The Streets of Habana Vieja and Fusterlandia - Part I, Havana, Cuba

I was so excited to go to Cuba, that I had high expectations for Havana yesterday, and they weren’t quite met. I think mostly because I was tired and with all the travel challenges, I felt like we did a whole lot of nothing. Now, somewhat revived, I was ready for our walking tour of the city and worked hard to keep my excitement in check.

Our morning began at 7:15 when we walked over to the main house, which had much more charm than our apartment, for breakfast. The owners served us a variety of fruit; bananas, papaya, passion fruit and pine apple along with eggs, tea and coffee. The breakfast area on the roof top was quite nice, and we enjoyed a leisurely meal before Valeri our guide and Michael our bus driver picked us up at 8 to begin our exploration of La Habana Vieja.

Havana is split into three neighborhoods, La Habana Vieja, Centra Habana, and Vedado & the Plaza de la Revolución. La Habana Vieja is the historic district of the city, home to cobblestone streets and colonial style architecture, some of the buildings in shambles and others refurbished.

We started our tour with Sucil at the Plaza de Armas surrounded by historic buildings including the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, Museo de la Ciudad, the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, and a famous hotel, Santa Isabel. The Plaza de Armas was the first square developed in Havana and is where colonial troops practiced their military drills, thus its name. It operated it as the city’s administrative center and command post. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).