Hi Everyone,
I’m digging one out from my photo archives as I’m not sure if I will visit again, unless I go on a cruise which is how I explored Havana last time. I am a keen cruiser, why you may ask, because I only have to unpack once and I can visit several cities in one trip. It's also a lot more relaxing for me as I have two children and therefore I can keep them occupied with all the various activities that happen onboard.
We docked in Havana, Cuba and the views all around are really spectacular but there isn't such thing as fresh air. The air is filled with the smell of diesel due to all the old cars that are still being used around the city. I am a car fanatic, so seeing all these old cars cruising around really was a sight. Normally inside a cruise terminal there are shops and it's a very busy area but inside the terminal there wasn't anything, it was bare as well as the outside looking very run down.
As we are on the subject of cars, we had booked a car tour and we were lucky enough to be allocated the car that Michelle Obama used when she paid a visit to Havana, Cuba. It was a 1960 black Impala and upon some Google research it seems that Michelle did use this car as some of her transport around the city.
One of the places we stopped at was the Plaza de Armas which is the oldest square in Havana as it was built in the 1520s. This square was originally known as the Plaza de Iglesia after a church but it was changed to the Plaza de Armas because in the late 16th Century it became a site that was used to carry out military exercises. In the centre of the square, it is lined with palm trees with a statue in the middle which is of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. This man is very important as he is the one who set Cuba on the road to it's independence in 1868.
Next stop, Plaza de la Catedral, which is another square in Havana (Havana has four squares in total) and it's where the Cathedral is situated. You wouldn't believe that this area use to be a swamp but they later drained the area, used it as a naval dockyard before the Cathedral was built. The inside of the Cathdral is absolutely beautiful, everything was also kept so clean and it's also free admission.
Next stop was Parque Central which translates to Central Park, same as the one in New York. This area is the most well known and most central area in Havana with a statue of Jose Marti. Jose Marti is a really important figure in Cuba because he is classed as a Cuban nation hero due to his role in the liberation of Cuba from Spain. He became the symbol for Cuba's bid for indepdence from the Spanish Empire during the 19th Century and is referred to as the "Apostle of Cuban Independence". There are gardens surrounding his statue and there are many symbolic reasons to why there are a particular number of things in these gardens. There are exactly 28 royal palms that signify Martí's birth date and there are also 8 coffin-shaped stonework which represent the medical students that were shot by the Spanish Government on the Island during the Ten Years' War.
We had a walk around the centre to find an original pharmacy where they had all the jars still on the shelves, this is still a working pharmacy to this day. It's also been split into a museum explaining how the old pharmacies like these use to operate. I had never seen one of these until the time I went to Havana but my parents remember pharmacies looking like this.
We also came across a small factory where women were sewing and making clothes, it's rare nowadays to find anything like this as everything is mass produced using machines.
The following building may look familiar to you but it's not the Capitol in Washington but El Capitolio in Havana. It is modelled after the U.S. Capitol but El Capitolo encompasses a planetarium and three museums and it's apparently the most photographed building in Cuba.
The University of Havana is just as striking with the columns at the front of the buildings and it's also a public university. This university is one of the oldest in Cuba as well as one of the first to be founded in the Americas.
Our penultimate stop was the Plaza de la Revolución, in English known as Revolution Square. This area has a mural for Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos who both played major roles in the Cuban revolution. This area is a very large square where a lot of the political rallies take place but when there isn't rallies it's a social square where all the old cars meet.
Our final stop was of course seeing the original Barcardi building which has beautiful architecture, it sticks out like a sore thumb against the run down buildings of Havana. Barcardi started in Cuba but the founders were exiled from Havana during the Cuban Revolution which meant they took Barcardi with them therefore you can't find Barcardi anywhere in Cuba.
There is a museum called Museo del Ron Havana Club which shows all about the rum making process, and the history into the feud between Barcardi (who have Havana Club products) against the Cuban government who believe that Havana Club products should only be made in Cuba. It's a really long story and I've researched into the feud, which still goes on to this day, and I can't even wrap my head around it so I can tell you the short version of the story. This museum has a really good Havana Club shop though selling all the different various rums as well as having taste sessions.
We were docked overnight in Havana, Cuba and overall we loved the city but like I said at the beginning, I'm not sure it would be somewhere that I would travel to again. I would like to explore other parts of Cuba as Havana was very densely populated as well as a lot of tourists which is was the Cuban economy rely on heavily.
Until next time, stay tuned.