January 9, 2009
Havana Vieja: Cyclists, but not cycling
It was looking excellent for Havana today.
It was while we were waiting that Ailec came looking for us and as it turns out, Juan Carlos, who drove us last year to Havana and we spoke to yesterday, is her husband. He had asked Ailec to make sure we had a driver. Our driver was there and waiting and his name was Reynaldo.
Reynaldo drove us to Havana with a wry sense of humour. A few times he mentioned that after work he liked to have five beer but his wife gave him a hard time with it. When asked about Fidel he said that he is a lawyer who likes to speak... every week. But, his brother is from the military and rarely speaks. When asked if the country would now be different he said it would only change with new policy, and not necessarily with a new leader. 'Socially Cuba is rich, financially Cuba is poor.' His tone did not convey to us that he was a strong proponent of Fidel.
We were dropped off at the market which was actually not open today, but this intersection was a well-known drop-off area by both taxis and buses and was the same place we came both last year and the year before. Our plan was to meet Reynaldo this afternoon at 4:00 pm. The day was pretty much spent wandering around and did we ever notice changes. Right in the middle of Havana Vieja is a huge glass building that does not fit in at all. It was atrocious. All agreed that it was awful. On the other hand, many buildings were being repaired and apparently some were being rebuilt on the inside while maintaining the old and beautiful stylish facade.
Along a few blocks further was a very heavy military presence - apparently the President of Ecuador was in the vicinity. What is funny is that some streets were blocked off and yet the street behind was not, so a person could easily enter the 'restricted zone'. One of our stops was at the Hotel Sevilla to check it out in case I am able to stay there with my bicycle on a bike trip; however, they did not seem too keen on accommodating cyclists, and they had no idea who might be able to take me in with a bike.
Our lunch stop was at the Italian restaurant near the market where we had had lunch last year. If my memory serves me well, I think I ate the same thing as last year - seafood pasta and a Bucanero beer. Not the greatest, but quite alright.
Another stop was at a chocolate store where we had Aztec cacao which was hot chocolate with peppers. It was pretty good, but I could not tell that there were any peppers in it. It was pretty much like a thick milk chocolate liquid that was not too sweet.
Toward the end of the day we wandered along the Malecon where I saw two groups of two cyclists - one group was about to ride to Pinar del Rio and the other had just returned. The ones who had just ridden had really enjoyed their trip. I could have chatted with them all day but the rest of our group was waiting and our day was coming to its end.
When we turned around and headed back toward our meeting point we had become fairly tired after the long day so as I gawked around as we walked, I did not notice the gaping hole in the sidewalk. Down I went into the hole, snapped the lens off the camera, scratched the case, popped open the camera, cut my knee, scraped my ankle, twisted every muscle in my body, but made the most amazingly fast recovery ever... but did it ever hurt. I kept an eye on the rest of the holes as I limped back to our taxi.
Reynaldo was there at 4:00 pm with his car and had for each of us a packet ot roasted and salted peanuts. They were held in a piece of white paper that had been wrapped into a cone to hold them in. Now I knew what all of these other people were carrying around! They were delicious. On our drive home he took us through the Playas del Este going past the Hotel Tropicoco which is for tourists, but is possibly a 2-3 star hotel. A little shabby looking, but the beach area across the road looked great. Also in the area were rental houses and cottages for tourists which I think I would like to explore a little more.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |