Cuba Part 1 (Havana) – June 2009

– Once I was settled in my hotel room, I thought I would go explore a little and try to find dinner. Only problem was walking around the streets was annoying. I couldn’t walk more than two steps without some local man coming up to me or yelling at me from the doorstep he was sitting in. Everyone kept asking, “where are you from”, “do you want dinner…I show you good place”, or something else. I just kept ignoring and walking on. I finally found somewhere for dinner, and afterwards when it was dark, I just wanted to go back to my hotel as I didn’t want to explore in my state of mind. Tomorrow would be a fresh day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINANCIAL ISSUES

– I only exchanged enough money to pay for my taxi and hotel room for the first night, so I knew I needed to get more money. Since my credit cards and ATM cards would not work in Cuba, I had to bring all cash with me, which I wasn’t happy with. I wanted to have more with me just in case and finally decided to bring $2,000 with me as all the people I spoke to said it was so expensive. No one knew how much money they spent a day, but the estimates were $50-$75 a day (and this was from people that were really on tight budgets in the countries I met them in). So I was hoping $2,000 for 18 days would be enough and it wasn’t…there was nothing I could do. I knew I had to keep really good financial records on a daily basis to make sure I had enough.

– So my hotel told me where to go to exchange cash and I really thought I would be in and out quickly. Ha ha…not so easy. I went to the first exchange booth and was able to exchange my Mexican Peso’s. Too bad the lady there thought half of them were fake and wouldn’t exchange them. I was so upset as that was a good $500 worth of my money and I just took them out of the ATM in Mexico. She told me to go to the bank as they may take them there. So off I went. I couldn’t believe the bank once I got there. There was a line of about 20 people outside waiting to get in. I figured they were there for local banking needs and went to find the guard at the door to see where the currency exchange line was. He laughed and said that long line was it. So I waited and had to push my way forward to locals didn’t cut in front of me. At least here, I was able to say something in Spanish to get them to stop (unlike in Russia where locals cut in front of me all the time and I couldn’t do much). So I finally got in and after seeing 2 tellers (as some couldn’t deal with a foreigner), the lady helped me exchange my money. I am not kidding when I say it took over one hour for her to exchange my Mexican Pesos (and super inspected each one and ran under a special light). Then she was doing the same with my American money and rejected a bunch for little tiny tears in it. It was so frustrating and such a waste of my time, but I finally had cash to hopefully last me a week. She also wouldn’t accept some of the bills (as they were too old or too new – how is that for process you can’t have too old or too new it had to be just right almost like Goldilocks). She told me to go to the bigger bank in Old Havana as they take more bills. I wasn’t happy about finding my third bank, but I figured it was part of the process.

– On top of the issues with the banks, I also had to deal with two currencies in the same country for the first time.  Tourists have to use Convertible Pesos (CUC) and 1 CUC equals about $0.80 US.  Part of this is Cuba adds an extra 10% penalty for using US Dollars.  It should have been $0.92, but it’s another way to get back at the US for not allowing its citizen’s to come over.  The other currency is the National Peso, which only locals can use…unless you are smart. I learned that I could get some of these at certain change places and I did as I was able to get local peso pizza and ice cream on the streets.  What’s crazy is 1 CUC equals about 25 National Pesos…so I could get a pizza on the streets for 5 National Pesos or about $0.25 US cents (vs the restaurants were charging about $4 US).  So smart when I could use it!

HAVANA VIEJA (OLD TOWN)

– So off I walk to Havana Vieja (The old part of town). I walked past the Museo de la Revolution and saw a lot of old war time planes and tanks. I was going to go in (as I heard it was a decent museum), but the lady told me half of it was closed and I had to leave my purse with her. I didn’t want to do this as I had more cash in it and my camera and I heard stories of these safe keeps for bags being places tourists get things taken. So I skipped the museum and kept walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– As I kept wandering the old streets to get to Havana Vieja, my first goal was to avoid all the annoying men. Now that it was day time, it was worse than the night before. Everyone kept calling out to me “Mama Mia, Sweetie, Honey, Blondie, Lady…Lady”. It was annoying at first and then got worst and the more I ignored them, the more they continued! I started to think one of these must be my name as that was how everyone addressed me passing by.

– Once I made it to the heart of Havana Vieja, I was very impressed. This part of town is the main tourist part of town and the government has done a lot to clean it up, restore some of the buildings and there was so much charm to it. I walked past many century old buildings, cobblestone streets, cute little old people resting on the door steps and it felt like what Cuba was all about. I will say there was a sharp contrast as I saw a glitzy hotel and right next door was a run down family home with really poor people handing out the window.

