We had a very early departure from the hotel, with a 5:15am continental breakfast in the lobby before departing for the airport. Our flight from Havana to Miami was delayed for the better part of two hours as the airlines computer system was down and passenger ticketing needed to be done by hand. Once we arrived in Miami at the airport around noon, we had lunch with group members Celeste and Theresa who also had later flights.  We had a long wait until our flight for San Diego departed at 7:40pm, arriving home after 10:00pm.

Havana Dance Company

Havana Casa Fuster

Havana Casa Fuster

Havana Fuster’s Artwork

Havana Hemingway’s Home

Havana Ride in a Vintage Car

Havana Opera House

There is a local Havana Dance Company that we visited on this morning. This particular dance company is privately funded and not run by the government. They gave us a performance of their unique dance and music experience. They use their bodies to clap, stomp their feet move as well as play everything from the drums to the kitchen chairs. They were really very talented young women and it was a pleasure to see them perform.

We also visited the Casa Fuster or home of artist Jose Rodriquez Fuster, known as the Picasso of the Caribbean. Jose, now in his 60’s, is a painter, ceramicist, and creator. He is most famous for transforming his poor neighborhood with ceramic mosaics. For the last 30 years he has been covering most any surface he could find in the neighborhood with ceramic tile mosaics. He now has a team of 15 neighborhood artists who assist him with his creations. His own private residence is like a Disneyland of mosaics. The floors, ceilings, benches, railings are all entirely covered with mosaic tile. In addition, there are many creations of animals, figures, and creatures all made of concrete and steel and then entirely covered in ceramic tile mosaics. The homes all around the neighborhood are now also covered with similar mosaics and several neighbors have set up souvenir stands in their yards to cash in on Jose’s success.

For lunch we had something unique. We went to a paladar called the Mediterraneo Paladar where we enjoyed a lunch of pasta, pizzas, salads and ice cream. After lunch a famous retired Cuban baseball player named Rolando Matias spoke with us about his career in local baseball. He had many opportunities to sign with American ball teams in the late 1950’s but could not imagine leaving his family in Cuba to play ball in the states. Many of his baseball accomplishments still stand today, of which he is extremely proud.

We also visited Finca Vigia, Hemmingway’s farm about a 30-minute drive from town. The home has been beautifully maintained as it was at the time of his death. To preserve the property, they only allow visitors to view the home from the outside as they peer through the open windows and doors. It is a small two-bedroom home located on a large parcel of land in what was a very rural area at the time he lived there. We were also able to visit the pool and see one of his boats that he owned and used to fish from.

In the late afternoon we were picked up at our hotel in vintage 1950’s convertible American automobiles. They took us on about a one-hour tour of the city before dropping us off at the La Fontana Paladar for our final dinner. We dined on lobster, fish, clams and shrimp outdoors in a lovely garden. Surprise!  No flan and no music!

Havana Church

Havana Church Interior

Havana Roundabout

Havana Muraleando Art

Havana Muraleando Mosaic Bench

Havana Muraleando Musicians

Havana Mural

Havana Vintage Cars

Havana Hotel National

Havana Hotel National Bar

Havana Architecture

With a population in excess of two million people, Havana is the capital city, the largest city, the major port and leading commercial center of Cuba. The city was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century due to its strategic location for the conquest of the continent. It became a stopping point for treasure-laden Spanish galleons returning to Spain.

Due to Havana’s almost five-hundred-year history, the city boasts some of the most diverse styles of architecture in the world. It has every style from castles built in the 16th century to modernist present day high-rises. The Old Havana section of town consists of the original core of town with mostly western style architecture. Much of this area has baroque and neoclassical style architecture.

Then there is the Barrio Chino area which was once Latin America’s largest and most vibrant Chinese community incorporated into the city in the early part of the 20th century. Prior to this time, beginning in June of 1847, hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers were brought in by Spanish settlers from Guangdong, Fujian, and Macau via Manila, Philippines to work alongside African slaves. After completing an eight-year contract, many Chinese immigrants settled permanently in Havana. Interesting, but in reality we saw very few Asian’s in Cuba.

