February 17, 2019 to February 18, 2019
Last days in the old city
We got up after a surprisingly nice sleep (we were worried about street noise but the air conditioner took care of that!) and went to find the hotel that Maria Elena had recommended to us last night for some birthday FaceTime with Annie. We enjoyed our wifi time so much there that we had two cups of coffee each. The total for that? $10.00!!! Yikes! I guess we won’t be eating here any time soon – pretty sure we can’t afford to stay either, but their wifi is nice and fast and it was lovely to see Annie and wish her a happy birthday!
Once we were done with our coffee and wifi, we spent some time wandering the old part of Havana before we headed back to our little casa to extract the bikes. I should have taken a picture of Jim carrying them down those stairs – they are all so narrow and steep! However, he managed well and we said a fond farewell to Maria Elena and walked down the street to the casa that our friend Rolando had arranged for us. His was the little apartment and our understanding was that his friend Vincente had a similar set up for us which would be good as we were looking forward to spending the afternoon relaxing before going to do any more exploring. However, when we reached the address we found that Rolando had been thinking of the stairs as a problem and so found us a place on the ground level, which was awesome, but it was another room inside the family home. We did have our own bathroom, which was nice, but there was NO privacy at all! We decided to make the best of the situation and thanked Vincente for taking us in, paid for our two nights stay, got our things settled and headed out once again. By now we were feeling pretty tuckered out and had really been looking forward to a nap, but what can you do? Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.
We stopped to watch some kids playing soccer on the beautiful granite of the Paseo’s walkway – a favourite pastime of kids here and a wonderful use of the space! We also managed to catch some artists at work and of course, more amazing old buildings and cars.
As we worked our way over to Old Havana, we stopped to talk to Annabelle, who is just finishing her nursing degree and wants to move either to France, where she has family, or to Quebec. She is keen to polish up her French and wants to travel the world a bit. She has heard that nurses get paid so much money and that excited here too, as here in Cuba her monthly salary as a nurse would be $39.00, the same as everyone else. However, here in Cuba many things are paid for already and there are no taxes to pay. The cost of living is very low. I tried to explain to her how different it would be, but also encouraged her to check and make sure her degree would be valid for her to work in Canada. Goodness knows we can sure use more nurses!
We managed to stay out until after dinner (not a dinner worth talking about – it was substandard) and finally made our way back to try and get an early night in. However, it was Sunday and I guess the family was all over for a visit and Cuban families are a little like Italian families – big and noisy! So, needless to say, we had to wait a while for things to quiet down before we could sleep. At this point we were thinking that maybe we would move to another casa on the following day.
Monday
After another surprisingly good sleep, we woke feeling much better and decided to just stay put for the duration. This was to be our last day in Old Havana and there were a couple of things on our list of things we wanted to see and do. First off, though, was a trip to the Seville hotel again for coffee and wifi – only one cup today! It has been so nice and relaxing to just walk out in the morning and have a little time to just do nothing at all while enjoying the blissful sunshine. We will sure miss this part of our day! Next up was breakfast. As we were heading over to the Museum of the Revolution this morning, we headed that way hoping to find a little café, which we did! It was just the perfect little spot in the middle of an old street, looking like something you would find in Europe I would think. And just as wonderful, they had a breakfast for $5! Perfect! We both enjoyed our eggs, coffee and toast while also enjoying the shade provided by their umbrellas before finally heading over to the museum. The actual museum is under reconstruction so for now it is in the former palace of the President and what a building it is! So ornate! So much gold leaf everywhere! It would certainly appeal to a current president that I know of!!! However, the over the top display of wealth was so out of touch with how the people of Cuba were suffering, it is not hard to see why there was a revolution.
We both found the displays very interesting. I, in particular, since I grew up in the states, found the Cuban version of their history quite revealing as it is certainly a different account than the American one presented to me as I was growing up! I am sure that in the middle somewhere is the truth, but it does give one pause about believing everything that is handed to you by the government no matter where you live.
We found some of the artifacts to be quite interesting. In particular, there were these two tanks that had been made from tractors!
All in all, it was an informative morning that we both really enjoyed. We wandered back to our casa for an afternoon siesta. The house was perfectly quiet and we appreciated being able to get out of the heat and rest for a bit. This is one of the advantages to staying right near Old Havana, even for just a few days. You can wander around but still some back and take a load off when you need to. However, next time we will make sure we have a little apartment, as a certain level of privacy is kind of nice.
Later, we had to do one more thing before dinner. We had to go on the big kids' ride! Jim picked out the car and we both enjoyed a great ride. The driver was very informative and we learned some new things about Havana while we enjoyed not cycling for once! At the end of our ride, we had our driver drop us off near the museum.
We wandered up a street we had liked earlier, stopping at a café for a pre-dinner drink. I sampled the Piña Colada and it was very very nice! Jim also enjoyed his Mojito. Walking and looking some more, we stumbled upon the restaurant where we had eaten with our friends Jim and Laura and their friends Marvelis and Dennis on our first night in Havana. We of course went right in and as it was a tad early for most people here (around 6:00) we had the place to ourselves. We ordered some appies, and our dinner and soon thereafter a small group started the evening’s entertainment. The music was just lovely and we felt as if we were having a private concert – well, actually we were! We thoroughly enjoyed our meal while listening to the Latin music and when they took a break, the singer, who goes by the name Blanca Rosa, came over to ask if we wanted to buy a cd or make a donation for the music. This is a very common practice wherever you go in Cuba. We have bought 3 cds and we don’t even have a CD player anymore! We did buy one from her as we really liked their music and since there was no one else about, she stayed to chat with us for a bit. We learned that she was born in Havana and is very proud of her city. She studied music and plays with this group as well as another in which she is the stand up base player. On her cd it gave us her email address and I told her I would love to know when the other group was playing when we next come to Cuba. She is very passionate about both her music and her country and it was a pleasure to talk to her.
As the group went back to play another set, and the restaurant was still not too busy, the waiters all got into the act, asking them to play songs they loved while they sang along. It was feeling like a small family gathering that we had managed to get invited to when all of a sudden, a couple of Americans walked in and it just changed. I don’t know if it was the vibe they gave off or what, but just like that everyone went back to “doing their job”. The waiters got busy taking orders, the musicians became more like background singers and the restaurant was again, a restaurant and a place of business. We were so happy that we had managed to catch a glimpse of the other world, even if for a brief bit of time. It was a magical way for us to end our stay here in Old Havana! We walked slowly back to our room, stopping at Park Central for a while to just watch the people go by before finally heading back to settle in for the night. Thankfully, there seemed to be no family gathering on this night, so we were hopeful of a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow we move back out to our first casa before we leave Cuba and we are both feeling pretty blue about the prospect to be quite honest. This country has a way of capturing your heart and will be very very hard to leave behind.
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5 years ago
5 years ago