Las Terrazas

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Leaving Vedado

We agreed to meet at the breakfast buffet at 7am today. Clay and I were later than Mom & Judy today. The line was all the way back to the stairs when we got there. Mom & Judy kept their place and saved us 2 seats inside. They had more staff this morning and more cooking stations open. I guess they got caught by surprise somehow yesterday. They were also taking room numbers as we entered today. Who knows? When Grency explained that all hotels in Cuba are government-owned hence the employees are civil servants we felt we understood that basement cafeteria a little better. Think of going to the IRS cafeteria. Not that I’ve been, but the thought of it evokes a certain feeling that fits. 

People all over Cuba wait on the side of the road for rides!

 

The bus was loaded and leaving at 8:30am. We drove until about 9:45am to reach our first stop in Las Terrazas. It is a small rural mountain community that was started in the 1960s or so. Previously the people lived all over the mountains and were deforesting the island by cutting down trees without replanting to make charcoal. The government convinced them with some difficulty to give this life up for a commune-style self-sustaining agrarian life style. They also replanted or let grow wild, in any event the land has been reforested. 

Really, Karl Marx Cinema

Some of the only cultivated land we saw in Cuba.

Mostly it looked more like this.

We arrived in Las Terrazas.

First stop was restrooms.

Rum welcome drinks

Our first stop here was at 9:47am or so for a cocktail, music and pay restrooms. It was scenic and a different view of Cuba from Havana. We met our local guide whose name I never knew. She was born and raised in the community and said it is only about 60km from Havana so while it is quiet and rural that they have access to everything they could ever need. She walked us to their local school and told us that the local principal would allow us to visit and would accept our gifts but that our visit had to be short and we could only walk around outside. Everyone agreed and they wound up with a pretty good-sized tote bag full of miscellany. I am sure it will be appreciated.
 

Musical welcome.

Seen while walking to the school.

Outside the school.

The school

The school

Lester Campa's

We reboarded the bus and the local guide talked to us as we drove to another area with a lake for aquaculture and a zip line for tourism. This was where there are a community center, ration store, cadeca (money exchange place) and medical clinic. They have 2 doctors there and one of them spoke to us about her duties, education and the health of her patients. She showed those who were interested around her 2 rooms and accepted their gifts. Since it was a small space and we hadn’t brought any medical gifts, we went and watched the zipliners.
 

Vultures over zipline!

Street sweeper

Chicks are going....

Going....

What?

Decorated for Christmas tree

After that we went to the local coffee shop, Cafe Maria Aire Libre, for a complimentary local coffee. The itinerary said we would tour an old coffee plantation but we didn’t and no one pointed out any coffee plants anywhere. In any event, they told us they grow Arabica beans due to the elevation and they roast espresso beans with it. It is supposed to be very strong. We bought a tiny bag of ground espresso (maybe a ¼ pound for 4 CUC, say kook).  (FYI, I've been drinking it on weekends brewed in an espresso pot and it is very good.) For our complimentary coffee we all ordered the delicious sounding shop specialty of frozen coffee blended in a mixer. Cafe Las Terrazas. It was like a little mocha shake! I did not find it to have a strong coffee flavor, but Clay tasted it and passed it off. 

Menu

 

 

Recipe

 

We got back on the bus and visited the art studio and the artist Lester Campa who is a childhood friend and neighbor of our guide. Mom bought a print as did some others. They were mostly imagined landscapes with a Che Guevara/John Lennon mashup thrown in. We walked through the house of some deceased famous local self-taught musician, Polo Montanez. Then we reboarded the bus and went for lunch.
 

