Havana, Cuba: Last two days

Back in the states and trying to finish up my blog posts.  I'm at Starbucks, but the coffee doesn't taste quite the same since I had Cuban coffee every day.  I miss that.  Anyway, I'd like to tell you about my last two days in Havana.  Tuesday, Nov. 13.  We started the day at Callejon de Hamel (Hamel Alley), an alley near old Havana that has been turned into a large display for the artist known as Salvador (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Gonz%C3%A1les_Escalona).  Every building and wall, etc. on the street is covered in his art and poetry.  All kinds of ordinary objects, like bath tubs have been used to display his colorful drawings and poems. There was a large tribute to Cuban national hero Jose Marti which featured a bathtub on top of a tall column and filled with grass (my cover photo on Facebook is of the Marti tribute).  In addition to the alley, many of the houses along it have been painted inside by him and you can just walk inside and see more. Before walking down the alley, we learned about the Santaria religion which influenced Salvador. I had heard of Santaria growing up in Florida but did not know much about it. It is a cross between Catholicism and native African religions.  Practitioners dress all in white and can be seen all over Havana.

After exploring the alley, we headed to the Ballet Folklorico of Havana. The dancers and musicians put on a performance just for us in their rehearsal space and included numbers inspired by both African and Spanish traditions.  One of their dances involved the men holding Machetes and dancing around with them; fortunately, none of them came loose.  At the end of their performance, they pulled us all up on stage to dance with them.  It was like being at the club the night before all over again except that this dance had a distinct beginning and end.  We all agreed that their performance was one of the highlights of the trip, given the intimate nature of the space.  After we put our shoes back on (had to take them off to protect the floor), we headed to lunch at a Paladar in old Havana where I had Paella de Pollo y Lechon (Chick and Pork with yellow rice); it was delicious but took a long time for them to prepare.

After lunch, we headed to a Salsa class at another dance studio. We had an hour with an instructor who yelled at one of the people in our group for talking while he was teaching; it was hilarious and we laughed about it for the rest of the trip. Anyway, I've never danced Salsa before, and it was a little tricky.  It is based on an eight beat count with the fourth and eighth count being pauses.  So it's really: 1, 2, 3, pause, 5, 6, 7, pause, etc.  Once I got the foot work down, they introduced shoulder moves which completely threw me off.  Still, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon and meet more Cubans and admire their creativity and culture.

Prior to dinner, Joe had a surprise for us. He had arranged for us to ride in old 1950s convertibles (they are everywhere in Havana) to the National Hotel where we all had our pictures taken by a professional photographer.  As we drove down the Malecon, Havana's waterfront boulevard, Joe had the photographer in one of our vans driving along side us taking pictures.  At one point, we were blocking in a driver who got very upset and kept honking.  Otherwise, it was a delightful experience and I will post those pictures as well when I receive them.  Dinner was a two stop affair with us first having drinks and appetizers at the apartment of a local art collector.  He was not home but his sister showed us around his apartment and his collection.  This was one of the nicest apartments I've seen in what was otherwise a bland looking building and was the owner was obviously very wealthy even by America standards.  The furniture was mid-century modern and the art included some artists we had seen earlier in the week.  The collector was a doctor who had spent time working in Panama and making more money than he could ever have made in Cuba.  He not only collects art but promotes local artists.  Still, his wealth I found suspicious in a country with so much poverty.  I couldn't help but think he had some connections with the Communist Party.  Our guide wouldn't say but kind of rolled her eyes when I asked.  Although the apartment was lovely, the AC was not on and it was very hot and humid.  Probably the most uncomfortable I had been in Cuba so far due to the heat and humidity.

