This past winter I made a seven day trip to Havana, to break up the winter and maybe gain a bit of culture at the same time.
The decision to forego a Veradero resort (If i wanted to hang by the pool drinking with my countrymen, I’d have stayed home and saved some cash) for the crumbling city of Havana was tough. We’re all about seeing different cultures and hanging out with locals, eating the food, listening to the music etc etc. But we were bringing our little 18 month old daughter with us, which meant that our trip would not be relaxing at all. Not to mention that all-Inclusive trips are a lot cheaper and less work if you have children in tow. We were not disapointed…
Havana is a fantastic city that in some ways looks like Beirut in 1980, with it’s crumbling buildings, potholes as big as manhole covers, old cars with no wheels or bumpers left on the street to rust and die and a general feeling of decay from being in a war zone. The funny thing that struck me me about the city was with all the decay, Havana was far more beautiful than Toronto (My hometown). Now this is just my opinion but Havana’s architecture is incredible. I think it’s described as “Spanish Colonial”. Whatever… It makes Toronto look cold, sterile and Lifeless.
We stayed at the Hotel Sevilla and to my surprise our room was just above Al Capone’s regular suite. Cool.. This hotel at one time looked to be quite ritzy with it’s grand hallways, High ceilings, rooftop restaurant over looking the Capitolio/downtown area and beautiful street level pool. I could just imagine the celebs and gangsters walking around the place in the pre-revolution days.
The reviews of this hotel were mixed. People were saying things like “the room was dirty”, “It took a long time for the room to be ready”, “The AC wasn’t working” etc, we also experienced lights that only worked on the first day but my thinking is that we’re in a communist country where everyone gets the bare minimum to live on, education and health care is free, and there’s no incentive to work, get ahead, or make people happy so just get over it. This is what Revolution brings, if you want luxury go to New York or Paris.
Havana’s music was mostly centered in the hotels beginning around 4pm and finishing at 11pm. I wished i had searched out some cool latin/jazz clubs but by the time it was clubbing hours, my day with the little girl sightseeing had taken it’s toll and i had nothing left. The music being played in the hotels, was the fokloric music of Cuba called “Son”. If you’ve heard of Buena Vista Social Club then you can imagine the sound. The Music of Son was everywhere and I was really starting to enjoy it when, one evening i was clapping out the “Son Clave” Pattern (Son Clave is the pattern/pulse that the music is built upon and is played with two pieces of wood knocked together) along with the band.
The percussionist had noticed me clapping along, he must have thought “Where did this gringo learn to play the clave” the surprised look on his face was classic and he eventually invited me to play a song. What a thrill it was to be in Havana playing with these musicians. These guys were switching around their instruments, they could all sight read and the feel they had was incredible.
I have been working out of a book from the “Drummers Collective” called “Afro-Cuban rhythms for drumset” authored by Frank Malabe and Rob Weiner and i would like to think that it helped me to prepare for this moment (actually it was my teacher Steve Mancuso from Toronto who helped me most but everyone should buy the book regardless). This book is a must for drummers who want to explore the rich music of Cuba and it’s African roots. The book is layed out nicely and is easy to study from if you don’t have or can’t afford drum lessons. Even if you can’t read music the book is great because the audio cd has great recordings of all the drum parts for the student who learns through listening.
The Food in Cuba was pretty bad. We checked out some cool restaurants like El Bodeguita but the food was just edible to sustain life. If you like ham and cheese or fried chicken with rice and beans then you’re ok. The best meal we had was $350 for 4 people that didn’t drink very much. The food was pretty good but not worth the price we paid and we had to find the place first which proved difficult, so i guess all the good food gets shipped out to the resorts. Let’s blame the U.S embargo for this. If you go to Havana the best food for the price is in “Barrio Chino” which is Chinatown. You can’t go wrong with Chinese food. Even in Havana.
Cuba was not cheap. Unless you are on a resort spending no cash, Cuba is expensive. Cuba has two currencies, one for the locals and one for the tourists. The visitor’s Peso is in line with the value of the U.S. dollar so a ham and cheese sandwich with fries and a Rum and Coke is $15…. Crazy. Tell me that Castro isn’t a capitalist and i’ll show you a guy who came home from Cuba flat broke.
The people of Cuba are incredibly friendly and life seems to be lived on the street. Havana was quite safe as well, i guess that is the by-product of a police state, (Fuck with the tourists and you go to jail). Prostitution seemed to be a huge problem because people can live quite good pandering to dirty old men from Europe and Canada although Canadians seemed to stay at the resorts. I was sitting with my daughter in a cafe when a prostitute asked me if i wanted a fuck while at the same time making a huge fuss over my cute little kid.. I guess communism doesn’t provide that much of a comfy life “Viva la Revolucion”.
In all Cuba is fantastic and i recommend staying in Havana rather than going to a resort and being with a bunch of drunken Canadians. If you want to hit the beach you can go to “Playa del Estes” just 20 minutes east of Havana and you will find a long stretch of beach that is just so beautiful. Havana will give you some great culture and will give you a snapshot of what communism and the revolution has brought, good and bad. Unfortunately you will see the effect of the U.S. embargo as well, but i see that changing in the not so distant future.
The one thing I’ll really miss about Cuba is all the pictures and T-shirts of Che Guevara….. Just kidding!