Orange appetizers

We went to Casa del Campesino. We were served family-style. It was delicious. The food was locally-sourced and cooked over wood and coal fired stoves/ovens. It was really good. I ate the same shredded beef dish as yesterday with black beans and rice but it was so much better. Just as I was finishing my meal, the wind changed and blew the smoke from the kitchen through the dining area and the smell just enhanced the flavors. Amazing. We ate outside on a covered porch on 2 long tables and the area was filled with free range birds. Chickens, roosters, peacocks, guinea fowl. It was wild. They had at least 2 different live music bands that played different kinds of music and sold CDs while we were there. The skies opened up and it poured rain shortly after the wind shifted. It rained the rest of the day and into the evening all the way back to Havana.

Bread and butter

Salad.

 

Plaintain chips.

Clay & Judy's favorite Cuban beverage.

Clay's lunch plate.

One band.

Dessert.

Rain!

Kitchen.

Wood/charcoal-fired stoves.

Now Clay understands sorting beans!

As we reached what seemed to be the seedy outskirts of Havana on our return trip, we stopped at Fuster’s House or Fusterlandia. Jose Fuster is an eclectic Gaudi-esque style artist who has turned his home and entire neighborhood into a broken-tile covered showcase. It was delightful. We only had about 30 minutes to wander. We climbed all the way to the top of the 3^rd floor and the higher we got, the more of it we could see. It was pretty interesting. Jose Fuster was evidently some kind of success story of education in post-Revolution higher education and art education.
 

 

Judy

Debbie

Our next to last stop of the day was at Revolution Square.

Revolution Square

 

Camilo Cienfuegos

Che Guevara

 

Clay with Hemingway in Floridita Bar, Havana

Our last stop was at the Floridita Bar for a complimentary daiquiri. This was supposed to be Hemingway’s favorite bar and they have a statue of him at the bar. It was a smal,l busy and noisy place. Everywhere in Havana is deafeningly noisy! The daiquiris were delicious! It was fun. Trish was not happy about it seemingly. It was Grency’s idea to make up to us all being billed for our beverages the first night here. I thought it was an excellent stop and wonder why it isn’t actually always included as I feel like it should be.

Bob's daiquiri party, before...

After...

Bob with Hemingway in Floridita Bar, Havana

 

A parade of old cars, waiting for the bus outside Floridita Bar.

 

Stormy Malecon again.

Lobby of Hotel Nacional

Backyard harbor view of Hotel Nacional

Hotel Nacional's back terrace

Hotel Nacional's Malecon view

Hotel Nacional's Malecon harbor view

Rear of Hotel Nacional

 

This is interesting. Grency mentioned something about this cannon and the USS Montgomery on the bus but we didn't catch all of it. It sounded like she was saying Cuba had sunk a US warship in the harbor. Here you go photos and a link  and a translation of the plaque, "from here the night of June 13, 1898 the Krupp gun of 280 mm at a distance of 9000 yards, bombarded twice USS Montgomery, a cruise ship that was part of the US Navy, during blocking of Havana in the Spanish -Cubano - American war".

 

