The Revolution will not be televised
The original plan was to spend a full month in Havana, and then head to the beach - either a local village near the super touristy 20km swathe of white sand beach known as Varadero, or a fishing village near the also touristy (but in a much more quaint way) city of Trinidad on the south coast of the island. Of course neither of these actually happened, and week by week my stay in the capital has been extended for one reason or another. But so it goes….
When you exchange $7.27 on the black market in Havana....
Just joking, this was actually $100, but a random low number offered much better comedic bang for the buck. Much like the black market offers a much better rate of pesos for your hard currency.
Although if anyone asks, this exchange was obviously done legally at one of the government-run exchange offices, even though the official rate means you take an almost 70% haircut on the street market value of your dollars.
“One does not live by efforts, but from results”
Pudín de Pan
When homemade bread pudding is so good it unconsciously has you putting together a business plan and trying to convince the chef to have her daughters (6 and 8 years old)* sell slices of it in the street for a healthy profit, before the table is even cleared....
*After some initial confusion between the phrases ‘go to pension’ and ‘go to prison’, turns out that in Cuba it's illegal for kids to work, even informally at a stereotypical lemonade - or in this case bread pudding - stand, and parents would risk incarceration for doing so. Surely, there are some loopholes that could be exploited though
Billy the Bard
To be or not to be, that is the question. Or at least it's a question. Another question is: Why is there a statue of Bill Shakespeare doing a Hamlet impersonation in Old Havana? Lots more questions than answers on this island....
🎶 Here comes the sun 🎶
King of the Streets
King of the streets. And yes, Havana does seem to have a small problem with garbage collection (or lack thereof) these days. But you honestly don't notice it after being here for a while....
Weekend vibes
Enjoying a yet another spectacular Caribbean sunrise from the rooftop infinity pool....
NB: This is actually just an empty water canister with like a centimetre of rain water pooled on the top. The photo was also taken on a Thursday, so strictly speaking it's not even weekend vibes.
In other words, nothing but lies here folks, sorry. Although I guess that's how most travel ‘influencers’ on social media work, so in that regard it's entirely authentic.
Propaganda y Eventos 🇨🇺 💃🇨🇺💃
A nice little Saturday at the local Propaganda and Events centre....
Moopish Heritage
Some Moorish (or Moopish if you're a Seinfeld fan) architecture along the Paseo del Prado, the main boulevard separating Habana Vieja from Centro Habana....
No Hay Rón
Not to make light of the myriad of crises¹ facing Cuba these days, but this² might be the single saddest sight you'll ever see on the island....
¹Which are very likely going to get much worse after a certain Cheeto-coloured grifter is inaugurated mañana.
²There is no rum
Happy MLK Day
A sadly still more relevant than ever 60-year-old quote spotted on the wall of Martin Luther King Jr Park here in Havana:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Or maybe at this point the spiritual death is already well in the rearview mirror, so the quote actually isn't relevant anymore. Either way.
Also seems an especially apropos day to reflect on the fact that the US government, ultimately, murdered MLK, Malcolm X, both Kennedys and literally countless other actual beacons of hope and change solely to protect the interests of oligarchs. Nothing more, nothing less. That's the raison d’être of our $1 trillion a year military.
Anyway, the oligarchs have clearly won. Well played oligarchs! Credit where credit is due. Or, to paraphrase a fictional late-20th century philosopher: Evil is as evil does.
Happy MLK Day….
Barrio Chino
Forget about it, Jorge. It's Chinatown….
Swans v Serpents
Absolutely nobody:
The architect who decided that the railing of this building should consist entirely of swans battling serpents:
Más Che
“Che would not accept anything to which his ration card did not entitle him. And besides, the question of clothes was something of absolutely no interest to him. (José Luis laughed.) He wasn't dirty, but he always looked a mess. His olive green clothes could be faded, and the pants one kind of green and the shirt another shade.
And he would show up like that at the most elegant official reception. His shirt might be tucked in on the right side where he carried his pistol, but the rest of it would be hanging out. In those four months in Africa José Luis had talked a lot with Che. In the evenings at the hotel Che would play chess with the men, read to them, or indoctrinate them politically.”
- Ernesto Cardenal, In Cuba (1972)
Lonely People: The Eternal Dance
This was some amazing ‘found art' even before looking up the book on the right and discovering what the subtitle is. It really adds multiple layers of (Freudian?) meaning to the look on the baby's face.
If you can't see the fine print down there, it says (in Spanish): ‘An anthology of Cuban erotic poetry from the 18th century to the present day’
Just too perfect....
NB: This photo was actually taken almost a month ago, and I walk by the same bookshop a few times a week and had always meant to get a better angle on this shot, but then the inevitable finally happened, and yesterday the Lonely People book was no longer there. Apparently it found a home. Which, when you think about it, is a fitting ending to this lovely little vignette from the streets of Havana.
Fiction will never be even a fraction as interesting as real life - I don't care what anyone says....
El Miel de Cuba
An overcast, drizzly day today in Havana - apparently some of the knock on effects from the winter blizzard that hit the Gulf coast of the US in protest about the whole name change nonsense.
Anyway, nothing will warm you up on days like this like a bottle of Havana Club! Preferably a bottle that's been emptied, cleaned out and refilled with delicious local Cuban honey.
