🇨🇺 When old friends come to visit
When you stick around places long enough, you might even have friends come and visit you there, which was the case with Cuba. Although this was also planned a bit in advance, so I ‘saved’ most of the more touristy things for her visit (and we ended up doing like three of them in total).
The most involved of these touristy things was a two-day trip to the town of Viñales, which is famous for tobacco and cigar productions, but also has incredible views like the one you see in the first image below. We also took in a couple of shows, had lunch at the top of what was formerly the tallest building in Cuba, and drank perhaps an excessive amount of cerveza and rum.
The nine days she was here, I didn't manage to post to social media at all, and then in the week(s) that follow some photos from our various escapades are interspersed with those of my usual wandering around Havana, which is what you'll find here.
Tobacco country
When an old friend comes to visit you in Cuba, and you're so busy finally doing all the touristy stuff that you don't even have the time to post to social media for almost a full week....
NB: This photo was taken in Viñales, the main tourist destination in the island's main tobacco region, located a 3hr drive west of Havana.
Afternoon ceviche and mojitos
Afternoon ceviche and mojitos at a place called Jibaco in Old Havana a few weeks ago.
The ceviche was 1000 pesos ($2.80) and the mojitos 600 ($1.70) apiece. A splurge by my standards, but still a great value Cuban-style aperitif. You only live once, right?
Perro Callejero
When you've had a sufficient amount of cerveza at lunch to start petting small town street dogs while gently rocking on the terrace of an old timey hotel, enjoying the afternoon breeze in Cuban tobacco country....
NB: The Spanish phrase for street dog is the incredibly fun to say ‘perros callejeros’, which I learned a few years ago after getting bit by a street dog in a small town in Colombia. Coincidentally, the souvenir from this experience is visible in this shot - ie those two teeth marks on the inside of my right knee.
José Martí International Airport
Hanging out at airports when you don't have to fly anywhere is always a good time - all the travel vibes and industrial strength AC with none of the stress or hassle.
And if you can get a ride there in a 1984 super duper mini Fiat Polski driven at speed through the streets of Havana by a 2-metre tall man so it feels like you're in the Cuban version of James Bond meets Mr Bean, all the better.
Sadly no photos or video of this real life escapade exist, but I'm still pretty sure it actually happened....
Leave your tough objects at home
FYI, next time you're flying out of Havana make sure to keep your ‘white weapons’, hand grenades, nunchucks and other assorted ‘tough objets’ (for example, your favourite rolling pin) in your checked luggage, because they're all strictly prohibited in your hand baggage. At least if you're on American Airlines....
‘Adjusted’ flight times
‘Adjusted’ is such an obvious euphemism for 'late' that I'm honestly a bit surprised to have seen it for the first time here in communish Cuba and not that shining beacon of capitalist light to the north, where companies can openly lie, cheat and steal without ever facing any consequences. Go figure....
NB: I'm pretty sure this Caracas flight was originally scheduled for 18.00, meaning it was actually an hour early. But I'm not one to let small details get in the way of a good rant!
Cheers to the old timers! And also cheers to cheap imported Spanish beer with utterly meaningless slogans and boasts written on their cans!
The good taste of the beer?
Brewed with 100% selected ingredients?
WTF? It's like corporate AI pablum before corporate
AI pablum was even a thing. Even the name - Unlager - is literally as generic as it could possibly be.
But, that said, a can costs between 180-220 pesos ($0.50-0.60) from any of the small private shops - aka people's living rooms and porches - across the city and it tastes absolutely fine. Which is why it's one of the most commonly seen cervezas on the streets of Havana.
And that's saying something, because you see an ungodly amount of cerveza on the streets of Havana, pretty much around the clock, seven days a week....
Hammock life
Not gonna lie, having an old friend come visit was lovely - we had an amazing time. But having that same friend bring along a hammock? Wow!
The rooftop with its sweeping vistas of Havana is now on a whole other level. Which is good, because the heat and humidity is beginning to get oppressive....
Fixer uppers
This one might be a bit of a fixer upper even by local standards. Almost perfectly matches the building it's 'parked' in front of though!
