[i] Between our booking this cruise and actually going on it, the name changed from “Cuban Revolution” to “Cuban Fusion”.
[ii] Meet under terminal building 10 minutes before tour departure.
Cruise News, Friday 29th January 2016
“Useful & Important Information — Havana Cuba
…I got out of bed…, ca.7.40am;… and Janet
got up just after that. We went for breakfast in the Sirens Restaurant on Deck 11,
ca.8.30am… [and returned] to the cabin, ca.9am… Then
[shortly afterwards] we left so that Tatiana could make up the cabin, and went to the Coffee Port. I had an
Americano and finished with an Espresso, and Janet had two Fanta Zero (09:28:31, 10:05:31, 10:06:09). When we returned to the cabin, there was a towel elephant! It was perhaps at this stage that I nervously completed the visa application forms for me and
Janet — “nervously”, because mistakes weren’t allowed on the forms. I went to Gregory Bowden’s second lecture on pirates.
Caribbean Pirates, Part 2:
Great Pirates of the Golden Age 11am Medusa Lounge, deck 8
It’s in the golden age of piracy in the
Caribbean that we meet the most famous
pirates of all: Henry Morgan, born a gentleman,
who became perhaps the most feared pirate of
all time, John Rackham (a.k.a. Calico Jack) and
the two greatest female pirates, Anne Bonny
and Mary Read.
We had lunch in Sirens Restaurant. I can’t remember what I had. Sirens was often busy with a long queue at the counter, and rather than wait I would go out to the place by the pool and get a couple of slices of pizza. One of the ship’s crew
(i.e. one with white shirt with epaulettes and white trousers) got on our nerves: interfering, throwing his weight around, telling the restaurant staff what to do (when they were already doing perfectly well!) — and more annoying, and blameworthy in this time of “enhanced sanitation measures”: poking at food items (such as little packages of butter) with ungloved and unsanitised fingers.
Janet had a Fanta Zero and I a glass of house red wine (12:27:49). Then I saw that we were in the Entrance Canal leading to the Port of Havana, and I went to get my camera then went up to take photos.
Friday 29 January 2016 13:02:58
Entering Havana Harbour:
San Salvador de la Punta Fortress (right); statue of Máximo Gómez in Parque Martires del 71
Friday 29 January 2016 13:03:12
Entering Havana Harbour:
Statue of Máximo Gómez in Parque Martires del 71
Friday 29 January 2016 13:03:32
Entering Havana Harbour:
Statue of Máximo Gómez in Parque Martires del 71
Friday 29 January 2016 13:05:44
Entering Havana Harbour:
Havana skyline, including El Capitolio
Friday 29 January 2016 13:06:00
Entering Havana Harbour:
El Capitolio
Friday 29 January 2016 13:06:36
Entering Havana Harbour:
Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force)
Friday 29 January 2016 13:08:10
Entering Havana Harbour
Friday 29 January 2016 13:11:48
Entering Havana Harbour:
Looking back
Friday 29 January 2016 13:12:08
Entering Havana Harbour:
Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos del Morro
Friday 29 January 2016 13:12:32
Entering Havana Harbour:
El Capitolio
Friday 29 January 2016 13:13:44
Entering Havana Harbour:
Our destination Terminal Sierra Maestra is to the left.
Friday 29 January 2016 13:13:54
Entering Havana Harbour:
Approaching Terminal Sierra Maestra
Behind the terminal to which we were heading I noticed the golden “onion”-dome of what looked like a Russian Orthodox church, but from that distance the cross on the dome looked like a Latin one.
It seemed to lack the extra crosspiece above and the slanted crosspiece below of the Orthodox cross.
Friday 29 January 2016 13:14:10
Entering Havana Harbour:
Our Lady of Kazan Orthodox Cathedral
Friday 29 January 2016 13:14:10 (detail)
Entering Havana Harbour:
Our Lady of Kazan Orthodox Cathedral
Friday 29 January 2016 13:19:46
Entering Havana Harbour:
Terminal Sierra Maestra
Friday 29 January 2016 13:19:46 (detail 1)
Friday 29 January 2016 13:19:46 (detail 2)
Entering Havana Harbour:
Derelict part of Terminal Sierra Maestra
Friday 29 January 2016 13:19:46 (detail 3)
Entering Havana Harbour:
Being met by the pilot boat
After some 20 minutes of snapping with the camera, I returned to the cabin—
Friday 29 January 2016 13:24:34
In the cabin: a towel elephant
—but went out again shortly afterwards.
