Life in a year full of Saturdays: Havana (Cuba)

HAVANA (CUBA)
28 February - 05 March 2017

This time in Havana it felt like we were visiting an old friend. Someone we had a lot of fondness for and one that we knew would welcome us back with warmth, hospitality and late night conversations of the good times we'd previously experienced together. A few drinks, some music, dim lights and the familiarity that comes from being in the company of someone that you enjoy being with. To me that's the way Havana feels now.

Habana Vieja - Cuba

The Malecon - Habana Vieja - Cuba

Habana - Cuba

For this entry I don't feel the need to discuss the contradictions, the one that exist in constant write-ups about the hotchpotch of buildings, the taxi drivers wearing American baseball caps as they touts rides in their Chevrolets or Buicks, the Revolutionary propaganda that is more parody now than anything else, the Neoclassical shopfronts, the Soviet style buildings - all those influences, all that has brought Havana to the place that it sits right now, in this moment, has already been well documented and philosophised about. Havana for the both of us at this moment in time is just exactly what we get to experience, and without losing that connection to the past, I don't think that there's an overwhelming need now to justify how we act as tourists in a city that sits on the precipice of its own ocean of change.

Habana Vieja - Cuba

El Floridita - Habana - Cuba

I don't believe therefore that there's a need to justify our want to stay in a Hospedaria on the Malecon and occupy a room rented out by a lovely family whose home and offering of accommodation in any other corner of the globe, with their sort of location, would go for hundreds of dollars of night. We simply wanted to have the pleasure of being able to look out from the balcony, dangle our feet over the edge and watch the sun drop over the Bahia de la Habana. Can there be a more tranquil and warming experience than watching the slow transitions of the handful of old 50s' & 60's vehicles making their way up the Malecon as the Habaneros make their way out in a slow, deliberate and slightly melancholic way to occupy their section of the retaining wall, open up some rum, chat, canoodle, play music and just be. Walking to the regular beat of the drum of their city, there's something warm and satisfying about letting the scene wash over you.

Habana Vieja - Habana - Cuba

Sunset on the Malecon - Habana Vieja - Habana - Cuba

Siete Anos

Habana Vieja - Habana - Cuba

In the same, is there an issue with us heading to the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, sitting out on the back patio, having a few cocktails and enjoying a few Montecristos on a balmy evening. Understanding that a few streets away there is economic hardship, but then also understanding that in every country there exists that same hardship, and yet, when we're at home we don’t feel as compelled to delve deeply into our own domestic guilt. For some reason touristic guilt and being required to act ethically appears to be the yardstick by which tourists/travellers are held to account. Being conscientious, having authentic experiences under the auspices of somehow being culturally aware is demanded more often, is this our ongoing requirement to all that travel? Is this an objective we need to meet only outside of our country? Or is it only whilst in third world countries? What’s the rule?

Montecristos at Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Habana Vieja - Habana - Cuba

The Malecon - Habana Vieja - Habana - Cuba

Havana is infectious in its vitality, it offers itself to you at every turn, on every block, with every person that you come across. Our purpose can be, and should be, to enjoy what it has to offer in the present. The kids playing on the streets, the ramschakled, dilapidated buildings that give way to intriguing snippets of life through open windows and doors. As you peer inside catch glimpses of old men sleeping on rocking chairs, old transistor radios acting as their eternal lullaby, women hanging out their washing as they hold conversations from windows across the street. I bare witness to daily life as I make my own path through this wonderful city, but, who should I apologise to? Is there a need for me to set the record straight for just wanting to experience a little bit of all that Havana has to offer?

Pulling up seats in the back corner of El Floridita, ordering a few of the classic daquiri’s and disappearing into a cloud of our own cigar smoke, I thought back to the type we were last here. Same room, same style of music, same style of crowd but now, different circumstances. Just like Havana, changing quickly but slowly before your eyes, its an interesting feeling being aware of a future with new possibilities but not knowing exactly what they are. Around Havana you can see a new economic tempo, a quickening of investment, restaurants and cafes starting to make their way into previously uncharted territory, and then, there’s places like El Floridita that just follow their well established beat, on the path they’ve always followed.

Habana Vieja - Habana - Cuba

La Bodeguita del Medio - Habana - Cuba

The beauty of this city is in its rhythm, in its contradictions, in both its wants and failings. It’s in its secret desires and what you see on its very surface. Enjoying it for what it’s worth, to me, is positioning yourself in a place that allows the town to wash over you in just how it pleases. To me that’s how we’ve been able to feel Havana in our own way and in the way that it let us, un-apologetically and without casting aspersions, because hey, we have no right to do that, much in the same manner I won’t allow that to happen to us just for wanting to see a place.