Havana, Cuba 2019 - Day 2 - Car Tour of West Havana

For our second day in Havana, we had pre-booked a 3-hour morning car tour around West Havana, which was listed on AirBnB under the “company” name “Josué , Family & Friends (JF&F)”.  It would take us to suburban neighbourhoods of Havana where we would learn about local history and culture, and end with a refreshment stop at a local establishment to drink Cuban coffee.  Our friend Peter decided to take the tour with us, while Suzie chose to meet us in the afternoon for a quick lunch and then a visit to the Museum of Revolution.  Again, both activities started relatively close to our hotel, so we used it as the designated meeting spot and were able to cool off and rest in our room before heading out again.

The car tour would start in front of the Bacardi Building, the gorgeous 12-storey-high Art Deco headquarters of the Bacardi Rum Company.  The building was completed in 1930 and is considered to be one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in Latin America. At its base, the façade is decorated with red Bavarian granite inlaid with brass embellishments including stylized versions of Havana’s coat of arms on either side of the central entrance way.  The upper portion features sleek, linear columns of ornate rectangular windows leading to a stepped back central tower which is topped by the bronze sculpture of a fruit bat, Bacardi’s trademark symbol and company logo.  Just below this are a pair of friezes made of European pink granite and green marble, depicting nude sirens each holding what looks like the horn of plenty.  We enjoyed looking up at the beautiful building from ground level, but could not see the bat from there.  Imagine our delight when we looked out our hotel window and realized that we had a perfect view of this building from our ninth floor room, and there at the top of the tower was the green Bacardi bat!

Our car tour was scheduled to start at 9:30am but we arrived at the Bacardi Building at 9am in hopes of being able to see the inside.  Luckily the security guards welcomed us in and let us wander around the ground floor lobby and side rooms.  The interior has retained its stunning Art Deco details including walls of pale green and black inlaid marble, sunburst patterns on the marble floors and on the elevator doors, stucco reliefs, brushed and polished brass, Art Deco-styled lamps and sconces, and the ornate ironwork details on the doors and windows.

We were not sure what type of car we were going to get, but we had seen so many nice ones on the roads, so we were hopeful.  To our delight, our car turned out to be a bright red 1953 Chevrolet convertible with its top down on a beautiful sunny day.  This met our expectations in every way.  Our tour guide was Beatrice, a Cuban college student who was the niece of Josue, the owner of vehicle and the driver was also a family friend.  Rich, Peter and I basically had a private tour, as Beatrice pointed out attractions to the left and right as we drove by.  Peter sat in the front seat with the driver, while Rich and I sat in the back with our guide.  We saw some beautiful buildings along the way and I only wished we could have gone a bit slower so that I could take better photos and write down some notes of what it was that I was capturing.  Luckily we actually stopped and walked around at a few of the major attractions.

Because I couldn’t take photos (from our speeding car) and take notes at the same time, I’m not completely sure of our route and had to piece it together based on the sequence of images that I managed to capture.  By my best guess, I think we drove along the Malecon seawall route and then 5^th Avenue (Avenida 5ta) where many beautiful homes and foreign embassies can be found, en route to see the quirky mosaic art pieces in Fusterlandia.  On the way back, we stopped for coffee at Café Fortuna before passing by the Colon Cemetery and a stop at Revolution Plaza.

One of the highlights of the tour was when we stopped in the parking lot of a large green space, where tons of other tourist vehicles were also stopped. This seems like a known stopping point for these tour vehicles, which probably all take similar routes.  We took the opportunity to sit behind the wheel to pose for a photo and act like we owned this beauty.  This actually might have been the main point of this tour stop since there was no other attraction to see, but it gave us the opportunity to get a closer look at this car.

Driving west along the Malecon, we could see the waters of the Straits of Florida on the north side and interesting buildings on the south.  Beatrice pointed out an apartment building which she described as the “saddest building on the Malecon”.  The building is a tribute to a 15-year-old girl who drowned and accordingly, each floor is shaped like a coffin.  We didn’t realize it at the time, but we also saw several examples of places that were decked out for the Havana Biennale, a bi-annual city-wide art exposition.  We passed the monument of General Antonio Maceo (nicknamed the Bronze Titan), the second in command of the Cuban Army of Independence.  We also caught a glimpse of the Hotel Nationale, a lovely Spanish-styled hotel built in the 1930s that sits on a hilltop and provides a great view of the harbour and the city.  We would see much of this again in a few days when we walked along the Malecon sea wall.

