Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Cinfuegos, Cuba
We arrived in Miami yesterday, and last evening we had a
brief but comprehensive talk at our hotel from a member of the Cuban-American
community introducing us to Cuba from her perspective.
This morning we flew from Miami to Cienfuegos
on a “charter” flight and it was our introduction to the conflicts and
paradoxes which surround our relationship with Cuba. American flights are allowed to Cuba, but
only as charters, not as ordinary scheduled flights. So, Sun Country Airlines (?) flies a new
Boeing 737-800 every day, four times a day, roundtrip to Cuba, at the same time
every day. But they are not scheduled
flights, they are charters. We flew one
of these “charters.” Even American
Airlines flies “charters” to Cuba.
Cinfuegos is in the middle of the Caribbean (south) coast of
Cuba, and the weather was hot and sunny on our arrival.
We checked into the Jagua Hotel and were shown to a room
right out of the 1950’s:
The view of the harbor was beautiful, but we later were told
that all of the boats in the harbor belonged to foreigners:
As we made our way to begin touring, we saw the incredible array
of old cars here. Since the revolution
in 1959, no new American cars have come into the island. Recently some Japanese and European cars have
been imported, but they are phenomenally expensive, so there is a profusion of
American cars from the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s here. Many are very run down, but many have been
maintained or restored to perfection. I’ll
post a separate page of car photos.
We visited the partially restored Tomas Terry Theater with
its beautiful proscenium:
We then went to the main square, the Plaza Jose Marti:
Finally we were ushered into a public building where we met
and were entertained by a lovely a capella choir, Cantores di Cienfuegos:
We went back to the hotel, and next door is an old private
palace which has been restored to a restaurant with a patio on the roof:
We went with Ellin and Bill Friedman and Randy and Ron
Ehrenberg for mojitos on the roof:
Wow, amazing to think that Americans can now visit Cuba! You're giving me my first glimpse of that place, really. Clearly it's a strange mixture of old and new, relics of capitalism/tourism and an ongoing state-controlled economy like nothing else in the world (even, I imagine, the former Soviet Union or mainland China).
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see and read more!
Thanks for taking the time to set all of this down "on paper" (or "on screen"?), even if a few days later than you would have wished.
Enjoyed your car pictures, I recognized every Chevrolet, Buick and Pontiac, some of the others? When we were there we saw men manufacturing replacement parts for these cars including body sheet metal out of scrap aluminum sheet, corrugated sheet and whatever they could get their hands on. Many of the cars that seem wonderful on the exterior have very interesting engines and suspensions that never saw an American auto factory.
ReplyDeleteThe Cubans are amazingly resourceful mechanics. The 1952 Dodge we drove in had been a V-8. The driver told us the engine is still great but is on the floor of his garage as it is so very inefficient. He put in a Hyundai 4-cylinder and created the parts to make it fit!
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