It's 2:30 here, and we have just finished lunch (grilled shrimp over
sauteed vegetables and rice, washed down with a light Cuban beer).
Departure at 3 p.m. for an as-yet-undisclosed event. This so far is
the style of our journey- information is dispersed as we need it, and
not a moment before. Partly to reduce expectations and disappointment
(if, for example, the promised rehearsal fails to materialize), partly
to reduce wear and tear on Ariana's voice, and partly out of some
security concern on Ariana's part. Be mindful, she warns.
Our hotel (Hotel Telegrafo) is well-located on the edge of Havana
Vieja and by Parque Central. The rooms are quiet, despite the hustle
and bustle on the street below. And yes, the bustle includes many
cars from the fifties serving as taxis and personal vehicles in the
21st century. Also bicycle cabs and more contemporary not-American
vehicles.
Yesterday we arrived in time to change money into CUCs or chavitos
(equivalent to one Canadian dollar and the only currency used by
tourists), then have a lovely welcome lunch at Los Nardos, a
restaurant run by and Andalusian society as a training school for
waiters and chefs. It's not completely clear to me how this works,
and these societies are able to obtain and deliver food with different
methods and lower prices than other restaurants.
After Monday's afternoon activity fell through, Mary and I spent hours
wandering the streets of old Havana (Havana Vieja), admiring
buildings, listening to music and mostly people watching. We did it
all again later in the evening, the fell into bed at 11. This after
getting up at 3:45 Monday morning to catch our charter flight from
Miami to Havana.
The Monday afternoon activity was rescheduled for this morning. We
spent several hours wandering through Havana Vieja with Lucilla, a
professor of interior design at the University of Havana. Learned
much about architecture in warm climates and restoration. I was
mostly fascinated by the success of a project that began in the
eighties, when old Havana was a crumbling slum of collapsing
(literally!) tenements. The end result, thanks in large part to
Lucilla's students, looks effortless.
New to me, and I'm sure not to anyone who pays attention to
restoration, was the concept that architects and designers make a
choice about which of many centuries to refer to in their restoration.
Plazas and squares have been used differently in different times.
Interesting was thinking about how weather influences architecture,
particularly per-air conditioning architecture. Interior spaces are
designed for air flow. Also for nice transition from public to
private.
It's feeling like to time to gather and wait to leave. Almost
everyone is here in the lobby. Most frustrating to me with any group
is the inevitable wait for one or two stragglers.
Very fun and satisfying to be here. Weather is wonderful- warm, not
hot, and breezy. Forgot to mention a huge fort, the largest in the
Americas, protecting the Havana harbor, and last night's music at a
bar frequented by Hemingway for its mojitos- La Bodeguito del Medio.
Oh yes, I visited a public library with a bustling reading room at the
Plaza de Armas, the oldest square in Havana.
Until the next time, Toni
Departure at 3 p.m. for an as-yet-undisclosed event. This so far is
the style of our journey- information is dispersed as we need it, and
not a moment before. Partly to reduce expectations and disappointment
(if, for example, the promised rehearsal fails to materialize), partly
to reduce wear and tear on Ariana's voice, and partly out of some
security concern on Ariana's part. Be mindful, she warns.
Our hotel (Hotel Telegrafo) is well-located on the edge of Havana
Vieja and by Parque Central. The rooms are quiet, despite the hustle
and bustle on the street below. And yes, the bustle includes many
cars from the fifties serving as taxis and personal vehicles in the
21st century. Also bicycle cabs and more contemporary not-American
vehicles.
Yesterday we arrived in time to change money into CUCs or chavitos
(equivalent to one Canadian dollar and the only currency used by
tourists), then have a lovely welcome lunch at Los Nardos, a
restaurant run by and Andalusian society as a training school for
waiters and chefs. It's not completely clear to me how this works,
and these societies are able to obtain and deliver food with different
methods and lower prices than other restaurants.
After Monday's afternoon activity fell through, Mary and I spent hours
wandering the streets of old Havana (Havana Vieja), admiring
buildings, listening to music and mostly people watching. We did it
all again later in the evening, the fell into bed at 11. This after
getting up at 3:45 Monday morning to catch our charter flight from
Miami to Havana.
The Monday afternoon activity was rescheduled for this morning. We
spent several hours wandering through Havana Vieja with Lucilla, a
professor of interior design at the University of Havana. Learned
much about architecture in warm climates and restoration. I was
mostly fascinated by the success of a project that began in the
eighties, when old Havana was a crumbling slum of collapsing
(literally!) tenements. The end result, thanks in large part to
Lucilla's students, looks effortless.
New to me, and I'm sure not to anyone who pays attention to
restoration, was the concept that architects and designers make a
choice about which of many centuries to refer to in their restoration.
Plazas and squares have been used differently in different times.
Interesting was thinking about how weather influences architecture,
particularly per-air conditioning architecture. Interior spaces are
designed for air flow. Also for nice transition from public to
private.
It's feeling like to time to gather and wait to leave. Almost
everyone is here in the lobby. Most frustrating to me with any group
is the inevitable wait for one or two stragglers.
Very fun and satisfying to be here. Weather is wonderful- warm, not
hot, and breezy. Forgot to mention a huge fort, the largest in the
Americas, protecting the Havana harbor, and last night's music at a
bar frequented by Hemingway for its mojitos- La Bodeguito del Medio.
Oh yes, I visited a public library with a bustling reading room at the
Plaza de Armas, the oldest square in Havana.
Until the next time, Toni
No comments:
Post a Comment