Friday 29 January 2016 13:34:38
Street scene
Friday 29 January 2016 13:36:04
In the distance:
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 13:36:14
Building of the Grupo de Administración Empresarial, S.A. (Group of Business Administration),
seemingly a shady business “empire” controlled by the Castro family
Friday 29 January 2016 13:36:28
Lonja del Comercio (Chamber of Commerce) building
Friday 29 January 2016 13:37:58
“Coco-taxi”
Friday 29 January 2016 13:39:48
Floating restaurant Los Marinos (The Sailors), and (background) Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 13:40:00
66-foot marble statue, the Christ of Havana, inaugurated on 24 December 1958, fifteen days before Fidel Castro entered Havana during the Cuban Revolution
Friday 29 January 2016 13:40:44
Casablanca, a suburb of Havana, with its distinctive National Observatory
Friday 29 January 2016 13:41:10
Docks on the north side of the Port of Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 13:41:10 (detail)
Docks on the north side of the Port of Havana
When I showed Tatiana the photo of the church-dome using the camera’s
view-screen,[iii] she suggested that it might be Catholic. We left the ship
ca.2.30pm from deck 6, not the usual deck 4. We queued up at booths to have passports examined and stamped, but were through quickly. We didn’t have any difficulty changing US dollars for Cuban convertible pesos at the bureau, open at its near side with glass-fronted counters along the three other sides. It had been suggested that we might. Then we went down a flight of stairs to leave the building. Getting across the wide street presented no problem; we just tagged along with the others at the crossing doing so. We wanted to see Old Havana, and I wanted to see El Capitolio, so we headed along the street ahead of
us[iv] from the square in which we found
ourselves.[v] It was pedestrians-only at this point, and I thought the posts preventing the entry of vehicles were neat: cannons stuck in the ground! “Swords into ploughshares”! Before proceeding any farther, we went for a drink; turning first left we found a
bar/restaurant[vi] some way down on the left of that
street.[vii] I had a cerveza and
Janet a cola dietética — both home-produced. Janet thought that the cola was as good as
Pepsi Diet and better than Diet Coke. “It was only 3½ pesos, including a 50 cent tip. How cheap!” she recalled. The value of the Cuban convertible peso is pegged to the US dollar. We saw sparrows for the first time on this holiday. The males didn’t have the brown heads of Italian and Spanish sparrows; they had grey on top of their heads like those back home — perhaps more grey? I don’t know.
[iii] In fact, on the blown-up image, above, a hint of cross-pieces can be seen, but not with the naked eye or with the camera’s small view-screen.
[iv] Calle Amargura
[v] Plaza San Francisco de Asís
[vi] Actually a small hotel: Mesón de la Flota
[vii] Calle Mercaderes
Friday 29 January 2016 15:07:18
Refreshments at the Mesón de la Flota (Tavern of the Fleet), Calle Mercaderes, Old Havana
Resuming our walk along the first street, after a couple of blocks we encountered a
church[viii] whose façade just in the street to the
left[ix] presented itself to us. We decided to visit, and
Janet donned her “babushka”, carried for this purpose. We put two pesos in the offering box.
[viii] Iglesia San Francisco de Asís
[ix] Calle Cuba
Friday 29 January 2016 15:34:48
Friday 29 January 2016 15:32:00
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:33:58
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:36:04
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:38:38
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:38:50
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:39:12
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:39:28
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:41:08
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:42:04
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:44:34
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:45:58
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 15:47:14
Iglesia San Francisco de Asís, Calle Cuba, Old Havana
As we resumed our way, we saw that many of the once-fine baroque and neoclassical style buildings were dilapidated and fallen into ruin. Most or many of them were still occupied, though, as evinced by the washing hung out to dry over the balconies above us. “Fascinating,”
Janet wrote. “Awash with 1950s limousines, loud Cubans, and tatty streets and buildings.” After a further five blocks the street along which we walked ended at a
church,[x] and we turned left and then
right[xi] for a further four blocks to emerge opposite El Capitolio.