– I started my tour at the Plaza de la Cathedral. It was one of the main cathedrals in town and was beautifully restored. All around the plaza, were musicians, cafes, and other beautiful buildings. For the first time, I felt like this was the Cuba you hear about and what so many people love. It was amazing to just sit and watch the tour groups go by, the locals trying to get something from us, or beggers trying to get some money out in the plaza. I just sat for a while watching the people go by and listening to the great Cuban music in the near by cafe.

– From here, I wandered further to see the Plaza de Armas which is the oldest plaza in Havana. It was a pretty garden filled plaza and a great place to watch the locals trying to work the tourist. What I saw were locals dressed in costumes trying to dance for tour groups to get tips. Then caricaturists would follow a tour group, start to draw one of the men (or a married man’s woman) and then show the photo to try to get the man to buy it. Funny thing was it worked most times as the old men felt compelled to buy it and did. Smart locals earning a living.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– As I was tired and needed a break from just exploring the city, I decided it was time for a tour of the Rum Factory as I knew there would be some tastings at the end. So off to the Museo del Ron Havana Club which was going to teach me all about Rum. Since Rum is the national drink in Cuba and everything is made with Havana Club Rum, I had to start my knowledge with the best. The tour was interesting enough as I learned that “All Roads in Cuba Lead To Rum!”. That was one of the big sayings and I laughed every time they said it (which was a lot on the hour tour). Over the hour, I learned about how the process starts with sugar cane, then making it into molasses, then distillation, filtering and finally making into the different aged rums we drink every day. At the very end of the tour, we got to go to a old 1930’s bar in the factory where we tasted the rums and we even got to try to 7 year aged rum which was quite good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– After a little rum and lunch later, I just wanted to wander the streets some more and find some local music. Every place you turn, there was a Cuban band playing and the music was so fun. I think the main differences in the musicians was what they were wearing. Some where in traditional attire, some were in jeans and t-shirts. So I did my own little musician tour to see how many different ones I could see in the afternoon without ordering a drink. The service was so slow at all the places, I could normally sit down for about 15 minutes and enjoy the music before a waiter came by to bring me a menu. Then I would look at it, laugh at the high prices for the drinks, and head out to find another place to listen for a while. It actually was fun as I got to see more places and more musicians without spending anything (and I wasn’t thirsty for needing anything to eat or drink).

CENTRAL HAVANA

– The next morning, I was off again to see more of the city. This time I was heading off to Central Havana which was supposed to be much dirtier, less touristy (as tourist just don’t go there much…but I wanted to).

– First stop in the morning was Capitolio Nacional. This is one of the few buildings you are see from the skyline and has a very similar look to the capital building in Washington DC. It was a beautiful architecture building and worth a look.

 

CIGAR FACTORY

– To be honest, the main reason I went to the capital building as it was on the way to the biggest tobacco factory in Havana and I really wanted to go there. So off to the Fabrica de Tobacos Partagas. This is one of the largest and oldest cigar factories in Cuba and employs over 750 workers in this factory. Even though I don’t smoke I still wanted to go as this is the biggest industry for Cuba and I heard to be a very informative tour. I will say, it was the one of the best tours of my whole trip! I think I liked it more for the economical factors of the factory and working conditions.

– As for the tour itself, it was fascinating as we got to learn about how they dry the tobacco leaves, de stem them, weigh and separate them by size and eventually how they are rolled, pressed and made into the famous cuban cigars. It was crazy as everyone had one job and that is all you do for eight hours a day. Each person also has a quota they have to reach every day and you can’t stay and work overtime if you don’t meet your quota, you would have to try to make it up another day or miss your bonus at month end. It was crazy as one room, the workers just counted tobacco leaves all day. Another room just pulled out the stem all day or weighed and bundled the leaves. I would have gone crazy with boredom. The prized workers that passed the nine month training program were then made into rollers. They were all in a room, that made me think of a sweat shop, and were there to roll the same one type of cigar all day long. The quota’s varied depending on what type of cigar but most were around 80 cigars a day and it took a long time to roll them all, press them and make sure they passed inspection.

– The factory tries to make things interesting and provide entertainment for the room of rollers. So one man’s job (and it has been his job for 22 years), is to read to the rollers. So in the morning, he reads the newspaper for 45 minutes and then after lunch, he reads a book to them for an hour or so. We learned they just finished the Da Vinci Code. All the other times, they get music and its like a party in the room (that was when we were there). It was great as we got to get up close to the rollers and see everything they did and the rollers are so used to this, they don’t even stop what they are doing…well the male rollers did stop to stare at the women on our group and I did get way too many comments so I guess they do break their concentration at times.

