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HAVANA 1 Sunday, December 1. We had signed up for an excursion to go ashore at 8:30, so we ordered breakfast in our room for 6:45. As we were rushing to finish eating it, an announcement was made that the ship would not dock in Havana until 9:00, two hours late. They blamed the delay on "strong currents," ignoring the fact that the ship had departed Miami two hours late. The reporting time for our excursion was delayed until 9:30 so we had time to watch as the Sirena sailed into the Bay of Havana. We passed all four of the large fortresses built along the natural harbor to ward off attacks from the sea: Morro Castle (1589) and the Cabaña Fortress (1762), both on the east side of the channel, were the largest by far.
On the west side of the Bay, the city had largely enveloped La Punta
Castle (1600) and Real Fuerza Castle (1577). However, our ship sailed right
past the Real Fuerza Castle just before docking at the Terminal Sierra Maestra in Old
Havana (Habana Viejo) in
the southwest part of the Bay. Later our bus drove by the Castle as we started
our morning excursion.
The excursion was called Ultimate Highlights of Havana - Old and New. It was a bus tour to familiarize us with the city. Of course, we started in Old Havana, the original city, still bounded on the west by remnants of the old city walls. (That was the only side not on the water). We did not have an extensive tour of Old Havana. It was pretty much a quick drive-through as we headed west. We did drive around beautiful Central Park, surrounded by many restored old buildings, including the Gran Teatro de La Habana. The Capitol was on the next block as we drove down the beautiful Paseo del Prado. (The Paseo is generally the dividing line between Habana Vieja and Centro Habana in this area.)
Our bus continued west through Centro Habana,
passing Chinatown (Barrio Chino) on the way, and took us into the Plaza de la Revolucion District. It was 10:50 when we made the first stop of the tour at Revolution Square, the largest public
square in the world. The square, with a different name, was actually completed near the end of
Batista’s presidency. The main feature here was the Memorial to José Martí, a Cuban literary
figure who was also an important leader in Cuba's fight from independence from
Spain. The National Library, many government
ministries, and other buildings are located around the Plaza. Opposite the Memorial are the
offices of the Ministry of the Interior, whose facade features a
steel memorials of Che Guevara, who was Fidel Castro's chief
lieutenant in the Cuban revolution. Located behind the
Memorial is the Palace of the Revolution, housing both the Presidential Palace and the
headquarters of the Communist Party. The path to Morro-Cabana Park followed the bluff above Havana Bay and provided an excellent view
of Real Fuerza Castle and Old Havana across the water. Just before the Park there was a 66-foot tall white marble
statue of Christ (El Cristo De La Habana). We
spent over an hour exploring the Park on our own, mostly in the Cabana Fortress.
In addition to the many old canon, there were a few exhibits of
more modern weapons, like Russian antiaircraft missiles, and
pieces of the U.S. U-2 spy plane they shot down during the Cuban
Missile Crisis in 1962. We met our tour group at the bus about 2;30 and rode back to the ship. The buffet lunch was still
open, and we had lunch there. Afterward we rested, happy that our afternoon tour had been
cancelled. We had dinner in the main dining room at 6:20. We finished just in time for the
ridiculously expensive Cabaret Parisienne tour that left the ship at 8:30. The bus took us to the
National Hotel, popular with American celebrities and known for its strong mafia connections before the 1959 Revolution.
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