Trip to Cuba: Memories of yesterday (II)

Regarding crime, as in any other country, if you do not look for trouble or go on an adventure in any neighborhood and at odd hours you will not have problems. You should be careful and be a little alert, but as in any other place. In Old Havana there are a lot of tourists, so it is better to carry your backpack forward. Otherwise you will never have any problems.

Something that caught my attention is that a policeman or even a doctor is paid no more than 50 cuc a month, so almost everyone tries to make a living from tourism or selling any product. In the rural areas farther away from the capital there is barter or even the sale, house to house, of products such as fish or sausages. Being illegal at all, they risk losing the product and a fine of 1500 cuc. These are the contrasts of a country with a lot of ingenuity.

Once settled in and acclimatized to the humidity and the time difference, the best way to start getting to know the city is to see the fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña, very well preserved. It guarded and protected the city and the entrance to the Bay from Englishmen and pirates.

From there we can see and contemplate the city of Havana. It is a monument built by the Spaniards. Its history is very curious and requires stopping to see it quietly. I will tell you more about it later.

Every day, at nine o’clock at night, they make a recreation of the closing of the gates of the wall with a cannon shot. It is very well represented, with costumes of the time in the soldiers and others. My advice is to go with time as there are usually a lot of people to see it every day.

A good place to see it is in front of the cannon that they fire every day (they have it covered with a bag so that the wick does not get wet). Right in front of the cannon there are some granite benches. Take one of those and climb up from there and you will see it great.

During the day the entrance fee is 6 cuc (if you leave the fortress you can’t go back in). Inside there is a pizzeria that is very good and very cheap. There is also a slightly better and more expensive restaurant. Outside you can also find a better one for the same price but neither of them is cheap.

Another very interesting thing are the exhibitions of weapons and utensils used by Ernesto Che, as well as instruments and medieval things interesting to see. You will see a hermitage with human remains and burials. Outside you can visit Che’s house, where he lived in Havana (one of his houses) very interesting to see. Pure history of Havana and the revolution very much alive and present even today, although a change is also beginning to breathe.

You can also see the marble Christ Sacred Heart of Jesus, built by a Cuban sculptor Jilma Madera and brought from Italy as it was sculpted there with Carrara marble, the same that was used in the Columbus Cemetery in Havana (another of the things that I recommend you to see in any time you have), of course, try to go with someone who knows him. You can enter by car. In the center there is a very nice chapel that is worth seeing.

Once we have finished enjoying the views, we take our cab and head to Old Havana. It is very difficult to see it all in one day as there are all very curious streets and places where we will stop continuously. It is best to divide it into two days.

We will tell our cab to drop us off at the Habana Club Museum. It is the closest to the exit of the tunnel that brings us from La Fortaleza (built by the Americans. It goes under the water). From there we will start our route on foot.