Havana Cuba 2019: Day 4 - Grand Theatre, Callejon Hamel, Malecon

On Day 4, we spent the morning looking at the buildings on the south part of Paseo de Marti including several elegant hotels, the Grand Theatre, the Capital building and Indian Fountain, before returning to the hotel to swim during the hottest part of the afternoon.  Then in the late afternoon, we headed west to a street art area called Callejon de Hamel followed by a dinner in the area and then a long stroll along the Malecon to end the day.

We took a closer look at the facades and lobbies of some of the gorgeous hotels in the area, before lining up for a 9:30am tour of the Grand Theatre.  Hotel Inglaterra is the oldest hotel in Cuba, dating back to 1844.  Just south of our hotel Iberostar Parque Central, the Inglaterra faces Central Park and has a rooftop terrace with great views of the old city.  We almost chose to stay at the 1908 4-storied Hotel Sevilla because of its beautiful façade which has been described as “Moorish Revivial”.  But I also see elements of Art Nouveau in the portico, which reminds me of Hector Guimard's Paris metro station design.  The Sevilla was featured in the Graham Green novel “Our Man In Havana”, which was turned into a 1959 movie starring Alec Guinness.  Completed in 1888 in Neo-Classical style, the Hotel Saratoga was originally named the Grand Alcazar until it was renamed the Saratoga in 1933.  Famous guests including Jay-Z and Beyonce, Madonna, and Will Smith have stayed here in what we were told is one of the priciest hotels in the city.

We got a closer look at the Capital Building (El Capitolio), which we first saw from the rooftop terrace of our hotel. The building was commissioned by Cuban president Gerardo Machado and built in the late 1920s, using the domed cupola of the US Capital Building in Washington D.C. as inspiration.  It has been under renovation since 2013 and will be used as home of Cuba’s National Assembly.  We tried for several days to see if we could get inside but the doors were never open.  We were disappointed since photos on the Internet show that it is beautifully decorated, especially the gilded bronze “Statue of the Republic” in the main hall.  The front entrance of the Capitolo is flanked by two massive bronze sculptures.  The male figure represents the progress of human activity and the female figure represents the guardian of virtue.  Just south of the Capital Building is the Fountain of India, a white marble fountain sculpted in 1837 in the Neoclassical style.  It depicts an Indian girl holding the city coat of arms in her right hand and the horn of plenty in her left.

Originally built in 1838 as the Tacón Theatre, the magnificent Neo-Baroque styled Gran Theatro de Havana is by far the grandest structure in Old Havana.  The architect Paul Belau also designed the Presidential Palace, which is now the Museum of Revolution.  The elaborate façade is decorated by ornate stone adornments and bronze works as well as white marble sculptures by Guiseppe Moretti which represent charity, education, music and theatre.  The Gran Teatro is currently is home to the Cuban National Ballet and to the International Ballet Festival of Havana with facilities including the 1500-seat Garcia Lorca Auditorium, a concert hall, conference rooms, a video screening room, an art gallery, a choral center and several rehearsal halls for dance companies.  Once again from the rooftop terrace of our hotel, we have a stunning view of the Grand Theatre and the Hotel Inglaterra next to it.  We went up one evening to see both of them lit up at night.

We had walked by the Grand Theatre for several days prior to being able to take a tour of the building.  Each time when we looked through the open doors, we could see the elegant bronze sculpture of a ballerina en pointe.  When we finally took the tour of the theatre, we found out that this is a sculpture of the Cuban prima ballerina and choreographer Alicia Alonso, best known for her portrayals of Giselle and Carmen.  Alicia started dancing at age 10 and performed with ballet companies from Cuba, United States (American Ballet Theatre) and Russia (Ballet Russe) until age 78, despite dealing with major vision problems including glaucoma and a detached retina throughout her entire career.  While living in New York City from 1937-48, Alonso underwent multiple major surgeries including having her retina completely removed, cleansed and reinserted, and being forced to lie motionless for an entire year after a third operation.  Despite these setbacks, she was able to return to dancing and was considered the greatest ballerinas of her time.   Towards the end, she was nearly blind as she continued to dance difficult roles such as Carmen.  Returning to Cuba in 1948 with her husband Fernando, Alicia founded the Alicia Alonso Ballet Company which eventually became the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.  In addition to the sculpture, there are multiple displays honouring Alonso, including full-sized photographs of her in her iconic roles and a chronological history of her roles at the theatre.

Our tour of the theatre took us to all three floors of the beautiful building with its marble grand staircases and columns, domed ceiling, ornate cornices and marble sculptures of winged angels and nymphs.  On the second floor, we saw a scale model of the theatre, allowing us to get a closer look at the façade.  There was also a display listing the famous people who had performed here, including Sarah Bernhardt, the Bolshoi Ballet, Marcel Marceau and Simply Red (?I?). From one of the outdoor terraces, we had a nice view of the Capital Building and classic cars parked side by side in a rainbow of colours.

We learned from our guided tour that the main performance space holds 1046 seats with four rings of balcony seating and is used for all the arts including ballet and opera.  The chandelier, called “The Grand Spider” in Spanish is a reproduction from Czechoslovakia since the original one fell in 1900.  We were given the opportunity to try out the seats and to have photos of ourselves taken at the stage, which the tour guide insisted on doing for us.  The list of what is not allowed in this space is long and includes smoking, eating, drinking, photography or cell phones.  In particular, smoking is considered a major fire hazard in the auditorium since so much of it is made of wood.

