I left Seattle on American Airlines bound for Havana, Cuba via Charlotte, NC using just 25,000 frequent flyer miles and $78 in fees. A comparable flight would cost about $450. My trail bag weighs just over 7 1/2 lbs so I can travel through airports quicker and with ease. My Crooked Trails (CT) tour would be for 11 days at a cost of $2,375. I also spent about $48 per day on food, extra taxi rides, entrance fees, and trinkets.
I met up with Tammy Leland, our tour leader and co-owner of Crooked Trails, and Dan Travis, former Crooked Trails Board member, at the Charlotte American Airlines departure gate for the flight to Havana. As we, cleared the Havana airport we were greeted by a taxi driver who took us to our casa particulars—private accommodations which are usually in a person’s home—and were introduced to Mauricio—Crooked Trails “Man in Havana”, and his spouse, Sarah.
We met up with the other travelers: Judy from Santa Fe who I had previously traveled to Peru with CT in 2005, Erik from San Francisco who I had traveled to Ladakh, India with CT in 2008, Fredricka—Freddi, from Asbury Park, NJ, and Gayla and Tom, a couple from Salt Lake City.
We then headed out in two vintage Chevy convertible cars for a quick orientation to downtown Havana with a stop before dinner at the famous Art Deco Hotel Nacional for mojitos as the sunset along the Malecon. I am with Tammy, Freddi, Dan, and Mauricio in our Red Chevy convertible in front of our accommodations.
From here we drove along the Malecon past the shuttered American Embassy to see some of the monuments and neighborhoods of Habana Vieja and Central Havana.
We cruised by the Floridita Bar--one of many that were frequented by Ernest Hemingway. We then began to understand that Hemmingway had visited most of the bars found throughout the Havana area.
We stopped at the Plaza de la Revolucion where we saw the monument to Jose Marti--the principal leader in the war against Spain who died a martyr in 1895.
Opposite this monument is the Minister del Interior building that features the image of Che Guevara which is a copy of Alberto Korda's famous 1960 photograph with the words "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" underneath--this revolutionary image is found throughout the world, especially on tee shirts.
After that, we headed to the art deco Hotel Nacional de Cuba for some sunset mojitos and music. It was at this hotel where the revolutionaries, headed by Fidel Castro, attacked a Bautista New Years' Eve party by spraying bullets throughout the grounds--you have probably seen this in one of the "Godfather' movies.
On the terrace of the hotel, Freddi, Mauricio, Dan, and Tammy are enjoying the first mojito of our Cuban Adventure as we were entertained by some musicians.
We then headed to the restaurant palador for a welcoming dinner. Paladors are privately owned restaurants as contrasted to the government-owned ones like at the Hotel Nacional. Mauricio's spouse, Sarah, joined us along with our nightclub guide.
Some tasty fish stuffed with shrimp.
After dinner, our guide took us to the Jazz Club la Zorro y El Cuervo which is the most famous one in Cuba. Our guide talked to the bouncer a bit, and then we entered through a red British phone booth to the underground club. The performers consisted of about 10 musicians--lots of drummers, and singers. We spent quite a bit of time here enjoying the music along with several mojitos.
We returned to our casa particulars and three of us--Judy, Erik, and me--stayed at the apartment next to Mauricio's where the revolutionary photographer, Alberto Korda, used to live. He is the one who took the famous picture of Che Guevara that is on tee shirts around the world. Here is what it looks like along with me holding a picture of Korda with a picture of his Guevara picture.
On the following days, we saw other attractions in the Havana area. This is now the Museo de la Revolucion with the tank that Castro directed against the CIA Bay of Pigs invaders.
Our guide is showing us the government Bodega where people come with their ration books to pick up essential foods at very, very low prices. It includes rice, beans, flour, sugar, coffee, cooking oil, etc. The prices are in Cuban Pesos equal to twenty-five cents. This is available to all citizens regardless of income or means.
They also have free education and medical care. You do not see any homeless in Cuba and only the occasional drunk. For people with severe disabilities or mental problems, they provide group homes and care, and families of these people can have the government bring them home for the weekends if that is possible. Mauricio's brother has schizophrenia and often lives in a home where he receives close medical care and medication monitoring. He visited us several times while we were there.
Around the Plaza de Armas areas these colorful women are trolling for tourists and invited Judy to join them for a colorful picture.
We stopped for lunch along with this street-side entertainment at the Nao Bar Paladar.
This is one of the two old-time pharmacies that we visited while in Cuba.
Nearby we stopped by another of Hemingway's favorite bars, the La Bodeguita del Medio.
We again got in our vintage Chevy's for a short ride to visit Ernest Hemingway's Finca la Viga which has been turned into a museum. He bought it in the 1940s where he lived and wrote for 20 years. The grounds include a viewing tower, swimming pool, tennis court, cock fighting arena, and his fishing boat, El Pilar, now grounded.
