World Most Amazing Information

What an amazing day! Cuba where for the last 50 years we were unable to

visit. I was the first passenger from the Holland America Inaugural Cuban

voyage to set foot on Cuban soil followed by Ann and Cathy. I was beyond

excited to start our tour. We were immediately met by our guide, Irina from

CubaOutings, who, by the way, spoke perfect English. In accordance with the

regulations, we are required keep a record of our Education and People to

People itinerary which I have outlined as follows. Visit Old Havana, a

UNESCO world heritage site since 1982, (Armas square, Cathedral square, San

Francisco de Assisi square, Hemingway Hotel and bar). Tour through New

Havana mainly Vedado and Miramar districts. Visit Revolution Square. Drive

by the Capitol Building. Visit the El Morro- Cabaña fort complex and the

Christ statue. Our focus was to learn about Cuba, it's people, government,

culture and take the opportunity to talk with the people and get a good

understanding of their lives in this communist country. So…. Where do I

begin? We spent the first four hours on a walking tour of Old Havana. Our

first stop was the Plaza de San Francisco de Assisi, a beautiful square

named after the church with the highest bell tower in the city, a white

marble fountain in the center and the amazing eclectically built trade

center in Havana. We made our way to the Plaza Vieja resembling the rich

neighbourhood of the 18th century in Havana, where we saw luxurious houses

with columns, arches and stain glass windows and we made a stop at the Ambos

Mundos Hotel, the hotel where Ernest Hemingway lived for seven years, his

room 511, nowadays is a small museum…we went to the roof top restaurant for

spectacular views of the city and surrounding fortresses. We also saw some

of the residences where the buildings were in a state of disrepair, clearly

seeing the difference where the government had its hands involved in

infrastructure and where they had not. Onto the Plaza de Armas, the oldest

square in Havana that originally dates from 1582, to view the fountain and

government buildings surrounding the square. Next, we visited La Fuerza, the

first fortress built in Cuba. Then we made our way to the beautiful Plaza

de la Catedral, the cathedral square is considered as the most perfectly

built colonial square in the whole country with a lovely baroque style. As

we walked along, Irina took us to a Bodega, a food bank issuing monthly

rations. I was shocked to see what a paltry amount of coffee was available

for a month's ration along with what appeared to be a cup of cooking oil to

last a month. That evoked allot of discussion during the day….. We then

went to a local market where we had excellent interactions with the vendors

and their customers… I took the opportunity to capture some nice photos of

people in their everyday life. Our next stop was the House of Arabs, Ibanez

Habana and Mosque Mezita Abdullah. Of course, as I wandered through the

streets of Old Havana, I was on the lookout for souvenirs which to my

delight Havana did not let me down! Our first memories of Havana are ones of

delight at every Cuba cliché: American classic cars; the sounds of song and

salsa drifting from every bar; old gents and ladies sitting in doorways

smoking cigars and watching the world go by; the crumbling but colourful

architecture of Old Havana. There are no advertising billboards on the

walls, instead, we saw images of Che and Fidel, Cuban flags and propaganda.

