Havana’s Old Quarter is 2 square miles of monuments,
fortresses, cobblestones, and townhouses surrounding the Plaza de la
Catedral. In something I found really
interesting about Havana many of the structures in La Habana Vieja have been
beautifully preserved (from the 16th and 17th centuries),
but their neighboring structures are in ruins.
One of our guides talked about this phenomenon with an
analogy to the fleet of perfect classic cars popular throughout the city. The cars, on the outside, look perfectly
preserved. They are the cars from 1950s Americana and they are beautiful.
However, if you open the hood and look inside they cease to be classic cars at
all. Many have Russian or Chinese engines, many have parts that have been
created from scratch by Cuban metal-workers.
Hoses and clamps (and whatever else is in the guts of a car, I have no
idea) are stolen from old fridges or other appliances. And that is Cuba in a nutshell. The outside looks like one thing, but inside everything
is much, much more complicated.
Hotel Nacional is located in the Vedado district (just west
of Old Quarter) and overlooks the Malecón (sea wall). The Malecón is
a 4-mile waterfront drive and seawall, that at night is the world’s longest
front porch. It is the place to hang out
with friends, drink, play dominos or chess, etc.
Hotel Nacional is famous for its Art Deco style, Moorish arches, hand painted tiles, and its association with American gangsters, who
had “board meetings” there fairly regularly.
Meyer Lansky operated a casino, and his Vegas “partners” lounged at the
pool playing poker.
Our stay in Havana was 2 days so I did 3 excursions, one of which was a late night show at Hotel Nacional to see the Cabaret Parisien and it was quite the spectacle!
