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Hello From Cuba Part 1 First Impressions
uesday, April 5, 2005, to wait for a substitute plane
6:00 pm, Hotel Havana Libre from Winnipeg and finally got off
the ground at about noon. 3.5
Thanks to a severe case of the hours later we arrived at the
Revenge of Montezuma (or Ricky airport Jose Marti in Havana - a
Ricardo?..,) I am sitting here in reasonably modern airport.
the Hotel Havana Libre and I However, it took me and the other
finally get around to create travellers almost 2 hours to
updates from my first 4.5 days collect our luggage and finally
here in Cuba. The Internet hop into a taxi.
connection is definitely the
slowest I have ever seen in my On the way in from the airport I
entire life, (15 minutes to noticed that there was a mixture
access my messages at Yahoo..), of industrial developments and
but I am giving it a shot agricultural areas, right up
anyways. until the centre of the city,
which is strange compared to
Friday morning I arrived at the Toronto, where there is no
airport in Toronto at 5:30 am significant agriculture until way
since my husband gave me a ride outside the city. The older
before work. The plane was gentleman driving the taxi was
scheduled to leave at 10:30 and very friendly and explained a few
several transfers with public basic things to me, e.g. that
transport would have taken me 2.5 most of the area is industrial
hours anyway, so I decided to and agricultural. He also showed
head there early and read a book. the National Sports Centre to me.
Of course you see old cars from
Air Canada was delayed after all the 50s and earlier as well as
(due to a problem with the water beat-up Russian Ladas everywhere.
supply on the plane) and we had Old sidecar motorcycles are also
a popular way to get around.
Habana Vieja is a fascinating
I finally arrived at my hotel at colonial city and the age and
about 6 pm where my brand-new beauty of the building is
friend Pedro (a connection astounding. Of course I saw the
through a friend in Canada) was Capitolio (very similar to the
waiting for me. I had told my Capital in Washington), several
friend that I wanted to really of the big museums, the Hotel
spend some time with locals to Inglaterra and some of the bars
learn about Cuba, its customs, that Hemingway frequented.
its way of life etc.
I also saw the big spider exhibit
Pedro is a brown-skinned black of 2 metallic spiders that are
man in his late thirties with a located right in the heart of
common-law wife and a young downtown, an exhibit by a French
daughter. An extremely nice sculptress that will stay in
person and he´s been very Havana until April 28 and then
gracious in taking me around and apparently move on to New York.
explaining things to me.
We walked around and chatted
After I dropped off my suitcase about life in Cuba and I started
and refreshed myself a little, we to learn a few things, about some
hopped into a private of the practical consequences of
individual's car (a practice the revolution (e.g. blacks have
extremely common in Cuba), he it much better today than before,
paid a few local pesos and we and there is relatively little
were whisked downtown in a very racism according to Pedro), and
old beat-up Lada which ended up the double economy, where locals
picking up various other locals receive their salary in Pesos
along the way. Cubanos, (around US$8 to $30 a
month), which is not even close after a future passing of Fidel.
to enough for living, so (Actually the mention of Fidel´s
everybody participates in the passing often makes people pull
underground economy in some way. up their hands in front of their
mouths and start to speak very
We had a reasonably expensive quietly...).
meal in a downtown "Paladar", a
private restaurant in a private After the meal, Pedro again
home with a maximum of 12 seats, flagged down a private vehicle,
one of the few official private we hopped in and I got dropped
enterprises allowed. When asked off at the hotel, dropping into
about the future of Cuba after bed like a tired sack of
Fidel, both my new-found friend potatoes. But I definitely had a
and the old man running the great introduction to life in
Paladar indicated that they Cuba on my first evening....
thought not much would change
About the Author:
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com), a popular web portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our brand new section featuring FREE ebooks about travel.
Read more articles by: Susanne Pacher
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