Cuba’s rich culture and heritage is a melting pot of mixed ancestry and race. As the Spanish came to colonize Cuba, they brought in over a million slaves from Africa to work on the plantations starting in the 16th century until the abolition of slavery in 1886. During those years, African slaves were coerced to assimilate as much as possible into Spanish Cuban society. However, they fortunately had rather creative ways at retaining their own unique culture and identity through their religion Santeria, music, and dance. One of the benefits of the Cuban revolution was the creation of a more equal society. Although racism still exists a little bit it is much less prevalent than in other parts of the world.
Trinidad, one of the most beautiful colonial towns in all of Cuba, has a strong Afro-Cuban culture. One of the highlights of our visit to Trinidad was a live show of Afro-Cuban music and dancing at the Palenque de los Congoes Reales in the heart of Colonial Trinidad. Over tangy mojitos, we enjoyed a live performance of rumba dance to traditional Afro-Cuban music.
After five wonderful days in Havana, it was time to head south to Trinidad. As much as I absolutely loved Havana, I was really looking forward to seeing the countryside. I chose a nice seat up front in our bus so I could get a bird’s eye view of the passing tobacco and sugar plantations and the nostalgic fields of southern Cuba.
It was a beautiful and quite eventful drive. We headed south with a stop at Playa Larga and the Bay of Pigs before ending just in time for sunset and an ocean swim at our hotel outside of Trinidad.
Photo Source: Wikipedia Free Commons
After we left Havana, the first thing I noticed was the lines and lines of people standing around in groups alongside the highway. Curious, I asked Abel our Cuban tour leader why so many people were standing alongside the road, some in packs and others alone. He told me about the immense challenges of getting around Cuba. These people alongside the roads and highways were waiting for a free ride to most likely visit family and friends in the provinces.
As the economy collapsed over a million Cubans fled the countryside and moved to Havana seeking jobs. Unfortunately the government could not keep up and today there remains a huge shortage of bus service for Havana’s 11.4 million residents. Cars are so expensive that most Cubans do not have them so they are forced to take whatever mode of transportation they can find to get out of the big cities and into the smaller cities throughout Cuba’s provinces.
Anything works to get from place to place in Cuba.
Perhaps Havana’s most beloved streets is Paseo de Martíor simply known as the Prado, a beautiful, long promenade that divides Old Havana from Central Havana and is the place to see and be seen. Back in the days of Cuba’s glory before the revolution, the Prado was the place for Havana’s wealthy elite to take a stroll, have a cup of coffee or relax along this long tree-lined promenade.
Today, the Prado still continues to have her charm and is the place where the young enjoy skating, biking, hanging out or playing music. There are also lots of beautiful buildings and hotels around the Prado where you can sit out on a verandah and watch the world go by.
On a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon I took a walk down the Prado to take some photos. Here is what I found.
Beautiful marble benches and wrought-iron street lights line the promenade making it a lovely place to stroll.
When I saw our itinerary for our “people-to-people” cultural tour of Cuba (one of the only legal ways to visit Cuba as an American), the one event out of all that I was the least excited about was the visit to a cemetery. To me, visiting cemeteries are rather morbid and oftentimes depressing. Unless of course you are at the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, who wants to see a bunch of grave stones while you are happily enjoying a vacation?
Our morning visit to the famous Colon Cemetery or Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón as it is called in Spanish, proved that not only was I completely wrong but that cemeteries can be actually quite a beautiful place loaded with gorgeous architecture, flowers, history and art. If you have to be buried, then there isn’t a more beautiful place than the Colon Cemetery in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana.
Founded in 1871 as the prosperous Spanish colony began expanding its architectural works into new posh neighborhoods and theaters, train stations, markets, hotels and parks, the Colon Cemetery was built on top of the existing Espada Cemetery and named after Christopher Columbus, the Spaniard who “discovered” Cuba. The Colon Cemetery was based on a project designed by Calixto Aureliano de Loire y Cardoso, a Spanish architect who lived in Cuba. Sadly, he died only two years after starting the project and was one of the first people buried in the cemetery.
The beautiful church at Colon Cemetery in Havana.
The Colon Cemetery is known as the third most important cemeteries in the world based on its glorious architecture and history. In Latin America, it is the second most important cemetery after La Recoleta in Buenos Aires that I have also seen. Both are equally beautiful yet in drastically different ways.
