Cuba
(pop
11m), Havana
(pop
2.1m)
Two
flights - we left Columbia at 9.30am to Panama and then transit onto our final
destination of Havana, Cuba, finally arriving at 4pm (clocks one hour
forward). We arrived at our hostel and settled in for the night as after
102 days Gary has a dodgy stomach.
The
next day we headed to the main hostel (we are in one of three) to work out the
plan for our stay. The hostels here or casa's are all inside people's houses,
so they may live in the front room and rent out the 2 back rooms or they are on
the 1st floor and have 4 rooms on the level above. The first things you notice
about Cuba – no wi-fi, and no ATM’s (or very sparse of both - we never managed
to use either). So it's cash and USD's and therefore we needed to get to
the Cash Exchange office (only one in our part of Havana and as it was Sunday -
only open until 12pm). That done we started the Lonely Planet’s walking tour
around the historical district visiting Catedral de San Cristobal which sits at
the head of the Plaza, Castillo de la Real Fuerza – Havana is another city with
historic city walls around it, the castle being part of those structures,
Palacio de los Capitanes Generales and the park alongside was quite
beautiful. The road in front of the palace is made out of wooden bricks,
which in the past they believed would quieten the sound of the horses hooves.
Iglesia y Monasterio de San Francisco was a highlight and a very large and
beautiful old building with a large bell tower and bells lining the entrance. Finally we arrived at Plaza Vieja, originally home to some of Havana’s richest
families. Most of the buildings were private residences and the Plaza was
historically the place for gory spectacles (including executions). The
rest of the walking tour was literally walking the streets and taking in the
Havana vibe, people and streets. The city is filled with the most amazing
and beautiful buildings, however most are in a state of disrepair. It
would seem the city is focussed on putting this right, particularly in the
major squares and buildings of note and you can’t help but imagine how
wonderful it would have looked in its heyday.
We
took a short “bubble” taxi ride to the other end of town as the locals were
into their Sunday Rumba but unfortunately we arrived just as it was wrapping
up. Very cool part of the city and lots of party people – really nice to
see the community coming together for a bit of wriggling and jiggling.
We
got dropped off on the Malecon (Havana’s waterfront) for a short walk before
heading back. What a spectacle – the ocean is so tumultuous (even though
it’s not really windy) and it’s washing machine like waves are pounding the
Malecon, breaking over the sides in multiple places. It was quite
something to watch (from a very carefully placed seat), a nice view of the
Castle and a great way to end our walking tour.
The
cars are something else. We could have caught any number of different
taxis – bubble car, normal car, 50’s American cars, horse & cart, tuk tuks
or trishaws to name a few. It’s an amazing array of vehicles sharing the
roads and the big old cars are really something – they’re either in pristine
condition, or desperately needing some TLC. Either way they certainly add
to Cuba’s character and all provide a great variety of ways to see the city.
After settling in to our hostel we opted to go exploring on the local Hop On Hop Off bus. In a small town such as this there are fewer sites than there are specific destinations for locals but it gave us a good insight to the town. Our first “tourist” site was Cueva del Indio. It’s a cave system inside the limestone structures that you are able to walk through and then take a short boat ride.
The
next day we made the trip to Cayo Jutias. The
locals rave about this as being a super special spot and amazing
beach. We are lucky enough to have seen many of these so not sure that
we’d rate it quite with the locals view but it was really pretty and blue, with
nice warm water and white sand. The trip out to the beach was
interesting in that the roads are terrible. It was ~60kms and took an
hour and 20 minutes to get there. Very bumpy and full of pot holes.
On
the way to the beach we stopped at a Family tobacco plantation and saw how it
all works. The drying house was something else with multiple stages of
drying, amazing colours and the very manual threading of leaves onto drying
racks taking place. The seeds of the tobacco plants are as tiny as a
grain of salt and once planted give four harvests of tobacco. They take
months to dry and go through multiple variations of fermentation and drying etc
before reaching the desired age and taste. They are very passionate about
their tobacco in Cuba, and couldn’t quite believe we’d taken the time to visit
when we don’t smoke.
