Cuba: Day 1 - The Arrival

Our bus for the duration

Flew into Miami last night.  Found the hotel in the airport and checked in, then went on reconnaissance to find today’s meeting place:  Nathan’s Famous.  This is a vast airport, as I found out on the way to Peru in July, and I didn’t want to be wandering around in a panic in the  morning.

       When I get to Nathan’s this morning, there are a few people there.  I didn’t know what to expect, having never been on a tour, and am pleased when a friendly blonde lady comes up and introduces herself.  Of course, we were all equipped with National Geographic name tags - thoughtfully magnetic so we don’t have to poke holes in our clothes.  Her name is Laura and she’s traveling with her sister Ellen and a friend, Donovan.  There are a few others hanging around.  And then Cindy, our guide, arrives and starts organizing us.  As ours is a charter flight - and it doesn’t take long to fly 228 miles - no food will be served, so we’re all issued $15 to go buy brunch, something to last us until this evening’s meal.

       Then it’s passport control and onto the plane.

Before you can say Fidel Castro, we’ve landed at Jose Marti Airport outside La Habana, Cuba.  (Our charter flight is on American Airlines, and it’s strange to see the word American emblazoned on the sparkling white fuselage on Cuban soil with the embargo still in force.  I wonder if it’s a coincidence or if the company was chosen just for that purpose.  I’m sure that’s only my evil mind being amused, because there were three other Havana-bound flights out of Miami this morning, all on other airlines.)

       We were told to have our visas at the ready.  I wasn’t expecting a stamp to be put in my passport because the visas are on a separate form, but perhaps thanks to Obama’s opening to Cuba my passport is duly stamped, right across from the Jordanian stamp from November’s Petra trip.  I’m requested to remove my glasses for a photo and then questions are asked, mainly questions about ebola:  have I been in a country with ebola? do I know anyone who has had ebola? how am I feeling? no coughs, runny nose, digestive problems?  (I find out later that Cuba has provided many doctors and other medical staff to West African countries where this disease is causing ravages.)  Then begins the long wait.  Turns out there was a discrepancy between National Geographic’s tourist list and the passengers actually arriving.  It was the last-minute defection of the man from Guam that threw things off.  It takes so long to straighten this out that our first person-to-person appointment - an organic farm (all farms in Cuba are organic) - has to be cancelled.

 

      Outside of the airport, I see the first old American cars, the ones of my childhood.  I was expecting to see some, but not this many!  They’re all over the place!  Yellow ‘53 Chevy, light blue ‘54 Ford, peacock blue ‘58 Chevy, black ‘50 Chevy...  After the embargo in 1962, no more Yankee cars arrived.  No parts to fix Yankee cars.  So the fact that they’re still running, some with outboard motors in place and stead of the engine, is nothing short of a miracle and attests to Cuban ingenuity.

       On the ride into Havana, we stop off at the Plaza de la Revolucion.  The Cuban flag - vaguely reminiscent of the American Stars and Stripes, but rearranged - flies briskly in the breeze above the head of the first of an infinite number of statues of national hero Jose Marti that we will see everywhere. Across from that Memorial stand two white Soviet-architectured buildings.  On the right, the Ministry of Communications with a 3-D silhouette of Camilo Cienfuegos, one of Fidel’s fellow combatants in the Revolution, presumed dead in 1959 after his Cessna plane disappeared mysteriously over the ocean. On the left, the Ministry of the Interior, with a similar silhouette, this time of Che Guevara, who needs no introduction.  We will see images of these two men, along with Fidel, across the length and breadth of Cuba... at least the part we travel. 

       Our hotel is quite a surprise.  The Spanish colonial-style Parque Central is possibly the best hotel in Havana.  I certainly wasn’t expecting squalor, but grandiose on this style is becoming rare anywhere in the world.  And it does seem a bit strange to see a five-star hotel in an openly Communist country.  But this is just the first of many of what our guide Chris Baker calls the enigmas that make Cuba Cuba.  The hotel is a joint venture between a Spanish hotel chain and the Cuban government, and as with all joint ventures in this country, Cuba retains 51% ownership, ensuring it the deciding vote in any decisions.   The lobby is something out of the glory days of Hollywood - all columns and marble and mosaic tile floors - and there’s a swimming pool on the roof.  But what makes this hotel great for us is its location at the corner of the Central Park plaza and the Prado boulevard, on the edge of Old Havana.  Perfect for photo forays and learning about the city.

       After changing money in the lobby and resting a bit in my comfortable room, it’s time for a reception and then our first meal in Cuba.  Private enterprise was banned here until the government gave permission in 1993 for people to open family-owned and operated restaurants called paladares.  Initially limited to only 12 chairs, they were allowed to become larger by Raul Castro in 2010.  Tonight we’re dining at La Guarida, one of the most reputed in Havana.  You might have seen it in the film Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry & Chocolate), the only Cuban film ever to have been nominated for an Oscar.  We walk there, which gives us our first glimpse of Havana night-life, a mix of young and old people amid crumbling or renovated buildings.

  

     La Guarida is upstairs in what was once someone’s apartment, as are most if not all paladares.  The crystal chandelier, frescoed window trim and carved wood speak of richer times.  The restaurant has taken over the top floor (two flights up, no elevator) of a mansion that has known better days, having bought out the other apartment owners on their level.  After a mojito to welcome us, we move on to a three-course dinner worthy of a Paris restaurant... and a far cry from the single blue-plate special of by-gone paladar days.  After gazpacho, eggplant caviar or snapper-and-calamar carpaccio as an appetizer, the main course offers a choice of grouper, roast chicken with honey and lemon, or any of three types of pork, including a curry.  All come with the usual Cuban sides:  beans, rice and plantains.  Wine comes with the meal, and the à la carte wine list includes some from France:  a Baron de Rothschild from Bordeaux and a Louis Latour Burgundy.  Dessert is chocolate cheesecake, lemon almond pie or a selection of ice creams (including strawberry and chocolate, of course).  All of the above is home-made, from organic ingredients.  (Many of the paladares now have their own ranches and fisheries, an extension of the newly-acquired and vaguely capitalistic freedoms Cuba is experiencing.)

       After that, we all waddle back to the hotel, digesting both our meal and our impressions.  The contrast of what we thought Cuba would be and what it is proving to actually be is a feeling that will continue throughout the entire trip.

You can see La Guarida - the building and the restaurant - in this video I found on the internet:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ro6uiGp1E