[x] Iglesia del Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje
[xi] Into Calle Teniente Rey
Friday 29 January 2016 15:57:16
Iglesia del Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje (Good Voyage) at the western end of Calle Amargura, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 16:03:48
El Capitolio, seen from Calle Teniente Rey, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 16:05:28
Demolished building at the end of Calle Teniente Rey, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 16:06:14
Paseo de Marti and the south end of el Capitolio
Friday 29 January 2016 16:07:14
Paseo de Marti and el Capitolio
Friday 29 January 2016 16:07:32
Paseo de Marti, the north end of el Capitolio, and the Gran Teatro de La Habana
Then we went back the way we’d come.
Friday 29 January 2016 16:08:34
Building near the end of Calle Teniente Rey, Old Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 16:11:32
Scaffolding overgrown with vegetation
Friday 29 January 2016 16:32:00
Eastern end of Calle Amargura, Plaza de San Francisco, and Terminal Sierra Maestra, Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 16:32:00 (detail)
Terminal Sierra Maestra, Havana
Friday 29 January 2016 16:33:20
The Conversation by French sculptor Etienne in Plaza de San Francisco
Friday 29 January 2016 16:33:20 (detail)
Back in the terminal, we ran our bags through the scanner, supervised by friendly officials, and had our passports stamped again.
What I term my passport’s “peace page”, with stamps from Israel, Jordan and Cuba
A bit after 5.30pm we left the cabin and went to the Lido Restaurant. I had a pint of
Strongbow cider and Janet a Fanta Zero (17:42:46, 17:43:37). “As I guessed,”
Janet wrote, “it was mayhem!” We had one of our customary turns around the promenade deck before returning to the cabin.
CANNON SHOT CEREMONY — FRIDAY
You’ll join a timeline’s worth of audiences when you watch the Cannon Shot Ceremony at Havana’s Fort of St. Charles. The thunderous firing of a cannon ball has taken place on the ramparts since the 18th century. It was invented to signal the closing of the fort’s doors. And, since its beginnings, it’s been watched by everyone from the colonial leader of Cuba, King Carlos III, to his revolutionary predecessor, Che Guevara. With your ear plugs on standby, you’ll witness the custom itself. With the sounds still ringing in your ears, you’ll have time for a tour of Havana. Wind your way through the Cadillac-lined streets and take in the colonial monuments. Finally, it’s on to Santa Angel, restaurant and bar, in Plaza Vieja for a Mojito or two. Just so you know— The minimum age for this tour is 16 years old.
The instruction on the excursion tickets — “Meet under terminal building 10 minutes before tour departure” — confused me, because I hadn’t noticed any “under” when we were in the terminal earlier. Anyway, after we had passed through passport checking (no further stamping of it occurred) and scanning and got to the bottom of the stairs, one of the
Thomson Dream’s excursions staff pointed us to do a U-turn, where we found ourselves in an open-sided area in which coaches were waiting. We boarded ours and were taken along the Entrance Canal, around the equestrian
statue[xii] seen from the ship earlier, and into a tunnel to the other side. We parked not far from the Fort of St.
Charles.[xiii]
[xii] Statue of Máximo Gómez
[xiii] Called “Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña” in the captions below
Friday 29 January 2016 20:04:36
Entering Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña through the northern bastion
Friday 29 January 2016 20:05:40
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 20:07:28
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 20:07:48
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 20:07:48 (detail 1)
Friday 29 January 2016 20:07:48 (detail 2)
Friday 29 January 2016 20:08:20
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Within the fort were streets with stalls selling souvenirs. We had some time to wait till the ceremony started.
