SPRING 2014 CUBA VOL 3

OLD TOWN HAVANA

It is time to get back to sharing our experiences in Cuba with you.  Most days began with lectures.  The first was Miguel Coyula, an architect, urban planner and professor at the University of Havana.  His charge was to present an overview of Havana now and then.  We heard several times, and from various presenters, that historically Cuba was considered the access point to the Caribbean.   It was also the last stop on the eastward voyage, for the wealth coming out of Central and South America headed for Spain.  That meant ships and pirates and all the other problems associated with a transient population,

For the longest while it was a Spanish colony. In 1762 there was a British occupation which lasted a short while, until it was traded for Florida.  That is what my notes say, though at this remove I honestly don’t remember.  Perhaps I should confirm what really happened but I need internet access to do that.  But that is not happening since we are currently sitting at a standstill on a British Rail (Southern Line) train, because of a signal failure.  Methinks our scheduled 40 minute train ride to Victoria Station will be considerably longer.

The long and short of it, old Havana has a lot of Spanish Colonial buildings dating from the

18TH CENTURY HOTEL

1600s.  The government has designated the entire area a historical district and is involved in restoring the exterior of the buildings.  At times this means the buildings are completely gutted and only the exterior shell is retained but the resulting ambiance is historically accurate even if the original occupancies bear no relationship with todays.  If you are in the old town it is quaint and appealing but you only need go a few blocks before you are surround by dilapidated buildings and holes or piles of rubble where building once stood.  This may get renovated or redeveloped at some future date but currently it is home to many families who have no other options in terms of housing.

Thanks to government subsidies, home ownership in Havana is extremely high — about 87 percent.  However, because the average house is 75 years old or more and the people do not have the money for maintenance many homes are in great disrepair, with a significant portion of the population living in squalor.  I gathered from our lecture that for many working people — even doctors, professionals and academics home repairs are simply too costly.

HAVANA SKYLINE

For example, a sack of cement can take as much as 55% of a months’ salary, while a window can be as much as 10 months income.  So much has to be imported and skilled construction workers are in short supply.  This means you must decide whether to eat or to paint. 

 

The problem is exacerbated by huge income disparities, often the result of remittances from the United States and other countries. Also the entrepreneurship fostered by Raul Castro has meant those who have the means to own their own business have a greater access to cash both peso and CUC.  According to Coyula, it’s not uncommon for “poverty and privilege to exist side by side” in Havana neighborhoods or even within single buildings.  How do you manage to begin to maintain apartments or condos where the tenants are not on an equal financial footing.  

HAVANA TAXIS

Okay this has become way too serious but there are those among you who have inquired the cuban missile crisis, the Bay of Pigs and generally the why of the American embargo.  So I shall intersperse images but try to explain what I understand of the politics. 

Okay, trying to confirm what I think I know/understand about the embargo I came across a 2005 speech on the Cato Institute website.  http://www.cato.org/publications/speeches/four-decades-failure-us-embargo-against-cuba about the effects of the embargo.  I may not agree with all of his analysis or conclusions but if you choose to read it I believe you will find it enlightening.  If that is not enough and you want to get a grip why on what happened in the first place, try this one from Time http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891359,00.html.  I think these two articles will do a far better job than I could ever do and they are more likely to get it right.  

 We were supposed to visit Hemingway's finca (farm) on the outskirts of Havana but it was being renovated so all we got was a ride out to the small community where it was located.  These shots were taken there and this building is actually still being used by some element of th military. 

 The next selection of pictures are people in Havana.  

STREET SWEEPERS ARE EVERWHERE

LOCAL ENTREPRENEUR IN THE CITY CENTER

I

In the past I have collected images of mailboxes in the UK.  This one is in Havana, don't remember when it dates from let's just go with old. 

I think it must be time to finish with Cuba.  I have a few more pictures to share and will write a little about some of our "people to people" adventures and then it is on to England. 

SPRING 2014 CUBA PART 2

Chevy ??

Cuba, it was said more than once, “if you think you understand, then you don’t know anything.”  First impressions, it looks a lot like Mexico, only cleaner.  The vegetation may be wild and unkempt, it is the tropics after all, but the streets are clean and there is little or no litter.  Te number of American cars on the road is mind boggling.  A conundrum for you.  Many people are poor but I saw no poverty (that statement makes sense to me I hope it conjures an image for you).  It is a place of contradictions, with Fidel out of the picture, the free enterprise model of economics is much more prevalent.  Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother and President of the Council of Minister (Cuba’s ruling body) is the pragmatist while Fidel is/was the idealist.  People are allowed, if not encouraged to establish private businesses.  It is now possible to buy and sell houses, rather than trade them.  Healthcare is free but you are informed how much your procedures are costing the state.  Everyone has a monthly income, whether you are gainfully employed or not,  and a ration card.  The state owns everything but you own where you live, kinda.  The country has mostly been controlled by Spanish Catholics, but most people do not ascribe to a religion.  All churches are allowed to have their own places to worship to the point where the government built a Russian Orthodox church so those in the Russian Embassy would have a church.  The government provided interest free loans and subsidies for the purchase of new refrigerators to reduce the electric consumption.  Or maybe that is what they are planning on doing and it was an incentive to purchase new stoves to minimize the use of kerosene that has already taken place.  In an effort to boost food production, under-utilized state-owned land has been allocated to private farmers and cooperatives.   As you see, way too much data is crammed in to my brain to retain the details, and I have only just begun to share my understanding of wha tCuba is today.