“Try to enjoy my country but not to understand it”. – Abel, our Cuban guide
There are many oddities about Cuba since el Triunfo de laRevolución, the triumph of the 1959 Cuban revolution as Cubans like to call it. However, perhaps the most peculiar is the sheer lack of necessities and goods, and the ability of the average Cuban to afford them. Nothing can prepare a foreigner for the stark reality and contrast of the tourist life compared with Cuban life while visiting Cuba. It was during my first morning in Cuba that I experienced a shockingly wide realization that el Triunfo de laRevolución was quite frankly all a farce.
I rose early as always to grab a leisurely breakfast in the hotel dining room. I normally am not a big eater for breakfast however I do like my coffee in the morning and our breakfast was included with the price of the room. I had heard that Cuba was not a gastronomical place and to expect the bare minimum during our week’s stay on the island. Not expecting much, I entered the hotel dining area and looked around with utter surprise. There was tray after tray of food. Anything and everything your heart could ever desire. Pancakes, french toast, eggs, meats, cheese, yogurt, smoothies, fruits, smoked salmon, pastries and even a omelette bar. I was stunned by the sheer quantity of food, much of it left uneaten on promptly cleared plates off table-clothed tables. Being in Cuba, our beautiful four-star hotel had a four-star quality spread to make anyone feel just the least bit guilty.
The irony of Cuba. View from our luxurious pool of Cuban housing.
It wasn’t until I left the beautiful hotel Melia Cohiba in Vedado, a tree-lined middle-class neighborhood of Havana, and walked across the street into the grocery store that I realized something was not right. The floors were stripped of tiles and showing dirt, the lights were dim, the walls were grungy and most of all, almost all the shelves were less than half-way stocked with goods. In fact, there were columns and rows of shelves that were simply bare with absolutely nothing.
An enormous guilt crept through me, thinking about what a sharp contrast the grocery store was compared to the layers and layers of food just across the street in our hotel. I grabbed a large bottle of water for my hotel room, paying the 6 CUCs, realizing that the cost of the water was a week’s worth of salary for the average Cuban. My heart sank. This is Cuba.
The first thing everyone notices immediately when they land in Havana are the vintage, pre-revolutionary American cars. 1950s Chevys, Fords and Oldsmobiles are everywhere. In fact, there is an estimated 60,000 vintage cars in Cuba. But seeing them everywhere in Havana felt like stepping into a scene of “Midnight in Paris”. It was surreal. It was like stepping back in time.
In its heyday before the Cuban revolution, Cuba was a huge importer of American cars. All this came to an end when the US embargo struck Cuba allowing nothing from American soil to be imported into the island, including spare parts to fix and maintain the cars.
Desperate to find parts to maintain their beloved vehicles, Cubans began refurbishing parts from the former Soviet Union and also used their creativity to care for their beloved cars, often sacred in the family. Some Cubans have made their own replacement parts or have even used common household items to keep their vintage cars running.
I have very exciting news! I am honored to announce that I will be one of nine new media journalists heading withThe International Reporting Projectto Ethiopia in June to report on newborn health. The announcement was made yesterday and I can hardly wait to start researching and learning all I can about Ethiopia.
Construction of Havana’s iconic Malecón began in 1901. This famous five-mile long promenade and sea wall was built primarily to protect Havana from the crashing waves and weathering from the sea. The Malecón is one of the most popular places to be in Havana and it is a wonderful place to take a walk or run, catch the sunset or hang out with friends and family. Sadly, like most of Cuba the Malecón is showing her age. The sea walls are rapidly deteriorating and decaying with big chunks falling into the water and other parts turning a brownish-green. Yet the promenade itself remains in good condition. On hot summer nights the Malecón becomes a lively “living room” for Cubans as they all head outside to escape the heat and their tight living arrangements. Live music is played, couples walk arm and arm and teenagers swarm in groups. Meanwhile, retro 1950s American cars cruise along the Malecón enjoying the refreshing ocean breeze. It is the place to see and be seen as the sea crashes against the shore.
Here are some pictures of the seaside of the Malecón.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro overlooks Havana Bay.