After visiting his home we went over to the port of Cojimar where he moored his boat and his bar where he refreshed himself. Apparently, the fisherman at this bar was the inspiration for his novel, The Old Man and the Sea.
Here is the harbor where he moored his boat, El Pilar.
It was then back to town for some samba lessons--1-2-3---5-6-7 and repeat--forward, backward, side to side, turn, and in place. I lasted about an hour doing this while a few persisted for another hour. It was fun though and the instructors were beautiful.
On another evening we went to one of the most popular and legendary private restaurants--palador--La Guarida. On the way up the curved staircase is a mural of the Cuban Flag alongside the guerrilla hero Camilo Cienfuegos. I had Tom stand beside the mural because of his resemblance to the hero. It is really striking how worn out so many of the buildings look and are in great need of paint.
The food was good and some consider this to be the best palador in Cuba.
My fish dish
In the morning we set out from Mauricio's penthouse apartment with this fabulous view of the Caribbean Sea and the Malecon that speeds drivers through the city and is an evening and weekend meeting place for people.
Today's adventure took us to the Callejon de Hamel which is dedicated to street art, live music, Afro-Cuban folklore, and Santeria. It was there we met our Santeria guide, Evelyn, who would also meet up with us again in Matanzas for an introduction to a Santeria priest there.
Here is our traveling crew: me, Tom, Judy, Gayla, Tammy, Freddy, Dan, and Erik.
I am sitting on a very auspicious throne.
Evelyn is explaining to us the several meanings of the different colored icons and beads. She favors the green and yellow beaded bracelets and necklaces for they offer the worshipper healing and the wisdom to find solutions to all problems.
Most of the drum and singing favors the rumba.
One of the challenges we had was that most of the internet can only be found in park areas and you have to buy one-hour cards for $1 CUC. Our park was about 3/4 of a mile from our casa particulars so we used it infrequently. You can see there are no chairs at this place.
Here are some street scenes in downtown Havana near where we took salsa lessons.
We cruised back to our places in these pink convertibles along the Malecon as we looked forward to our farewell party at Mauricio's penthouse that evening. I was surprised to see so many of the vintage cars on the street as normal vehicles for before I came, I thought they had preserved them just for the tourists to travel in. It was the same when we went to Vinales and Matanzas.
With no rain yet, some of the party-goers were out on the penthouse deck that had fabulous waterfront views.
The musicians then moved into the nearby piano and living room area to perform and visit until after midnight.
Mariem Valdes is a prima ballerina of the National Dance Council of Cuba who also attended this party. You can google her to learn more.
We were also entertained by Athanai and his spouse who we also saw the following day just before many of us departed at a gathering at Eduardo Abela's home where we enjoyed the art and company of Abela's family and some of his friends.
Before daybreak, Judy had to leave to catch her plane back to Santa Fe while the rest of us went to Fusterlandia which is a mosaic project that went wild throughout the neighborhood after the artist Jose Fuster began to decorate his home and studio with mosaics.
It soon extended over the walls of his house and onto his neighbors' homes and public walls, parks, and even bus stops. A must-see when you go to Cuba. Here are some pictures of this area:
We then went to Eduardo Abela's home and art studio so we could see the artwork that he had told some of us about the night before. He was preparing a BBQ for us when Mauricio told him that most of us needed to be at the airport in the late afternoon so he and his wife made up some delicious appetizers that included tamales and shredded pork sliders along with Cuba Libres. Here is some of his artwork. His website is www.eduardoabela.com.
On their front porch, we were entertained by the music of Athanai. His website is:
Since I was staying another night, I moved over to Mauricio's place. The room he gave me was amazing.
In between rain squalls, I walked over to the el Cocinero restaurant located in an old factory with a huge smokestack. Our group had eaten dinner there before, so I was looking forward to spending my Cuban money rather than exchanging it.
I was the first customer and I ordered the seafood skewers for just $12. The portions were huge including the lobster. Next door was an entertainment venue that we tried but failed to get into since the line was over an hour to get in, and even paying a fixer $10 each to jump the line failed because of a change of bouncers--we got our money back though.
The following morning I took a taxi to the airport through the flooded and rain-drenched morning and I was hoping that Tropical Storm Michael would not delay my flights back to Miami then to Dallas and finally to Seattle.
My next blog entries will be about my Cuban Adventures in Vinales and Matanzas, Cuba.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my travel adventures there. That link is
https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold.
If you do go there, please subscribe to my video channel since it will help me eventually get some income there and help with my future travels. Fewer people are using DVDs so I am transitioning to streaming my travels on my YouTube channel.
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