Next
stop is Trinidad. A long travel day with stage 1 being our transport back
to Havana (almost 3 hours), then a swap of shared transport and into a seven
seater for stage 2 to Trinidad (4 hours). The journey was pretty
uneventful and surprisingly once out of Havana not a lot to see. We passed
through a couple of small towns, but for the most part the countryside was just
that. As we headed closer to the city our driver had to play dodgems
along a long piece of coastal road where hundreds of crabs had decided it was a
good idea to cross the road – unfortunately for most of them it wasn’t, but it
was an intriguing phenomenon to witness.
Trinidad
is considered one of the most intact colonial towns in the Americas, thanks to
conservation efforts. It was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in
1988. The town is full of rambling cobbled streets and its claim to fame
is that the clocks stopped ticking in 1850 and have yet to restart with the
exception of tourists. That became obvious quickly when you’re woken up
by horse hooves trotting down the street outside and vendors “singing” that
they have fresh bread for sale.
The
houses are really colourful and life is simple (although possibly not
easy). The walk was around 2km long and was great as it took us into a
part of the town that we may otherwise not have seen. Upon arriving back
to Plaza Mayor we opted to sit and have a cold drink, and listen to a bit of
Cuban jazz and watch the locals dance.
Before
heading to dinner we made it to a viewing point to watch the sunset – which we
were again treated by witnessing the most stunning colours. Can’t help
but think of the song “April sun in Cuba” - these sunsets are worth singing
about.
Our
final day in Trinidad consisted of a taxi trip out to La Boca, a small fishing
village about 5km out of Trinidad. It was a real treat too, so quiet and
peaceful. We were dropped off at the fishing end where the locals’ boats
were all tied up and fish, already caught, tied to the fence or being carted
off home. We walked through the tiny town’s waterfront road and as with
many places were caught up in the colours of the surroundings, including the
bougainvillea. The walk along the waterfront was gorgeous, the water
crystal clear and flat – and beckoning for you to swim (which we did after we’d
walked to the end and back).
Once
back in town we walked up the main road where the locals’ fruit, veges and meat
is for sale. Some pretty good looking stalls and some pretty questionable
ones (for Lesley’s taste anyway), but pleasantly no bad smells and by the time
we got there it looked as though most of them had done a decent days
trade.
We headed back to
our sunset viewing point for dinner (and another gorgeous sunset) – a really
nice way to finish our trip to Trinidad.
Last
full day in Cuba we headed back to Havana in a 1957 Ford Aerolite –
surprisingly comfortable for the journey and took the 4 hours we’d expected (as
opposed to be longer which were our initial thoughts when we saw it pull up).
Back in Havana we still wanted to go for a drive in a classic car around
the old city. We confirmed a purple Chevrolet 1953 Belair and spent 50 or
so minutes cruising the streets of Havana – all pretty special. Saw most
of what we had seen already with the addition of the Capital building and plaza
(although this was all about the car ride).
Cuba’s
history is complicated and socialism well afoot after adopting the Constitution
in 1940 guaranteeing rights to employment, property, minimum wage, education
and social security. Although changes have been happening in the past 5
years and continue to do so, opening up to Cuban’s what we in democratic
countries take for granted; it would appear to be serving Cuba well – with a
literacy rate of 99.8%, guaranteed minimum income and exceptional healthcare
systems. The changes afoot will no doubt impact but how remains to be
seen. Havana is the epitome of Cuba, from our perspective, and is
tragically beautiful. Regardless of its future here’s hoping the country
continues with its happy rumba beat, friendly people and interesting cigar
smoking, rum drinking characters along the way.
Best
moment – see Cuba as we expected, stuck in time
Worst
moment – Gary being sick 90% of our time in Cuba, courtesy of Colombian
food (we think)
Most
special – the tragically beautiful colonial buildings
Most
surprising – the realisation that statements about no wi-fi or ATM’s were
actually real!
Weird
moment – passing a tuk tuk on the freeway that was overtaking a horse and cart
Things
we’ll remember about Cuba;
The
big old American cars
The
simplicity of everything
Socialist
images
The
colourful houses
The
beautiful colonial buildings
Cigars
(not us smoking them!)
Old
fashioned school uniforms – long socks!
People
on the side of the road waving money for a lift, and
Every
vehicle having the potential to become a taxi
Palm
trees
Banana
Plantations
Horse
drawn buggies and push bikes on the freeways
Taxi
Trucks
Tobacco
Basic
agriculture
Bullocks
Looking
directly into people’s living rooms
Hand
ploughing fields
Rocking
chairs on the porches
High
gabled barns
No comments:
Post a Comment