Cost at one of the many neighbourhood farmers’ markets (ie agromercados): 600 pesos, or around $1.75 for 700ml.
Even better than the real thing
🎶 You're the real thing
🎶 Yeah, the real thing
🎶 You're the real thing
🎶 Even better than the real thing, yeah
Paseo del Prado
A new 5-star hotel and an old Art Deco theatre - the latter of which seems to be long abandoned, but sometimes it's really hard to tell if this is actually the case in Havana....
Scráh-bleh
When you're inspired by the recent news story of a Kiwi who can't speak Spanish or French winning international Scrabble competitions in both languages, only to find out that, alas, inspiration and accomplishment are two very different things....
Saturday night in Havana
This is an old theatre on Avenida Simon Bolivar, one of Havana's grand historic streets. I walk down this street on almost a daily basis, but it took me a month to pass by on this side of the street at night and finally notice this amazing sign. During the day the door is open and you can peer into the cavernous interior, which has been turned into a giant carpentry workshop. No idea who turns this sign on each night. And even after taking the photos, I thought it might be possible that it was nothing more than an hallucination. But I've since gone back and confirmed that the sign is indeed lit up at night, as long as this part of the city isn't suffering from a blackout.
Year of the Snake
When you unexpectedly come across a festival kicking off celebrations for the Chinese New Year in the middle of Havana....
Team Coco de Cuba
Nothing should really surprise you when you're wandering around the backstreets of Havana. But, that said, this was still a relatively surprising discovery yesterday - luckily in the most amusing way possible....
Sky Parks
New York might have its bougie, constantly packed High Line, but Havana has countless pocket-sized sky parks dotted all over the place, especially in the old town.
Of course, they're mostly growing out of abandoned or partially abandoned buildings in various states of ruin and aren't exactly accessible to the public, but they still look nice from below.
Case in point, this beauty on the corner of Muralla and Bernaza streets....
Early to the Torch Parade
When you accidentally show up two hours early to a big thing* and still can't get a good spot, so end up wandering around some empty streets at dusk waiting for the action to start....
*La Marcha de Las Antorchas, which is exactly what it sounds like, ie The March of the Torches. More on that later, including a bonus Raúl Castro sighting and a small misunderstanding with some plain clothes policia.
Bizarro Nietzsche's B’day
When you first arrive in Cuba without knowing much about it, one thing that will surprise you is seeing statues of Nietzsche all over the place, especially when they've got very un-Nietzschean quotes on them like this one does - ie “Triumph belongs to those who sacrifice themselves.” Wait, when did Germany's most curmudgeonly philosopher become such a big ol’ softy?
But then you quickly figure out that it's actually not Nietzsche, but this chap called José Martí, who was a Cuban nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor and publisher, and is still considered the most important national hero in Cuba thanks to the role he played in the independence movement at the end of the 19th century.
Today is also his birthday, which means another long excerpt from Ernesto Cardenal's In Cuba:
“He was an evangelical man, and his greatest tragedy was that he had to start a war; but he preached that it should be without hatred. War was to free the enemies. He spoke of joining men in patience and piety. War must be waged with ‘charity, energy and vigilance’ - and charity came first. For him war was very grievous. His own father was Spanish. It was a war of love.
War must be cultured and wholesome, he said. Not only heroic. He dreamt of an antimilitaristic republic, where one could discuss matters, with absolute respect for all the rights of the citizens, without class privileges and without discrimination, with culture and wealth divided equally. The government must be the ‘supreme equity’.
For him Cuba was the sacred isle of liberty. He had a premonition of what is going on now.... That man was passing from the individual to the collective. The greatest kind of men, according to him, were those who sacrificed themselves for others. Fidel considers him the founder of the Revolution.”
¡Feliz cumpleaños El Maestro!
The revolution will not be televised
The first March of the Torches took place in 1953, in protest against the US-backed Bautista dictatorship, and amongst the thousands of students famously included a young lawyer named Fidel Castro, who later that year would lead the attack on the Moncada barracks, officially marked the start of the Cuban Revolution. It's still held annually on the eve of the birthday of José Martí (see above), and political implications aside (see below) is quite a spectacle.
Of course, like the demonstration against the US embargo/blockade on 20 December, depending on who you talk to (or which media you read) it's either a great rallying cry against imperialism channeling the spirit of national hero Martí, or nothing more than a spectacle of the current regime that people are forced to attend.
Like with most things in Cuba, the truth likely lies somewhere in between. Here's one incredibly positive article from official Cuban media, and one incredibly negative one from the Havana Times.
🇨🇺 The revolution will not be televised
🇨🇺 Will not be televised
🇨🇺 Will not be televised
🇨🇺 Will not be televised
🇨🇺 The revolution will be no re-run, brothers
🇨🇺 The revolution will be live
NB: Of course the Cuban Revolution was and is still being televised. Or at least the last remnants of it. If you'd like to see more clips of this year's La Marcha de las Antorchas, shot (poorly) by yours truly, you can find them under the Cuba playlist of the Travelling Curmudgeon YouTube channel.
Above it was teased that there would be more said about seeing Raúl Castro and having a small misunderstanding with some plain clothes police, but in hindsight perhaps this is a case of less being more.