Friday 29 January 2016 20:10:50
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 20:12:34
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
Friday 29 January 2016 20:20:04
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
A long building with many doors and few windows didn’t look like apartments; indeed, it reminded me of the wall of Mdina along Magazines
Street.[xiv] I asked the guide whether in fact they had been “magazines”, but she seemingly didn’t understand me, even when I added “stores for arms and ammunition”.
[xiv] 19
September 2015
Magazines Street, Mdina: Within the wall to the right were the magazines.
Friday 29 January 2016 20:25:36
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña
We went up the rise to where the cannon was situated. It was crowded with many spectators, and I almost despaired of getting any images of the cannon-shot ceremony. We had about half an hour to wait up there till the cannon actually was fired. There was a lot of marching around, before the cannon was primed and finally fired.
Friday 29 January 2016 20:26:48
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña:
Going up to where the cannon was situated
Friday 29 January 2016 20:30:00
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña:
The cannon
(The lights of the Thomson Dream in the background)
Friday 29 January 2016 20:30:00 (detail)
Fortress San Carlos de la Cabaña: The cannon
After that, the coach took us back to the square opposite the ship terminal, the Plaza de San Francisco. The Basilica and Monastery of Saint Francis of Assisi there isn’t used as a church; it’s a concert venue and museum. That, I guess, explains why there is the second “Saint Francis of Assisi” church, an actual working church, that
Janet and I found and visited earlier.
Friday 29 January 2016 21:31:48
Convento de San Francisco de Asís (Basilica and Monastery of Saint Francis of Assisi)
Friday 29 January 2016 21:33:04
Fountain in Plaza de San Francisco
Friday 29 January 2016 21:35:20
Buildings in Calle Oficios in the southwest corner of Plaza de San Francisco
From there we turned left behind the Basilica and Monastery of Saint Francis of Assisi. Just there was a bronze life-size statue of “El Caballero de Paris” (“The Gentleman from Paris”), a man who became well known after he lost his mind and wandered the streets of Havana for many years. The statue’s beard and left hand had been polished by the many people who touched them for good luck.
Friday 29 January 2016 21:36:58
Bronze life-size statue by José Villa Soberón of José María López Lledín (1899–1985) known as “El Caballero de Paris” (“The Gentleman from Paris”) who is buried inside the Basilica
We walked along the street just there[xv] then turned first right and walked along this
street.[xvi] We stopped at a long, rectangular hole in the middle of the street fenced with metal railings, with steps down to the remains of a cylindrical masonry
tunnel.[xvii] (There were two such holes, the second farther along.) This, the guide told us, used to be the aqueduct providing the main water supply to the city. There was a tabby cat on the steps, who appeared to be rather alarmed by all the people suddenly surrounding it. At the end of the street we came to the Plaza Vieja, and at the end of that on the right to the
Santo Ángel restaurant, where we were seated under the arched gallery and serenaded by a small band. I had a
mojito (with no detectable rum kick!) and Janet a cola dietética.
[xv] Calle Oficios
[xvi] Calle Teniente Rey
[xvii] The Zanja Real (“royal excavation”), built at the end of the 16th century
We had the choice then of being guided back, or of finding our own way, and we did the latter just before 11pm. I left
Janet in the cabin, to go to see Sebastian Kelly’s cabaret in the Medusa Lounge. But the 10.30pm show in the Broadway hadn’t finished, so I diverted into there, sat at the front of the rear block of seats, behind the rows of seats with tables, and caught the tail end of that.
Showtime: Styled by Rock 8.30pm & 10.30pm Broadway, deck 8
we are all rockers at heart, aren’t we? It’s all
here in tonight’s show, as we revisit those days
when rock was king. Listen again to all those
anthems and bring a leather jacket!
Then I went to the Medusa Lounge.
Sebastian Kelly with his
Michael Bublé Show 11.30pm Medusa Lounge, deck 8
Tonight Sebastian Kelly from our theatre show
team plays tribute to the Canadian singer. This
is a cabaret not to be missed.
Michael Bublé’s recorded output covers a lot of “standards”, so much of the material was familiar to me. I had a pint of
Strongbow cider (23:16:39). Janet was in bed when I got back to the cabin.