– While I was waiting for the tour to begin, I met up with Julian and Gus (the two guys that were kicked off my flight for the possible Swine Flu scare). Then made the flight the next day and we were off to tour the cigar factory together. I guess from the get go…we stood out in the mind of the tour guide as we were American’s and Gus had just bought some cigars and you aren’t allowed to bring them into the factory tour, and you aren’t allowed to bring any bags. I had to fight a little to keep my bag (or my purse as I kept saying). So Gus was able to stash his cigars with me…but the tour guide kept referring to us as the New Yorkers or Americans. This ended up being funny as when we finally got to the room where the cigars are rolled, all the workers were trying to get Gus’s attention to sell him some secretly. He ended up staying back from the group and did a little deal on his own as the worker quickly put 3 cigars in Gus’s pocket and Gus slipped him some cash. The tour guide kept asking me “where is Mr. New York?” She asked if he has any cigars as if he did, there are huge fines that she gets to keep and she would search his pockets. I didn’t want to offer to stash those in my bag as I didn’t want to deal with any fines. In the end…Gus just left at the end quickly and was able to get his smuggled and black market cigars out and had made a great deal in the end.

– Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take photos during the tour, but we didn’t get to take some afterwards as they have one woman in the shop rolling so people can see and take photos. I didn’t realize how many tobacco leaves go into one cigar or how they place them in the tray at the end before pressing to make sure they are all uniform in the end. All in all, a great tour!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

– At this point, I was starving and knew I was near China Town so off I went to try to find something tasty. Too bad the one place that was highly recommended in my book was closed for the month for remodeling, but I did find another one that finally said they are the only place in all of Cuba with a chef from China, and that was enough to make me choose it. I will laugh as the girl out front that was telling me this was a Cuban girl, with bleach blonde hair wearing a Chinese Komono…so it was a funny sight. It was a yummy lunch and I was off again to see more of the city. I heard that China Town didn’t really have many Chinese people anymore as they all had moved to other cities and this was true. It was mostly local Cubans in the neighborhood.

– Central Havana was much more authentic to me as all I saw was all people sitting in the doorways, kids playing ball in the streets, women that would get deliveries on the street and would toss down a basket for the goods to be put in and then pull up the basket. I guess this was easier than coming all the way down the stairs to pick it up. I started to think I should have done that in NY with my neighbor if I needed to borrow something. Maybe next time I’ll try it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VEDADO
– I had to walk over to find the US Special Interests Office (which is the closest thing to an US Embassy). It was the strangest office and I wasn’t allowed to walk on the sidewalk in front of it and was told to cross the street to keep walking. I guess they didn’t want people to get too close and toss in bombs or something. I would have never known it was an Embassy place as no signs, flags or anything, but something worth while to walk to to see.

 

– More interesting was the Plaza of Anti-Imperialistas which was right next door. This plaza was a place that the North American diplomats started to display messages about human rights on an electronic ticker tape on the side of the Special Interest office that faced this plaza. The US termed this as an attempt to break Cuba’s “information blockade” and Fidel Castro denounced it as a “gross provocation”. Later in 2006, the Cuban authorities retorted by erecting 138 black flags with white stars on each and this was to block the ticker tape. Funny the government did this to block the messages.

– After walking all over, cruising the Malecon, I was ready to relax a little. I headed to the fancy National Hotel for the views of the city, water and maybe a drink. Too bad once I got to the hotel the drinks were outrageously expensive and I decided to just sit and enjoy the view. No need for such a pricey cocktail. The hotel was beautiful and maybe somewhere I would go if I ever returned and had unlimited money!

– Since I skipped the cocktail, I thought I deserved a treat and headed off to find the local ice cream place Coppelia. Only problem was once I got there, there were so many people there but really there weren’t any lines to get in. So I asked where I could go to get some ice cream and was told I had to go around the corner to the tourist only window and pay way too much. Ends up locals can go to the main building and get ice cream and food for way cheap and tourists have to go to a special shed to get a sundae that was way too much money. In the end, the ice cream wasn’t my taste as it was very icy. I felt like it was reverse discrimination.

– My time in Havana was fun. A little overwhelming with all the loud, local men…but glad I got to see the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logistics:

Hotel Lido – This was a very basic hotel right in Old Havana (on the border of Central Havana). For 26 CUC a night for a single ($30), it worked. Only thing is it’s cold water showers only, but since it was so hot…it was fine.