Palm Tree is Cuban national tree
Cigar can be Cuba's cultural and social
symbol.
Cuba is a nation of classic cars that we
ususally do not see in other part of thw world any more.
Strangely, parking lots are located in
the center of one of the busiest streets in Harvana in front
of the Capitol. This
is one of the most busy street in Harvana in
front of the Capitol,
Other transportation
include the Camel back bus (left) for the local people and it
costs about
25 cents to ride on.
Then there are also the
transit train and taxi mainly for tourists
The most fun, convenient, and less expensive
transportation should be this Co Co taxi. It costs
about $2-3 per pax within the city
limit. The picture on the left is a tourist
group of about 30 people
who rode in over two douze of Co Co taxis to
visit
the Revolutionary Square.
2. Trip to Pinar del Rio.
The city of Pinar del Rio, meaning River of Pine, has the population of
135,000. Pinar del Rio is about 90 miles east of Havana.
About 80% of Cuban tabaco grow in Pinar del Rio. Most of the
tabacco production is private, but the cigar industry is government
own. The tabacco farmers grow and dry the tabacco leaves and the
nsell them to the government at the price of 380 piso/kg (exchange
rate, $1=26 Cuban piso). In the cigar factories, 80% of the
workers are women. Workers are
allowed to take home 2 cigar per day. By the end of the month
they
would pack the sigars and sell them to the tourists. They earn
$12
monthly salary. When we visited the cigar factory in Havana
(no picutres were allowed in the factory), we saw workers smoking
cigars
while rolling the cigar.
We took a
trip to the countryside to Pinar del Rio and passed by an old
sugar plant (left),
which was
financed by the Russians. A group of particular "pregnant palm
tree" (right)
along the
roadside.
At a lunch stop with
pretty scenery (left) in the background. A tourist site (right)
with the
native paintings on
the rock.
In a private tabacco farm(left), which
produces
100,000 tabacco plants annually.
It usually takes 4 months to hang and
dry the leaves before they sell them to
the government. I was trying a cigar
smoking (right), not a fun experience.
With JoAnn Trail on the trip.
Our bus driver is a train cigar smoker.
3. Museums and Market
Havana has many museums of vaiours
kinds, both for propagandar and cultural purposes. In the Museum
of the Revolution, it is dedicated to the 1959 Cuban Revolution when
Castro
came to power. Other museums present Cuban native culture, arts
and
crafts, African arts, stamps, tabacco, colonial culture, National
heritage,
etc. The Weekend market near the tourist district is
a place to enjoy Cuban tradition and culture. US$$ is the
currency
in use. Local artists and venders are very good barginers with
the
tourists. I spent 20 minutes bargaining with the artist for his
oil
paiting. Before 1995, owing US$$ was a felony.
Currently,
there are three kinds of currencies in circulation in Cuba: Cuban piso,
US$$, and the covnertable dollar with the US$ value.
The front of the
Museum of the Revolution. Jeeps used by Castro and Cher in the
Cuban Revolution.
The Soviet tanks
(left) used in the Cuban Revolution. The American plane wreckage
(right) during
the Bay of Pig
fiesco.
The Fleet Market that sells all kind of arts and crafts pieces.
I met three nice Cuban
guys
in the market (left). A Cuban artist (right). To my
left is the oil painting I purchased
from
him for $25.
4. Education
Cuban education is a typical socialist form in which government offers
free education and health care. 9 grade school is
compulsary. Military service is required for men at certain age,
including the college graduates. School teachers are paid 260
piso/month, doctors 200 piso/month, and policemen 800 piso/month.
Entrance
to University of Havana.
Statue of
the Alma Mater
of Unviersity of Havana.
University of Havana is probably the only place in the world that has a
tank on campus(left).
Other than that everything seems to be just the same.
In front of the College of
Letters. Meeting with faculty of
Spanish language.
Meeting with studnets on a break (left). Some of them
major in biology and chemistry.
Three students (right) just finished their exam in
computer science.
5.
Life in Cuba
Travel in Cuba gives you a mixed feeling. There are international
standard facilties, such as Hotel International byt the ocean, and the
slums near Chinatown behind the Capital. Prices for tourists are
quite expensive. Tipping is the worst in Cuba. Weather the
trouists spoil the Cubans by thinking that the Cubans are so poor so we
should give them more tips. Sometimes we have to pay a 100% tip
especially in buying only one drink.
Havana's best hospital (left). Hotel Inglaterra
(right) is one of the oldest colonial style
hotels in Havana. The hotel is surrounded by 28 palm trees.
Havana's most expensive hotel: Hotel International (left). Room
rate can be as high
as
$250/night. The service and the views
are certainly the best.
Havana's Opera House (left). We watched the Spanish ballet for
$10.
Havan Cathedral Church (right) only opens in the morning.
Inside the Capitol
(left). I took this picutre after noticing the sign that said "No
Camera."
One wing
inside the
Capitol used for social occasion (left).
Inside the front
entrance of the Capitol (left). The Statue on the right side of
the Capitol
represents virture and the statue on the left side represents labor.
Some of us ate dinner in Terraza
Cojimar fishing village (left). The seafood was very good.
A big glass of fresh Mango juice was $2. One section of
the Capital balcony is the drink lunge(right).
Sitting
here I can watch various movements go as I drink a glass of organge
juice for $1.5 plus $1.5
for tip.
Bill Voxman, his wife,
Joan, and several other members on the tour went to eat in a restanrant
called La Bodeguita
Del Medio, where one can sign his/her name on the wall. I wrote
down my name
on the right
corner.