The Malecon ends at the east end of the river Rio Amendares, and Avenida 5ta (5th Avenue), and starts on the west side in a neighbourhood called Miramar.  While the US Embassy was on the Malecon in the Vedado district, we saw many foreign embassies on 5th Avenue including the Canadian Embassy, which along with the US Embassy were closed after the mysterious illnesses experienced by their staff members.  We also saw the Russian Embassy, which was a gorgeous example of Brutalist architecture and resembled a lighthouse in its shape.   We also saw some beautiful mansions along this long boulevard, including the “Green Gables House” which is now a museum.  The story we were told about this house was that the green roofs were a tribute to and in memory of the owner’s deceased wife’s emerald green eyes.  Whether this is an urban legion or not is questionable, but it made for a good story.

Located in the village of Jaimanitas just west of Havana, Fusterlandia is a large public art installation, named for the creator of wild and wacky mosaic creations that were inspired by and rivals Antonio Gaudi’s Parque Guell in Barcelona.  This is the work of local artist José Fuster, a Cuban artist specializing in ceramics, painting, drawing, engraving, and graphic design, who worked in the “naïve” style, known for its child-like simplicity and frankness.  Fuster started by covering his own house from ground to rooftop with vibrantly coloured intricate patterns of tile work and sculptures, then expanded into the surrounding area, creating spiraling walkways, pools,  fountains, balconies, gazebos, benches, walls and sculptures all covered in mosaics.

Surprisingly, there was no admission fee for entering Fusterlandia, although donations were welcome and go towards the upkeep and future expansions of the area.  Small pieces of art work were available for sale in the gift shop.  In addition to Gaudi, Fuster’s works pay homage to other artists including Pablo Picasso and Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), a Chinese-Cuban artist well known in Havana who dabbled in various styles and media including painting, sculpture and ceramics.  It is a wonderland to walk through Fusterlandia and see the kaleidoscope of colours all around.  If you climb the three flights of mosaic-covered steps to reach the top level, you get a bird’s eye view of the installation and surrounding neighbourhood.

While the works inside Fusterlandia are for the most part whimsical and cartoon-like, several pieces on the outside have a political slant.  There is a large mosaic of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (who supplied Cuba with cheap oil) with the caption “El Megor Amigo” (The Best Friend).  Across the street is a mosaic mural of the Granma yacht that transported 82 people including Castro from Mexico to Cuba to fight in the Cuban Revolution.  We would see the actual vessel at the Museum of Revolution later in the day.  Fusterlandia is a living project that has been ongoing for over 20 years and goes beyond Fuster’s own property, spanning several blocks as over 80 neighbours asked or allowed him to “Fusterize” their houses and buildings.  He has even added his designs to bus shelters and street signs.

Leaving Fusterlandia, we weaved our way east back towards the heart of the Havana, passing by hospitals, schools and more nice houses along the way.  Our next stop was at Café Fortuna where we were served what Beatrice called “real Cuban coffee”.  Rich had a coffee with rum, Peter had an espresso and I had a café mocca.   We sat in a private section that once again featured art depicting John Lennon, which we had been seeing all over Havana.  Beatrice told us a bit about her herself and presented us with souvenir bracelets as mementos of our car tour.  We asked her what brand of coffee beans we should buy if we wanted to take some Cuban coffee home and she recommended Serrano, which we were able to find at the airport and used up our last Cuban currency to buy.

On our way again, we drove by the Colon Cemetery which was founded in 1876 and named after Christopher Columbus.  It has over 500 major mausoleums, many elaborately sculpted memorials and famous interments including General Máximo Gómez, whose monument we saw the previous day. Unfortunately we did not stop to go into the cemetery since there was a fee and it would have taken too much time.  Our final stop was the huge Plaza de Revolucion (Revolution Square) which measures 72,000 square metres and was built in 1959, the year Fidel came into power.  It is known for being the location where Fidel Castro addressed the Cuban population during important occasions, making speeches that could last over 9 hours long.  Other political rallies took place here and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis held papal masses here.  At the centre of the square is yet another José Martí Memorial, featuring a 109 metre tower with an 18 metre marble statue of inspirational poet and revolutionary hero Marti at its base.  The tower is the highest point of Havana and you can travel to the top by climbing the 579 steps or taking an elevator up 109 metres in order to get a panoramic view of the city.  Across the street, the facades of the offices of the Ministries of Interior and Communications boast large steel memorials outlining the faces of Cuba’s two major heroes of the revolution—Che Guevera and Camilo Cienfuegos.  Guevera’s memorial is accompanied by the quotation “Hasta la Victoria Siempre” (Ever Onward to Victory), while Camilo’s is inscribed with “Va bien, Fidel” (It’s going well, Fidel).  We saw similar but smaller steel memorials of these two figures the in the Plaza 13 Di Marzo.  

From the Plaza de Revolucion, we were driven back to our starting point at the Bacardi Building.  This car tour was an excellent way to see and learn about sights in Havana that we could not get to easily on our own and that were too far to walk to.  Riding around in the classic car with the breeze blowing and the sun shining was quite the treat as well.