The time spent wandering the streets of Old Havana was simply amazing, I did

not know what to expect in Cuba and I was truly amazed and in awe of the

buildings and the architecture. Our next adventure of the day was to

explore New Havana in a 1951 Chevrolet Classic car. Seeing all the classic

cars took us back to our early childhood memories…what a collection of

history and resilience on the part of the Cuban people. All loaded in the

1951 Chev convertible, this two-hour joyride in an American classic vehicle

showed us the highlights of New Havana. We began our panoramic drive along

the Malecón, past the famous Hotel National and the U.S. Embassy through the

Miramar and Vedado districts, seeing some of the city's most famous hotels

and embassies. A small glitch, flat tire...this gave us the opportunity to

walk around the block past the Canadian Embassy and lovely mansions while

the driver changed the tire. Next, we visited the Plaza de la Revolucion,

it is a gigantic square that symbolizes the Cuban Revolution due to the huge

rallies that were always held right after 1959. At the Plaza Revolution

pastel-colored classic Fords, Chevys and Oldsmobile's greet you with bright

chrome smiles that belong to a different era. We drove past the massive

city like Havana cemetery, the largest cemetery in the Caribbean. We drove

to downtown Havana and stopped at Parque Central to snap some photographs of

some of Havana's most iconic architecture, including the Capitol Building

which models the Washington's Capitol Building and El Gran Teatro. On our

return to The Old Havana district we stopped at the Almacenes San José

market to interact with the local souvenir vendors for a piece of Cuban

memorabilia. We returned to the ship, took a short rest and Cathy and I

went back to the Plaza Vieja to experience the nighttime in Old Havana… In

Cuba you really do hear music everywhere, with the sounds of live bands

emerging from many bars and restaurants. The bands we saw were excellent and

the locals who inevitably got up to salsa to them were just as good. We

watched them spinning around the dance floor…we loved every minute! Our

People to People interaction requirement was very easy to fulfill as during

our walking tour of Havana, we were able to communicate and interact with

many locals. It is interesting that there are people representing different

professions or social classes; I posed with the flower lady street

performers, one in particular was the gentleman I photographed and danced

along with, he was so original in his act that he utilized both his head,

arms, legs, fingers and feet to sing, play the guitar, maracas and harmonica

as well as juggling 5 puppets to the beat of his music. There are a lot of

street sellers, some of them work independently or in a market. A big eye

opener for us was the elderly gentlemen we spoke to at the Bodega who was

shopping for his monthly rations of approximately 150 grams of ground coffee

and 6 ounces of cooking oil to sustain him for the month. Ann visited with

a guide at the La Fuerza about her family and her daily life in Cuba. We

talked to artisans doing their handicrafts and paintings, one highlight was

the shop Ann and Cathy visited selling lovely hand made and painted hand

fans. The art scene is just as vibrant as the music scene. In Havana

especially, there are many little artist workshops and galleries that you

can pop into and see artists at work and buy direct from them. Our tour

guide Irina explained her family and educational background and our driver

told us about his vehicle. To sum up our day in Habana, we have a few

things to share with you… Life is lived on the streets in Havana! In Old

Havana traffic is minimal with as many cycle rickshaws, bicycles and horse

carts as cars. Instead people fill the streets—kids playing soccer, baseball

with broom ends and bottle caps, women hanging laundry from balconies,

vendors pulling carts overloaded with fruit and vegetables, customers

queuing outside the bodega shops, waiting to use their ration cards. There

really are classic cars in Cuba! And they are everywhere—1950s Buicks,

Chevys and Plymouths in varying states are used as everyday vehicles, as

taxis and private cars. You can follow Cuba's history in its cars from the

pre-revolution American cars through the Soviet Ladas to more recent Asian

and European modern vehicles and added to Havana's magical feeling. Cuba is

unlike anywhere else we've visited. It's a place that provokes strong

feelings and before we even arrived we encountered a huge amount of fervent

pro or anti Cuba propaganda. We didn't know quite what to expect and even

now it's hard to make sense of this bewildering country. What we do know is

that we don't fall into either camp—Cuba isn't perfect, and it isn't evil

either, but it is unique. We felt like we'd almost stepped back in time with

the classic cars from the 50s, bare shops like something from the Wild West,

a lack of advertising and ATMs, and the most limited internet of any country

we've visited (aside from China perhaps). Some of these things seemed like

disadvantages at first but they turned out to allow us to escape from the

hectic world of non-stop bombardment of information. Havana is decaying,

colourful, vibrant and gorgeous. The buildings are beautiful despite the

peeling paint. The ship docked in Vieja Habana (Old Havana) and we spent

most of our time there wandering the streets and feeling like we were on a

film set amongst the vintage cars and lively street scenes. People sit in

doorways smoking cigars, peer down from balconies, and front doors are left

open. Cuba felt very safe and the locals assured us there is very little

violent crime in Cuba. Cuba is changing! Our hosts and the people made us

feel at home and were warm, welcoming and friendly. I loved every minute we

spent in Havana and wished we had more time; What a day we had! I just

wonder what path the Cuban people will take once the shackles of Communism

are lifted. I am very excited about our next Cuban port of call, Cienfuegos

and our tour to Trinidad.