Exploring Havana
On January 26th we met in the lobby at our usual time for our early morning shoot before breakfast. After breakfast the agenda was to take cabs for a city tour with a few planned stops. The final outing was going to the beach on the Malacon to check out the action and take some sunset photos.
I really enjoyed the early morning photography. We chose different areas each morning to walk and never knew what we might find.
For the most part Cubans had smiles on the their faces, especially the younger people.
I found the old doors and walls very interesting and colourful. Our guide told us that the reason that the walls have so many different paint colours is that the Cubans would use whatever paint they had so over the years when the paint was peeling you would see layers of different colours.
Walking through the old streets was very interesting. Today was a Sunday so everything was much quieter.
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There are lots of colourful and old doors in the city. |
There are numerous outdoor public telephones in Havana. I saw very few people walking around with cell phones. However, the number of mobile phone users are increasing. It has only been since 2008 that Cubans were allowed to buy cell phones. One interesting fact is that mobile phones are available only in a local dollar-pegged currency and sending even a twitter message from a mobile phone can cost more than the average daily earnings of many Cubans. The internet in Cuba is among the most tightly controlled in the world. It is characterized by a low number of connections, limited bandwidth, censorship and high cost. At the hotel I paid around 4 pesos (under $5 CND) for an hour's worth of slow internet access. The cost had actually decreased from previous years as the rate used to be 8 pesos for an hour. The internet in Cuba stagnated since its introduction in the 1990s because of lack of funding, tight government restrictions, the U.S. embargo and high costs however, starting in 2007 the situation began to slowly improve. Apparently about 26% of the population had access to the internet in 2012 through government-run computer clubs, schools and offices. I was told that most people use the internet at their government offices and there are severe restrictions of use. In June 2013 Cuba's state-run telecom company ETECSA announced that it plans to begin offering in-home internet connections by late 2014. One wonders how many people will be able to afford this service.
A peek in an old doorway.
I would often notice that Cubans kept many items that would perhaps be found in junk yards in developed countries. This makes total sense given how expensive everything is in Cuba. So very little would be thrown out if there was a chance that it could be useful one day.
We saw so many old and beautiful cars.
Not everyone in Cuba had smiles on their faces. Cubans definitely have very hard lives.
Our group took a cab ride using old cars and here was one of the drivers (unfortunately not mine).
One of our stops was the Hotel Nacional De Cuba. Together with Old Town Havana this was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 because of all of its history. The constant attacks by privateers and pirates, followed by the capture of Havana by the English prompted the construction of various fortifications, towers and batteries. The decision to build a luxury hotel was taken in the late 1920's by American firms and it was completed within 14 months. In 1933 the hotel was bombarded following the stationing there of officers of the army elite of the deposed president Gerardo Machado. This was a revolt by lower-ranking officers- Batista among them- in protest at the privileges of high office. Many famous people have stayed at this hotel including Winston Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Ernest Hemingway, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and yes even former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The Mafia also frequented this hotel and there were plans to create a "Las Vegas" here before the revolution. The hotel was the setting for the formation of the "26th July Movement" revolutionary cell led by Fidel Castro. On the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959 the representatives of the American company that operated the hotel departed and the revolutionary government took over.
A photo of Fidel Castro with Jean Chretien at at 1998 meeting at the hotel.
The hotel has been renovated over the years and is very beautiful and well-kept. It was architecturally and historically restored and reopened as a hotel in 1992. From 2003 to 2012 (except for 2010), the hotel received the World Travel Awards "oscars of the travel industry". This open area looked like a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the ocean views.
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In the bar an old fashioned phone is still in use. Also, located in the bar was an old Juke box. This hotel is the regular venue for events- an average of 65 a year that takes place in the hotel's reception rooms.
This room was located on the other side of the bar. There were lots of interesting pictures on the wall. You can see the picture of Nicolas Maduro Moros who has been the Venezuelan president since 2013. Venezuela is Cuba's biggest ally and benefactor. Venezuelan oil and money help keep Cuba's economy afloat and the governments have about 30 joint ventures with most of them in Venezuela. Cuba receives an estimate 110,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan oil in exchange for both money and the services of some 44,000 Cubans (mostly made up of medical personal) in Venezuela.
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We spent some time looking at the Necropolis Cristobal Colon, a well known cemetery in Havana named after Christopher Columbus. This cemetery is notable for its ostentatious graves with acres of angels, saints, urns and crosses. Every day hearses line up at the chapel at the centre of the cemetery for a quick five-minute service before departing for burial. Those who are interred at the cemetery can buy a crypt for two years. Since space is limited, after the allotted time, the bones are removed, put in a box and places on a shelf in an open-air, multi story cement-block building.
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After spending some time at the cemetery we were dropped off at the Malecon(officially Avenida de Maceo) which is a broad roadway and seawall which stretches for 8 km (5 miles) along the coast in Havana. New businesses are appearing on the esplanade due to economic reforms in Cuba that now allow Cubans to own private businesses. By now the light was perfect. It was a great place to people watch.
Lots of people were fishing.
Some of us stayed around waiting for the sunset. We were able to walk back to the hotel as we were staying fairly close by.
