Havana welcome to a different world

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Cuba – what an unique country. Rare are such places where you still get this strong feeling of traveling back in time. Myanmar is somehow in a similar situation as Cuba, just opening up after decades of isolation, but its historical richness dates back many centuries and can only be guessed in its temples and pagodas. In Cuba you can experience it around every corner. In the 60 year old taxi which picks you up from the bus terminal, in the neoclassical villa your B&B hosts were lucky enough to inherit from their ancestors or at the breakfast table where you are scared to damage the antique tea pot.

Add to this its unique government system, shaping Cuban lifestyle in so many ways, and you are set for an interesting holiday with lots of great experiences.

You might have read about “the changes”. Following the restart of Cuban-American relationships, there seems to be a last-minute panic among Europeans to experience Cuba before it gets taken over by McDonald and Coca Cola. Personally I wouldn’t expect any drastic changes soon, or they will rather be a continuation of the changes which are already happening since Raul Castro has taken over from his brother in 2011. He implemented a few big changes to liberalise Cuban economy, all to a great benefit of tourists and locals. Thanks to these new laws, an excellent private B&B (“casa”) market has established itself, where you get consistently good quality accommodations with a family at 20-30$ for a double room, a lot of good new restaurants have opened, fighting against Cuba’s bad culinary reputation, and local travel guides can now finally do their job legally.
The high motivation and good standard of private accommodation and restaurants is understandable when you compare the potential income with the standard wage of $40 per month for a government job. Naturally that the new sources of income start to be visible in daily life: smartphones, Beats headphones, LCD TV and even the sporadic scooter or new Peugeot car are no longer inexistent, but remain an exception, in a country where only 4% of the population have a car and where outside of Havana the main means of transport are still horse and bicycle.

We started our Cuban exploration in Havana, which is so rich in sights that you can easily spend several days here. The whole city center feels like an open air museum, where thanks to a long history of steady restorations nowadays many of the impressive buildings are restored to their original glory. And thanks to Havana’s strategy of mixing restoration projects for tourist use (museums, hotels etc.) with social projects supporting schools and elderly, the center has remained an extremely lively district. From the balcony of your casa you can watch the happening street life – together with your neighbors on their balconies.

The big majority of historical sights is in the oldest district Habana Vieja:

So many historical buildings, even the students get to stay in a mansion:

Everywhere you will see signs with a blue anchor , sign for a room being rented out, one house more intriguing than the other

On our three visits to Havana (this time my fault: Visa for China), we stayed in four different casas in four different districts and took time to also explore other areas. Havana Centro is the neighboring district of Habana Vieja, less rich on impressive sights but with a very lively community.

A dozen youngsters playing catch, all over the statue:

And beautiful cars wherever you look (here Yang Ke’s favorite):

The district Vedado, while still close to the center, is of a totally different vibe with wide alleys and lots of neo-classical villas:

We visited the Napoleon museum, hosting a huge private collection on Napoleon spread over four floors of a Renaissance style mansion. Apart from the beautiful collection it also provides an interesting perspective on the effect of communism on human behavior. The government-run museum has several staff spread out over the rooms, which you could categorize into two groups: On one side those who perform their job with the minimum effort possible. We had some surreal moments where one staff was “showcasing” the exhibits to us by reading their tags to us or pointing at the objects  and saying “here you see a chair, here a painting of waterloo, here …”.  On the other side you had several staff who were unimaginably motivated, with the hope to make some hard-currency tips. We got photos taken from all angles, they would rush us past the barriers and they had good stories to tell about the sights.

Bravely facing the brutal sun on huge non-shadowed Plaza de la Revolucion, only to see the famous Che Guevara image:

On the other side of Havana bay, you will find the nicely preserved ancient fort with lighthouse and great views on the city:

It also hosts the coastal guard for Havanna’s harbor, which consists of only one guy, who has so little to do in his job that he went to great lengths to explain us everything and let us take photos through his telescopes