it's the last month of 2019....oh what a year it has been....pretty devastating in my life, but with rays of sunshine throughout....for those who do not know, this will be my last year in panama....it has been an interesting ride to say the least, but it is time for me to move on....and i am officially letting all of you know that i will be headed back to asia....china more specifically....yes, i am surprised by this as well, but the school that has hired me is one-of-a-kind....and i have friends who work there who have said this to me repeatedly.....so it is exciting....starting august 2020, you will be able to find me in beijing....working at the western academy of beijing, more affectionately known as WAB... you should look at their website....as it is a quite impressive campus and even more impressive to me is the program i will be working within....https://www.wab.edu/....check it out!!!!
i do have quite a bit of time still in panama and plan on visiting as much of here as possible...plus, i do have some amazing travel plans in the second semester for this region of the world....rio for carnival and iguazu falls, both in brazil....and diving in belize.....but this semester has been pretty spectacular as well....and the first destination in this semester was havana, cuba for a five day weekend....what a soulful, laid back, stuck in time sort of place...look below and you will understand what i mean.....
this is me on the plane headed to cuba.....soooooo excited for what lies ahead....
this is the newly renovated capitol building in havana....they finished it in time for the 500th anniversary of the founding of cuba by the Spanish...it is a a beautiful building....havana seems to be a place of continual, but very slow renovation....but much of the island runs slow....that's island time....
the old cars in havana always made me smile....i know my dad would have loved this about the city...when they are owned by the government taxi service, they are cleaned up and functional....but there are people not hired by the government that are still using these cars as well...but the ones around the capitol are definitely government run....loved the colors....
the other thing that always was present when we were in old havana was music...it was everywhere....i loved this band because the woman actually played a clarinet...i never got a shot of that, but it certainly made me smile....
one of the things i had to do was sit with this woman who was chewing on a cigar...she was willing to read my fortune, but it would have been in spanish and i would have missed half of it....she did have tarot cards and due to the doll next to me and the chewing of the cigar, i figure she also practices santeria....an afro-cuban religion combining catholicism and african beliefs brought to cuba by african slaves....she had an outstanding laugh.....
it is all about the cars in cuba....they are everywhere in old havana....i was always on the look out for a 1957 chevy...my dad's favorite....the cubans said all of the gringos from the states loved that car....so they were more difficult to come by....
above is the fountain of neptune....given to havana by italy....it actually was used as a source of water for boats moored against it....but was decommissioned in 1871 and now just looks over the city with the fort behind it across the river leading out to the ocean....
this is from the revolution museum, housed in what used to be the presidential palace...it was really interesting to see the history of cuba from the cuban perspective....just a bit different than what i was taught in history class....it covers the revolution from the 1950's when batista was ousted by castro up to today.....the building it is located in is stunning.....
of course within the revolution museum is all of the story about how castro came to power, where he was from on the island, the men that stood by his side - camilo cienfuegos and che guevara, and how they took the island back for their people.....i learned quite a bit from this museum....
this building sort of represented some of the feelings i had while in havana...it is a place of old glory, that is being renovated for the 21st century....but only where the tourists go...this building is along the malecon (the sea wall that stretches for 8 km in havana) where people walk and sit and gaze out over the sea towards the states....as you can see, it is being held up by another archway from somewhere else....the buildings are old and falling down, but the past has held them up for a very long time and it will take effort to bring them down....it is a wild place....
this is an image from one of the main squares in old havana...no one seems to know what the meaning is behind it....it is a naked woman, riding rooster, holding a fork...but she does have on a pair of stilettos....its is your decision as to what you think that means :)
the public art in havana was some of my favorite....it was so creative...like this wall piece, where the hair of the singer is actually created by 45 records....the store it was on the wall of had some really old tvs and radios and such throughout its shelves....it was a step back in time for sure....
this is a shot of me and a statue of ernest hemingway....at one of the bars he frequented the most...el floridita....this was his favorite bar for the daiquiri he used to drink.....not very similar to daiquiris in the states....less fruity and more rum filled....one of the bartenders had been there for almost 50 years....simply amazing....and they had the best plantain snacks of any bar.....yum!!!!
more cars....and still looking for the elusive 57 chevy.....
above is the hotel nacional de cuba....which opened in 1930....this is the symbol of history, culture and cuban identity....visitors to cuba must get a special license to stay here as it is a national hotel...and the cost is quite extravagant...many past dignitaries and artists have stayed here....we just sat on the veranda overlooking the sea and enjoyed the house specialty, a mojito!!!!
on the outskirts of havana there is a part of town that has been reclaimed by a mosaic artist, called fusterlandia....created by jose fuster....who wanted to create public art spaces similar to gaudi in barcelona...he started off by turning his own house into a work of art and then proceeded to change the face of his entire neighborhood.....
his work has been compared to picasso...and is nicknamed the picasso of mosaics....i loved the colors and his use of all space...both in his house and around his entire neighborhood....
we visited fusterlandia on our car tour that took us around Havana and its outlying areas....this flower girl was located on one of the balconies of the house....what an extremely creative place to hang out....i loved it....
this is david and i on our old car tour....our driver was actually an engineer who worked for the government, but became an old car tour operator and driver to be able to afford his life in cuba....as an engineer for the government we was not able to make end's meat....driving tourists around has been more profitable for him....i asked why so many of the old cars were pink, and he replied because the women who visit cuba would prefer to ride in a pink cadillac....good business i think :)
this is a view looking back over the outlet to the ocean facing havana....this was taken on the top of the old fort overlooking havana, called the morro castle....we just stopped for the view on our car tour...
this is the view looking the other way from the fort....this a view towards the east side of the island and if you turned just a bit to the left and looked out over the water, you would be facing the united states, a mere 90 miles away....i never really realized just how close cuba is to florida.....
just like many parts of the world, havana has an imagine park...named for the famed john lennon song...and a statue of course is there.....he used to have gold rimmed glasses, but they had been stolen so many times that cubans employed an around the clock security guard to protect them for a couple of years....but then gave up, so the glasses were stolen one last time....
like many catholic countries, cuba of course has a national cemetery and most graves are in mausoleums....fidel castro is not buried here, as it is not where he was from....i had a beautiful day to walk around and see some of cubas most historical people....
i found it.....a 1957 chevy....that was in excellent condition....not a convertible though, which was a bit f a bummer....but of course, i had to take its picture in honor of my dad....he would have loved it :)
and the final shot....dani and a national beer....an amber to have to get out of the rain....tasty! and cheers to you from me....
so there you have it....my trip to cuba....four days in havana-na-na-na.....a place filled with soul and character, but one where the common person really struggles....if you have money or work for the government or are a tourist, cuba is an amazing place....but while we were there there was a gasoline shortage....and lines of cars, a 100+, were waiting for a tank....when a tourist old car pulls up, they jump to the head, fill up and go along on their merry way....difficult to watch....i also visited a grocery store....they did not really want to let me in, but i just wanted some water....it was interesting to see what was not on the shelves and what was....all food seemed to be "white" in color....white bread, white cheese, white pasta, white rice....and the thing that got me was how little of this food was even available.....
do i think people should go to cuba....i do....but make sure you try and give back to some folks and not just the government....the music and dancing and smiles make it worth it...and i am so glad i made it before wifi is available everywhere....time seems to move slower and you are definitely disconnected.....
i am hoping to get my next update out sooner rather than later....as i was in mexico city for day of the dead - dia de los muertos - and then did some amazing diving in cozumel.....again...a wonderful trip...more on that soon....happy holiday season to you and yours, from me and mine....
dedicated to my dad....peace out....
dani