We were in for a surprise when we reached the 3rd floor of the Grand Theatre.  In the middle of a large space decorated with all the ornate Baroque trimmings was a major art exhibition that was part of the Havana Biennale.  We saw works by a couple of the same artists that were on display on the first Biennale exhibition opening that we attended on our second day in Havana.  This exhibition featured as many sculptures and mixed media as it did paintings and the juxtaposition against the beautiful historic setting heightened and accentuated the cool factor of the mostly contemporary pieces.  My favourite was an etagere display case that you could walk all the way around to inspect.  It had a set of drawers at the bottom and eight shelves, each holding a small sculpture of one or more humanoid figures made from capless tubes of toothpaste.  The figures were posed in various positions including a pair getting amorous on a sofa made from wine corks.  On the back of the cabinet was a cheeky painting (pun intended) of a nude figure with a male face drawn on each of his butt cheeks.  I’m not sure if these were portraits of specific historic figures since I did not recognize them.

My other favourite piece was a bronze sculpture of a woman seemingly in distress with her hands held to her face and her long wavy hair streaming behind her.  The patterns on her dress and the illusion of motion and speed in her hair give it an Art Deco feel.  The work is by Cuban artist and painter Pedro Pablo Oliva whose paintings are said to be influenced by neo-expressionism, often portraying animals, children and fantastical figures. We really enjoyed looking at all the art and the tour guide was quite accommodating in giving us time to wander around.  But I still wished that we had more time to see everything at a more leisurely pace, or better yet, be given a guided tour of the art works which I’m sure had some interesting interpretations and meanings associated with them.

In the late afternoon, we planned to visit a street art area called Callejon de Hamel, located in Central Havana about 30 minutes west of Old Havana.  To get there, we walked along a major street called Calle Neptuno, which felt much grittier and more “authentically Cuban” than some of the areas near our hotel.  Along this street, we saw residences with the wash hanging from balconies, shops, eateries and grocery stores frequented by locals, people playing dominos on the street, a vendor walking around selling crispy snacks, and many more classic cars.  Many of the buildings and sidewalks were in bad states of disrepair.

Callejon de Hamel is an artsy area consisting of two blocks of back alleyways located behind large apartment buildings, where the walls are decorated with colourful murals and street art, and sculptures made from old car parts and other found objects such as old bathtubs, hand pumps and pin wheels.  Much of the art was created by Cuban painter, sculptor and muralist Salvador Gonzales Escalona beginning in 1990.  His abstract works exhibit the styles of surrealism and cubism and he uses whatever types of paint he can find for his murals, including car enamel.  Many of the art pieces depict rituals and deities related to Afro-Cuban culture.  The area has become a tourist attraction and building off the interest in the art works, there are also psychedelic art shops, a small bar serving mojitos and a small restaurant.  On Sundays, musicians fill the alleys with rumba music and people dance in the streets.  We were there on a Saturday, so the area was much less crowded.  We were able to admire the art without too many other people around and found a table at the bar for a cool drink.

Callejon de Hamel was not far from the AirBnB apartment that our friends Peter and Suzie had rented and so we had made plans to meet them for dinner at El Biky, a restaurant recommended to us by other Toronto friends who had been to Havana a few months earlier and who had also stayed in this area.  Unfortunately, we did not realize until we got there that unlike the restaurants we had been to on the previous days of our visit, El Biky was not a privately run paladar (Cuban family owned restaurant) but rather a government-run establishment that catered to tourists.  So rather than offering traditional Cuban dishes, the menu consisted of items like hamburgers and pasta.  The food was relatively inexpensive and the portions were large, but Rich and I would have preferred more authentic Cuban fare.  Instead, Rich had a cheese burger with cassava chips while I had pasta with cream of chicken (tasted like Campbell’s soup), mushrooms and blue cheese.  The service was slow and inefficient and when we got the bill, the tip was already added in.

Following dinner, Rich and I decided to walk back to our hotel along part of the Malecon, the 8 kilometre-long sea wall and esplanade following the coast of Havana.  It spans from the Vedado neighbourhood to the west to the Havana Harbour in Old Havana to the east.  We would walk a 3.5 km stretch from the famous 1930s Hotel Nacional de Cuba back to our Ibernostar Parque Central Hotel in Old Havana.  We initially had hoped to first have a drink at the Hotel Nacional, where many famous guests passed through, including Nat King Cole Jackie Robinson and Josephine Baker.  But we found the area packed with a street festival at the base of the hotel and could not get near it.  Instead we headed toward the boardwalk and found out that the crowds were there to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana by Spanish conquistadors.  Along the south side of the esplanade were tents and kiosks selling freshly cooked Cuban food including a crispy suckling pig roast!  This made us regret our dinner even more!  Had we known about this festival, we would have enjoyed taking part in it.  However it is so difficult to find out much information about anything in Cuba, so I’m not sure how we could have found out about this, despite doing research on the internet prior to our trip.

When we set out on our Malecon walk around 7:15pm, the sun had not yet set and it was still very hot and muggy with the temperature around 30 degrees Celsius.  But by around 8:30pm, it had cooled right down and the gentle sea breeze was rather refreshing.  The scenery was beautiful along the sea wall.  We saw the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta in the distance and joined the many people who climbed onto the sea wall to watch the crashing waves.  As the sun set, there was a purple glow in the sky and we had the opportunity to take some backlit photos of fishermen standing on top of the wall.

Along the way, on both sides of the Malecon, we saw more examples of art displays put up for the Havana Biennale.  There were large-scaled sculptures, murals, light displays and more.  We had fun posing for photos behind a couple of gold-coloured evening gowns made of metal that were sitting by the sea wall side of the Malecon, although I was a bit too short for them and they fit Rich much better.  I liked the installation showing shirtless boys hanging on top of (or in?) a set of basketball nets.  Getting to see this art added to our enjoyment of this walk but it had been a very long day and by the time we got back to the hotel that evening, we had walked almost 15 kilometers.