Category: La Habana

Today is my penultimate day in not only Havana, but also Cuba and we had a few things scheduled with the crew like cruising in 50’s convertibles, visiting Old Town Havana, a bit of a walkabout and a farewell dinner.

My first task of the day was to checking to see how our CEO – Victor, is travelling. His mum had cataract surgery rescheduled several times during the past couple of weeks, but today was the day. Like any good kid, you want to be there in support, but like any adult – work generally find a way to impede. Not a lot we can do other than be there for him and keep his mind off worrying about it, but sometimes it’s simple a matter of a sympathetic listener that can help the most. With the promise of regular “mama” updates, we set off for the day.

We spent a good hour travelling around in 50’s classic convertible cars. My ride was a pink & white 56 Chevrolet with ancient three cylinder Yanmar marine diesel motor, that sounded like an old chaff cutter with a stutter. Everything else in the vehicle was “Cubano original” in that it was kept running with ingenuity, bush mechanics, a big dose of luck with a prayer or three thrown in for good measure – but that was all part of the charm. I loved the experience.

We took in such sites as the tallest church in Cuba – Iglesia Del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus (known locally as the Church of Queen), the Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) which is the 31st largest city square in the world, measure 72,000 square meters (18 acres) and includes the Memorial a José Martí as well as the Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán and Ernesto “Che” Guevara steel images that are mounted to multi story buidings.

Cruising out to the Meliá Cohiba, then turning right to drive the oceanside Malecón (officially Avenida de Maceo) was a bit of fun before ending the cruise at the $440 – $1355 USD a night Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana.

With no wheels, it was “foot falcon” time where we’d simply wander around Old Town Havana. I decided to pull the pin just before lunch at the El Gallo Y La Muyer (Old Town Square), as my back was playing up. While the crew headed off to a Tapas Bar for a nosebag, I headed back to the casa for a hot shower and a lie down to ease the discomfort.

I also took this opportunity to spend a couple of hours sorting out my gear for an early departure, before meeting up with Sarah, Chris “Sexy Time” and my roomie Derrick for a couple of pre-dinner Mojito’s at El Chanchullero.

The whole crew met up at the main casa, wandered over to MeKeDé Bar & Restaurant for our farewell dinner that was accompanied with falling rain and unintentional tossed prawn main course, that was something out of Fawlty Towers. A few speeches, numerous H&K’s and more than a few Hasta Luego’s before we dropped most of the group off at the Buena Vista Social Club show and heading to mi casa.

Today’s scheduled highlight was a drive out to the area made infamous by the failed CIA backed Cuban exile armed Bay Of Pigs Invasion. More expressly it was the Museo Giron where the Cubans have created a museum proclaiming the victory over the “CIA supported bandits”.

To be honest, I struggled with the visit due to the seemingly one sided commentary, that lays the blame for the Bay Of Pigs armed action squarely at the feet of the United States. Contrastingly, history has shown the Soviet superpower was pulling strings and supplying arms and intelligence from the shadows, but the only mention of any Russian influence was that of students manning newly delivered Soviet artillery weapons during the action.

The adage of “to the victor goes the spoils” and “the conquerer writes their own history” seems to hold some sway with a few sites I’ve visited so far, but Cuba is certainly not alone in the that endeavour.

Just after 11 we pulled up at the oceanside facility of Caleta Buena, where for $15 USD you get a buffet lunch and a free drinks selection of 4 cocktails, tap Cristal cervesa, soft drinks and water.

It was looking to be 3 hours of my life I’d love to get back, as I’m so not a big fan of lying out on a sun bed or snorkeling along with dozens of bus loads of other quickly burning “rock lobster rubber-neckers“.

But after updating my Blog, partaking in a pretty ordinary buffet lunch, I grabbed my camera and went exploring the pocket bay, that makes up the site and I’m sure glad I did. I found a cenote (sink hole/rock pool) that measures about 20 metres (60 feet) in diameter where you could swim with a large amount colourful tropical reef fish.

A 3½ hour bus ride into the nation’s capital – Havana, saw us arrive back in my original Casa from a fortnight ago, but not before stopping at the road sign announcing our arrival in Australia. Why yes, there is a settlement named Australia, which is somewhat unique as all other Cuban towns were named by the Spanish, except for Cienfuegos, which was named by the French Haitian immigrants.

