Our day began with breakfast at our Casa, where we met an English guy starting the same tour we did but a week later. We chatted to him for a while before packing up and moving to our new accommodation. Usually when we walk in the street, every second person yells “taxi?”, but for some reason they had all disappeared this morning. So we instead walked the 15 minutes with our suitcases. It was an interesting experience, because the footpaths here are very dilapidated!
Nevertheless, we made it to our accommodation and our host, Riccardo, showed us to our room. We have a balcony with a view of the Capitol building and our room is spacious and clean. It’s also right in the heart of the old town which is a great location.
Then we set off walking. Our first stop was Plaza Vieja, which previously had an ugly underground carpark built on it during Batista’s presidency, but this was demolished in 1996 and now it’s a cute square with beautiful buildings, cafes etc. We walked past and booked our tour to the Rum Museum, but then came back and went to the Camera Obscura. My friend Brenton and his wife Meg came here last year, and they had recommended it. They didn’t tell me what to expect, but said we should go. We headed up in a lift (wow – what a novelty!) and the views from the rooftop were amazing. But that wasn’t the main draw – a lady took us into a dark room where we got to see and experience the only camera obscura in the Americas. She told us it was donated by Spain in 2000, and it’s a periscope that works by pulling a series of ropes that turn the viewer around and help it to focus. On a large concave plate, we saw live projected images of the city and she told us about various landmarks. We could see birds flying, cars driving and people walking. It was so cool and we both agreed it was very unique to anything we had done before! Good recommendation, Brenton!
Next we walked to the Capitol Building where we joined the 11am English tour. People think that it was modelled on the US Capitol Building, but it wasn’t. It was actually modelled on the Pantheon in Paris. It does look slightly similar to the US building, however this one has a gorgeous gold dome. Last year was Havana’s 500th anniversary, and to celebrate, the Russian government donated money to make the dome and the statue inside gold. We are extremely lucky as the building was only opened for tourists recently, and prior to that had scaffolding on it and was closed for the restoration. The main difference I noticed between this one and the one in Washington was that in Washington I went through what was pretty much airport security. I had to empty liquids, scan my bags etc. Here it was “ticket?”, we showed the ticket, and no worries – in we went!
The building was constructed on what was previously swamp land. It was a botanical garden and then between 1926-1929 the building that stands today was built, at a cost of what today would be $17 million USD. It was the seat of the Cuban government and held meetings for the House of Reps and Senate, but today’s Cuban government don’t meet there anymore. In 1959 it was converted into the Academy of Sciences, but in 2010 was declared a national monument and then restored between 2012 and 2019.
When you enter the building, you are immediately confronted by a 17.6m tall statue called ‘La Republica’, symbolising the Guardian of Virtue and Work. She is the third tallest indoor statue in the world behind one in Japan, and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
Our tour took us to the José Martí room, a room full of plates created by US, Italian and German companies such as Tiffany’s, a room about the sculptor who created ‘La Republica’ and the other two huge statues outside - Angelo Zanelli. He was Italian, and the sculptures were sent over in pieces from Italy. We then saw where parliament used to meet.
We ended our tour in the Room of the Lost Steps, the front room that houses the statue. Our guide told us that the dome here is higher than the one at the US Capitol, and then pointed out some friezes on the main doors depicting Cuban history. The last two showed the US ambassadors and then the five previous presidents in the 1930s, the last of which was Machado who ran a dictatorship. In the 30s, people broke in and scratched out his face and that of the US ambassadors. Finally, we saw the kilometre zero point in the middle of the room. It used to house a diamond that belonged to Tsar Nicholas II, but this has been moved due to being stolen and then found again. The one in there now is a replica.
After this, we headed back to the room for a quick rest. That’s the great thing about our Casa being so central. Feeling reenergised, we walked up the Calle Mercaderes (Merchant’s Street). This is full of coloured buildings, small museums, and lots of people trying to get you to go into restaurants! We went back to the El Templete building where Havana was founded and today could peek inside at a painting of the founding. Then we wandered up the Malecon, a seaside path. We could see a man spear fishing in the water with snorkel gear. The water was filthy so we thought that was pretty gross!
We kept wandering and took it in turns acting fake outraged when people asked if we were from the US. I’m not entirely sure how they thought we were visiting if we were, but when we told them we were from Australia their faces would light up. People here are so nice, they just want to chat and you really don’t feel like they want to rip you off. They’re just happy to have tourists here.
Then we went to the Museo del Ron (Rum Museum) run by the Havana Club Rum Company. Here we did a tour for about 40 minutes which included a video and a model village followed by our guide explaining the process for creating rum. Sugarcane came from New Guinea originally but was introduced all over the world, including to Cuba in 1493 by Christopher Columbus. Like the other Caribbean countries we have visited, sugar became a rich source of income for the country over the years. However, sugarcane also produces molasses and rum using various distillation processes. Rum was huge here for USA tourists in the 1920s during the prohibition era. The colour, taste and other factors associated with the rum depend on how long it is kept in a barrel for. The barrels are white oak from the USA which have been used for 25 years in Ireland and Scotland, and then are sent here. They can be used for 70-100 years after this. The longer rum is kept in the barrel, the darker its colour. When the rum is being bottled, three different batches are combined together as each batch has a slightly different taste. This makes the taste of the bottled rum a little more constant. On the front of the bottle, the youngest batch of rum is listed (ie 7 years or however long it was in the barrel for). We tried one at the end of the tour that had 7 years on the front. The most expensive bottle at the shop was 1700 CUCs, and it includes rum that has been in a barrel for 50 to 100 years!
Back in the room, I did some washing and hung it on our balcony. It was cool people watching down on the street. Then we went and used the internet for a while at the Plaza Hotel, before having dinner at a pub. I had a Cuban version of pulled pork and it was delicious. We ended our evening by heading to the rooftop bar of the Hotel Ambos Mundos. Hemingway rented a room permanently here and used to drink in their bar. The view was great, and we heard the canon shot from the fort at 9pm. We strolled back via the Plaza de la Catedral.
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
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