CUBA: DAY 3, ARRIVING IN HAVANA

First of all, I must explain that my sister and I traveled to Havana on a tour arranged by Friendly Planet.  These tours are called people-to-people educational programs and must follow strict guidelines dictated by the US government.  The tour company arranges charter flights between Miami and Havana on American Airlines 737s and packs in a lot of activities.  In order for the tour company to keep their license for tours to Cuba, attendees must be present at all the activities (unless someone really has a good reason to stay behind, such as illness).  There is very little unscheduled, on-your-own time.  Frankly the list of activities included a bunch of things that sounded boring to me (visiting an elementary school and a senior center, for example) but I was surprised that most every activity turned out to be interesting.  Every day was fully packed!  So now that I have set the scene…

Boarded the hotel shuttle at 7:00 AM to arrive at the airport by 7:20, turned over our passports and tickets for the charter flight to the Miami tour escort (more on the tour escort later), stood in line at the airport check-in counter for an hour while the agent processed the paperwork (and yes, our tour had a designated agent just to process our papers but on a Cuba tour you must learn to relax and allow things to happen on Cuban time), checked in our bags (total allowed weight was 44 pounds for the check-in bag plus carry on bag), got our passports back with tickets and Cuban visa, went through security, arrived at the gate by 8:30 AM and waited to board at 10:30 for an 11 AM flight.  Total flight time was 50 minutes on an American Airlines 737.  Waiting at the gate area was fun though – lots of Cuban Americans were also on the charter flight, going to visit family back home.  The younger women (anyone under 50) were wearing tight, tight clothing, with lots of cleavage showing, and high, high heels.  Lots of makeup and bling.  Many of the men were wearing the traditional shoe with Cuban heels and pointed toes.  One older man sitting in front of me was just relaxing and singing to himself.  People-watching was great!

Upon arrival we went through immigration, they took half the visa and stamped the passport, got our luggage, handed our health form (a form where you state that you do not have a cough or the sniffles) to the uniformed nurses (complete with starched nurse caps), went through customs and handed over the customs form, and at last entered the airport lobby where we were met by our Havana tour escort Tracy (who is American, works for Friendly Planet, and handles logistics, hotel and restaurant payments, tipping, and such and checks that we are all there and does general herding) and our local guide Jorge (who works for a Cuban tour agency and provides all the commentary about the sights we visit).  The bus was air conditioned and it felt lovely. 

We had 21 people in our tour group.  As soon as each of us boarded the bus, we all jumped out again to start taking photos of the old cars driving around the airport.  We couldn’t help ourselves.

HAVANA, FIRST GLIMPSE

Oh my, the cars!!!  The music!!!  The ambiance!!!  Did I mention the old cars everywhere?  And everywhere you go there is some group playing wonderful music – some hired by restaurants and some just playing on the street corner.  I am already in heaven.

We first headed for central Havana, in the old Havana section.  We strolled down a few streets and ended up at a lovely restaurant and were greeted by mohitos (made with Cuba’s own Havana Club rum, of course) and a 3-course lunch, serenaded by a great group.  I just had to buy a CD (which is one of the legal things you can buy and bring back into the USA – the legal take-home items are the “ABCs”: art, books, and CDs).

After lunch we strolled for a few more blocks to a beautiful square (plaza) that commemorates the beginning of the Cuban revolution against Spain.  Back to the bus and on to the Hotel Nacional, which was built in the 1930’s with the help of US mob money and mimics the Hotel Biltmore in Miami.  Havana was the vacation spot for American mobsters as well as a place to do business.  And the Hotel Nacional is the best hotel in town.  So we probably walked in the footsteps of Meyer Lansky, Al Capone and many others.  Anyway, we were seated on comfy seats on the veranda and greeted with mohitos (apparently this is a standard greeting at all hotels and most restaurants – a tradition I can appreciate).

And then there was checking in, changing money, booking some evening entertainment, and finally getting into our room tired and very hot and sweaty.  Which brings me to the heat and humidity.  I know that I have moaned and groaned in the past about not tolerating heat very well, and especially how awful high humidity is, and yet I keep going to tropical destinations.  Go figure.  And Cuba is no exception.  When there is a breeze it is quite tolerable, much like Hawaii.  But in the city, walking down narrow streets, there is no breeze and it is really uncomfortable.  Luckily, I always pack a hand fan and today when I pulled it out of my purse I probably could have sold it for a good price!

Now back to changing money.  Cuba has two kinds of money:  the locals are paid in pesos, but foreigners are not allowed to obtain or spend pesos.  When you change money, you get convertible pesos, abbreviated as CUCs, and pronounced “kooks.”  And by the way, you pay ten percent more to exchange American dollars, so I brought Euros and got a much better rate.  You can spend CUCs anywhere.  The exchange is roughly 1 CUC = $1. 

A little about evening entertainment:  There is a lot of evening entertainment to choose from in Havanna.  I hadn’t thought much about this aspect when planning the trip, but all of a sudden there I was learning that I could go to nightclubs that I had heard about for years – and just like in the old movies, you sit at tables sipping rum drinks and watch spectacular stage shows or you listen to a band and dance.  Because we knew this was a short trip, we immediately recognized that we would need to go clubbing every night in order to cram in as much of the Havana experience as possible.  Yup, touring all day and then clubbing late into the night.  And my sister and I are no spring chickens.  Oh well, while in Rome…..as they say.

For our first night in Havana, we booked tickets for the cabaret show at the hotel.  The cabaret venue is called La Parisienne.  Oh my gosh!  The show was amazing.  It was a 1.5 hours long, non-stop revue of the cultural dance influences in Cuba and a revue of all the dance traditions in Central and South America – a cast of 35 dancers and singers and 6 musicians with thousands of costume changes, very scantily dressed girls, macho men, good singing, lots of Cuban sleeves and Cuban shoes for the men.  Some routines were very corny but some were quite good, especially the tango routine.  After a while I thought they were doing the finale number, but it only morphed into more dance numbers.  I counted four numbers worthy of being called a finale, and then they wanted the audience to come onstage and learn latin dancing.  I was afraid I’d throw my back out, and it was almost midnight, so we left.  The theater, the tables, and the show, felt like going back to the 1950’s.  We had a great time.  Total mohitos for the day:  3.