After a quick freshen up and getting some laundry sorted, it was a few drinks at El Chanchullero with my roomie Derrick, before dinner at D’Next Bar & Cafeteria with the crew, where I had my first Cuban double meat patty burger, with the lot, including two fried eggs ….. and it was all sorts of ooiest-gooiest awesomeness.

I got up around 5AM and headed off to the ensuite shower, which in all honesty was so small that you couldn’t change your mind, let alone clothing. On the way into the shower, I brushed up against the hand basin in getting around the toilet and managed to knock it off the wall, smashing it. Now that’s a different start to the day I reckon.

After sorting out the hand basin situation with the hosts, I sat down to breakfast with Gretta, who hails from Mildura (Victoria, Australia) but is currently based in Vancouver (British Colombia, Canada). We got to chatting, as you do when travelling alone in foreign countries, and decided to combine our talents and take a wander around Havana together for the day.

From our Casa, we headed out up to one of the local squares, which is also the neighbourhood Wi-Fi hotspot. Just so you’re in the know – aside from brand name Cuban Hotels, the internet is strictly controlled by the government and as such you have to purchase one hour blocks for $1 USD directly from ETECSA and then got to the dedicated Wi-Fi spots to access the service. Theses area are usually the local square in every town or large neighbourhood.

As we hadn’t purchased a Wi-Fi access card, we continued down to the waterfront and along the foreshore to the opening of Havana Harbour. From there we cut through the cobblestone streets of Old Havana, behind the Capitola building and popped up on the wharves at the Artists’ Market that is housed in one of the huge old Bonded Goods storage facilities i.e. a whooping great big shed.

On a whim, and the fact bus was sitting right outside the market, we made use of the $10 USD all day hop on/hop off tourist bus just to get a feel of the size and scope of Havana. It’s easy to see the change in capitalism in Havana with several multi-acre waterfront sites have large hotel construction projects in progress.

One lap of the city takes about 3 hours, but as it was just after 1:30 PM and in need of a feed & watering, we legged it off the bus at the Capitola and headed to El Chanchullero to get that sorted real quick.

Dinner tonight was $15 USD set menu affair at the Espacio Old Fashion which included a welcoming Mojito, a main course and either coffee or papaya with cheese as a desert. It was pretty ordinary if the truth be told. I arrived back at the hotel room to find a new hand basin installed and a bill for $50 USD in replacing the unit. I figured it was a fair amount, even though most would dispute the charge as the old unit was obviously not installed correctly, but when you know that these folks live on less than $100 USD a month, then what is $50 USD to me as compared to ½ their earnings for the month?

At 50 minutes, my flight took less time than it did for me to collect my luggage, as it seemed that the baggage handlers have thoroughly embraced the who communism concept by releasing one bag every couple of minutes.

I have to say that clearing Customs & Immigration at the Havana airport was one of the easiest and quickest clearances I’ve been even been involved with. They did pay special attention to my camera gear and USB hard drives by asking me to show the camera body working with each lens and how the USB and SSD drives worked and what they were for.

I was met by a transfer driver who was spitting chips that I was an hour and twenty minutes late in getting to the Transfer Collection area, but as it was out of my control – care factor zero.

My second “What Tha” moment came when changing US dollars to Cuban pesos or “CUC” as it’s better known by. For the record, the first “What Tha” moment was the length (or lack thereof) of the female Immigration officer’s skirts. Fair Dinkum they were “Greyhound Skirts” as in chasing the hair!

I digress, back to the money changing. In retaliation to the US Embargo’s, the Cuban government had slapped a 10% tax on all US currency and have set the CUC rate to mirror the US dollar. Yeah … that’ll show Uncle Sam not to mess with you Cuba.

I got to my accommodations at Casa Reyna around 5:00 PM and was met by my hosts Marilyn and Ismael. With my lodgings, since approximately 2008, the Cuban government relaxed their stranglehold on the economy and allow private enterprise to service to burgeoning tourist trade, which is now the country’s largest hard currency revenue generator. With the relaxing of the laws, many of the locals have converted their homes to supply temporary accommodations as their major income source, thus relieving the burden on social welfare and earning themselves as decent wage, when the minimum wage is around $12 USD a week. As I was fanging for a feed, I headed over to one of the local squares and found the El Chanchullero Restaurant and managed to settle in for $2.50 USD Mojito’s and a really good feed of prawns for $7.00 USD.