Caribbean-Cuba - MSC (Day 7) Havana, Cuba


For our second day in Havana, we would have the same tour guide as the day before. We didn't want to be late again - so we were almost half an hour early for our 9:00am meeting time - and Liena was already there waiting for us. She had arranged for a driver with a classic car to drive us around to some of the outlying areas of Havana. The driver was also ready and waiting, and so we were off on another full day of exploring Havana.

This has turned out to be another long post, but we did and saw a lot this day too.


We walked along the waterfront to get to where the car was parked. Along the way, we passed these two forms of transportation - both antiquated in their own right.


This is the plaza where our car (along with many others) was parked.
Following are some of the impressive old "Yank Tanks" we passed.











Inside our slightly less flashy 1955 Chevy BelAir. Most of the old cars have been modified with diesel engines, and added air conditioning.



After a short drive, our first stop was "Fusterlandia" - a collection of homes, buildings, fences, signs and sculptures, all decorated with bright ceramic tiles by the artist José Rodríguez Fuster. We were a bit early for entry to the artist's home, so we wandered around the neighbourhood a bit. These are a couple of the 6' high fences we passed.



This is one of the neighbour's houses. "Fuster has made a major contribution over 10 years of work of rebuilding and decorating the fishing town of Jaimanitas in the outskirts of Havana, where he lives."



This is the artist's home, where it all began. "José Rodríguez Fuster (born August 1946 in Villa Clara, Cuba) is a Cuban naïve artist specializing in ceramics, painting, drawing, engraving, and graphic design. "



Inside the gates, with many fantastical and colourful structures. The artist and his family still live here, but they open the grounds of their home to the public most days.



On the left is a dome covered picnic table.
On the right is part of the wall next to the pool.



It seemed every surface was covered in tile.



In some cases, when he ran out of surfaces to tile - he created new surfaces with sculptures, domes and walls. Our time here was cut a bit short - just as we started visiting the site, it began to rain. And then it began to pour.



Our next stop was a park with this bronze sculpture of John Lennon by Cuban artist José Villa Soberón. "The sculpture of Lennon is currently not wearing his signature round-lens glasses, which have been stolen, or vandalized, several times. However, during the day, a security guard can be found sitting next to the bench, and he will place glasses on the statue if there is a request." (On this rainy day - there was no one around. And none of us wanted to sit on the wet bench next to John for a photo-op either.)



Our driver Tony and his car (red and white, on the right) waited patiently for us at each stop. We were lucky to have a hard-top on this day, with the heavy rain that we experienced in the morning.


Our next destination was the Plaza de la Revolución. This picture is the "Building of the Ministry of the Interior with a steel memorial to Cuban revolutionairy Che Guevara." Normally the Plaza would be a place to get out for some great pictures - but it was pouring at this point, so we ended up just doing a drive by.


This is "a memorial to José Martí, a national hero of Cuba, located on the northern side of the Plaza de la Revolución in the Vedado area of Havana. It consists of a star-shaped tower, a statue of Martí surrounded by six columns, and gardens. It is the largest monument to a writer in the world." Our guide was willing to get out (as would normally be the case), but we were all too happy to stay inside and dry, under the roof of the car.



Our next stop was the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, an historic hotel located on the Malecón. It was good to get out of the weather for this visit, though the rain had already let up a bit by then.



The main lobby of the venerable old building, with it's bank of classic old elevators.



Next to the lobby restaurant was this "Menu of the Famous", with photos of various international stars (past and present), and what they ordered when they dined here. Seemed a bit silly at first, but in the end we read every last one of them.



Back outside, waiting for our car to come around, we had a view of the modern and historic buildings side by side. The wind was picking up at this point, but the rain had now stopped.



Our next stop was Callejon de Hamel. "Callejon de Hamel is a narrow alley in Havana filled with lively colorful murals and sculptures made from bathtubs, hand pumps, and pinwheels. It offers visitors to Cuba’s capital a taste of the city’s local art."



"Cuban artist Salvador Gonzáles Escalona describes his Afro-Cuban style as a mix of surrealism, cubism, and abstract art. After spending more than two decades producing artworks in Cuba, as well as the U.S., Norway, Italy, and Venezuela, the self-taught artist began adorning the alley outside his apartment with art in 1990."



The alley is a wild mix of colour and art.



"After filling the alley, which stretches for about two blocks, with mosaics, paintings, and sculptures, including a throne that bestows good luck and a bench made of old bathtubs, his works started spilling out onto street and up the sides of the buildings."



Along the way are various pieces, creating an outdoor art gallery.



Looking inside this bar, even the interiors are covered in colour and wild designs.



Another random piece. We were told that there is usually music and dancing, but because of the wet weather, there was none scheduled for today.



And above it all, this dog watched carefully - for what, we will never know, but her focus was sharp.



Some more of the interesting buildings from the streets of Havana as we walked back to the car.



Another short drive, and we were dropped off in the area of "El Capitolio, or the National Capitol Building, a public edifice and one of the most visited sites in Havana. The building was built from 1926 to 1929, and is located on the Paseo del Prado, Dragones, Industria, and San José streets in the exact center of Havana." We were unable to go inside this day - maybe because it was Sunday?



Across the street from the Capitolio were these buildings - on the far end is the Teatro Payret, now mostly used as a cinema, and the other end of the block is completely demolished, though you can still see the painted interior walls. In the middle is a hotel and some shops.