This morning we had a lecture in our hotel with a local economics professor who gave us his insights into the Cuban economy including the recent changes since more Americans have been allowed to visit the country. The increase in cruise ships in recent months, along with the increased number of flights from Miami to multiple airports in Cuba, has been dramatic. More than 500 paladars have opened in Havana alone. High end hotels like the Melia where we are staying are fully booked by American companies for more than the next year and the price of rooms has gone through the roof. Air B&B has also experienced incredible growth in the country as more and more locals try to cash in on the influx of tourists. There are also many new hotels under construction in Havana to help accommodate the high demand.

Next, we took a walking tour of Old Havana with a local architect. Eduardo showed us several of the local squares including one with a street made of wood. One of the wealthy governor’s wives did not like the sound of the horse drawn carriages as they passed by the house on the concrete street so her husband had the street replaced with wood to soften the sound. As a piece of history, they have maintained the wooden street to this day. The artist Ernest Hemmingway used to live in a hotel room in Old Town and frequented a local bar most everyday. Many buildings have been restored but there are still many more that are in dire need of renovation. We visited the main church that has been restored and is quite beautiful inside. Outside of the church there were a group of locals, including many women dressed in colorful dresses, with cigars in their mouths, wanting tourists to tip them to take a photo with them.

Our next stop was the famous Hotel National that has been frequented by every movie star, newscaster, political leader that has visited Havana over the last century. The hotel overlooks the ocean and features a lot of old world character. The bar has photos on every wall of all the famous people who have visited the hotel over the years.

After lunch at a local paladar called La Moraleja, we visited the Muraleando Community Project. This poor community, once overwhelmed by trash, has been transformed by this neighborhood community center. This community asked permission from the government to build a community center out of an old concrete water storage tank that had long ago been abandoned and had become a trash heap. Community volunteers have transformed this old trash heap into a wonderful community center where everyone is welcome to come and be creative or just hang out. The walls are covered with paintings, tile mosaics, sculptures and other works of art. The old water tank is now filled with local artist’s jewelry, paintings, sculpture and handicrafts which they sell to help finance the works of the community center. On the roof of the water tank there is now a full kitchen and covered event space where they host birthday parties, wedding receptions and community events. They offer children classes in art and welcome all to participate. It is really quite a remarkable space created by the community for the community.

We were free to have dinner on our own but we were happy to enjoy a short walk and a quiet dinner in the hotel. We retired to our room early after such a busy couple of weeks.

Bay of Pigs Beach

Bay of Pigs Museum

Bay of Pigs Museum Exhibit

Bay of Pigs Museum Photograph

Bay of Pigs Billboard

Havana Malecon

Havana – Melia Hotel Lobby

Havana – Melia Hotel Room

Havana – Melia Hotel Room View

The drive from our hotel to Playa Giron and the Bay of Pigs Museum took us about ninety-minutes including a comfort stop along the way. The countryside in this area of Cuba is filled with rice fields, mango, papaya, banana, taro root and plantain fields.

The museum was very modern looking with many photos, tanks, war plane remnants, weapons and news articles. Of course the museum is slanted to the view from the Cuba side of things and how powerful and smart Fidel and his men were to defeat this invasion of the southern coast of Cuba.

The Bay of Pigs refers to the failed invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-Sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on April 17, 1961. The intent was to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, but within three days the invading forces were defeated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. President Eisenhower allocated $13.1 million to the CIA to plan Castro’s overthrow but it was put off for President Kennedy to decide. The attack failed miserably and the invaders surrendered within three days, and the majority of the the invaders were publicly interrogated and put into Cuban prisons. Negotiations led to the prisoners being released in exchange for medicine and baby food. They say that there were 1,197 prisoners, 5 ships were destroyed, 156 Cubans and 89 mercenaries were killed, and hundreds injured.

The failed invasion helped strengthen Castro’s leadership and made him a national hero. It also strengthened relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba.

After our visit at the museum we drove a short distance around the bay to a restaurant called the Casa Enrique for another Cuban lunch of fish, rice and beans, pork, shredded goat and flan. The food was very nice. After lunch we met with a local naturalist (male) who works for the government in the management of the huge National Park in this area called the Zapata Marshlands. The park is made up of mostly marshlands that are home to crocodiles, crabs, birds, fish and a variety of wildlife.

