rum, Rum
3. Stay in Casa’s they are the best way to get an insight in to how people live in Cuba.
4. Trinidad for dancing and people watching and sitting on some of the most stunning beaches of the world
5. Head to Baracoa for a different side of Cuban life.

Next stop it Belize for 1 week. Speak in a few weeks.

One Response to “We should have taken the bus! – The Cuba Experience – Part 4”

1. Ivan says:

   February 26, 2008 at 7:57 am

   The sign reads “Prisoners in the USA for having fought against terrorism”

   Amazing entries about your Cuban experience. And as I was going further on my reading I KNEW you’d end up with the oh-God-don’t-know-what-to-make-of-it feeling. I spent In Havana 6 months myself and took me almost a good year to “wake up” when I came back to Madrid.

   Yes, there’s some crap going on in the country, yet it seems to be something different about it. Full education, excelent health service, no beggers/homeless…and an involving sense of HAPPINESS on their people.

   It’s weird. really weird.

   Enjoy the final leg of your trip mate.taaaaake care
   See you soon
   Ivan