Hello from Cuba (1) - First Impressions
Tuesday, April 5, 2005, 6:00 pm, Hotel Havana Libre
Thanks to a severe case of the Revenge of Montezuma (or Ricky
Ricardo?..,) I am sitting here in the Hotel Havana Libre and
I finally get around to create updates from my first 4.5 days
here in Cuba. The Internet connection is definitely the slowest
I have ever seen in my entire life, (15 minutes to access
my messages at Yahoo..), but I am giving it a shot anyways.
Capitolio Nacional in Havana.
Friday morning I arrived at the airport in Toronto at 5:30
am since my husband gave me a ride before work. The plane
was scheduled to leave at 10:30 and several transfers with
public transport would have taken me 2.5 hours anyway, so
I decided to head there early and read a book.
Air Canada was delayed after all (due to a problem with the
water supply on the plane) and we had to wait for a substitute
plane from Winnipeg and finally got off the ground at about
noon. 3.5 hours later we arrived at the airport Jose Marti
in Havana
- a reasonably modern airport. However, it took me and the
other travellers almost 2 hours to collect our luggage and
finally hop into a taxi.
On the way in from the airport I noticed that there was a
mixture of industrial developments and agricultural areas,
right up until the centre of the city, which is strange compared
to Toronto, where there is no significant agriculture until
way outside the city. The older gentleman driving the taxi
was very friendly and explained a few basic things to me,
e.g. that most of the area is industrial and agricultural.
He also showed the National Sports Centre to me. Of course
you see old cars from the 50s and earlier as well as beat-up
Russian Ladas everywhere. Old sidecar motorcycles are also
a popular way to get around.
I finally arrived at my hotel at about 6 pm where my brand-new
friend Pedro (a connection through a friend in Canada) was
waiting for me. I had told my friend that I wanted to really
spend some time with locals to learn about Cuba, its customs,
its way of life etc.
Pedro is a brown-skinned black man in his late thirties with
a common-law wife and a young daughter. An extremely nice
person and heīs been very gracious in taking me around and
explaining things to me.
After I dropped off my suitcase and refreshed myself a little,
we hopped into a private individual's car (a practice extremely
common in Cuba), he paid a few local pesos and we were whisked
downtown in a very old beat-up Lada which ended up picking
up various other locals along the way.
Habana Vieja is a fascinating colonial city and the age and
beauty of the building is astounding. Of course I saw the
Capitolio (very similar to the Capital in Washington), several
of the big museums, the Hotel Inglaterra and some of the bars
that Hemingway frequented.
I also saw the big spider exhibit of 2 metallic spiders that
are located right in the heart of downtown, an exhibit by
a French sculptress that will stay in Havana
until April 28 and then apparently move on to New York.
Spider Exhibit in Havana.
We walked around and chatted about life in Cuba
and I started to learn a few things, about some of the practical
consequences of the revolution (e.g. blacks have it much better
today than before, and there is relatively little racism according
to Pedro), and the double economy, where locals receive their
salary in Pesos Cubanos, (around US$8 to $30 a month), which
is not even close to enough for living, so everybody participates
in the underground economy in some way.
We had a reasonably expensive meal in a downtown "Paladar",
a private restaurant in a private home with a maximum of 12
seats, one of the few official private enterprises allowed.
When asked about the future of Cuba after Fidel, both my new-found
friend and the old man running the Paladar indicated that
they thought not much would change after a future passing
of Fidel.
(Actually the mention of Fidelīs passing often makes people
pull up their hands in front of their mouths and start to
speak very quietly...).
After the meal, Pedro again flagged down a private vehicle,
we hopped in and I got dropped off at the hotel, dropping
into bed like a tired sack of potatoes. But I definitely had
a great introduction to life in Cuba on my first evening....
Interesting and useful books about Cuba:
Related Articles:
"My
Post-Cuba Reflections: Appreciation and Balance"
"Cuba
is Calling - Why I selected Cuba as my language study destination"
Hello from Cuba (1) -
First Impressions"
"Hello from Cuba (2) - Rain
in Vinales"
"Hello from Cuba (3) - Hiking
Vinales and Exploring Nature"
"Hello from Cuba (4) - Bureaucracy
Galore - The University of Havana"
"Hello from Cuba (5) - Another
Mind-Twisting Experience"
"Hello from Cuba (6) - The
Student Experience and Political Insights"
"Hello from Cuba (7) - Fun
and Recreation"
"Hello from Cuba (8) - Bicycle
Rides, Camellos and Cannon Shots"
"Hello from Cuba (9) - Havana
Neighbourhoods"
"Hello from Cuba (10) - A
Country Excursion"
"Hello from Cuba (11) - Inside
a Cuban Home"
"Hello from Cuba (12) - Contrasts
and Contradictions"
"Hello from Cuba (13) - Exploring
Downtown Havana"
"Hello from Cuba (14) - Field
Trips and Interviews"
"Hello from Cuba (15) - Getting
ready to say 'Goodbye, Havana'..."
"Hello from Cuba (16) - The
final day"