From here we drove a short distance to the main country highway comprised of six lanes, three in each direction, bound for La Habana or as we call it Havana. The funny thing about the massive highway is that they have so few cars compared to the population that the highway was mostly empty. The drive to Havana took us about two and a half hours.

Our hotel for the next three nights was the Melia Cohiba Hotel located just west of downtown Havana on the malecon or concrete waterfront boardwalk. The hotel was much more modern and elegant than any other hotels that we stayed at. It was about 25 stories tall with nicely appointed rooms, large bathrooms, elegant public spaces, multiple restaurants and bars and several shops.

After a short rest we departed the hotel bound for a Jazz Performance and discussion by the Cuban Institute of Music musicians at a local paladar. There were four musicians playing the keyboard, a wooden box drum, a percussionist and a trumpet player. They performed a short concert while we enjoyed mojito’s and drinks. They answered questions about the local music institute and how competitive the music business is in Cuba. Most everywhere we went for a meal there would be a musical group of one type or another who would play for us.

After drinks we took a short bus ride to the El Aljibe Restaurant that has been around for more than fifty-years and is famous for it roast chicken dinners. The restaurant had a huge open air dining room with a thatched roof. They served a roasted chicken dinner family style with rice, beans, salad, appetizers and ice cream for dessert. It was very good and a bit of a change from the seafood and pork that we had mostly been eating. The only drawback was that since it was an open air restaurant, there was no air conditioning. It was originally privately owned but is now a government run restaurant using the original family recipes.

Cienfuegos Botanical Garden Tree Blossoms

Cienfuegos Botanical Garden

Cienfuegos Botanical Garden

Cienfuegos City Hall

Cienfuegos Main Square

Cienfuegos Chamber Orchestra

Cienfuegos Paladar

Cienfuegos Pedestrian Street

This morning our fist stop was at the local Cienfuegos Botanical Gardens set on something like 3,000 acres of land. The botanical garden was started in the early 1900’s when a Dr. Atkins from Harvard University bought a sugar plantation. He traveled the world collecting species of plants from all the tropical climates and brought them back to Cuba to create the botanical garden. They used the plants in research at Harvard University. We had a guide by the name of Hilda who gave us a brief walking tour of a small portion of the garden. She had been working at the garden for 22 years and was extremely knowledgeable about the plants. We saw a variety of plants we recognized and many that were new to us.

Next we headed to the center of Cienfuegos where we walked the main pedestrian shopping street and visited the main square named the Parque Jose Marti. Many of the buildings have been restored–or are in the process of being restored–around the main square. The great majority of the shops are all government owned at this time with the exception of some of the art shops and a clothing shop. The main square is the largest in Cuba, and being a Saturday there were lots of people out with their families shopping and enjoying the outdoors. The strange thing was that there were almost no cars on the streets around the square. There are so few cars that no matter where you go there is little to no traffic. More likely you would need to wait for a bicycle or motorcycle to pass to cross the street than to worry about a car.

We had lunch at a local Paladar not far down the coast from the center of town called the Finca del Mar Paladar. Here we enjoyed a pumpkin (Squash) soup, green salad, choice of red snapper, shredded beef or grilled chicken breast, steamed squash, green beans and ice cream or flan for dessert. We were seated on the patio at this beautiful restaurant with views of the ocean but it was very warm and humid. We had lunch with Alan and Tim, from Los Angeles, who are on the trip with us. They were suggesting that we try a new cruise website called cruisecompete.com and also Google Flights for airline tickets.

After lunch we headed to the Marti Museo Provincial (Museum on the main square) for a performance by the Cienfuegos Chamber Orchestra which has existed for 10 years and now consisted of a pianist, three violinists, two violas, a bass player, and a cello player. They performed about five songs for us, including one in which they sang. They were a small group but were very talented musicians who seemed passionate about their craft. Many had started studying at age 7 or 8.  Most were in their 20s/30s and one was about 50.  After the concert we looked around the small museum which had everything from early indigenous people’s tools, to fine art to home furnishings from a century ago. Unfortunately, it appeared that the roof leaked, the wooden windows were rotted and the building was in dire need of some TLC.

