5 Days in Havana (Part I)

We visited Cuba last week - spending most of our time in Havana, with a day trip to the Viñales Valley, as well as the weekend in Varadero. It was a fascinating, eye-opening, and awesome experience. 

Havana Vieja

We flew into Varadero (because the flights were half the price of the ones directly into Havana), so when we arrived we had to catch a cab from the Varadero airport to Havana. We ended up splitting a taxi from the airport with two brothers from Canada - one of them has been visiting/living in Cuba regularly for the past 17 years and is essentially a local, while the other one had never been to Cuba before and seemed a bit skeptical. The "local" brother was very chatty and told us a lot about the history and culture of Cuba during the 1.5 hour drive. It was great to be able to ask him questions, get recommendations, and dispel some myths. 

When you drive on the highway into Havana, you can't see the city at all until you go through a tunnel under the harbour and when you emerge, the city appears before your eyes. We were staying in Havana Vieja (Old Havana), so it was hard for our driver to get close to the area as some roads are blocked off for pedestrians. After the driver asked for directions a couple of times, we finally made it. The place we stayed was right next to Plaza Vieja.

Plaza Vieja

While we were in Cuba, we opted to stay at a casa particular instead of a hotel. Staying in a casa is the equivalent of staying at a B&B; they have existed in Cuba since 1997 when the government passed a law allowing Cubans to rent out rooms in their houses to tourists. They are much cheaper than staying at a hotel, and the ones that we stayed at were great and were hotel quality for the equivalent of $35-$45 per night. In Havana, we stayed at Casa Vieja 1840 and our room was off of the rooftop deck. 

After we got settled away on Sunday night, we wandered around Havana Vieja. The weather was nice and warm, and we were surprised by the narrowness of the streets and the lack of cars on the road. Then we had dinner outside in a Plaza and were treated by live music at the restaurant before going to bed.

We were woken up at 5 am by some local roosters who seem to do a call and response routine every morning. After picking up a $2 breakfast of pastries and orange soft drink at a local bakery, we went to the local tourist booth to find out how to book excursions. Unfortunately, we couldn't book with them and we had to walk to the other side of Havana Vieja to do so. As a result, we changed our plans for the day and decided to tackle that side of the city first.

Parque Central

Our first museum was the Museo de la Revolución which was about, you guessed it, the Revolution.  The museum is located in a former Presidential Palace where an an attempted assassination of President Batista took place in March 1957,  and you can still see the bullet holes in the walls.

There are three floors of information, photographs, and artifacts. Some of those artifacts are what you would expect from a museum, but a substantial percentage of them were bloody uniforms - as weird as that sounds. The Cubans seem to save the clothing that people were wearing in various battles and put them on display without having washed them. It definitely had an impact and while it is unusual, it made the situation much more real. We were still kind of uncomfortable with it in the end.

They also have an outdoor exhibit of vehicles used in the revolution, including the yacht that brought Castro and 81 other revolutionaries to Cuba in December 1956. Very historically significant.

Museo de la Revolución

Then we grabbed some lunch and took a stroll along the Malecón - a roadway that lies between Havana and the Gulf of Mexico. It has great views of the city and the harbour, and it was a nice break from being in the centre of town. We were expecting more action on the Malecón, in terms of people as well as restaurants, as it is a popular hangout spot in the evenings. However many of the waterfront buildings were derelict, as they are in many places in Havana, as the government is currently in the process of restoring buildings neglected during the Revolution. So there is still some work to be done. But we imagine that the waterfront, and most of Havana, will look completely different in 10-20 years once the restorations have been completed.

The Malecón

After hanging out for a bit, we made our way to the Museo de la Ciudad (City Museum), which is highlighted in Lonely Planet as a great museum, but it was pretty disappointing. The building itself is beautiful, but the collection is random and there are no descriptions of any of their pieces in any language. We're guessing that's why a museum attendant repeatedly forced herself on us in Spanish and insisted on taking us around even though we couldn't speak a common language. It was very confusing. We also tried to see a couple of other sights that day, but they were closed on Mondays (unbeknownst to us, or Lonely Planet).

That night, we decided to take in the famous Tropicana Nightclub. It's an open air cabaret-style show that has been running since 1939 and is still done in 1950s style. The performers were all talented dancers and musicians, albeit scantily clad. The show is purely for tourists, making it the most touristy thing we did, but it's an amazing production and we're glad we went. It was pricey, but it did come with a bottle of Havana Club rum to split, champagne, and a few snacks. No complaints! 

To see the rest of our posts about this trip, go to:
5 Days in Havana (Part II)
Viñales Valley Wednesday
5 Days in Havana (Part III)
Varadero Weekend

Here are some more photos from Part I of our trip to Havana! 

We're also linking this post up with My Travel Monkey and Packing my Suitcase for Monday Escapes!