One final day in Havana, and a full one it was! It was cultural immersion from start to finish.

We started by exploring San Jose Handicraft Market, a huge two-story marketplace. Upstairs was dedicated to paintings and downstairs to handicrafts. From there we went to Callejon de Hamel, an impressive community project aimed at promoting Afro-Cuban pride through traditional music, dance, crafts, and entrepreneurship. Three enthusiastic drummers and two spirited dancers in traditional costumes performed lively numbers for us.

It was interesting to visit Hotel National, THE place to be pre-embargo. It was designed by a New York architect; built in the 1930s; is on the list of national monuments; was favored by the American mafia as well as the who’s who in politics, entertainment, and sports; and blacklisted by the U.S. (meaning Americans cannot stay there). The hotel and grounds are gorgeous.

Today’s noon meal was a little different in that we had a charming guest speaker: 84-year-old Rolando Macias, reputed to be Cuba’s best pitcher ever. When not selling charcoal or peanuts as a child he was playing baseball. When he was 16, scouts came from the United States, and the Cincinnati Reds offered him a contract. He declined for four reasons: he was illiterate; he did not want to leave his mom and grandmother who had raised him; his skin color; and contracts then are not what they have morphed into. He had a second chance in 1967 when the New York Giants offered him a contract and in 1969 when the Brooklyn Dodgers did the same. Although Macias was literate by then (thanks to Castro’s literacy program), Castro’s regime forbade Cuban players from signing major league baseball contracts, and Macias did not want to defect. He continued to play at home and led Cuba to gold medals in the Pan American Games in 1963, 1971, and 1975. Did I mention his 21-game winning streak? He retired in 1978 and devoted the next 22 years to coaching youth teams that earned four world championships.

After lunch we popped by Floridita, a bar and restaurant favored by Hemmingway, and took turns having our picture taken with a life-size bronze Hemmingway situated in a corner of the bar.

One of our favorite activities of the whole trip was a lecture and discussion with charismatic Camilo Garcia Lopez-Trigo, a 20-year diplomat who served in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the United Nations. He is currently a political science professor with a few side hustles including meeting with groups like ours. He discussed the current political policies between the U.S. and Cuba, the history behind those policies, and the devastating impact they have had and continue to have on Cuba. He explained that the embargo of 1962 was bad enough, but two other acts were devastating. 1992’s Cuban Democracy Act prohibits vessels visiting Cuba from entering a U.S. harbor for six months and 1996’s Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act lays out consequences for countries that do business with Cuba. The net result of all this is that the ordinary citizen lacks things as run of the mill as soap, food, and basic medications. Fuel shortages limit mobility and antiquated utilities’ infrastructure necessitates blackouts.

Our final activity of the trip was a little more uplifting: touring around town in classic American cars. Our little parade of six vehicles drove through iconic neighborhoods, through former Chinatown (all the Chinese left in the early 1960s), and past the fort, gorgeous capitol building, monuments, Bacardi Rum headquarters, and streets in dire need of a major facelift. Dan, Cyd, and I shared a 1958 Buick that had been converted from an automatic on the column to a standard transmission on the floor. Our driver, the owner, has a couple other oldies-but-goodies at home to include a 1948 Dodge that his wife drives. Our tour ended at a lovely restaurant for our farewell dinner.

Most nationalities have been able to travel freely in Cuba, but Americans have had to read the shifting sands over the years. Between 1962 and 2015 travel was mostly limited to Cuban Americans visiting family. Commercial flights to and from the U.S. resumed in 2015-2016. Cruise travel was banned in 2019. In 2021 group educational travel was sanctioned as were flights beyond Havana. All said and done we are grateful to have had the chance to visit this beautiful, historic, struggling island republic. We leave confused by the U.S. sanctions against Cuba and fearful that the current administration will tighten the screws even more.

Everyone will scatterer in different directions tomorrow morning, happy to have had this unique opportunity. Sandy and Alan are off to Charleston for a week; Walter, Cleone, and Barb are headed home; and Cyd, Dan, and I are off to Tampa to impose on Cyd’s daughter and her family for a few days.

We were up and at ‘em yesterday excited to see what’s what in Cuba’s capital, home of the frozen daiquiri and the mojito. Cheers to this next adventure.

At breakfast yesterday we all chatted about our mere whisper of air conditioning overnight and cold showers in the morning. How unaccustomed we all are to blackouts. But hurray for the hotel’s generator that made electricity in our rooms possible. By midafternoon yesterday power was back on and we had cool rooms and hot showers! Power went in and out as we explored the city both days.

Havana was moved to its third and current location in late 1519 because of its natural harbor. Once riches were located in Mexico’s Yucatan, Havana served as a springboard for Spain’s conquest of the Americas and later became a stopping point for Spanish galleons returning home laden with gold. (Think pirates.) It quickly became the largest port in the Spanish West Indies. (Add more pirates!) For centuries it served as a strategic port for trade and commerce and remains the country’s main port and commercial center. Havana is the most populous city and the largest by area in Cuba as well as the second largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean. Its official population is just shy of two million.

We spent the last two days exploring this 500-year-old city. We almost had the wide boulevards to ourselves because of the current fuel shortage. We passed loads of magnificent mansions, some in great shape and many others well past their glory days just begging to be saved. There are huge, manicured roundabouts. No matter the section of town, everything was clean and tidy even if in dire need of attention. Because of fuel shortages garbage was stacked up in some parts of the city waiting to be picked up but in the meantime being blown around by ocean breezes. Sandy made the apt comment that in many ways it comes across as a city on life support.

