Monday, June 1, 2015, Havana, Cuba

Great breakfast; lots of choice. Of course I ate too much and lingered on for quite some time. Then a taxi ride into Old Havana. Quite touristy already to some extent though still very interesting. Lots of lively Cuban music in various restaurants and bars (even at lunch time) and of course it really is true: there are plenty of old American cars still being driven with great gusto and apparently no technical difficulties, or at least not too many. The gas-mileage ratio is however rather poor. A proud owner showed me his car and opened the hood and allowed me to examine the engine. He pointed out that the car only did 5 km to a litre of gas. The cars are surprisingly colorful and there are many light green, red and pink cars about.

It started raining heavily and we used the opportunity to first have a cup of coffee and then to visit the Museum of the Revolution. The building was the former presidential palace occupied by Batista and his many predecessors. The presidential office was still there. It was the office where Batista received Nixon as Vice-President and Churchill as leader of the opposition in 1946. It was also the office in which Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister in February 1959 and where Che Guevera was also given his official position a few months later. Across the corridor was the meeting room of the Council of MInisters with all the original furniture. Here Castro also held his ministerial meetings between  1959 and 1965.

The largest part of the building was occupied by rooms displaying the events that led to the revolution from 1953 onwards. Of course the displays focused quite a bit on the revolution and its immediate aftermath and the policies pursued. The following events up to the recent present were also described and illuminated by many (mostly black and white) photographs.

What was noticeable was the almost entire absence of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It seemed to be almost ignored in the entire exhibition. Who would have expected this? Also there was very little if any praise of the very close cooperation between Cuba and the Soviet Union between the early 1960s and 1991.  And no word about the great support (both political and financial) provided by Moscow to the Castro regime. Also Raoul Castro featured quite prominently along with his more famous brother Fidel. We had the sneaking suspicion that perhaps the increased emphasis on Raoul is a recent phenomon (but this is of course mere speculation). And of course Che Guevera received much praise.

Then we looked at the Cuban missile that shot down an American U-2 spy plane during the Cuban Missile Crisis (here the missile crisis was referred to) and also the US landing boats used in the Bay of Pigs and the Sovet-made Cuban tanks which repelled them. There also were a number of cars and trucks used by Castro himself in the run-up to the revolution. Not least the motor launch was prominently exhibited that he used to land near Santiago de Cuba in 1956. This marked the beginning of the guerilla campaign that eventually led to the overthrow of Batista.

Wow, after 3 hours in the museum, my revolutionary fervor had somewhat diminished. A coffee and lots of water helped to revive us.

Then we couldn't resist strolling into Havana central, apparently a somewhat dicey area. However, we felt perfectly safe and it was a most interesting and lively area. It's somewhat off the tourist trail and most Americans and Europeans seem to stay away. People, however, were very friendly and we met some guy who lived for many years in Dresden when it was still part of East Germany.  We walked about for quite some time, looked at lots of decrepit buidlings which would horrify a western safety expert. But the whole area was very alive and full of interesting characters chatting in the street and sitting outside their houses. Their also were plenty of dogs and cats and holes in the wall (meaning small establishments selling through a window all sorts of food, not least pizzas and hot dogs at very cheap prices in the lcoal currency). 

It is perhaps worth noting that there are two parallel currencies on Cuba (plus the American dollar to some extent).  Tourists pay with CUCs and the locals pay much less in a national currency.  It's quite easy to get hold of the latter by exchanging foreign money into CUCs and then changing the latter into the local curreny at designated exchange offices. Then, however, you still need to convince the local trader to accept the local currency from you. As you can be clearly identified as a foreigner you are expected to pay in CUCs and thus much more than is usually the case for the locals.  But it's all good fun and it makes life more exciting and opens up endless possibilities to talk about the Cuban financial system (which very few people understand properly).

After some further walking about we ended up in Chinatown and went to a Chinese restaurant that quite logically was called "Bavaria." This obviously attracted us and we went in. They, incidentally, insisted on being paid in CUCs and refused to take the local currency, which is quite normal when you are a foreigner. The meal was good, though it had little to do with either a Chinese or a Bavarian meal. But it was filling and nice.

Planning to return to old Havana for an evening stroll we got rather lost in Havana central. It got dark and we felt a little less safe than during the day. But we never found our way back. We were totally lost. Even George, who has a great track record of finding his way through chaotic Hanoi, when we visited two years ago, failed this time.  He had no idea where we were. Needless to say the same applied to me. I had no clue. We didn't want to give up and stubornly insisted on walking about.  Rescue came in the form of a kind female taxi driver who took us back to our splendid hotel.

Yet, this was not the end of my problem. I could not get into the room as the electronic key card did not work. The electronic lock was broken. Why did they ever replace the simple and traditioanl room key with a keycard?  Anyway, a mere two hours later and thanks to the dedicated work of a couple of hotel employees, I happily found myself back in my hotel room. In addition I also managed to change rooms and got myself a room with a seaview. As it is dark right now, I can't really see what the seaview is like. I hope it will be a nice surprise in the morning.