Heart of Havana – Part 1: Centro y Vedado

Cuba now reveals its multiple personalities. Yesterday was Old Havana, today was at the heart of Havana: in Habana Centro and next to it, Vedado, the more contemporary ‘hood of the three. Internet was exasperating, next to impossible. Went Street Art hunting, Callejon de Hamel being the showcase. Hotel Nacional provided a great view of the Malecon. Plaza de la Revolucion felt sanitized. Struggled with booking transportation out of town and discovered the secret to getting around!

Vedado y Centro – view from our 18th floor accommodation

Neighbourhoods of Havana 

Havana is a gradation of development from east to west.

Old Havana in the east is very dilapidated as though forgotten by time and civilization, while the center is more developed.

Further west is Vedado, where these big hotels are , Habana Libre and Hotel Nacional. Certainly caters to the wealthy or moneyed.

Mama Glady’s home, our new host was in the center.

Compared to Alfredo’s colonial apartment in Jesus Maria (Old Havana), the place we’re staying this time was on the 18th floor of a modern building.

Desayuno

We had to start the day right.

“It’s a strong breakfast.” That’s how Mama Gladys, our host, described her desayuno  (breakfast) for us in halting English. It will fill us up for the day and only costs 5CUC each, she said.

She really didn’t have to “sell” us breakfast last night. I was already sold!

Mama Gladys’ desayuno was the most generous one we’ve had on our trip so far. Coffee, a yummy shake of banana and papaya with un poquito leche she said (as I said I don’t like milk)toasted ham and cheese sandwich, toasts with marmalade on the side, a plate of fruits (banana, pineapple, papaya).

I was already very full before I was even halfway through my breakfast!

Getting Connected: Internet en el Parque 

There were a number of people at the park on their phones trying to connect to wi-fi.

Mama Gladys told us, we can have ourselves tethered or connected to someone’s wifi and just pay 2CUC for an hour. Before we even got to ask around, a guy sitting on a bench already signalled us raising his phone, pointing at it, implying if we wanted to connect.

We got connected alright — for less than half an hour that is — when the connection dropped and never got back. At least we had it long enough for me to finally confirm where the Couchsurfing meet-up point would be for NYE celebration.

Mr Cowboy was not done and said I could go ahead and explore. He still wanted to wait and try the connection as he wanted to make sure he hasn’t overdrawn his account for this trip.

I felt bad for both of us not getting connected online — or even via phone calls — because it’s New Year’s Eve tonight, and Australia and Philippines, of course, are ahead in time. Our friends and family would probably be sending NY greetings to which we can’t respond to.

I went ahead and checked the nearby Palacio de la Rumba. A group of Finnish tourists were having 10-day group classes of salsa. Found out that the place has dances at night — kicking myself because I heard the sounds and saw the lights coming out of it from our room last night.

As I headed north, saw a pig hanging off the top of a window, on the second floor of a house. Made me wonder if that was a sacrifice or it’s part of preparing or curing the pig for roasting.

I don’t get this!

Callejon de Hamel 

This was meant to be the place to indulge my fascination with street art. Callejon de Hamel was an artsy place… with abstract art and sculpture with an obvious heavy influence of African-Cuba culture.

The street art scene was not quite what I expected. Materials used were certainly not typical spray paint. I suspect that would have been beyond the reach of Cubans — they would have had to import that kind of material and it would have been expensive. Spray paints are not a necessity when life is hard but acrylic paint would have been more expensive. I could be wrong — except that street art is typically not commercial and you don’t make any return on your materials. It’s a ‘luxury’ a socialist citizen probably won’t be able to afford.

(I again saw another pig hanging from its mouth, right in front of a house playing loud percussion. Wasn’t sure if the sound is recorded or they’re having some sort of Santerio ceremony inside that house. There were at least three bars in that short street.)