We want people, not sheep
Obviously suffering from recency bias (and probably an increasingly poor memory), but Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer is one of the better history books I've ever read. Mostly because the island has a fascinating history full of interesting characters, and Havana has streets and squares and parks named after many of them, which I walk by on a daily basis, including Plaza Mella, named for this striking chiseled jawed chap: Julio Antonio Mella.
In the words of Ferrer:
“The president of the student federation—the young man designated “interim provost” during the students’ occupation of the university—was Julio Antonio Mella. His father was Dominican, his mother Irish, and because the couple was not married, the son technically bore his mother’s last name, McPartland. But everyone knew him as Mella. He was not the most applied student, but he was a champion rower, a good basketball player, and one of the most important student politicians in a country that produced many. Mella was the mastermind of the occupation of the university and its brief opening to the public in 1923. He used that exercise to spearhead another: the establishment that same year of the José Martí Popular University, which offered workers free evening classes on Cuban history, labor rights, and international politics.
Mella had his sights set well beyond the university. In 1925, he cofounded the Cuban Communist Party (which in 1944 would change its name to the Popular Socialist Party). Mella was especially interested in the Russian Revolution, though he also argued for what one historian has called a “truly Cuban Marxism.”
In an article about Vladimir Lenin’s death, he wrote, “we do not [aspire] to implement in our situation simplistic copies of revolutions made by other peoples… people [must] act according to their own thinking…. We want people, not sheep.”
He soon settled in Mexico City, where he moved among local communists, intellectuals, and artists, among them muralist Diego Rivera, artist Frida Kahlo, and Soviet ambassador Stanislav Pestkovsky. Mella organized and traveled actively in this period, to the founding meeting of the League Against Imperialism in Brussels, for instance, and to the Soviet Union. From the pages of the Mexican Communist Party’s official newspaper, El Machete, Mella inveighed against Machado’s rule and Coolidge’s power, against what he saw as the twin tyrannies of capitalism and imperialism.
But if Mella and his companions identified the current Cuban state as an enemy, the Cuban state reciprocated with much greater force. On the night of January 10, 1929, while Mella was walking home with his lover, the Italian photographer, actress, and communist Tina Modotti, someone shot him to death. The Mexican government tried to pin the assassination on fellow communists, though it was widely believed that Machado’s agents were the culprits.”
NB: There'll likely be many more quotes from this book to follow, regardless of the engagement or lack thereof this post gets. Consider this fair warning....
Almuerzo Cubano
While all of the best meals I've had in Cuba have been homecooked, this pollo con arroz moro y yuca (grilled chicken with Cuban rice and beans and steamed cassava) might have been the best of the (admittedly limited) restaurant experiences - narrowly surpassing the first grilled lobster at the beach a few weeks previously.
It's at a tiny hole in the wall that mainly seemed to be serving locals on the main street in Viñales (unfortunately not even on Google Maps), and we only found it by literally following our noses and discovering it was where the amazing BBQ smells were emanating from. Even the yuca had a delectable smokey flavour to it. Mmmm mmmm!
Total cost: 1200 pesos, or around $3.40. And the draft beer was another 300 pesos, or $0.85.
Sunrise in Viñales
Sunrise view of Viñales' Plaza Central from bed....
Pro Tip: If you wanna do some first rate star gazing, head to rural Cuba during a power outage. And don't worry about timing your visit, the power outages are a daily (and nightly) occurance, so aside from hurricane season you'll always be in for a celestial treat!
Horseback riding with Chino
The memories from this long afternoon spent riding horses around the Viñales Valley - visiting tobacco farms, swimming in caves, drinking local guava rum, smoking freshly rolled cigars - will (theoretically) last a lifetime.
Meanwhile, the bruises and sore legs one might get if they've never ridden a horse before and have no idea what they're doing will last at least eight days.
It was the perfect time to learn though, as equestrian skills - and more generally anything related to being a wild west cowboy - will probably be very useful for the post-apocalyptic future that's now just up around the bend!
