CUBA (Part II). La Habana. 65 993 Km — Thirty Someting Gap Year

La Habana. Capital of Cuba and, according to google recent release, one of the top 5 places being researched for holidays. As I mentioned in the last post, we hadn't checked the time of whether cycles and found we landed in one hot city.

Thankfully, we had a wonderful airBNB with a driver at call who came to pick us from the airport. Of course in a refurbished 1950's Ford. Frank gave us the scenic tour from the airport whilst his lovely wife Maylin, who manages the airBNB narrated the scenery. Finally we arrived at our airBNB. Located in Habana Vieja (Old Havana), it was a somewhat of a daunting arrival where buildings were half torn down, lots of people on the street, cracked and dug up roads. We didn't know what we got ourselves into but Frank and Meylin were comforting.

As it turned out we had an awesome 3 bedroom apartment that had been completely refurbished from the ground up. It had taken the owners 3 years but at just a stones throw from Plaza Vieja, it had one incredible view. The other great thing about arriving at the apartment was catching up with the family that we hadn't seen in almost 18 months.

The first day in Habana was a bit of trial. We still weren't 100% sure of our surroundings and it wasn't long before the day got a little too hot to be walking around, especially with the kids. We did however start to get a feel for the place and after a rest from the midday heat we headed out again in the afternoon to explore. On the way we found another little plaza (above), horses, old buildings, cars, weird motorized yellow egg cars, and lots of people on the streets.

The Cars

One of the most common things people associate with Cuba is the near perfect preservation of American cars from the 1950s. Before we arrived we thought that there would only be a few around the city, mostly tourist attractions, and that most would actually not be so well restored. We were wrong. They were absolutely everywhere. And whilst needed some love, the majority of them were beautifully restored. Not just strictly for tourism either (though there were a lot of those in Habana), some are just taxis.

From what we were able to gather, at some point the buying of new cars was made illegal and this lasted till around 2011. Prior to the embargo, Cuba had been relatively well off from the large amounts of sugar cane produced and also with support from other communist countries. So the country found themselves using the only cars they could. Even now, we came across people restoring these cars, some of which were stripped right back to the frame and rebuilt.

The convertible tour around town was a big seller.

Tourist Transport

The options from getting around Habana are pretty varied but there are 2 big tours being pushed: One on a horse and cart and the other as mentioned above is the convertible vintage car. Looking for a way to beat the heat for a while, we grabbed a horse ride on our second day to see a little further afield than we walked on day 1.

The kids didn't really get to drive but they loved getting to sit up front when we stopped. The rest of us also really enjoyed the chance to get around and see more of the city as the guide took us past some of the major sites of Habana Vieja and Habana Verdero.

16th Century Castillo de Los Tres Reyes which lies across the water from Habana Vieja

Whilst the horses were great fun, it felt a little remiss to come to Habana and not take a vintage convertible at least once. So on the way back from visiting the Hotel National, we found ourselves a nice pink convertible to taxi us back home.

As you can see below, there are a lot of motorised yellow egg-shaped taxis in Habana. Whilst we didn't take one in Habana (we did in Vadadero), it was great to watch them speeding along the roads.

After 3 full days in Habana we left in search of beaches, arriving first at Playa Girón. Claire and I however came back for a few days to do some more exploring once Matt, Elin, and the kids had flown out from Vadadero.

The Rum, the Beer, and the Cigars

Another strong association with Cuba is Rum. Again we didn't think it would be so big but again we were wrong. Locals drink it a lot. Actually they seem to drink it all. the. time. It seemed only fitting to go to one of the oldest bars in Cuba to see how the locals drink it when they go indoors (rather than the usual drink on the street - one bottle rum, one bottle cola). It turns out the bar had lost its local customers, who went around the corner to buy takeaways, but still had a large stock of rum.

The surprise for us was the number of craft beer houses popping up. Oh that and they also seemed to have decided the best way to serve craft beer was by the meter! It was warm enough that we managed to smash it out.

And finally, Cigars. We knew this was going to be a big thing and we were right. We didn't realize though that sometimes they would be served to us in restaurants kind of like an after dinner mint.

Carpenters relay the wooden road around the Plaza de Armas

The Buildings

One of the most beautiful parts of Habana is undeniably the buildings. Up until 20 years ago, the idea that these buildings helped to create a city as beautiful as Brogue or Florence was lost behind decades of decay. Thankfully the city historian created "Habaguanex", a private holding company that started to restore some of the buildings in Habana Vieja. The best thing about this project was it's mission: To return Habana Vieja to a living function area of Habana.

Over the past 20 years, the company has restored old buildings and turned them into Hotels, Restaurants, bars, and microbreweries and promoted them for tourism. With the tourist dollar then coming in, they used 45% of the taking to continue restoration projects throughout the city, and 55% to community based projects to uplift the people of the neighbourhood. Thanks to this, you now find beautifully refurbished schools in the main squares, work shops to teach trades in old factory sites, and other similar projects right among where people are living.

There are however several blocks which have yet to be started with the renovations and the delineation is pretty sharp. The above picture was taken on the corner of block when we initially stayed in the airBNB. In other places, you can see the restoration taking place and watch how a beautiful building will come back to life.

There are also a couple of mixed buildings like the one on the below left. Taken from a previous church that was beyond repair the architects were able to preserve parts of it such as the bell tower and arches, replicated the original walls and then constructed a modern building arising from it and within.

Outside of Habana Vieja there is still a lot of renovation to be done. The houses along the Malecon have been punished by salt and wind over the years with the salt with only a few having been restored. Buildings like the one below are a common enough site right on the Malecon but go 1 or 2 blocks back and they are all like this or worse. They remind you of how much was lost and the economic impact that Cubans endure.

People

I'll finish with just a little bit about the people here. Most succinctly these are people who live their life on the street. From morning to night people are working in the street, hanging out chatting, doing photo shoots, eating, drinking, playing football, or making music. And when they're not outside, most houses are open to the air so their living rooms are almost an extension of the outside world, where everyone can look in.