Last May, I had the pleasure of going on a “girls” cruise to Key West and a place that has been on my “bucket list” for a long time: Havana, Cuba. The trip was arranged by my friend Fran who is a cruise specialist (www.travelbyfran.com). We went on a Royal Caribbean ship (Majesty of the Seas) from Fort Lauderdale. The trip went to Key West and Havana but since I have blogged about Key West before, I am just going to talk about Havana.

In my college days, I worked at a hotel that employed many Cubans. They told stories about their homeland and spoke about the wealth they enjoyed, the wide, beautiful boulevards and beautiful homes they had to leave when Castro took over. I found the stories to be fascinating. Once Cuba was opened again, I wanted to go there. Well, I finally got there even if it was only for a day. As it turned out, we were on one of the last ships to visit Havana before it was declared off limits.

To tell the truth, I loved it. I loved every minute we were there and it was too bad it wasn’t longer but at least we had got a little flavor of the beauty that is Havana.

First of all, we needed a visa that you buy on-board the ship. Once we got off the ship, we had to go through their security area and we had to change money into their currency that was the Cuban Convertible Peso called CUC’s. Interestingly, some places did take dollars.

We also had to go on a tour guided by an officially sanctioned tour company. I chose the 5-hour tour that ended up lasting through lunch so it was a 7-hour tour. The buses were quite new and very clean. They were Chinese and were clearly made for a shorter population but the good news was it had a bathroom. The tour guide spoke English very well. She deftly left out anything about the Castro’s. Their name wasn’t even mentioned.

We traveled through the streets. Everyone was fairly well dressed, maybe not expensively but definitely clean and well groomed. Everyone we met was very nice. They know that tourism is important and the people were all very accommodating. We went by beautiful old homes that were sadly neglected. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough money to restore them. You could imagine what they looked like when Havana was wealthy.

Among the places we saw were old Havana with Capital, the Cathedral de San Cristóbal, the University and the Hospitals and the Plaza de la Revolución. Around the plaza were government buildings one of which was the Che Guevara building and the Jose Marti building. The Plaza de la Revolución really looks more like parking lot. It was a bit disappointing really except there were a number of old American cars parked there. We asked the owner if we could take a seat in a turquoise convertible. He said yes and in we sat! While we were taking pictures of ourselves in the cars, one of us was working and hired four of the cars to take us to the Tropicana that evening.

We also visited the Colón cemetery and got off the bus for a tour. The cemetery is famous and quite beautiful place with lots interesting mausoleums to visit and learn about. The tour guide for the cemetery took us through special parts of the cemetery including ones dedicated to firefighters, a tomb of a dog who was so distraught when his owner died that he sat there until he died and someone sculpted a statue that is part of the /owner’s mausoleum. Another is a mausoleum of the man who built the stadium for the Pan American games.

One that stood out the legend of “La Milgrosa.” According to the legend, Amelia and her baby did not survive childbirth but the inconsolable widower, José Vicente Adot y Rabell could not accept it and visited every day. One day they opened the tomb and the child was in Amelia’s arms not separated as they were when they were buried in the tomb. Even today, over 100 years later, people visit Amelia’s resting place as a shrine where they could ask for protection for their children, for childbirth without complications or for couples with fertility issues. When we were there, there were lots of fresh flowers were at the tomb.

We ended up at the Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro which is the fort guarding the entrance to the harbor. It is named for the three kings. El Morro looks very much like the fortress in Puerto Rico. I guess if you see one, you see them all. Among other things, we passed Che Guevara’s home called La Cabana de Che Guevara. It is a museum but we didn’t have the time to go in.  

At the end of the tour, they took us to an artist building located in the dock area to go shopping for souvenirs. It was a building full of booths with all kinds of art and artists. I did pick up a picture to bring home. They did take dollars after I ran out of CUCs.

When the tour was over, the guide said if we would like to go to eat at a local restaurant, they would take us with the bus as long as there was 10 people who wanted to go. Off we went to a non-government restaurant named Dona Carmel. It was a fun place with lots of cats walking around. You almost felt like it was Key West and not Havana. It was here we had our first mojito for the trip. They had a pretty extensive menu but when we asked for items it turned out all they had was local fish and shrimp. Any meat or chickens were not available because they have to wait on long lines to buy it. The mojitos were excellent! The food was good. We had rice and plantains with the fish.

On the way back, among other buildings we saw was the American Embassy. It was just sad that no one is there anymore. It is on the main street going to the port. We returned to the ship to get ready for our evening at the Tropicana.