After that, we drove out to the house of the collector's sister in the Diez de Octubre neighborhood.  The house was also sort of plain looking on the outside and on an ordinary street with run down buildings, but it was grand inside.  Instead of mid-century modern, it was decorated in a more classic style, also with a lot of art.  Our guide explained that most people with money don't invite people into their homes because they don't want to attract attention.  This was where we ate dinner.  The house was not air conditioned and although it was cool while we ate, when we moved out to the patio for rum and cigars, it was even more hot and humid than it had been at the airport.  Yes, we had cigars and rum.  A cigar and rum sommelier joined us and recommended cigar and rum pairings.  As she also smoked cigars I couldn't help but think of the opera Carmen where the lead Diva smokes cigars and entices away Don Juan.  Anyway, I did not have a cigar but took a few puffs off of someone else's.  I did not see what the big deal was.  But the rum was good and I enjoyed sipping it while a local musician and his band played for us.  At the end of the band's performance, we discovered the singer was the husband of one of our guides.  Other than the heat, it was a lovely relaxing evening and a great way to end our time in Cuba (although my experience wasn't quite finished).

On Wednesday, Nov. 14, my flight wasn't until 2:30pm so I knew ahead of time that I would have some free time in the morning.  After seeing the Hemingway house on Monday, I asked Joe if he could arrange for me to visit the fishing village of Cojimar on Wednesday morning before I left.  Cojimar was the village that inspired Hemingway to write the Old Man and the Sea and he dedicated his Nobel Prize to the fishermen of that village.  I enjoyed the Hemingway house so much that I just had to see the fishing village.  So Joe arranged it for me with Julie who had been our guide at the Hemingway house.  She and a taxi driver picked me up at 8am and we headed east to the village.  On the way there we passed several large sports stadium where the Pan American games had been held; they were decorated with more propaganda about the importance of sports to the revolution, etc.  Anyway, Cojimar is still in the city of Havana but feels remote.  Like other places we had been, most buildings could use some renovation, although I did see one nice house across the street from the ruins of another.  We stopped in the Terraza de Cojimar, a restaurant / bar where Hemingway liked to hang out.  We had to bribe someone to let us in since they were not open yet.  But we saw the table where he liked to sit (they have it roped off) and admired all their pictures of Hemingway in the large dining room over looking the small bay.  We then walked down the water front street to the site of a small Spanish fort and the adjacent monument to Hemingway.  At a small park on the waterfront a lot of young people would gathered because it was a WiFi hotspot.

We weren't in Cojimar too long so on the way back Julie said we could stop at the Christ of Havana statue which overlooks Havana Harbor and old Havana.  The statue predates the revolution by a few years and is similar to ones in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Lisbon, Portugal but without his arms spread out.  Instead his left hand is near his waste and his right hand has two fingers held in the sign of a blessing.  However, it is a local joke that from a distance it looks like he is holding a glass of rum in one hand and a cigar in the other.  Julie said some people also call him the sexy Jesus because he is so attractive and has full lips.  We took several pictures and then because we still had time, headed to Revolution Square where Julie took my picture in front of the giant Che Guevara mural on the Ministry of the Interior building.  On the opposite side of the square is the Jose Marti memorial.  The square has been the site of numerous political rallies and speeches by Fidel Castro.  During this part of the trip Julie and I talked a lot about the current situation in Cuba.  I asked her if people believed all the propaganda we saw.  She said most Cubans were apathetic and ignored it and besides, Cubans are now exposed to outside ideas and news because of the internet.  I'll talk more about that in another entry.  Cubans have come up with an ingenious way to see internet content from all over the world despite the spotty internet access in the country.

Before leaving for the airport, I bought two bottles of expensive rum at the hotel.  At the Delta check in, nobody said anything about it.  At passport control, where they stamped my passport "Exit" and took my Visa, nobody said anything.  Then at security, the guard told me in Spanish that I could not take them on the plane (liquids, darn it!  I should have known better).  She said they could only be in checked bags.  I asked if could go back out and check them in and she said no, because I'd already had my passport stamped.  "So what do we do now?" I asked.  "I'm going to take it" she replied.  So without intending to, I treated the airport staff and security to an expensive cocktail hour.  Five minutes later I bought some cheaper rum at the Duty Free shop.

Well that's it.  I had a wonderful time and the whole experience felt more like a cultural immersion than a sightseeing trip.  I hope I get to back sometime soon.  I'd like to see more of the island.  I'm going to post one more post to talk about some of my observations and to post some pictures. Thank you for reading my blog.  And thank you to Joe Sandillo and Almaz Journeys for the fantastic trip.