Bicycle Taxi

 Food, no travel(b)logue is complete without a discussion of food and there was no shortage of food.  Did I say earlier that this was a tour with Road Scholar?  They make sure you get your three squares a day.  Mealtimes run more to the European schedule, with breakfast 7-9, lunch 12-2 and dinner isn’t available until 7 at the earliest.  So what did we eat?  Let’s start with if you can’t face an ongoing diet black beans, rice and chicken, Cuba is no place for you to visit.  It seems beans, rice and chicken is the National dish.  I saw people sitting in a park eating beans and rice from take-out containers or apparently brought from home in plastic containers..  Do not even consider trying to be a vegetarian in Cuba, the vegetable choices are limited but back beans and rice are never ending.  Black beans come in two ways; 1) mixed together in a grey/black mass/mess referred to as congri, or 2) served separately when they are referred to as "Moros y Cristianos" Moors and Christians (quite the evocative name).  Occasionally black beans are replaced with pinto beans to change things up a bit.   But white rice is the staple in terms of starches.  Rice, along with black beans, oil and sugar are included in the monthly ration card.   We were told that out in the country each person got a rum allocation each month, as well as basic staples on their ration card, need to incentivize those farmers!!  I don’t believe we saw any potatoes, except perhaps potato chips mixed in with plantain chips on one occasion.  There was some plain boiled yucca (yuck) which showed up several times.

Load of Carrots Central Havana

I don’t know if the Cubans drink a lot of alcohol but they did their best to see we enjoyed our beverages at mealtimes.   Serving staff in the paladares were universally friendly and helpful.  Btw: A paladar is a term used in Cuba to describe restaurants not run by the state (another example of the attempt to open the economy up to free enterprise) Mostly family-run, paladares came about as a alternative to the state-run restaurants.  They were designed to serve tourists seeking more interaction with Cuba and Cubans, and looking for homemade Cuban food.  They run on the tourist or CUC economy, Cuban Convertible Peso (pronounced “kook”), as opposed to the Peso or domestic economy.  More discussion of this at a later time . . . told you way too much data.  

Balconies & Laundry

 Back to beverages, lunch and dinner came with two drinks but invariably we were provided a welcome cocktail.  Most often this took the form of a Mojito. rum, mint and sparkling water.  We also received some wonderful sangria, a Daiquiri (pronounced “di kiri” in Cuba), made famous by Hemingway I believe, or a Cuba Libra (rum and coke).  Just so you know the Coke was Coca-Cola as we know it but produced and bottled in Mexico and as a consequence not imported from the US. Guess that provides the opportunity for another discussion of what American products make it in to Cuba and the how and why.  The local beer, Cristal and Bucannero were often the drink of choice. Just keep in mind we were told you shouldn’t drink the water, so what’s a body to do?  You need to keep hydrated, right.

Balconies & Laundry

 A bit of shredded cabbage and a slice of tomato was as close as we got to seeing anything resembling salad and sometimes there were bottles of oil and vinegar for use as a dressing.  We saw lamb, pork and duck.  The chicken, of which there is plenty, is almost exclusively imported from the United States, a topic for future discussions.  Beef is mostly unavailable, their cattle are a Holstein/Brahmin mix and are “protected” as a source of milk, children get a daily allocation of milk.  Sweet fried plantains show up for breakfast lunch and dinner and are quite delicious.  We saw some strange deep fried “fritters” of indeterminate ingredients several times and a really tasty mystery meat that was all knuckly bones and gristle, but oh so good. 

I'm told it's an Edsel

I was in heaven, dessert often included flan, one of my personal favs that Mick will have nothing to do with.   One time we were served a mango puree and a soft white cheese, simple and tasty.  Another time, and by my reckoning one of the nicest desserts, was a stewed or poached guava (I think) which had the seeds removed and floated in a syrup that tasted of cinnamon, yum!!  We saw little ice cream but on more than one occasion we saw the locals standing in line waiting for the ice cream shops to open.  You can’t predicted what flavors will be available on any given day but that seems to be of little importance.  Some folks were coming for scoops, and according to our guide not just one scoop, while others had insulated containers which presumably they were planning on filling to take home.  

Balcony and Laundry

Breakfast was a buffet and there was far more choice in Havana than in Cienfuego.  There were hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and an omelet station that prepared whatever you pleased.  There were cold Spanish sausages and cheeses, tomatoes and cucumbers, olives and raw vegetables, well actually they were mostly canned, bacon and black beans, fried plantains cereals and yougurts and a most amazing selection of breads.  Mick became addicted to little corn breads and I found some really good croissants.  Plenty of fruit, little bananas, watermelon, mango, papaya, pineapple, always a fruit salad and sometimes guava, dates, raisins and prunes.  The only thing missing, honey or jam for my toast . . . there was a sweetish brown paste where you would expect to find the jam but I never did identify what it was and it certainly didn't look like something that belonged on bread.

I've gone on a bit here without even telling you what we saw and did, my head is just too full of what Cuba is today,  The easiest way to get in to Cuba is through an educational activity sponsored by the US government.  Road Scholar is one of the licensees for these kinds of trips and they are tasked with presenting people to people experiences.  Mal Paso Dance Company was on such experience.  We saw an excerpt from  one of their programs and were then invited/expected to have conversation with the troupe about the arts in Cuba.  This would be the case with all the venues we visited, a demonstration, a lecture, a tour and conversation.  Some of the places we visited were private business or homes, while others were state sponsored.  At no time did I feel like we were hearing the "Party Line".  Often our questions were direct, exposing the American bias against communism/socialism , but the answers always felt honest and forthcoming.  

Time to get this out, import a few more photographs and share with you just how marvelous this experience was.