We had some free time to wander around after the concert and Kent found a small wooden car to purchase for our collection of travel treasures. Many of the shops sell these wooden cars that represent the vintage American and Russian cars you find throughout Cuba.

We arrived back at the hotel about 4:00pm for a rest before cocktails at our hotel at 6:00pm followed by dinner back in town at the Casa Prado Paladar. The dining room was quite small but the wait staff was very pleasant and attentive making for a wonderful evening. They served us fresh bread rolls, a warm salad of mixed vegetables, a choice of grilled pork, fish, beef, shrimp or chicken. The meats came with four sauces, a sweet and sour, mayonnaise, green pepper and creole. The main course was accompanied with white or Cuban rice and banana chips. For dessert they served flan, coffee and a large shot of sugar cane liqueur that was 33% alcohol. They also sent us home with a souvenir cigar and a key ring with a barrel of rum on it that says Cuba.

Beautiful Countryside

River on the way to Trinidad

Tobacco Valley on the way to Trinidad

Trinidad Main Square

Trinidad Street

Kent Shopping in Trinidad

View at our Cienfuegos Hotel

Pool at our Cienfuegos Hotel

We left the hotel in Camaguey this morning about 8:00am bound for the town of Trinidad. The trip took about five hours with a fifteen-minute comfort stop at a roadside restaurant. The drive was through mostly flat dry land used for raising cattle and goats. As we neared Trinidad we began to see the foothills and mountains that line the southern coast of Cuba in this area. We stopped at a lookout point overlooking what is known as the Valley of the Sugar Mills, named this because there were once more than 50 sugar refineries located in this valley and sugar plantations were everywhere.

The meticulously well preserved colonial city of Trinidad is located in south-central Cuba with a population of about 75,000 inhabitants. Built on huge sugar fortunes amassed in the adjacent Valle de los Ingenios during the early 19^th century, the riches of its heyday are still in evidence in the colonial style mansions. Rambling cobblestone streets, stately palaces and plazas are everywhere. The buildings are brightly painted in shades of pinks, greens and blues and the streets are sprinkled with vintage American cars. The town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and so many of the historic colonial buildings are being restored within the downtown area and the cobblestone streets must be maintained.

We had lunch at the Paladar El Dorado, located in the historic center of Trinidad. The paladar was beautifully restored with several large dining rooms complete with high ceilings and crystal chandeliers. There was a pleasant private courtyard and guest rooms for rent upstairs. They gave us a welcome drink called a banana daiquiri that tasted little like bananas with rum in it. We dined on vegetable soup, green salad, bread, lobster, rice and black beans, banana chips and flan for dessert.

After lunch we walked a short distance to an African oriented religious temple called the Templo Yemaya to meet the local priest. This Santeria religion was brought to Cuba by African slaves who worked in the sugar plantations and is one of the three main religions practiced in Cuba.

We then were given a short amount of time to wander the cobblestone streets of town to explore the architecture and shops on our own. The town was by far the busiest that we have seen thus far, with tourists filling the streets. There are many of the old homes and buildings that have been converted to art galleries and shops on the lower floors and sell all sorts of carved wooden figures, paintings, handicrafts, T-shirts and other items. On several of the streets there were flea markets filled with booth after booth of more souvenirs and artwork. It appears that with all of the tourists in town, everyone is an entrepreneur. You cannot walk far without someone asking you if you want to buy Cuban cigars.

We boarded the bus about 4:00pm for a 90-minute drive to our hotel for the next two nights called the Faro Luna Hotel in Cienfuegos. Cienfuegos, named after a local founder, is located on the southern coast of Cuba about 160 miles east of Havana and has a population of about 175,000. Settled by French immigrants more than 150 years ago, Cienfuegos is often referred to as the “Pearl of the South” because of its impressive beauty and colorful history. The hotel overlooked the Caribbean Sea to the south. We had dinner with the group in the hotel’s restaurant called the Caribe.