Cuba - Cigar Factory Tour, Hotel Nacional, Talk on Economics

If you haven’t read my Cuba pre-travel tips, check them out here.

Other posts from this trip can be found using the label Cuba2018.

Cuba Day 5 – Havana: Cigar Factory, Hotel Nacional, Talk on Economics 

Partagas Cigar Factory

Bright and early we boarded a bus to the Partagas Cigar Factory. We could take photos in the lobby, but weren’t allowed to bring cameras in any further. It was incredible to see each job (done by hand) and learn about the amount of detail that goes into each cigar.



Next, we visited a gift shop in an old rum distillery. This gift shop was selected for us because it had a good selection of both rum and cigars. Our group purchased a lot of cigars, but I purchased some Havana Club 7-year rum. 



The gift shop had a small cafe off the main room, and several people ordered a Cuban coffee with rum and sugar. It was quite a show!


 

Elder Home Visit

Not far from the gift shop was an elder home run by the local Catholic church. A retired nun gave us a tour of the grounds and their incredible chapel and beautiful gardens.


 
 

Mal Paso Dance Group

We had the opportunity to sit in on a practice session for the Mal Paso Dance Group, followed by Q&A. It was clear that these individuals were excellent at what they do. You can learn more about the group at their website: www.MalPasoDance.com.



Practice was held at a local Jewish center, which had a holocaust museum of sorts in the lobby. There was a lot of information to take in.

Lunch at Hotel Nacional!

After an action-packed morning, we got to enjoy lunch at the iconic Hotel Nacional! This hotel has played such an important role in Cuban history, and has a beautiful view of the sea.


 
 

After lunch cocktails 

A mini Hotel Nacional

View of a fortress

University of Havana

After lunch we visited the University of Havana, and attended a lecture in a recently restored building. Afterwards we walked over to the stairs overlooking the neighborhood for a group photo. 


 

One of the recently restored buildings 

View from atop the steps

The statue named “Alma Mater”

Sloppy Joe’s

For our afternoon break, boyfriend and I walked around the neighborhoods near our hotel. We decided to have a drink at Sloppy Joe’s, yet another famous and popular bar that was used in a Hollywood movie before the US and Cuba stopped being friends. 

Economic Lecture and Dinner

One of my favorite things about this trip was all of the lectures we got to attend. #NerdAlert 

But really, there was a lot of good information!! For example:

• Last year (2017) there were over 500 new paladares (private restaurants) in Havana alone, and over 20,000 new B&Bs 
• After President Obama eased travel restrictions: 
• The Havana airport went from 500,000 passengers to 1,000,000 in one week 
• Havana went from 66,000 visitors per year to 158,000 almost overnight 
• Havana used to have 12 cruise ships dock per year, but this drastically increased. 1 cruise ship is equal to seven (7) 747-airplanes landing at once. That’s a LOT of people 
• The US embargo on Cuba is composed of over 3000 restrictions. It practically can’t/won’t be removed in one action, so the goal is to weaken it by allowing specific loopholes.  
• Cuba has to change, with or without the US. The US could do more to make it a little easier to adapt.

By US regulation, our trip to Cuba had minimal downtime. Everything was planned, and we did everything as a group (approximately 20 people). It was nice to finally have one night for dinner on our own. We were given a list of recommended restaurants and activities, but we were allowed to venture out on our own. We ended up picking the same restaurant as another person from our group, so we made a reservation for 3. The restaurant was called Ivan Chef Justo; a paladar run by a renowned chef. The restaurant was the 2nd and 3rd floor in a building, and was really eclectic. Our table was actually on a tiny terrace with a view of Old Havana’s rooftops.


 Inside the restaurant  
The view
 

FINALLY, some fish on this Caribbean island!

After dinner we were all stuffed and decided to wander around Habana Vieja. Why not try the “microbrewery” in Plaza Vieja?!

Well, it turns out it was less of a brewery and more of an “all in one” brewing machine. More like a beer-like substance than actual beer. The beer wasn’t good, but the company was great.
And with that, there are 3 more Cuba blog posts coming… I’m determined to finish them soon!

Cuba - Walking Tour of Havana, US Embassy Visit, Local Acting Group, Daiquiris!

If you haven’t read my Cuba pre-travel tips, check them out here.

Other posts from this trip can be found using the label Cuba2018.

Cuba Day 4 – Walking Tour of Havana, US Embassy Visit, Local Acting Group, Daiquiris!