The most well-known spot in Havana is the famous Malecón, a five-mile long esplanade, street and seawall which stretches along the coast in Havana connecting the mouth of the Havana Harbor in HabanaVieja, passing through Centro Habana and ending in the more upscale Vedado neighborhood. Known by locals as the “big sofa” or the “living room” the Malecónis a testament of el Triunfo de laRevolución (the triumph of the revolution as Cubans say) and is awash with the sheer irony of the Cuban revolution.
The start of the Malecón in Old Havana
Built at the start of the 20th century, the main purpose of the Malecón was to protect Havana from the ocean waters pounding against her shore. As the Malecón was developed, glorious 19th and 20th century structures were built and lined the Avenida de Maceo (the street along the Malecón). Over time as the effects of el triunfo de la revolución slammed into Cuba, the Malecón became run-down, weathered and in a huge state of deterioration and decay. It is a tragedy to see how these buildings, which Cubans still live in, look today.
Yet the Malecón continues to be the most popular promenade in all Havana where teenagers, lovers, families and friends spend their evenings hanging out along one of the world’s most dilapidated “back porch”. A sunset ride along the Malecón inside a 1950s convertible is the way to see it all in style! Sadly, it rained the one night we had our cars booked so I had to do it the old-fashioned way: Cheap taxi and walk.
Take a ride with me along the Malecón, Havana’s biggest living room and see how the days of the Cuban revolution have weathered this once spectacular place. Check out the old cars along the way too which are seen throughout Cuba.
This week’s Photo Challenge is to celebrate Spring in photos. Sadly, here in Minnesota we have had the wettest April in 130 years and our Spring is very far behind. We don’t even have leaves on the trees yet nor do we have our gorgeous spring flowers. Instead of lamenting on how awful the last six months of weather has been here in the nordic Midwest, I thought I’d share some beautiful photos from our Spring break trip in early April to Tucson, Arizona.
Springtime in the desert is one of the most beautiful places to be. If you have never been to the Southwest before in the spring, it may sound ironic that spring inside a desert can be green. Yet Arizona experiences a beautiful, green spring with tons of rebirth, brilliant flowering plants, trees and cactus, and song birds from all over the place heading north for the summer. It is a wonderful time to visit Arizona.
Here are some of the lovely Spring photos I took during our recent visit to Tucson. You will see that it is the perfect time to visit!
One of Cuba’s most famous products is her delicious rum. In a country that became wealthy from its sugar, it is no wonder that rum is as notorious to Cuba as is cigars. By the 1850s Cuba was the number one sugar cane producer in the world and around this time Cubans discovered that the thick molasses, a by-product from sugar, could be used to make rum. Like Cuba, the history of rum has a long tumultuous past and no family was more important during the pre and post-revolutionary days than the infamous Bacardi clan.
In 1862 Facundo Bacardi Massó (1813 – 1886) an immigrant from Spain, founded one of Cuba’s largest, most successful family-owned businesses of all time: The Bacardi Rum Company. Don Facundo and his Bacardi rum would become the most well-known rum in all of Cuba, and was maintained by four succeeding Bacardi generations until the company was seized and nationalized by the Castro government on October 14, 1960.
Walking around Old Havana, you are bound to run into many places that serve rum.
On afternoon I decided it was time to explore a different part of Havana that I had yet to see, Centro Habana or Central Havana. I’d see enough of beautiful Old Havana and thought it was time to see the real Havana that has been untouched. Central Havana is the most densely populated part of town and unlike Old Havana, nothing has been restored. I hailed a coco-taxi (a three-wheeled scooter) right from my hotel in Vedado and enjoyed a fun ride down the Malecón to my first destination in Central Havana, a special place called El Callejón de Hamel or in english, Hamel’s Alley. I was in for quite a wonderful surprise!
Taking a Coco-taxi in Havana. (A three-wheeled scooter with a cover and room for two in back).
Heading into Centro Habana (Central Havana), a more densely populated and rundown part of town with ramshackle buildings and potholed streets.
I paid my fare which was much cheaper than a traditional taxi and wondered why I hadn’t tried a coco taxi earlier. It certainly was a fun way to see Havana! The neighborhood was dramatically different from the other parts of Havana I’d seen. Much more rustic, rundown with buildings in various states of disrepair. Yet it also felt more Cuban. More like the real thing.
