The capital of Cuba. A city of unusual cars, deep history and very fine old buildings. As always, the report comes with plenty of my travel photos and a few facts.
Havana gave us a friendly welcome. For those few days we slept in a house rented through airbnb. It looked like a large residence. A neighborhood of wealthy homes, some way out from the center. So we used taxis, and they cost from 3 to 15 dollars. Negotiating was the key part. Walking away from the taxi worked best.
Seeing Havana
Read up on the monuments before you see them, or while you are there. It saves you from thinking “Nice, looks interesting, shall we move on?”. That happened to me many times and it is not much use. Not every monument will interest us, of course. Still, it pays to widen the horizon. Test things, check what you like, what starts to interest you or sets off your imagination.
The cathedral was built in the 18th century. Worth remembering while you look at it: until 1991 practicing religion was banned in Cuba. The authorities wanted an atheist country. Religious people were harassed and could not reach high party posts. Most people on the island are Catholic, and about 60% are baptized. Protestants make up a large group too.
We did not plan to go inside the Museum of the Revolution. People call it a propaganda museum. On Tripadvisor you can read that there are only a few exhibits inside. It can remind you of the Soviet Lenin museums. Recommended for fans of revolution history.
El Capitolio, the main symbol of Havana, is under renovation until 2020. We could not get inside. The building is modeled on the Capitol in Washington and the Pantheon in Paris. White stone throwing back the sun, and architecture on a scale that makes you curious. One of the compulsory stops.
Revolution Square, with two buildings beside it. The Ministry of the Interior carries the Che Guevara mural, the second building the portrait of Camilo Cienfuegos. The place carries a lot of symbolism. Pope John Paul II spoke here in 1998, to a crowd of 1 million people. Before that, Fidel Castro gave his speeches to Cubans in this square. Go in the evening, because that is when the portraits look best.
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El Morro fortress
The area around the fortress is worth the walk for the panorama. El Morro castle sits in the oldest stone fort in the Americas, the one that defended the city.
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Church of San Francisco de Paula -
San Francisco de Asís Square -
Walking around the old town and the port district is a pleasure. There are interesting buildings along the way. One of them is the Chino gate to Chinatown. In big cities Chinatown is full of Chinese people and Chinese restaurants. Here only the name and the commemorative gate are left. Few Chinese live in Cuba now. They left because of the 1959 revolution.
The streets in the old town are fairly narrow. Look up and there are colorful buildings with balconies, worn down by time. There is no money for repairs, and it shows. Locals like to sit on the steps and in the doorways.
People here approach you a lot. Walking in a bigger group, I still felt safe.
Jose Marti
The national hero, born in 1853, when Cuba was a Spanish colony. His monuments stand in key places across Cuba, above all in Havana. He wrote his first texts at 14. In those years he attended the Professional School of Painting and Sculpture in Havana.
His school was closed when he was 16. Around then he published his first political thoughts, his first patriotic drama in verse, and a sonnet. For his activity and his ideas about freeing Cuba he was jailed, charged with treason against the Spanish government, which he admitted. He spent almost a whole year there.
At 32, in 1885, he published the document “Manifesto of Montecristi”, declaring Cuban independence. He wrote about ending unequal treatment on racial grounds. He stressed friendship with the Spain that did not oppose independence, and the will to fight those who did.
The poet died in May 1895, in a battle with Spanish troops at Dos Rios near Santiago de Cuba, where he was buried. He was against American troops interfering in Cuban affairs.
Summary
Havana is a completely different place from Trinidad and it stirs completely different feelings. For me it was a place to walk through and to learn the monuments. I was not looking for rest there.
The next parts of the article:
Casablanca, Havana. Cuba holiday part 3/5
Cars and life in Havana. Cuba holiday part 4/5
Beaches and palm trees. Cuba holiday part 5/5
The previous part:
Exploring Trinidad. Cuba holiday part 1/5