Meeting with an Architect

We started the day with a lecture by an architect with the City of Havana. His lecture might have been my favorite on the trip, as he shared Havana's history and his hopes for the future. Here’s a link to the paper his lecture was based on: www.theholmteam.ca/HAVANA.WORKSHOPS.Dec.2011.pdf

Some interesting info from his lecture:

• The cobblestones in Old Havana are from ship ballasts from Massachusetts.
• There are no mortgages in Cuba. If you were to use your house as collateral, you could potentially end up homeless. Being homeless is forbidden in Cuba.
• The stained-glass fan lights are made with wood, not lead. Can you tell? I couldn’t!

Next up was a walking tour of Old Havana / Habana Vieja. We started in Plaza de San Francisco de Asisi. This beautiful plaza is sometimes called “plaza of the pigeons” because, well, there were a lot of them.






Such a beautiful place!


Beautiful courtyards everywhere!


Plaza Vieja



We brought supplies to a school in Plaza Vieja, and the students had prepared a Cuban folksong to sing to us.



We continued our walking tour and saw a former arms shop that is now a museum:



There was music everywhere! I loved it!

You may know that I am a fan of wooden streets… Havana still has one in Plaza de Armas! Check out these wooden ‘bricks’ in Havana’s oldest plaza:




In Plaza de Armas


Never ending views in this city.

We ate lunch at a government-owned restaurant (the standard in Cuba) called La Dominica. They served mediocre Italian food, but the view was worth it!


We continued our walking tour after lunch. Habana Vieja is seriously beautiful!



We stopped for a photo at one of Hemingway’s preferred establishments: La Bodeguita del Medio. No time for a mojito. :-\

In yet another beautiful plaza stands the Havana Cathedral. Our guide mentioned something about the church no longer being used for mass, but Wikipedia seems to think it is still active. Either way, it was built in 1777.




During some free time after lunch, boyfriend and I ventured across the Prado to El Centro. This neighborhood doesn’t cater to tourists like Habana Vieja does; El Centro is more of a typical neighborhood for Cubans. The difference was stark. Some streets were lined with beautiful homes that had fallen into disrepair or a few that were in good shape, and on other streets you had to dodge crumbling building facades and trash/sewage in the street. The blue and yellow house in the second picture has a sign to indicate that there are rooms available to rent.

Visit to the US Embassy in Havana

We were lucky enough to visit the US Embassy in Havana on this trip. There was some discussion of the “attacks” that were still under investigation. You can read more here. (That article had not been published at the time of my trip.) I have no photos to share because we weren’t allowed to bring in phones or cameras. It’s a bummer too, because there was a photography contest for embassy employees and their photos were really cool!

There was a lot of talk about Cuba’s new President and the revision of Cuba’s constitution, and what that might mean for the US. Some other interesting points:

• We learned that 40% of Cubans have access to the internet, but that includes the majority of the population who can only access the internet once per day. It is common for Cubans to take their laptops and smartphones to a park and use the public WiFi there, because they don’t have internet access in their homes.
• Over 1 million Americans visited Cuba in 2017, and nearly half were non-Cuban Americans.

Local Acting Group

Next up was a performance by a local acting group. I don’t remember the group’s name, but I enjoyed their skits!


This skit was about the waiting room at a doctor's office.
The 2nd person from the left is on her cell phone, LAUGHING LOUDLY every few seconds.
The rest of the people are frustrated with her....


They all get up and leave, one by one, until the last person gets fed up.
He takes her phone, laughs angrily/mockingly at it, hangs up, and walks away. Hilarious!!


During the Q&A session with the actors

Dinner, then EL FLORIDITA!

We had dinner at a state-owned restaurant near Plaza de San Francisco de Asisi. Our guide recommended the fish to me. Apparently “chicken for fish” is a common saying in Cuba, used when people feel deceived or like they didn’t get what they paid for. The saying comes from the ration shop always promising that fish is coming next week, but in the end only chicken is available. But this restaurant had fish!

The food was good, the setting was beautiful, and the band was great!






Probably the best state-run restaurant we visited.
It was clearly high-end, and we were the only guests.

The day was long, but we had one more stop… El Floridita. The birthplace of the daiquiri! It was PACKED. A group of us managed to find a small table and enjoy a drink or two. The music was good, and the drinks were perfect.


I’ll leave you with some night shots of Havana:


Plaza de San Francisco de Asís


Even the random alleys are beautiful


Gran Teatro de La Habana and Hotel Inglaterra


Gran Teatro de La Habana and Hotel Inglaterra


Polka-dot car or Dalmatian car?!

Coming up are 2 more days in Havana, a visit to Fusterlandia, and the Las Terrazes Biopreserve!