Another blue sky day in Havana. We started early to beat the heat, we were going to explore Havana Vieja or, as it is in English, The Old Town.
We had a coffee and breakfast sitting in the pretty square outside the Santo Angelo church, the doors were wide open and the sound of the young choir singing hymns was totally angelic and a great start to the day.
The streets in the Viejo are narrow, the roads hazardous and full of potholes. Open grates and loose cobblestones need clear wits to negotiate. Avoiding the dog shit grenades which seem to be strategically placed in spots where you are naturally looking up at interesting buildings is quite a skill too. The Operator was watching Rosie’s foot placement and was on the ball after a few near calls.
The Plaza de la Cathedral is the newest in the Old Town, built the same time as the Cathedral in 1748, it originally housed the cities market, the towers of the Cathedral are uneven and the cobblestones terribly hazardous! The throngs of tourists are thicker and more noticeable in this area, the souvenir stalls and traditionally brightly dressed ladies are plentiful also, vying for the tourist dollar.
The streets around this area are getting tidier and some of the buildings have been renovated and revitalized. The Plaza de San Francisco testament to this as the sun shines brightly on smoothly plastered surfaces reflecting the new rainbow bright coats of paint.
This is the work of the Cities Restoration team, a government approved initiative where the profits from the tourist dollars go back into the city to restore and renovate. The seriously cool bit of this work is that the government is invested in keeping the communities alive and flourishing, not just turning them into historical tourist zones by removing all of the people that have always lived here. 45% of the tourist dollar goes back into the community by way of keeping schools, community centers and old folks homes all functioning and rejuvenated in the Town centers, right where these communities have always been. The balance of the tourist renovation money goes into the actual renovation and resurrection of the buildings themselves.
This old Beauty below, in the background, borders the Plaza Vieja, it is next on the list for public funded renovation and will look majestic when it is finished.
The Plaza de Sanfrancisco borders onto Havana Harbour, back in the day it was the place to park your Spanish galleons for replenishment as they made their way back to Spain. Today it hosts cruise ships and hundreds of thousands of people disembark and wander around the old town.
The Plaza Vieja was built in 1559 and is even more sterile and perfect after its facelift, we sat upstairs in a small cafe, drinking a beer and pondering what the reality used to be like in this square bordered by once were what residential homes to Havanas wealthiest. Photo boards line the square showing how derelict the buildings here were before their stunning restorations.
The balconies looked out onto the public square which was once a parade ground for military maneuvers and public executions. We watched the Americans fresh from the cruise ships in their shiny white sneakers, caps and bum bags walk around admiring the freshly painted facades.
To be honest, if this was the only taste of Cuba Rosie got as she disembarked her cruise liner for the afternoon, it is very misleading and contrived. The renovations of these buildings have turned the area into a too perfect representation of the past. This square showcases a perfect, sanitised Cuba to the tourist world. One of perfectly painted buildings, clean streets and neat cobbles. Lovely cafes with shady terraces to have a coffee on looking out at the simple splendor while listening to a mariachi style band. So, so, so not like Havana at all in these few neat squares and streets.
Rosie couldn’t wait to get out of that area…back into the raw, dirty local streets we went, back to dodging dog shit, potholes, bike taxis and back to Cuban reality.
