After my walk through Vedado, my friend Pedro came looking for me, since I had suggested a little excursion with a rental car to get to know the countryside. Unfortunately, his wife and sister-in-law were unable to do so as their cousin was coming to town. Havana can feel a bit claustrophobic as transportation options are limited and even a basic taxi ride to Playas del Este (Playas del Este) is quite expensive.
And it’s also nice to get away from the city, which can get congested and polluted by the exhaust fumes from all old vehicles. I can’t imagine what the air must be like here in the summer when it’s 35, 40 degrees Celsius with 80, 90 percent humidity. All the locals talk about extreme heat in the summer and it is best to visit outside the months of June to September, even October.
Also, August and September are very prone to hurricanes which are an added complication, which is why many buildings have crosses made of thick tape stuck to the glass. The tape prevents the glass from breaking when hurricanes hit the city.
Renting a car is always an interesting experience. I rented a small skoda at the Hotel Havana Libre for about $ 46CUC for 24 hours. If there were no damages and the gas tank was full upon return, there would be an additional $ 30 CUC for insurance and an additional driver. Being in the rental car felt strangely liberating because suddenly it was possible to overcome all the limitations of Havana’s public transport and you could go wherever you wanted.
My friend Pedro is an experienced driver and loves to drive so he drove and we headed east along the coast. We passed through Cojimar, Playas de Este, Playa Guanabo and stopped at the Puente Bacunayagua bridge that forms the border between the provinces of Havana and Matanzas. The bridge is over 100m high and the view stretches through the forests to the ocean in the north and inland there is a lush green valley (Yumuri Valley) with a medium-sized mountain range in the background . On the bridge there is a small basic restaurant and a tourist shop and we stopped for about an hour. We also saw a very large iguana, apparently it was the offspring of the mother iguana which is apparently twice the size. The animal must have been almost 10, 15 inches long, including the tail.
Then we head east, passing through Santa Cruz del Mar, where there is a large rum factory, to Matanzas, the capital of the province of the same name. We took a little walk around the city and didn’t stop, but the city has a couple of nice squares with monuments and statues. The architecture is definitely much less impressive than in Havana. After Matanzas we headed inland to a small mountainous area called “Escaleras de Jaruco”, from where we had a beautiful view towards the interior and towards the sea.
On the way back we stopped briefly at Playas del Este to capture the sunset and then headed towards Cojimar, a town famous for its connection to Ernest Hemingway. Apparently, the city still houses an old man who was the inspiration for the novel “The Old Man and the Sea.” The old man is apparently still alive, probably around 100 years old, and used to receive visitors (for a small fee), but his health has deteriorated in recent years and he no longer receives visitors. We wanted to have a good dinner at a Paladar de Cojimar, but one was completely full and the other so expensive that we decided to continue.
After our arrival back to Havana we decided to go to a pizzeria near Parque Central as I had a real craving for pasta. The food here can get a bit drab and I love Italian food so we headed to an air-conditioned, frozen pizzeria, where they had just run out of spagetthi. We tried another fancy Italian restaurant across the square, but it had higher prices than some of the good restaurants in Toronto and we decided to head back to Chinatown as they also serve pasta.
We tried to park the rental car there, but while doing so, we had a little encounter with the local traffic police. They claimed that my friend was not wearing a seat belt (although he was) and ended up giving him a fine of 10 local pesos (about 40 cents more or less). Apparently it can very easily happen that a local Cuban is arrested and the police impose a fine and there are not too many things you can do.
After a hearty pasta dinner (for less than $ 7 for 2 people) we headed back to the hotel which is very close to the University. There was a great concert in front of the university steps and thousands and thousands of young people sang and chanted to the sound of a quite famous Cuban pop group (“Moneda Dura”) that plays very popular music for young people with socio-critical problems. nuances. The atmosphere among the people, singing and dancing in the street, was incredible. I ended up going to bed around 12 and the concert music stopped around 12:20 am and the large crowd dispersed.
Early this morning I woke up to the smell of exhaust fumes from some of the old buses and passing cars. As I had to take the rental car back at 11 am today, my friend arrived early at the hotel and we decided to visit the Miramar area, also called “Playas” on the western side of Havana, passing the Almendares River. Miramar is a very exclusive area with many foreign embassies, exclusive hotels and conference centers. “Marina Hemingway”, a nautical center with canals, yacht docks and private residences, is also located in Miramar.
It’s very strange, but Miramar actually reminded me a bit of Fort Lauderdale. In general, Miramar, because of its more modern architecture, some of which are in very good condition, reminded me quite of Florida. We visit a public sandy beach in Miramar that is surrounded by a variety of public recreation buildings, most of which have been abandoned and are in dire condition due to lack of public funds for their maintenance. It’s a real shame to see so much beautiful architecture crumble around here and my professor said that in the future it may be cheaper to tear down much of the old architecture and rebuild it from scratch than to try to preserve the old architecture. particularly in Old Havana.
As I had to return the rental car at 11 in the morning today, we filled the tank and although we had only traveled about 250 km, the cost of gasoline was $ 36 CUC (which is equivalent to about Can $ 45 approximately) Which was a bit more than I expected. We made a brief tour of Nuevo Vedado, then we passed the National Sports Center, we passed the Central Committee (the Cuban government) and we returned the car promptly at 11 am without any problem.
This afternoon my friend invited me to come and meet his family at a private dinner. I am looking forward to the experience of spending time with a Cuban family and from what I have experienced so far, Cuban hospitality is truly amazing. I’ll try to pick up some flowers from the market and bring back some of the Canadian souvenirs I brought from Toronto to return the favor. It will be interesting to see Cuban life from inside a Cuban house …
