Departed out of Tampa bound for Key West and Havana, Cuba with good friends Rich and Jane. This particular cruise was all about visiting Havana and certainly didn’t disappoint us. Our first stop was in Key West and since we’ve been there many times, we decided to simply rent bicycles and take a leisurely ride around town. Very warm for biking, but we managed to spend a couple of hours out before returning to the ship. Rich and Jane took a walk on Duval Street for some shopping.
We booked a private tour online with Cuban Connection Tours and were excited to meet our guide, Jay in front of the chocolate museum which was a short walk from the ship. Prior to leaving the ship, we had to purchase Visa’s for the day at the cost of $75 each. We were warned that it could take hours to get through the lines at immigration, but we managed to basically walk right off the ship. No lines and no problems. We were in Cuba and it was like stepping back in time. Since we were too early to meet the tour guide, we enjoyed walking around the cobblestone streets and stopped at a cafe’ for a cup of cuban coffee. Three coffee’s and one water – $20.
Cuba, the largest country in the Caribbean, is located where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet, between Florida and Jamaica. It’s vibrant capital city, Havana, is made up of a colorful display of Spanish colonial architecture. Castles, cathedrals, mansions, and museums are around every bend. Sugarcane is one of the main crops, along with tobacco. Cuban handcrafted cigars are some of the finest in the world.
The city of Havana has a complex history, especially over the last 100 years. But before Havana and Cuba made headlines, it was an entirely different city when the Spanish were there. Havana’s Old City was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, including the district overall and the fortifications within. We met our guide, Jay, and began our tour in an air conditioned vehicle. Later in the day we would have a ride in a vintage convertible along the Malecon, a broad esplanade and seawall which stretches for 5 miles along the coast of Havana. We began our tour with a visit to Saint Francis of Assisi Square. The basilica and monastery was built in Havana at the end of the 16th century as the home of the Franciscan community. The church was used for worship by the English at the time they ruled Havana, but when it returned to Spanish rule, they chose not to use it as a church. It is now used for concerts and is one of Havana’s finest concert halls and the home of an all female orchestra.
“El Caballero de Paris” statue (The Gentleman from Paris) who wandered the streets of Havana and was a well-known cult figure. The metal statue’s beard has been polished over the years by the hands of tourists and seekers of good luck. AKA Kos and Rich.
We continued our tour with Jay, who was formerly a college professor. He explained to us that it is more lucrative to be a tour guide in this communist country. Jay customized our tour to our interests and answered our many questions. He told us that there is little crime in Cuba since there are not many guns. According to Wikipedia, “crime is present in various forms in Cuba though the government does not release official crime statistics. Crime reports are on the rise, with below average crisis intervention from police. Gun crime is virtually nonexistent and murder rates are below those of most Latin American countries.”
Below is the Museum of the Revolution. The museum is housed in what was the Presidential Palace of all Cuban presidents from Mario Garcia Menocal to Fulgencio Batista. It became the Museum of the Revolution during the years following the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Fidel Castro survived no fewer than 634 attempts on his life, according to his former secret service chief. The CIA’s attempts to kill Castro ranged from the calamitous to the comical. Perhaps the most famous attempt to kill Castro came in 1960 when the CIA poisoned a box of his favorite cigars. The cigars were delivered to an unidentified person in 1961 but it’s unclear what happed to them after that. Needless to say, they were never chewed by “El Comandante.”
Below is the wreckage of the U2 spy aircraft that was shot down over Cuba and piloted by Rudolf Anderson, Jr. of the United States Airforce. On October 15, 1962 when CIA analysts studied reconnaissance film they found medium range ballistic missiles. These pictures triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 27, 1962, Rudolf Anderson took off in a U-2F. A few hours into his mission, he was shot down over Cuba. For Kennedy and Khrushchev, Anderson’s death crystallized their realization that the crisis was rapidly spiraling out of their control.
After stopping at several squares, we were delighted to meet our vintage car for our ride along the Malecon.
One of our stops was to Christ of Havana – a large sculpture representing Jesus of Nazareth on a hilltop overlooking the bay in Havana. It is the work of the Cuban sculptor Jilma Madera, who won the commission for it in 1953. The statue is about 66 feet tall including a 10 foot base and weighs about 320 tons. It was built from blocks of marble that had be brought from Italy after personally being blessed by Pope Pius XII. Locals suggest that the statue was sculpted to depict a cigar in the right hand and a mojito in the left hand, honoring popular Cuban culture.
After spending about 6 hours with Jay, we had enough touring and wanted to go to the rooftop bar at Hotel Raquel, a beautiful ornate property that we heard about during a lecture on the ship.
Back on the ship, we had one day at sea before returning to Tampa. Below are some pictures around the ship.
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