I wanted our last day in Cuba to just be relaxing, and I decided to call it “TJ’s Day”: A leisure day in Havana.Well, I let Han join in too. What is a day without my bestest friend?
Of course we were served another delicious breakfast by Ari and took our time to enjoy the lovely spread that she prepares each morning.
We began our day by strolling through the neighborhood, checking out the huge set of stairs where locals hang out to visit and at the foot of the stairs is a popular pizza joint, where you can purchase a slice of pizza for a quarter. Yasset previously mentioned that it was good, but we just had breakfast and honestly I’m not in the mood for pizza in Cuba.
We saw the neighborhood meat store, where slabs of meat are laid out and hanging from the ceiling for purchase.
It is really just a little hole in the wall, but he seemed to do a stea
dy business.
dy business.No refrigeration and flies settling on the meat is still not the most appetizing thing I have seen, but I’m getting used to the fact that hordes of people in the world have no problem with that. I have seen it from markets in Budapest to San Francisco and numerous places in between.
Also noticed that there was a lot of home renovation and upgrading in the neighborhood and one particular observation showed that all newly renovated homes have added a one car garage
Also saw some interesting graffiti and ceramic and porcelain tiles of all color and mosaic designs. I love colorful tiles.
No matter what your house looks like, add some tiles and it becomes special.
Visiting the Romeo y Julieta Cigar Factory
We made a pit stop at one of the cigar factories. It was extremely busy. I was actually surprised to see
so many tourists in one of the neighborhoods of Central Havana. They usually stick more to old Havana.
I stepped into the cigar humidifier room, and low and behold, the VIP door was open. I did not know until
I had taken some pics and looked around, that it was actually supposed to be closed and meant for “actual
VIP’s”. A woman came up behind me and gently ushered me out and closed the door, but it was so cool
that she let me take photos beforehand.
Old Havana Draws us in again
We decided to be brave and once again walk to old Havana, more sightseeing, more photos and more resting on benches in parks, preferably in the shade watching the movements of Cuban life flow past us.
When visiting Cuba, make sure you find a shady spot and just sit back to people watch. It is quite the treat.
One of the more unusual sights for me today were hundreds of workers, dressed in orange jumpsuits, filing out of a fenced and gated complex, climbing onto multiple buses and I guess going “home” after working. Come to find out that these workers were flown in from Dubai to build a new HUMONGOUS hotel in the center of Havana. Not even one cuban local was hired, and I have to wonder how can that be allowed? It seems a little underhanded at best. To consider that Cuban workers get roughly 30.00 CUC per month and the Indian workers are being paid upwards of $1500.00 per month. I will be one person who will not be visiting their hotel. Okay, maybe to take a pee break, but that is all.See below links for more info.
Finding the Artist Tourist Market
We were trying to find our way to the huge local artist shopping plaza and we thought it was in the San Francisco
area of Havana near the beginning of The Malécon. Well we realized we were still a good bit away, so we hired a pedal cab to deliver us nearby. Now that was super fun and I would highly suggest it to everyone. It was comfortable, fantastic driver, friendly and even had music playing and his English was excellent.
When he dropped us off we saw a restaurant, sat down on the street terrace and ordered some lunch. Oh boy, we should have walked on a little bit more. Took forever, like FOREVER as in 90 minutes, to be served and the food delivered. The waitress did her best to make amends for the less than stellar food and offered us espresso, which we gladly accepted since we had more walking in our near future. The restaurant is called, “Cafe Lamparilla” and if you want to just have a refreshment, it is perfect because of the location and the gorgeous outdoor patio setting. Want food? Just walk around the corner and there is a host of choices.
We paid our bill and continued our leisurely walk along The Malécon towards the Port. The breeze coming off the water was perfection on this very warm February day.
When we finally reached the inland port area, I saw a church that had the most unusually colorful stained glass window. I had to stand for a few minutes and really savor the workmanship.
Right behind the church was my ultimate destination today, “Almacenes San Jose”. It is a huge shopping warehouse on the docks where locals are allowed to sell their original art work, souvenirs and so much more. Stall after stall is loaded with local goodies, the majority of sellers speak English, everyone is having a pleasant time and the art work is gallery worthy.Be ready to bargain, as that is part of the fun. I purchased a few more seed necklaces that are red and local to Cuba, and a wooden musical instrument for my grandson that is used consistently throughout Cuba called “claves”. They have a pretty Cuban scene wood burned into them and the artesian selling them, burned my grandson’s name into them also, at no extra cost. He even showed me how to play them. Now I just hope my grandson does not use them incorrectly as boys are known to do. LOL
After our shopping and exiting the building, we were approached by a taxi driver who offered us a ride home for 10.00 CUC pesos. Keep in mind most taxi rides are 5 OR 10 CUC period. There are no meters and you can bargain with the drivers. This one tells us he will be right back and we turn to see another guy who had been talking to the first driver and tells us, “your taxi is here” when a car pulls up in front of us. So we jump in the car, he hops in the front next to the driver and as we pass the first taxi driver, he calls out a good-bye and laughs. So we realized quickly that we had just jumped into a “gypsy” cab and literally stolen from the first taxi guy, no doubt a gypsy cab as well. Um, not much you can do after that, but to sit back and enjoy the ride. They dropped us off at our destination, which was the Mall close to our home and that was that.
We relaxed, had a nice cold Cristal beer (or two) on the balcony and watched the neighborhood weekend fold out below our perch. Some people don’t like Cristal, the local beer, but I find it refreshing and not too heavy. I quite liked it.
Dinner Prepared by Ari
We were invited for dinner in tonight and shared the table with two other guests from Germany. Two young women from Cologne, just 40 miles from where Han was born, had been traveling the entire island for two weeks and were spending their last couple of nights in Havana. They needed to confirm their return tickets, so after dinner Pedro drove them to the nearest WIFI park.
We traded Cuba stories over a real cuban meal prepared once again by Ari. (She was wearing the earrings I gave her.) I am damn sure that the pork chop I ate was the best in my life. After we finished eating, the entire family set down, ate their dinner, as we set once again relaxing on our favorite balcony.
After dinner Yasset and Pedro invited us to the small local bar down the street. I am not sure what I expected, but when he said small, he meant small. One table which was seemingly waiting for us, sat down and began lively banter with he owner. We had some beers, the owner served us fries on the house and brought a small cigar for Han to smoke.
They also serve food, with ridiculously cheap prices and many locals came and went with their to-go orders. If I had not eaten already, I would have enjoyed trying something. We stayed just long enough to finish our beer, then Pedro wanted to show us the monument for the first railroad station in Cuba built in 1839. I took a quick peek at the half hidden plaque commemorating this important part of Cuban sugarcane history and jumped back in the car. It was quite chilly out believe it or not.
Back to the house to pack the remainder of items to ready for our departure. sniff-sniff…
Note: Bicycles are one of the main modes of transportation and most have baskets or milk crates attached on the back to carry items. Music CD’s or old DVD disk, shiny side out, are attached to the crates and used as reflectors. How ingenious is that? They are much easier seen than the little reflectors you see on bikes in the states, day or night.
2 comments
A fantastic Hollywood production for sure. The cigar business should pick up with more visitors. Importing labor should really upset the locals!! Thank y’all!
Author
Thanks Al. These were Tj’s stories. Next week I’m going to post mine on AmericanTravelersClub.com. Different angle, different tips. I’m starting to enjoy video production again. Thanks for your encouragement.