We started exploring in the area known as Jaimanitas with a visit to the studio and residence of Cuban artist José Rodriguez Fuster. Once his naive art took off and he had made a name for himself, he decided to create something like Gaudi’s public works in Barcelona and Brâncuși’s across Romania. He chose his own neighborhood as his canvas. In 1975, after moving into a modest wood house, Fuster set about decorating his studio in colorful mosaic. Once complete, he slowly got permission to move on to neighborhood homes and businesses. Over the course of a decade, doctors’ offices, bus stops, fountains, benches, gateways, and more were enveloped in whimsical mosaic artwork. This economically depressed area, known as Fusterlandia, slowly morphed into the artists’ paradise and tourist destination it is today.

Another fun neighborhood is La Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its original urban layout is still intact and boasts some 900 historic buildings in an interesting mix of architectural styles surrounding four central plazas. Think wrought-iron gates, internal courtyards, cobblestone plazas, and balconies. Thankfully building ordinances in the 19th and 20th centuries have preserved the integrity of this architectural hub.

Revolution Square celebrates Cuba’s persistent quest to be an independent country. A star-shaped 785 feet tower plus a statue of Jose Marti, an enormously influential Cuban writer, are the centerpieces. Fidel Castro gave many of his hours-long addresses here. Government buildings surround the plaza.

Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the oldest fort in the Americas, was completed in 1577. Spain’s King Phillip granted Havana the official title of capital in 1607 necessitating the construction of city walls (no longer in existence) and more forts to protect the city.

An important symbol of Havana, El Capitol/the capital is gorgeous with its shiny gold dome. The building bears a marked resemblance to the U.S. capitol building.

Although none of us are currently cigar smokers, it was fun to visit a cigar factory and see the men and women rolling cigars and checking their quality. Cigars deemed less than ideal (three to five percent) are bundled up, set aside, and doled out (free) to the employees (up to five a day). We learned that the indigenous Taíno people were the first to cultivate tobacco, using it for ceremonial purposes and as a form of medicine. Christopher Columbus brought some back to Europe where it quickly gained popularity among the aristocracy. Slowly the cultivation of high-quality tobacco began to flourish, thanks to Cuba’s ideal climate and fertile soil. Add the craftsmanship of meticulously hand-rolling each cigar and centuries later (think 18th century) Cuba had established itself as the home of one of the most revered cigar industries in the world. Cuban cigars became and still are a symbol of luxury and indulgence. (Americans are not allowed to take any home.)

Cuba currently makes 27 brands of cigars in its state-owned factories. The factory we visited has been in existence since 1845 and currently has 300 workers producing 12,000 cigars a day. Each cigar roller has a quota based on the length and girth of the cigar they are assigned to make. Once workers reach their quota for the day, they are free to leave or to stay and make extra money by rolling more.

Ernest Hemingway was in and out of Cuba for 12 years before he and his third wife bought a home here, Finca Vigia. Besides a sizable one-story house, there’s a guest house, tower, and a pool set on a beautiful piece of property just outside of town. The Hemingways used it as a retreat to escape Idaho winters, to fish on his well-used boat, and to work. While here, Hemingway wrote Islands in the Stream, A Moveable Feast, and The Old Man and the Sea. The arrival of the Cold War meant that Hemingway was forced to decide between the United States and Cuba. He left in 1960, a year into Castro’s dictatorship. (He returned to Idaho and committed suicide in July 1961.) Today, his home-turned-museum is open to the public and made for an interesting stop. We enjoyed the furnished rooms by looking in open windows. Those who wanted photographs of the rooms had to pay an employee to taken them.

You would have wanted to be a fly on the wall when we turned our attention from sites to dabbling in a bit of culture. A visit to Club 500 offered us the chance to dance to Cuban rhythms. Oh boy! Those instructors had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Luckily our visit to the Havana Compas Dance Company after lunch was all performance, no participation. With an abundance of enthusiasm and smiling faces the dancers and musicians shared Afro-Cuban, flamenco, and other Spanish dances.

Cuba is famous for its collection of restored, still-in-use, American cars, the kind some of our group learned to drive in our youth. It is estimated that there are still 80,000 pre-1961 American cars on the road in Cuba. It was fun to meet the owner of a small shop that was started by his grandfather in 1952. The shop owner has a 1956 Plymouth and a 1958 Dodge in pristine condition that we were welcome to admire, get inside, take pictures of, and look under the hood. We were surprised to learn two things in particular: less than five percent of Cubans own cars and no American cars or car parts have been allowed in the country since President Kennedy’s embargo in 1960. That begs the question of how the cars are still on the road after decades of no spare parts. A shoutout to the mechanics who have come up with ingenious solutions to this conundrum.

Food
We have had delicious, multi-course meals at noon and night. Often we can’t eat it all. Our fabulous Gate1 logistics coordinator, Pebbles, shared a great idea: ask for a to-go box and give the food to the first person you see upon leaving the restaurant, often children. We all decided to embrace this from here on out.

Temperature
86/76 yesterday and 77/68 today with a brisk ocean breeze

The Official Exchange Rate
$1.00 = 125 CUP (Cuban peso)

The Unofficial Exchange Rate
$1.00 = 340 CUP

Obviously, those with foreign currency have a leg up.