4/15/2016 – A Day in Havana
Sometimes you just need to roam the city without any real plans to truly realize where in the world you are. No class on Fridays and no set plans for the day, Rachel and I headed back to our apartment after breakfast and perused our Cuba guidebook. We’ve been living like locals since settling down here a few weeks into the program, and today was a good day to embrace our Yuma looks and walk around like tourists instead of students through the streets of Havana.
From the Playa taxi circle (paradero) we took a taxi to El Capitolio/Central Park—the normal drop off spot for those headed to Central and Old Havana. The Capitolio is an almost identical replica of the U.S. Capital Building. It was built in the 1920’s, back in the days when U.S. businesses (think about the robber-baron monopolies and the American mafia of the time) controlled the majority of the Cuban economy and the Platt Amendment was in full swing, meaning that U.S. military forces were occupying the territory, and would step in to quell any and all sorts of political unrest. I bring this up to stress the importance of not forgetting the history of repressive U.S. foreign policy here when critiquing Cuban domestic policy throughout time. But I digress. El Capitolio is currently shrouded with scaffolding as it’s under renovation (just like our U.S. Capital building is currently). Additionally, it stands a few meters taller than the U.S. Capitol Building (can you say machismo?)
From the Capitolio we headed West, where we purchased our first coconuts of our entire trip here in Cuba. We lugged around these 2-pound coconuts that served as natural cups, sipping the cold coconut milk out of the top through straws as we meandered our way to Plaza Vieja. This plaza is entirely enclosed by old buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, pillars and balconies signifying how this was a square for the wealthiest of wealthy Spanish of the time. Cutting North at the corner, down the road Mercaderes, we passed by the Chocolate Factory (a place I forgot to mention on our first independent tour of Habana Vieja with Jose, this is his favorite place in the city). At the corner, we stopped for what we have since decided are the best churros in Cuba. 75 centavos (0.75 CUC) gets you this cone full to the brim with what I will describe as fried dough sticks drizzled with chocolate sauce—however such a description does not do this delicacy any justice. Several feet of light, fluffy, sugary dough are churned out in a long strip, spiraling around to fill the fry vat. When its cooked, the vendor picks the spiraled, fried mass up (larger than his torso) and plops it down on the table top to be chopped up quickly into the final churro product, delicious pieces of dessert anywhere from 3 to 8-inches long.
We meandered out way to the Plaza de Armas, perhaps the most memorable Plaza in Habana Vieja from that first weekend of touring the city with our entire group. In the center of this plaza is a statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (mentioned in this post quite a while back), surrounded by a park of trees casting shade over the wide open walkway that surrounds this central area, and the tables that line its outskirts. Tables full of old books, antiques, posters, coins, and jewelry face outward, to people who walking between them and the enormous old buildings around them, that have since been turned to state run restaurants, hotels, and housing. Bordering the north end of the plaza is the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the only obligatory destination we made for ourselves for the day.
This fortress/castle no longer defends the harbor from pirates, and instead contains a maritime museum. While I could go on about the old artifacts and model ships it contains from as far back as before Columbus’s arrival, what I prefer is the view from the top. Surrounding the fort is a deep, wide mote crossed by a huge wooden drawbridge. Thick iron chains still run from the end of the bridge to the fort, seemingly ready to draw the bridge up which likely hasn’t been done in hundreds of years. Up in the fort’s lookout/bell tower you can see the Plaza de Armas in all its glory, and Cuban flags waving off in the distance from the roofs of several apartment buildings. Down from the lookout but still atop the fort, a walk to the harbor side provides a view of the Malecon, and across the way the la Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana—one of the first sites we visited, over two months ago now. Back before we knew a single thing about the city we were overlooking, and the people and culture it contained.
