Havana 3

As it was Sunday, I thought I might have a slower paced day. Perhaps I could find a park or some similar place to have respite from the urban decrepitude. The University of Havana was a possibility, but the guard at the top of the flight of steps put paid to that idea with a vetoing gesture. At least I had not started up the steps and wasted the effort. So I headed down to the Malecón via La Rampa towards Miramar and the area of the US Interests Section building. I knew that this was sensitive territory so I asked the policemen what I could photograph. The answer was not that building but I could photograph the parade ground which the Cuban government had built in front for rent-a-crowd protests. A widely seen cartoon poster depicts a Cuban taunting Uncle Sam wearing a stars and stripes top hat: Señor Imperialista, ¡No tenemos absolutamemte ningún miedo! (Mr. Imperialist, we have absolutely no fear!) Another widely seen poster protested the plight of the Cuban Five, spies who had been arrested in Miami in 1998 and accused of plotting terrorism in the US. They were widely regarded in Cuba as heroes.

This must have once been a beautiful building, from the façade. Hopefully the scaffolding meant that they were renovating it.


I looked inside more dollar shops, noting that prices were inflated (heavy tariffs I guess). Book stalls had a lot of propaganda and conspiracy literature.


I had a look inside the Havana Libre hotel which used to be the Hilton but was now managed by a Spanish chain. It had air conditioning and modern amenities but the toilets were a bit unclean and there were flies in the lobby. But nobody bothered me and I finished reading my book of Spanish short stories in one of the armchairs.


Lunch was taken in Trattoria Maraka's which was said to have the best Italian cuisine available in Havana. The anchovy pizza and Cristal beer weren't too bad actually.

After a nap, in the evening I headed out to the Malecón again. There was a strong wind whipping up seaspray and youths were taking advantage of that.

I had a look at the front of the Hotel Riviera whose construction dated back to the gangster days of the dictator Batista. It's one of the top hotels in Havana.


I decided to have a dinner outside the casa for a change. I had some difficulty locating La Complaciente, a paladar (a private restaurant tolerated and heavily taxed by the government). A young man offered to show me the way, protesting to my questions that he wasn't a tout and didn't want any recompense from me. I got a tasty and filling criolla dinner at the paladar only a little marred seeing my "guide" standing outside and waving cheerfully to me. So he was a tout after all, though perhaps an opportunistic rather than a habitual one. I'm certain the paladar must have paid him a dollar or two commission, which would have been built into the price of the meal. The things people have to do to earn a buck in this country.