Chapter 8: Architecture: Buildings

There are so many old buildings in Havana and Varadero. The churches and government buildings are all pretty well restored. Many tourist buildings have been restored also. We will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Chapter 7: Architecture: Part One :Doors

Some of the best sights we experienced were architectural and art related. The next few blogs will focus on those areas. It did not matter what area of the city we were in, we found unique doors everywhere. The old forts and churches were always very large. Most doors were arched. The nicest areas were usually a tourist or government building. We could tell some of the crumbling architecture was beautiful in its day. Most homes and businesses that could afford them, had metal gates on their doors and bars on the windows. This building was 2 blocks from where we stayed and many people were living there.This was also across the street from the Malecon.This is the area we stayed in. We really immersed ourselves in the culture.

Chapter 6: The Basics

We took a mini vacation from our vacation. We headed home to hug some good friends, took care of some business and grabbed our car for a few weeks. We are back in Marathon. Will now continue on with our blog. After touching on food, I will talk about the other basic needs.Plus: The Dos and Don'ts! Local tap water: Do Not Drink it!! Everyone drinks bottled water or Soda including the locals. We brought plenty of gallons of drinking water for the boat and doubled the chlorine for our water tanks. We took our showers on the boat. Do not shop in the local markets, hygiene is not a priority and refrigeration is not evident. Always carry hand sanitizer and tissue with you at all times. You may or may not get a toilet seat at a public restroom. You will probably not be able to flush the toilet. That is why they have an attendant at every public restroom to collect your peso & give you a few sheets of toilet paper. They flush the string attached to the bottle cap or throw in a bucket of water every few times. We found that pretty disgusting! Needing change anytime you needed to go, was very aggravating. Some attendants would try to get you to give them a dollar coin. I always had my own tissue & gave them 5 to 25 peso & they were happy. Watch where you walk! If you were not stepping in gum, you were side stepping dog crap! There are stray dogs & cats all over, that look half dead. There was no petting..... of any animal .....at anytime! We never lost sight of the fact we were in a communist country and we basically had no rights there. It is against the law to photograph any military or police. They are everywhere. Along the waterfronts, probably every 200 yards. We were also told we were on camera 24/7 on our boat. The wifi is monitored and very difficult. We saw a police encounter that happened so quick it made our head spin. They do not take the time to read anyone any type of rights.....because they have none!

Chapter 5: Food

On a scale of 1-10, the cuisine is about a 2. We had some good food and some bad food! In Varadero we went to a small restaurant and Tom ordered Ropa vieja and I ordered a shrimp cocktail. It was not very good. We are spoiled with my cooking and the cuisine from the Columbia. The shrimp was mixed with a warm pickle dressing...eeek! Then we ordered the flan which was superb! The only other thing we ordered in the resort was an ice cream. We ate every meal on the boat until we left for Havana. The first night in Havana we found a safe restaurant buffet called Ana's. We had a large breakfast 2 mornings at our Casa Particular on the roof top terrace, where they had a large kitchen set up. which was a feast of meat, cheese, fruit, Cuban coffee, homemade juice and a huge Cuban roll. That was fantastic.Our cook and server was an apprentice Santeria. They dress in all white. She was very sweet. She did not speak much English, but we understood her very well. We had a meal at a small bistro of Ham sandwich and Tom got a creamed chicken dish. It was ok. Tom had a pizza at a small cafe that I passed on, he said it tasted like school lunch pizza. My favorite dinner the whole time in Cuba was a Sloppy Joe from Sloppy Joes! I will make that soon. It was great!

Chapter 4: Transportation, Part 2

Another mode of transportation we utilized twice were rides in the old cars. We both remarked there were more than we expected.They repair cars on the side streets. There are very few actual garages Some are in different levels of repair and restoration.The first car we rode in a 1948 Green Chevy from Callejon de Hamel to Old Havana for $5 CUC. It was two brothers who were very nice. The younger brother was only about 10 years old & we gave them a bag of goodies when we got out of the car & they were so happy. The second car was a 1956 Bel Air Chevy, white and black. He was a want to be cowboy. We needed to go to the bus station all the way across Havana and we were able to negotiate $15 CUC, he drove like a maniac. The cars apparently have the right of way in Cuba and beep their horns frequently.Most old cars only have refurbished original bodies. The engines are from different cars. They are pieced together with mechanical ingenuity. We negotiated a horse and buggy ride for a hour and a half for $20 CUC. His name was Juan and his horse's name was Sol. He took us by the historic districts, waterfront areas and many other places of interest. I will elaborate on many later. They also have many bicycle driven carts. They are suppose to be for the locals, but they pander to tourists. I read if they get caught they could be in trouble, so we avoided them. One type we almost rode in, were these small yellow taxis that looked like a football helmet.The colors on so many of the cars are bright and beautiful.