Rick Ardinger purchased a CD from the artists who jsut performed at our
table.
Heminway allegedly invented the famous drink Mohito, which includes lemon,
Cuban rum, freesh mint leaves, sparkling water, and sugar.
6. Life on the street
The national sports in Cuba include baseball and then
boxing. Some Cubans say the most popular "sport" is
drinking rum.
On a Sat. eveining, I took 6 baseballs to find the kids who played near
the Capital with sticks and cardboard balls. I found a groups of
kids in a slum corner on the other side of Chinatown. When I
handed over them the baseballs, they first seemed to be dumbfounded,
knowing not what was happening. Then they rejoyed and screamed to
grab the balls. I only regreted that I did not have more to give
to them as more kids ran from their house toward me. I brought
two dozens of baseball at an advice of a friend before going to
Cuba.
Many young Cubans like
to play basedball on the weekend (left) in CHinatown about a block
way from the Capitol.
Most of the poor Cubans live in the slum near the Chinatown. The
stick
in this kid's hands (right)
is not a baseball bat. The ball they played with is made of
carboard paper.
Entrance to the Chinatwon next
to the Capitol (left). Hotel New York (right) by
the entrance of
Chinatown.
Entrance to the restanrant street
inside Chinatown (left). Envening scence (right).
I had my worse Chinese food here.
This is near the tourist district. Every
two blcks there are a couple of policemen patrolling
the area. In the pictrue on the left,
you can see one policeman on the lft and another in the
center far back. Each morning, bread
would be brought to the tourist hotels (right). We stayed
in Santa Isabel
across the park in historic Old Havana.
Gun store (left) is common and we just walked
in to have a look. There was one security guy
in the store and this old guy did not seem to care
if we took pictures with him of his store.
On the right, these are not clay bricks. They
are wood bricks making the floor of the Amay Square
near Hotel Isabel for several decades.
School kids are in uniform and in an outing (left). Guess
what this face is on the right?
It
is the letter drop box on the roadside.
Che is the
popular figure throughout Cuba, more popular than Castro, at least from
the appearance. The portrait of Che is facing the monument
in the Revolutionary Sqaure.
Most of Cuban public rallies are held in this sqaure (right) .
Underneath the monument, there
is a small museum.
7. Sunset in Havana
We went to see the sunset from the Fortree of San Carlos by going
through the tunnel across the Havana Habor. The tunnel was built
by the French in 1958 by the Cuban sugar. It ook the Cuban
government 20 years
to finalize the payment. The suset was indeed gorgeous and
we also watched the fire of cannon and echange of guards at the
fortress.
Ship sailing into the
Havana Harbor by the beautiful sunset. Five minutes after the
ship was in.
Cannons.
With JoAnn
Trail against sunset.
8. Hemingway and Cuba
Ernest Hemingway first went to Cuba in 1932 and visited Cuba
again in late 1959 a few months after Castro's revolution in the
country. He later bought a house in Finca Vigia, (meaning
"lookout farm") , for $18,500. His House in Finca Vigia has been
tranformed into a museum that many tourists would visit when they are
in Cuba. Hemingways spent many years of his life in Cuba.
He was allegedly invented the now famous drink known as Mohito,
he wrote the well known novel Old Man and the sea. In his
posthumous novel Islands In The Stream, Hemingway
shared his feeling for Cuba: "He got into the car and told the
chauffeur to go up O'Reilly to the Floridita. Before the
car circled the plaza in front of the embassy building and the
Ayuntamiento and then turned into O'Reilly he saw the size of the waves
in the mouth of the harbor and the heavy rise and fall of the channel
buoy. In the mouth of the harbor the sea was very wild and confused and
clear green water was breaking over the rock at the base of the Morro,
the tops of the seas blowing white in the sun. It looks
wonderful, he said to himself. It not only looks wonderful, it is
wonderful."
Ernest Hemingway's House in Finca Vigia, now a museum
(left). Hemingway's table (right)
as it was when he died.
Inside Hemingway's House (left). On top of Ambos
Mundos Hotel (right). Hemingway stayed in
Room 511 which has been turned into a small museum.
9. Cayo Coco, Tourists only Island
The last two days on our trip, we stayed in hotel Melia Cayo Guillermo,
All Inclusive, on Cayo Coco Island. There are several tourist
hotel on the island but not accessible by public transportation,
therefore limited only to foreign tourists. Tourists checked in
the hotel are given
a different colored band to identify their hotel. All the drinks
and food in the hotel are free including the bar in the loby that opens
around the clock. Staff members working the these hotels
are bussed
in. While enjoying the privilege by paying $100/night, I prefered
to
be closer to the common people learning more about their life.
The hotel is behind me. THe island
was initially a swamp and roads were built upon it.
Bikes could be rent for free from the
hotel.
Evening entertainments was loud and
free. It was, however, mostly for tourists, not so many
traditional dances or music that I would like to
enjoy. A snail crab (right) trying
to cross the road.
While in the loby enjoying various drinks, a
tourist walked in bringing a big fish
they just caught on the sea.
The hotel is right by the ocean.
The soft breez, glittering sand, and the warm sun
make one feel like in the
paradise.
More on the beach over the
sea.
We went birds wating in the morning. The mosquitos in the bushes
were terrible.
Our two Cuban guides were very knowledgable.
Bird watch trip (left) in the woods. The guy was feeding
the gigantic turtles (right).