We had a nice early start for a walking tour of Old Havana. Cuba was colonized by the Spanish, of course, and was the last colony of Spain to gain independence. Viewing Old Havana is a long history of being a colony. The chief old building being fortresses: the old fort (now a museum) dates from 1577, while the youngest fort dates from the eighteenth century. We started our day in San Francisco Plaza which is also called pigeon square. A former convent that is now a museum of old religious artifacts is the largest building. The brightest, most well kept building is the Cuban Petroleum Co. building. Cuba supplies 48% of its own consumption and imports 52% of its needs from Venezuela. Some new boutique hotels have begun in old, historic buildings. Since Old Havana is a UNESCO world heritage site, there were signs of restoration everywhere we went. Many of these are private enterprises with oversight only to maintain historic correctness.
San Fransisco Plaza also has the port building. Cuba has a small port for cruise ships but because a ship cannot dock in the US for sixth months after visiting Cuba, many ships do not put Cuba on their itineraries. The greatest number of cruise ships our guide had ever seen at port: two.
We visited Armament Square next. This was the oldest of the old since the Spanish established it first as parade grounds early in the colonization. The oldest fort is here, as is an old church and now a market for used book sellers. Street peddlers sell peanuts wrapped in white paper twists. Caricature artists circled our group penning drawings of participants while they were listening to the guide. Then they would ask for a few pesos for the drawing.
The statue in the center of the square is of Carlos Cespedez, the architect of Cuban independence. We had about an hour in the square and wandered into the museum, mostly because after a few conversations with book sellers we realized we were not in the market. The museum in the old fort had lost of displays from old sailing ships. The guides in the first room were rather eager to talk with us, one showing pictures of her family in Miami and Kansas City, taking photos for us with my camera and finally, asking for some pesos.
We walked past a really amazing mural in sand of 67 people who helped move independence from Spain along in Cuba. The mural sits on a narrow street across from a building it mirrors, that served as a private club and meeting place for the revolutionaries.
Our last stop before lunch was to a "marriage," of cigars and rum, with a background of a band playing Buena Vista Social Club style music. We saw a demonstration of cigars being rolled, and then were ushered into a courtyard, given coffee and a long explanation of the types of rum and the types of cigars. Our tutor then passed out a Romeo & Juliet to each group member along with a swallow of rum. We were admonished to not move ahead but to follow the step exactly. Here are the informative tips:
1. Lighting a cigar is properly done with a cedar taper;
2. Hold the cigar at a 45 degree angle and the cigar should not be puffed until a ring has burned around the end;
3. Only hold a cigar above the wrapper ring, and never smoke the last 1/3;
4. There are three ways to hold a cigar and all minimize contact to only a fingertip or two;
5. It's bad luck to knock off the ash and the longer the better
6. Close your throat and never swallow
Follow those steps and you too, can smoke a cigar.
By now the ice was seriously broken amongst our group members and we scooted off to lunch at a paladar. Our daily round of welcome "national" cocktails (mojitos), soup, grilled fish, beans and rice and flan.
Our afternoon was at a community art project called Muraleando on the site of what had been a dump. It has the philosophy that "You can't change people's minds unless you change their environment." We had music and a walk around plus a chance to buy some work of the artists. Many group members had brought school or art supplies from the states and we left these at the community art project. They run extensive children's art workshops there and everything is free.
We had a mad dash through a market for souvenirs, and then a short break in the late afternoon. Our last event was an hour with an economics professor from the University of Havana. He spoke about economic development in Cuba's future. This is an economy that knows it has to change and doesn't need to be exploited by any other country in the future.
Dinner was at Cafe Laurent which is five flights up on a roof top terrace. The setting was really nice because we could look out over the city. In the view here, you can see a swimming pool not in use. It was interesting that as it grew dark, the tall building in the background on the right had zero lights on.
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