Cabaret Parisien
The photos and videos don't do it justice, but the Cabaret Parisien at the iconic Hotel Nacional is a super cool experience. And all the better if you pass on the ‘internet only special price’ of $45, and pay just $32 at the hotel box office.
But even better still if you're running too late and the box office is already closed, so they let you buy tickets at the door in local currency for 3900 pesos, which is the equivalent of only $11, and also includes three drinks.
Read all about this incredible night out and lots more in my forthcoming book, Travelling Curmudgeon: How to have amazing experiences around the world for less than you'd pay for a smash burger and a cup of fizzy corn syrup water in literally any American city these days.
Title is still a work in progress....
The lion sleeps this afternoon
Spotted some new street art in Old Havana yesterday afternoon. If seeing this doesn't immediately put The Tokens’ one hit in your head, then you probably didn't know the name of the group who sang the 1961 banger ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight' until just now. Which is only about three minutes later than I learned it.
And you know what else you learn from The Tokens' Wikipedia page other than their name? That their one hit is actually just a much better produced cover of a song called 'Mbube' by South African singer Solomon Linda, originally recorded in 1939. Ah, sweet cultural appropriation....
NB: The artist is El Raffu, and based on the language his website is in, he seems to be French. You can see more of this sleeping lion and lots of his other works here: https://www.instagram.com/el_raffu
El Palacio de las Ursulinas (again)
El Palacio de las Ursulinas, another Moorish (or technically neo-Mudejar) beauty by architect José Toraya, originally built in 1913.
This is one of my favourite buildings in Havana - which is really saying something, since this city is packed with gorgeous ruins that are just my type* - so I'd been waiting to get a shot of it in the perfect light with the perfect commotion in the foreground before finally posting it.
But since that'll never happen, here's a shot of it in super harsh mid afternoon light without too much going on, taken exactly an hour ago. Better something than nothing, right?
*This statement solely applies to old buildings and nothing else. Just to be totally clear. Only old buildings....
The Fox & Crow
When the cabaret ends before midnight, so you head down the street to the old Fox and Crow Jazz Club for a night cap....
Not Pictured: The 2am pizza or anything else from the long (and perhaps mildly unsafe) walk home.
Four-legged Bach aficionado
Someone's excited to drag his newfound treasure home and brush up on Bach's Cello Suites this weekend. Just look at the smile on that face!
Who's a good boy with impeccable taste in classical music?!?!
Yes, you are! Oh, yes you are!!
NB: You can't tell from this photo, but the trash heaps around the city are very conspicuously beginning to challenge (or perhaps even surpass) the fly infested mountains that built up during Christmas and New Year
Dog day afternoon
We can just go ahead and make this an all dog Saturday. Let's see if this guy is more popular than this morning's cello loving perro callejero...
Cuban resourcefulness
Cubans are known for making do with what they've got and repurposing pretty much anything. That said, I was still a bit surprised to find this at the most famous hotel in the country....
Saturday morning nostalgia
When you spend your Saturday morning as the official designated amateur photographer of an art class for kids at a local community centre....
NB: After mucha procrastinación, in the very near future* there will theoretically be a fundraiser set up for the aforementioned community centre. So consider this fair warning of some impending passive aggressive digital panhandling on this page. Apologies in advance!
*This was originally posted in early April 2025, and is now being reposted to the website in late October 2025. And the fundraiser is still theoretical. But in the very near future it will be realised. Inshallah…
Sickle Christ
Finally dropped by Cuba's main modern art space today (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes), and this was the most interesting individual work. And also probably the most appropriate to post on a Sunday.
It was in the foyer near the museum cafe and I couldn't find a card with any info about it, but presumably it's called ‘Wheelbarrow Christ with Sickles’. Or at least that's what I'd call it if I were the artist. Titles can be mundane when the work itself isn't the least bit subtle.
Classic Cuban Car Du Jour
Simply the best
Advertising and marketing is literally the devil's work. But I'm gonna give this one a pass. Simple yet effective messaging.
Sure, it's boastfully inflating expectations that won't be met, but being hand-drawn somehow still makes it feel humble.
