Hello from Cuba (13) – Exploring Centro Habana

The last few days I have spent a lot of time walking through the center of Havana – or Old Havana, as they say around here. It is an extremely fascinating place and one of the most architecturally consistent colonial urban centers in the world.

A few days ago, my local friend Pedro and I went to explore the Capitol, which is a beautiful building, ironically very similar to the Capitol in Washington. Built between 1926 and 1929 as the former seat of the Cuban government, its neoclassical exterior is complemented by an absolutely stunning Roman interior with all manner of meeting rooms, a library, souvenir shop, and internet cafe. In the main entrance hall there is a huge statue that greets you as you enter, a truly amazing building.

The park outside the Capitol is one of my favorite places, despite the lack of seats and backs on the benches. Yesterday I also had the opportunity to visit the Partagás Tabacalera Company, a cigar factory that has been around since 1845. I took the $10 tour and we saw the tobacco rolling school where students learn to produce cigars for 90 days. Later we go up to the area where the real cigars are made. The workers have quotas of between 80 and 200 cigars a day (some of which miraculously end up on the black market…) and the workers sit at old wooden workstations and manually roll the tobacco, while other stalls work the outer sheet and later the label and boxes are added. I really wanted to see a tobacco factory as tobacco remains a key industry in Cuba to this day.

In this sense, I had the opportunity to see residential areas in Old Havana, where people live in extremely crowded conditions in dilapidated houses, with some houses that have already collapsed among others. Everyone’s life takes place in the street, you see children, couples, the elderly, dogs and cats at all hours of the day, people generally sit down to chat, and the children play ball in the street, which is baseball, the National sport. This street life is something really different from a Nordic city like Toronto, where there are only a few areas where there is significant foot traffic. And people generally don’t sit outside their houses or apartments to chat in the middle of the night.

I also had the opportunity to see the train station in Havana, of course absolutely full of people, the port area and some quite abandoned industrial areas with buildings in ruins. The lack of money is evident everywhere.

Next to the Capitol is the National Theater, which is right next to the famous Hotel Inglaterra and in front is the Central Park, where men of all ages gather to discuss news related to their national sport. Two days ago it was the final of the playoffs between Habana Campo (if I’m not mistaken) and Santiago de Cuba, the second most important city in the country. Obviously a big problem in this country, and Havana ended up losing 2-1, but despite the loss, a great opportunity for the locals to celebrate.

Walking along the famous pedestrian street Calle Obispo, which has numerous expensive shops for tourists, you get closer to the really old historical part of Old Havana, places like the Plaza de la Catedral (where there was a mass for Pope John Paul II around a week ago), Plaza Vieja and my favorite place: Plaza de Armas. This plaza dates back to the early 1500s and is home to the centuries-old old city administration office, as well as several other Spanish colonial buildings that surround a beautiful park with a statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the founder of the Cuban homeland.

Yesterday I also had the opportunity to explore a market that is set up every Wednesday to Saturday in front of the Malecón, near the Plaza de Armas, where they sell all kinds of trinkets and merchandise for tourists. I had a chance to buy a few small souvenirs for my husband and colleagues and then sat in a small outdoor cafe where there was a young Cuban band playing traditional old fashioned Cuban music. What was really interesting was an organ that they played that must have been from the 20s, accompanied by all kinds of Cuban percussion. I really love Cuban music, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to it much yet. My friend and I wanted to go yesterday to visit the “Casa de la Música” where they play live music at a reasonable price, but for some reason it was closed, which is not uncommon around here.

I also had the opportunity to walk down to the “Prado”, a long avenue with a pedestrian promenade lined with trees on both sides, and two lines of traffic on both sides of the pedestrian area, somewhat reminiscent of Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Very close to the Prado is the Museum of the Revolution, which was the palace of the last Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista, before the Revolution. Fidel Castro’s yacht, the “Granma,” which he used to cross from Mexico with his fellow rebels, is on display in a glass-enclosed building just behind the palace-like Museum of the Revolution, surrounded by various tanks and military vehicles. dating from to combat revolutionary. The Revolution is definitely present wherever you go.

I think I have seen most of the important places in the city, except for the Plaza de la Revolución, which houses the Central Committee and the political apparatus of the Cuban government. I have yet to do a little jaunt to that area and also take a photo or two of the Che Guevara memorial, who still seems to be a highly revered individual around here, often more so than Fidel Castro.

2 weeks is a long time to spend in a city and due to the fact that I have fully immersed myself in the culture, I think I have a pretty good idea of ​​Havana and am mentally preparing to go home, slowly but surely. . It’s been great, but I’m also happy to come home to see my husband, my friends, to get back to my normal life. There are only 2 1/2 days left for my Cuban experiment and there are a few more places to see, but I am also looking forward to coming home to Toronto.