Front of Hotel Nacional

Tonight was our one free night. Dinner is not included and on our own. We had declined to make reservations anywhere. We all felt too tired on arrival to imagine wanting a foodie experience or a night in a music club. We asked multiple times for a recommendation of a walking distance, quick and casual dining place. Finally, Trish suggested the top floor of the Hotel Capri. We can see it from our tiny room. It is one block away. She said there are great views from the rooftop bar and great burgers. Sold. So in the rain, we walked down there. We took the elevator to the top floor and came out at the rooftop pool bar/snack bar. They did have burgers on the menu as well as other food. There was another restaurant upstairs from there and they offered us that menu too. We should have questioned whether we could have sandwiches at the restaurant upstairs because we had a miserable wet night and did not enjoy the views. That’s the weather. We didn’t enjoy the food either though. Clay and Mom had the famous burger which was topped with a fried egg but also both complained about an overly thick top bun as well. None of us finished our sandwiches because we just didn’t like them. Grency and Trish had both bragged on the extraordinary quality of Cuba’s ground beef. The shredded beef I have had the past 2 lunches has been tasty. Mom and Clay both described the ground beef as too coarsely ground I guess you could say. They didn’t like its flavor or texture and the egg and excessive bun just added to the problem. Judy and I both decided to have the Cubano or Cuban sandwich. We both knew what to expect and didn’t really get it. We discussed it with the waitress before ordering and knew that the restaurant did not serve any pickles and there would be whatever random vegetables they had on hand in there instead. She thought it would be tomatoes. It wasn’t, it was shredded mixed lettuce. It didn’t have any mustard but she brought some out so we put it on. The roast pork, ham and cheese were fine but instead of the delicious Cuban bread we’ve been getting here, they put the Cubano on a really tough and hard-crusted (and not pressed!) baguette. It was not very tasty. It started really pouring after we dashed from our table. The wind was blowing the rain sideways under the cover over the tables. We reseated ourselves at the bar which was a bit sheltered from the direction of the wind, but the volume of rain was overwhelming the canopy covering and it started leaking onto the bar and it was time to go. We should have asked if we could eat sandwiches upstairs. Maybe the answer would have been no, but we didn’t even realize there was another option up there from Trish’s recommendation and so didn’t think to try up there. Oh well.

Night time view of Vedado from Hotel Capri rooftop

 

Night time view of Vedado from Hotel Capri rooftop

Night time view of Hotel Nacional from Hotel Capri rooftop

Hotel Capri's egg-topped burger

Hotel Capri's Cuban sandwich

In some good news, our room had been well serviced today! For the first time since we arrived the floor was cleaned! We got new bed linens and towels! We got our toilet paper and tissues replaced. And, we got a very nice and welcoming letter from our chambermaid, Sandra. It would have softened the blow of this tiny room if it had been clean and welcoming our first night instead of our last. But, better late than never I guess.

I think today was a better day than yesterday, or the first day arriving, but I don’t think any of us love Cuba yet. Tomorrow we have breakfast at 7am. Bags out at 8am. Checkout at 8:20am. Load luggage on bus at 8:45am and depart at 9am. Tomorrow we spend the day driving/touring Cuba to get to Varadero for our last 2 nights here. On the itinerary, it says we are to visit Finca Vigia, Hemingway’s Cuba home. Trish says for extra effort and money we can get a photo of Hemingway’s typewriter right where he last left it. We’ll see. We are to drive to the district of Alamar to see the 1970’s Soviet-style pre-fab concrete apartment blocks. If it is not raining we are to visit an organic garden. Grency says the red clay soil is too muddy if it is raining. If the soil is like that I expect even if it is not raining tomorrow then it will still be too muddy because they have had a lot of rain since we got here and nothing ever gets dried out as far as I can tell. Visit Cojimar, the fishing village that was the setting of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. Lunch at a paladar. Visit the rich Afro-Cuban town of Matanzas. Check into our Melia Hotel in Varadero. Have dinner at the hotel’s buffet. We’ll see. 

I can say that I am glad we chose this Friendly Planet tour.  We paid $3199 pp for this tour, Highlights of Havana and Varadero. Other tours that were available were more expensive. Now ours was only for 7 days which is turning out to be a good thing and the others were 9 days, but still I feel we received a good value given what was available. Road Scholar started at $3795. 

National Geographic started at $6295. Gohagan (through Tulane Alumni Travel and no availability left) started at $4995. Smithsonian Journeys started at $5895. What we don’t like about Havana would not have been altered by paying for a more expensive tour. We flew in with a National Geographic tour as well as a Museum-sponsored group. We have seen what I believe are Gohagan group tags here at the Hotel Nacional. All tours I looked at before recommending this one. They flew on the same 737 AA charter. They ate in the same basement buffet. I have to believe they probably ate at the same kinds of paladars that we did. So their experience can’t be that much better than ours for the additional money. I would have hated to think that I was paying a lot more for the same physical tour conditions! Good night.