Two museums, one cupola
The view from the top floor of the Bellas Artes Museum yesterday. That dome you see is the former presidential palace, which now fittingly* serves as the Museum of the Revolution.
When half of the galleries are closed off (due an apparent lack of staffing), it helps if you can find some amusement in the museum itself, which was no problem at all.
The cafe alone is deserving of its own post, and will likely be getting a repeat visit in the not too distant future....
*And which even more fittingly seems to be under perpetual renovation.
Can they get it together? Spoiler alert: No, no they cannot
Another absolute treasure in the window of the same used bookshop here in Havana that previously brought you Elvis and the Eternal Dance of Lonely People.
“The Republicans. Can they get it together?”
Oh, disgraced ‘journalist’ Judy Miller, if only you knew how well this cover story from 16 August 1992 would age!
NB: There’s so much to say here, but instead of wading into three decades of our shambolic political system getting even more shambolic, I'd just like to point out that Judy Miller's father was a Belarusian-born ‘impresario’, who after a stint in vaudeville and running a club on Coney Island became the entertainment director of various mafia-owned casinos in Vegas and the Caribbean. What a life!
All of which I just learned from Wikipedia, after only meaning to double check the gist about how Judy Miller published a bunch of bogus stories to help lie us into the Iraq War back in 2003. What a time to be alive....
Rome at Home
I wanna go to Rome!
But we have Rome at home!
Rome at home:
NB: Just a bit of context for those who aren't familiar with Havana: This relatively new rubble is located in the Vedado district, which was the bougie posh American new town that got built up in the first half of the 20th century - ie when the island was an American colony in all but name - with wide boulevards, palatial villas, modern apartment blocks and lots of upper middle class houses with driveways. And it's pretty unusual to see ruins like this in this part of the city.
¡Salud!
FYI, when a friend comes to visit and you're technically on a holiday within a holiday within a longer working holiday¹ from your normal everyday life as an ‘expat’² in Europe, it's totally socially acceptable to order a rum along with your coffee when the shared taxi makes its obligatory pit stop at 10am.
And if anyone tells you differently, you can show them this post as conclusive evidence that they're wrong.
NB: This was two and a half weeks ago, on the way from Havana to tobacco country, so now just a hazy memory after two weeks of much needed sobriety.
¹I think my life hit peak figurative Matryoshka doll later in the day, when we also went on a horseback riding excursion, adding one more layer of leisure time
²I hate this word with a passion, but it's really the only* way to succinctly get across that you're a ‘Westerner’ who lives abroad
*Maybe one day I'll be pretentious enough to consider myself an émigré - surely these nested footnotes on a social media post are heading in that direction....
UPDATE: The following is a verbatim copied and pasted discussion on the original post with the Friend of Curmudgeon in question:
FoC:
You forgot to add that all the other passengers stood around and watched you drink your rum because you didn’t realize they had all finished their bathroom breaks and were waiting for you to get back on the bus and continue the journey.
TC:
Just so the good people who follow this page aren't misinformed by your out of context half-truths, I feel obligated to point out that:
1) YOU got out of the van way after everyone else, while I was already milling about waiting to get back in,
2) YOU asked if I wanted a coffee after you finished in the WC (knowing full well this would mean we both got rum as well),
3) The rum was excellent and I wanted to savour it, not gulp it down like a lush, which is why I didn't notice the others were finally ready to go, and
4) This is Cuba, where time is more irrelevant than anywhere else on the planet!
Now in hindsight my only regret is that we didn't get another round, or ask which rum it was. Next time!
FoC:
1. True. But when I ordered everyone was still milling about and doing things.
2. I didn’t go to the WC. I went straight to ordering coffee and rum.
3. It was
4. True. Also they took forever to bring said coffee and said rum.
Those halcyon days of yesterweek…
Enjoying some afternoon cocktails - as well as the refreshing breeze coming in from the sea - at the bar of the Hotel Nacional, once upon a time.
Oh, those halcyon days of late March '25 seem so recent, yet also so so long ago....