The 100th post - Havana from all sides!

So today's the day - I'm writing my 100th post on this blog. I still remember my first one very well. At five degrees, in the freezing and rainy Toronto, I let you share in my journey for the first time. Now, almost a year later, the 100th post has been published, written by me and my girlfriend. I'm very proud to have pulled it off and to have such a lasting memory of my year. But it's not over yet - so keep reading and watching :)

So today I'm checking in again from the Caribbean island of Cuba. I spent most of last week learning Spanish and had little time to explore the city. But I changed that over the weekend and once again covered many many kilometers on foot, by bus and by ferry to see as much as possible.

It's always very important for me to not only see the tourist facade in these countries, but also the lives of the people who live here. The first very good decision in this regard was the choice of my accommodation. I live in Vedado, a relatively green residential area of the locals. Here, at 6 in the morning, people shout at each other on the street so loud that it feels like the whole of Havana can hear it. Here, children play football with ancient rubber balls on the street, and during the day everything is very lively in the streets and alleys. I love taking long walks through the streets and discovering as much as possible. Due to the very low crime rate in Cuba and the constant presence of police officers, it also feels very safe here, no matter what time it is.

Naturally, I also want to see the historical sights and monuments, so on Friday evening I walked to Plaza de la Revolućión. This is a very large square in the middle of Havana where large political rallies are held regularly. There are two huge murals of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, two revolutionaries, on two buildings. The inscription of Che Guevara reads: Always forward to victory, and Camilo's inscription reads: You're doing it right, Fidel. On this square is also the National Monument for the national hero José-Martí, a fighter in Cuba's wars of independence. This monument is the tallest building in Havana and can also be visited by elevator. However, everything was closed in the evening and since it started to rain slowly, I made my way back to my apartment. What struck me on the way to the plaza and back is that this is not the much-discussed Cuba - where everyone sings, dances, smokes cigars and drinks rum in abundance. No, it's a quiet Cuba and very few people were out and about. My Spanish teacher always spends his evenings at home with his family in front of the TV, as his family is the most important thing to him. In the local bars, only a few men sat sipping a glass of beer, while the TV was also running. As mentioned before, I think it's very important to experience and see this side as well, in order to really know how they live here and how the people are doing. In the old town district of Habana Vieja, where people from the cruise ships hang out, there is dancing, drinking, and live music everywhere.

My Saturday was all about sightseeing. In the morning, I met up with my newly made friend Kizito to take a ferry to the other side of the water to the fortresses and later to the embassy district, Miramar. We started with a long walk through Habana Vieja, the old town district. Despite Kizito being here since October, he also keeps discovering new corners of Havana. In addition, he can give me information about many buildings and tell stories he has heard from others. We passed by the birthplace of Jose Marti and a warehouse with lots of tourist shops and eventually reached the ferry after a while, which cost us 1 CUP (the local currency), which is about 4 cents. The bus costs only 0.5 CUP, no matter how far you go. Here too, the state subsidizes, and if you dare to get on the buses as a tourist, you can benefit from it. But honestly, without Kizito, not even 10 horses could get me on such a bus. They're really ancient and constantly overcrowded, sometimes the doors don't even close anymore, and if you don't pay with the local currency, you won't get any change either. Luckily, Kizito always has several CUPs with him, so we took the bus quite a bit that day. I have also obtained CUPs by now, so I can save some money here and there. If you only pay with the tourist currency, Cuba is anything but cheap! But back to the ferry. The ferry took us to Havanna Casablanca in 15 minutes. On this side of the city, you have a magnificent view of the old town and can walk to two fortresses and the statue of Jesus. We even had the luck that a new cruise ship sailed into the city just as we climbed up. It's impressive to see how such a huge ship maneuvers. Unfortunately, the fortresses had a relatively high admission fee, so we just looked at them from the outside. But when I'm back in Havana, we want to go up there again because there is a ceremony held every evening at 9 p.m. and a cannon is fired.

We continued our journey with several buses, waiting times (because the full buses sometimes don't stop at all), and transfers to Miramar. That's where all the embassies are and it's a completely different Havana and Cuba. Everything looks totally clean and well-maintained. The trees are trimmed along the avenues and there are many more items in the supermarkets than where I live. Among other things, I saw butter, chocolate, and Nutella in a store for the first time. But since it was extremely hot that day, I didn't buy anything. We strolled through the embassy district and discussed everything under the sun. We took a break in a very nice restaurant garden and had a mango smoothie. Kizito said that those who come here and only live here think how beautiful Cuba is and how well the people are doing. But those who want to see the real Cuba are in the wrong place, and that's exactly the impression I had too. Expensive cars drive along here that I hadn't seen anywhere else in Havana before, and the people seem rather wealthy. Kizito is a very talkative person and has quickly built up a large network of contacts. So it happens that cars drive by and greet us. In the evening, we took the bus back to Vedado and I went out to eat something since I didn't feel like cooking. The food was exceptionally good, and I'm always amazed at how restaurants manage to get ingredients that are scarce here. A large mojito then concluded my really great but also very exhausting day.

Yesterday morning, I took advantage of the slightly cool morning hour to make a call to my girlfriend at a hotspot. But for lunch, I met up with Kizito again and we continued our trip at the spot where it ended the day before due to darkness. We took the bus again towards the embassy district and got off at the beginning of the Malecon (the waterfront promenade). Last night was the Super Bowl, the final of the American football league, so we looked around in the hotels to find a spot to watch it in the evening. The hotels sometimes look totally run-down and broken from the outside. But the lobbies are often quite nice, even though a lot is broken there too. We walked along the Malecon to the American embassy, which has been closed again since Trump became president. We finally found a large TV in a hotel very close to where we were staying. So we quickly had a pizza for dinner and the game started at 6:30 p.m. The bar where we watched the game was on the 17th floor of the Capri Hotel and from up there, you had a fantastic view of the city. I used the minutes before and after sunset to take a few pictures. Then we watched the game together and thanks to happy hour, we drank a few cheaper Cuba Libres. I then walked home around 11 p.m. and fell into bed completely exhausted.

Today, I'm packing my things because tomorrow morning, after nine nights in Havana, I'll be leaving for Vinãles. In Vinãles, pure nature awaits me. According to Cuba, the best tobacco in the world is grown there, and there is apparently a beautiful national park and everything is supposed to be green - I'm curious. Tomorrow morning, a bus that I organized in the last few days will take me there, and I'll be staying in a Casa Particulares with locals. I'm curious to see what it's like there and how the rural population of Cuba lives. I'm planning a two-week tour of the western half of Cuba and want to visit a few more cities. After that, I'll come back to Havana for two more nights before my flight to Bogota. As long as the internet allows it, I'll keep you updated.

P.S. Please excuse any potential poor image quality - due to the internet in Cuba, I have to reduce the image quality so that the upload doesn't take too long.