Looking in the other direction, from the steps of the Capitolio. The tall green building is the beautifully restored Hotel Saratoga, fronted by a park with Fuente de la India ("Fountain of the Indian woman").



From the Capitolio building, we made our way to Paseo del Prado, passing these waiting Cocotaxi drivers. "Cocotaxi is an auto rickshaw-type taxi vehicle in Cuba. The use of the coconut taxi began in Havana at the end of the 90’s and is another way of transporting tourists."



We also passed by this typical Havana scene - an outdoor restaurant/cafe with live music playing.



The beginning of the Paseo del Prado. "a promenade on the dividing line between Centro Habana and Old Havana. After the 1959 revolution, the street and many of its buildings have, like many buildings in Havana, badly deteriorated physically to the point that many collapsed and are still in a ruined state. Nonetheless, many other buildings have been renovated."



Some of the colourful old buildings along Paseo del Prado.



Still standing, still occupied, but with one balcony that has completely fallen away.



These two buildings next to each other show the careful restoration on the left, while the other has no roof or floors and currently stands derelict.



Our next stop was the plaza outside the Museo de la Revolución. "The Museum of the Revolution is housed in what was the Presidential Palace of all Cuban presidents from 1920 to 1959. It became the Museum of the Revolution during the years following the Cuban Revolution."



The plaza featured this tank with a plague that read "SAU-100 auto-propelled canon, 100mm caliber, from which Commander in Chief Fidel Castro shot US vessel Houston during the mercenary invasion at Bay of Pigs in April 1961." It also featured one of the old guard posts of the old city wall.



The legendary Sloppy Joe's Bar. "The advent of Prohibition in the United States spurred its original owner, Jose Abeal Otero, to change the emphasis from food service to liquor service when American tourists would visit Havana for the nightlife, the gambling and the alcohol they could not obtain back home. During the 1940s and 1950s it was a magnet for American celebrities as well as tourists wanting to mingle with them. It has been described by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the most famous bars in the world" with "almost the status of a shrine". The Cuban Revolution of 1959 saw the bar's business nosedive, and a fire in the 60's closed the establishment for good." After a careful renovation, the bar reopened in 2013, ending it's 48 year closure. (You can see that not all the cars in Havana are the old "Yank Tanks", there are many modern cars as well.)



From Old Havana, we made our way through the tunnel that runs under the harbour to the north side for a visit to the Christ of Havana monument. "The statue was built from 67 blocks of marble that had been brought from Italy after being personally blessed by Pope Pius XII. The figure of Christ is standing with the right hand held near the chin and the left hand near his chest." "Locals suggest that the statue was sculpted to depict a cigar in the right hand and a mojito in the left hand, honoring popular Cuban culture."



From the vantage point of the statue, we could look across to our ship docked in Havana Harbour.



Our car was also waiting for us, to drive us back to the ship. It had been great having the car and driver (Tony) all day for us to get out and see some of the sights of Havana (and protecting us from the pouring rain in the morning).



It was time to say goodbye to our excellent guide Liena. She made our visit to Havana the highlight of our cruise, with her knowledge, patience and humour. We'd highly recommend using AVEC Guías de Turismo en Cuba, and maybe you'll be lucky, like we were, to have Liena as your guide.


Although our guided tour was over, we still had some time to explore a bit on our own before we headed back to the ship.



Couldn't get enough of the vibrant paint jobs on the old cars.



A convertible would normally be a good choice, but for our day, with the rain and the cooler temperatures, we were happy with the hard-top we had.



It was nice to see our Canadian flag flying along with the Cuban (and other) flags. (Don't know what the building was though.)



We found ourselves back in Plaza Vieja, but now we could see it in daylight with the coloured buildings surrounding the plaza.



In the daylight, this interesting statue of a naked woman carrying a large fork while riding a rooster caught my eye - "No one knows the meaning behind the puzzling sculpture. The piece is called Viaje Fantástico, so perhaps she’s heading off on an adventure to some sort of nudist dinner party. Or, as some online theories speculate, it could have a more sexual connotation given the rooster’s association with male genitalia. Or, maybe, it’s just a figure of the sculptor’s imagination and has no greater symbolism at all."



As we headed back to the ship, I finally got a shot of "El Caballero de París" without many people all around it. It's a popular spot to be photographed either holding his hand, or his beard, or often both. "José María López Lledín (1899 - 1985) was an elegant vagabond known as The Gentleman From Paris who wandered the streets of Havana and was a well-known cult figure in the Cuban Capital."

And with that, we ended our visit to Havana, and headed back onboard the ship in preparation for our 5:00pm departure. Wow - what an experience this had been! Definitely our favourite Caribbean port of call. Havana has so much history and culture to offer. It exceeded our expectations, and we wouldn't hesitate to go back again. There were still sights to see (partly because we got rained out in the morning), and it would be nice to relax a bit and just wander around. Maybe next time. (And as it turned out, there was going to be a next time, we just didn't know it yet.)


As we sailed out of the harbour, the wind had really picked up. So much so, they had to close the Malecón. But the wind and the stormy sky made for some dramatic images of the Morro Castle as we sailed by.



Farewell Havana. Until me meet again...

NEXT: Caribbean-Cuba (RCCL) - 2019 (coming soon)
Prev: (Day 6) Havana, Cuba
Caribbean-Cuba (MSC) - 2019

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