Havana, Cuba Videos

Click on http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48835237&postcount=366 to view videos of our recent visit to Havana, Cuba.

Enjoy,

Ron

Thank you for posting those. They are very interesting and very well compiled.

Barbara

An additional video featuring Trinidad & Cienfuegos has been added!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48875120&postcount=368

Thank you so much for the wonderful videos of Cuba. My husband and I want to visit - hopefully, next year. Your videos really give a sense of the history and beauty of the country.

Thank you so much! These are wonderful. We are booked to be in Cuba next March. This just makes me so much more stinking excited than I already was!

Love the videos! Thank you very much for posting them. We booked a March cruise to Havana last night and haven't started researching yet.

Great videos. Lots of good historical info. Brought back great memories. Thanks so much.

However, the buildings you chose for the Havana videos seem much better taken care of than was my impression of the general charmingly crumbling state of city, which gives it such unique character.

Great videos. Lots of good historical info. Brought back great memories. Thanks so much.

However, the buildings you chose for the Havana videos seem much better taken care of than was my impression of the general charmingly crumbling state of city, which gives it such unique character.

Watching these well assembled videos did strike that chord with me. For the most part, whenever a western newspaper or publication writes anything about Cuba, one can bet they will attached a photo of a crumbling building or a horse drawn cart or someone's back yard disposal. Their object is to imply that the country is in total ruin. Their deceit is unmistakable.

The restoration of Cuba did understandably commence with historical treasurers of churches, community squares and official buildings and as the videos in question do feature those, the many as yet restored residences which await their turn are omitted. But even among the many crumbling losses are the occasional completed units with their unique restored facades and colourful paint choices, perhaps completed with private funds. And with each of our visits we are seeing more and more of such restoration. I would not classify the decay that occurred over the many years of the embargo as unique character, but in the interim it can serve as a reminder of the damage that was inflicted.

Let me just add some background to my comment, ONT-CA.

I spend a good part of my time in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, which has a very similar looking Colonial era center, and a similar tropical climate which accelerates deterioration of many buildings. There is no overt political motive for how it is portrayed in photos, but you can certainly see how it is portrayed visually in a similar manner on the Internet. The government there has fixed up a certain area of buildings in that neighborhood at great cost, which now attracts tourists, but the fringes of that area still look very much like the privately owned residential buildings just a block or so back from some of those in the video above of Havana Vieja.

(I have experience as well in trying to keep up a modest newer residence in the ruinous tropical climate. The situation in Cuba caused by politics/embargo is not hardly the only reason tropical buildings fall into disrepair.)

I have also visited São Luis, Maranhao state, Brazil which has the Colonial Reviver neighborhood with its notable and colorful ceramic tiled-front houses, full of buildings in worse shape than Havana Vieja, with just a few that have been fixed. The government there is encouraging private owners to fix up structures in the area, but I don't know how much, if any, government money is involved there.

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That said, I did indeed find the crumbling structures in Havana have considerable photographic charm. Some of my own photos I liked best were of people going about their daily life around these residences. (But many more photos were left untaken since it felt intrusive for the families whose first floor living rooms were almost in the street itself.) My casa owner commented that the Colonial apartment he recently bought to fix up does indeed have gorgeous details, but the edifice is in essence falling down around it , with a cost to stop an ordinary Cuban like him would be hard put to afford without outside assistance.

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Most of the restored public buildings in the video of Havana Vieja are of a small area of the neighborhood where the big bus tours and the most foreign tourists go. While there is value in becoming familiar with them in film, they are not entirely representative of the neighborhood, any more than are just the atmospheric residences so nearby. However, I hope for the sake of this rich world heritage, more buildings can be saved before it is too late.

Hi Ron,

We are scheduled to stop in Havana for a day on our Oceania cruise in March. Since you have been there, can you tell me if the Old Havana is within walking distance from the pier? Are there restaurants, shops and crafts available within walking distance as well? We really hate tours! Thanks,

Alexandra

Hi Ron,

We are scheduled to stop in Havana for a day on our Oceania cruise in March. Since you have been there, can you tell me if the Old Havana is within walking distance from the pier? Are there restaurants, shops and crafts available within walking distance as well? We really hate tours! Thanks,

Alexandra

Yes, and yes.

Hi Ron,

We are scheduled to stop in Havana for a day on our Oceania cruise in March. Since you have been there, can you tell me if the Old Havana is within walking distance from the pier? Are there restaurants, shops and crafts available within walking distance as well? We really hate tours! Thanks,

Alexandra

There's also a hop on/off bus that goes around the city to get an overview. 10 CUC iirc

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On this map:

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/havana-map.gif

you can see the Basilica de San Francisco near the cruise pier.

The main tourist shopping street is Obispo, which you can see nearby on the map. (Blocks are very short, to get an idea of walking distance/time.)

lost track of whoever posted the 5-part video series, but they are great - thank you! have been doing lots of prep for upcoming visit next month, and these videos are BEST I've seen. very well done! again, thank you!