Impressions of Cuba

"That's the biggest Jesus I've ever seen!" I exclaimed upon espying this, the largest Jesus I have ever seen.


The stairs to the laundry area-cum-balcony at our casa particular, and the courtyard below. These casas are private homes with permits to rent rooms as a source of additional income - they are basically little B&Bs.


The view from inside a Coco-Taxi.


The view from outside a Coco-Taxi. It is basically a motorcycle with a giant's helmet affixed, so as to create a mode of transport blending minimal speed and safety with maximal fun.

In a conversation with my sister, I just told her that aside from the food you eat and the air you breathe, Havana is great. But that's not entirely fair: that comment makes it sound as though I liked it far less than I did. It's not a perfect city, but hey, name one that is. The bad part is that a lot of people seem to be only just getting by, not getting the resources to improve their surroundings and prospects. The buildings outside of the old town (Habana Vieja) are mostly a little on the dilapidated side, and some are just outright falling down. While there wasn't any really abject poverty that I saw, although some Cubans do have cars that are, suspiciously, a lot newer and nicer-looking than the general fleet's quality. In fact, the two things that bothered me most are the aforementioned food and air. In a tropical country, you might expect markets ought to be overflowing with vegetables and fruit at all times of the year. In Havana, I saw exactly five varieties of fruit and veg: onions, tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, and guavas. It might have been the bad hurricane season, but that still seems odd. The other problem is that the city's famed antique cars are pretty bad on the ol' tailpipe emissions, conditions not ideal for this asthmatic.

On the other hand, it's an amazing city - a look at a completely different way of life, at once richer and poorer than the way people live in North American cities. For that reason, I was very glad to have stayed in Vedado in Havana proper, rather than out of town at one of the beaches. I had never really considered all the things a person can live without: toilet seats, for instance, aren't a popular feature even on perfectly functional indoor toilets. And man, do people know how to enjoy music. A bunch of the other Canuck wedding guests and I dropped in on the final night of the Jazz Festival to see Los Van Van play, and it was sensational (albeit hard to photograph). The populace has also not had the opportunity to rot its collective brain on video games, with the result that I got demolished at chess by a 16-year-old.

All of this sight-seeing only happened at all due to Kelly's wedding to Andres (there is an accent on the e, but I can't get it to appear just here). That happy event is to appear in the next post, but I probably won't write that until Buenos Aires! See you on the other side of the equator.