Havana again, after 47 years

[vinapu]

To start with this was NOT a guy hunting trip at all so if somebody is looking for juicy staff you can stop reading now. It was also completely unplanned but when accidentally while looking for something else I spotted very attractive package of flight , centrally located hotel with breakfast and transfer from and to airport, all of the sudden I had urge to see what changed in 47 years since my last visit there.

I was not planning to write anything but was encouraged to do so by few members and I yielded to pressure , lol,

And I’m glad I did although not entirely for right reasons – I’m great lover of ruins and sadly a lot of building stock in Havana are ruins or about to become ones and still plenty of them are inhabited.

 Still there are plenty of pockets of grand edifices already renovated or being in process of. Thus city is full of contrasts where  ruined or half ruined building is standing next to shiny place/ hotel / museum and often stretch of street with piles of uncollected garbage taking half of her width  after few steps  becomes clean, neatly paved block of cafes and restaurants.

Parts of city further from Old City  like Vedado and Miramar are much neater but also less interesting .

I felt in love with the city and chances are I will visit next year as well as week ( 6 full days, arrived late evening on day 1 , departed  early morning on day 8 ).

There are few paradoxes which ,make city quite unique.

 First , its dirty, streets are full of rubbish which is being collected but obviously not fast enough and still in all my day long walks here and there I did not see single rat while in Bangkok, shiny capital of much more developed country hardly evening stroll along Silom or Suriwong goes without spotting one.

 Second, despite police being rarely visible- I don’t think I saw 2-3 cops in my week there city is very safe and it needs to be said , more dark and uninviting street looked, more safe and undisturbed I felt. I’m not kidding you. Sure, it must be crime , one evening I noticed I’m followed but people on the street seem to ignore tourists passing by.

 Of course there are  bloody exceptions – Central Park, all 4 plazas in Old City and Obispo – pedestrianized street connecting Central Park and Plaza de Armas in old City. There one is harassed without mercy and Havana hustlers are among the worst and most persistent  I ever met and believe me , I was here and there . But as I said , solution can be relatively easy – use side street to reach your destination and you will be left alone.

 Few practical information :

 Internet – in hotel it was very poor and after day of trying without success I gave up. Simply because I had solution at had- SIM card purchased in the airport for 7$ for 7 days, worked very well without glitch. Of course because of idiotic American embargo certain sites were out or reach i.e. e-bay , but I could get to this forum without any issues, e-mail worked, Grindr worked  but closest profiles I could see were from Key West 90 miles away.

 Food- situation much better than I expected. Bangkok this is not but restaurants are in all tourist  frequented places and simple snacks and even pastries can be purchased almost everywhere. Quality  may not necessarily be highest and serving tastiest  but all  what I had was edible plus at least. Meal in private restaurant on one of plazas , count on 10 $, if you find government one , I will be half of that. No, I did not have any stomach problems.

 Breakfast in hotel was surprisingly varied, at least 4 kinds of cold cuts, delicious if one likes salt but beacon was excellent , so not for one second in my wanderings was I hungry.

 Beer was surprisingly good  for less then 1$ and can be purchased in myriad simple stores opened by everybody whenever aunt Rosita sends parcel from Miami.

 Best beer was Bucanero Max, quite strong one at 6.5 %, there were also lesser known Spanish and Dutch  beers for sale along with some of locally produced which I venture to say taste better than American or Canadian stuff.

 Stuff I did no see for sale  was toilet paper and tea so better bring your own. Apart from hotel room only toilet where I saw toilet paper was in the airport but public toilets whenever I went were reasonably clean and maintained. If there’s attendant  , she will expect some ‘donation.’.

 Money, official rate is about 120 peso ( CUP ) / USD but I doubt anybody is exchanging at that rate. Only exchange counter I saw was in the airport.

Street rate is slightly above 400, I was  exchanging at 435. If somebody quotes  you attractive  like 500 – be prepared you will be cheated.

Guy who  carried my suitcase to the room told me ‘don’t exchange money on street “ and he was right as I learned next morning to my peril.

 Best way is to find  driver or restaurant  proprietor, even better host of casa particulare (bed and breakfast ), in short some place where you can count your money.

 Another solution is to bring plenty of low denomination of USD and use it for payments, restaurants may give you change in local money – I paid 6000 bill with 20 $ note , they gave me change in pesos. Foreign coins are useless , euro often is taken 1: 1 with USD so not very economical.

 

Getting around:

 Local transport – there are local busses but I did not use one and while crowded , certainly not overwhelmingly so like sometimes shown in You Tube .

From Park Central  there are 2 tourist busses hop-on, hop-off type , one T1  goes around the city stopping at 20+ various attractions , another one T3   goes to Eastern Beaches and it’s handy to get to Morro castle on other side of Havana bay. Both cost 10$ for a day so you .

Bicycle taxis are everywhere and 2 hours city tour I took on 1st day  for 10$ was one of best things I did as I gave me great idea where various places of interest are.

There are regular taxis , fees negotiable.

 And finally crown of them all – classic  American cars from 50ties which can be renter for tour but also as ordinary taxi. There are tons of those and  if you are ancient car lover there’s no better place in the entire world than Havana  to indulge. 1 hr drive 25-30 $

more tomorrow, may be even it will be some gay stuff

[vinapu]

some city contrasts :

both pictures taken standing on the same spot - Christus and Che Guevara house, 100 m apart

Capitol and half ruin

again both pictures taken from the same spot - notice Capitol in distance and gay flag on restaurant

traditional Cuban dish called 'ropa vieja" ( "old dress" ), 4000 CUP=~9$

[10tazione]

One of the countries you can visit incognito (no KFC), unless you plan to visit Guantanamo.

[iendo]

@vinapu You beat me to it!

That food looked good. I remember that I've seen many boys on the app. Now, that must have been hornet then, otherwise that scene died? 

Looking forward to hear the rest. 

[vinapu]

38 minutes ago, iendo said:

@vinapu You beat me to it!

That food looked good. I remember that I've seen many boys on the app. Now, that must have been hornet then, otherwise that scene died? 

 

I'm not competitive and in the race with anybody, lol.

Mashed sweet potato at front was indeed extraordinarily yummy, res was good as well.

As for apps, I checked Grindr once, did not see anything of interest and gave up so can't comment. I did not go there for guys.