January 8th, 2024, marked our fifth day in Havana, Cuba. My roommates and friends, Rory and Steph, and I woke up bright and early for our adventures. Not only would we be exploring Old Havana today, but it was also Rory’s 20th Birthday. We were a bit tired from our seaside exploration the day before, some of us a little sunburnt, but overall excited for our day full of exploration and celebration.
After getting ready for the day, Rory, Steph, and I made our way to breakfast at our residencia, Casa Vera. Everyday, Casa Vera served us breakfast, which included toast, eggs, fruit, pastries, and delicious coffee. That morning, I ate eggs and toast, and drank a lot of coffee — caffeine was very much needed for our long day ahead!
After breakfast, our group made our way to the Center for Psychological and Sociological Research (Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas), or CIPS, for our morning lecture. Throughout our trip, CIPS hosted us many times for lectures related to Cuban history. Today, our lecture was on José Martí, the father of Cuban Independence and one of the most important figures in Cuban history. Our guest lecturer, David Levya, included many photographs of José Martí statues around the world in his presentation, showing his importance in Cuban and world history.
José Martí was a Cuban author, and founded his first newspaper, La Patria Libre, at sixteen. He was arrested for one of his poems that was published in this newspaper, and after his release, moved to Spain to continue his education. He eventually returned to Cuba, but was soon arrested again, accused of conspiracy, and exiled from Cuba. A few years later, Martí returned to Cuba to fight in the Cuban War of Independence, but died in battle. Before traveling to Cuba, we learned about José Martí through student presentations. The lecture at CIPS furthered our knowledge on the importance of José Martí to Cuban history that we learned in our pre-departure meetings.
After our lecture concluded, CIPS served us coffee before we headed to the bus to continue our travels for the day. Our bus driver, Carlos, brought us to Old Havana, where we would have a walking tour of the city. Our translator, Ana Elena, was our tour guide through Old Havana. The tour of Old Havana focused on the four main squares, or plazas. We started our exploration in Plaza de Armas, the oldest plaza in Old Havana. This is where the city of Havana was born. In the center of the plaza stood a statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the Father of the Country and First President of the Republic.
Image 1: Statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
As we continued on our journey to the next plaza, we made our way by the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, which included a street made of wooden “bricks.” It is believed that these wooden bricks were installed to reduce the noise of horse hooves and carriage wheels on the streets. Although the noise was reduced, the wooden bricks often broke and were too expensive to keep replacing to continue this practice throughout the city. While we were touring this area, we could see construction occurring to replace sections of the street with damaged wooden bricks.
We continued on our journey to the Plaza de la Catedral. Plaza de la Catedral was home to the Havana Cathedral, which was extremely beautiful to see! After an artist in the plaza drew a picture of David, a student who was part of our group, we continued on to Plaza Vieja, or the Old
Square. In the center of Plaza Vieja was an extremely important fountain. Ana Elena shared that the original fountain was previously demolished to build an underground parking lot, but has since been restored. She continued on explaining the fountain had been surrounded by a fence because children used to jump into the fountain after school. The fence was taken down after complaints from the residents. Plaza Vieja was also unique because it did not contain any government buildings or churches / religious spaces.
After touring Plaza Vieja, we made our way to Plaza de San Francisco de Asís. Plaza de San Francisco de Asís was located along the water. We then finished our tour of Old Havana and made our way to lunch, which was at a roof-top restaurant called Bahia. At Bahia, an adorable dog named Tina followed us upstairs to our table. Our meal started with a welcome drink — I had a frozen lemonade, but I also tried my friend’s non-alcoholic pina colada. Bahia served both starters and entrees — I had chicken croquettes and a vegetable pasta dish. Both were delicious!
After the meal, we sang happy birthday to Rory and ate birthday strawberry cheesecake. Every meal in Cuba ended with coffee, so I also had my third coffee of the day.
Once lunch ended, we were free to explore Havana on our own for the rest of the day. My group of friends split and agreed to meet later in the day for dinner. David and Mike went to explore while Rory, Steph, Navya, Christina, Lovia, and I went to get tattoos. For Rory’s birthday, her one wish was to get a tattoo related to our trip to Cuba and we were ready to accomplish this mission. API recommended a tattoo shop located only ten minutes from Bahia, which is where we went.
The tattoo parlor thankfully accepted walk-ins and we had no wait at all! On our third day, Rory, Steph, and I woke up and found a baby gecko (we named him Jerome) on our bedroom wall. Rory fell in love with Jerome and knew she wanted to get him tattooed on her arm. At the tattoo parlor, I also decided to get a tattoo! Although very scared, I had been wanting music notes behind my ear for years and decided this was the perfect time to get it. Rory went upstairs to receive her tattoo first, and I followed soon after. I was so surprised — my tattoo did not hurt at all!
Once my tattoo was finished, I made my way downstairs to reunite with Rory, Steph, Navya, Christina, and Lovia. Upon making it downstairs, I saw the girls playing with a dog. I quickly learned this adorable dog figured out how to open the tattoo parlor door on his own and made his way inside. We played with the puppy for a while before leaving to explore Old Havana. We wanted to find some stores to buy souvenirs to bring home to our families. On our walk throughout Old Havana, David and Mike walked up behind us and scared us! It was two hours before our meeting time and we were not expecting to see them. We quickly decided to explore the city together.
The seven of us explored with no direction in mind. We eventually found the National Capitol Building (El Capitolio). Americans are not allowed to enter the Capitol Building, so we took .5 pictures of our group from outside! The sunset was beautiful, and a perfect way to start our night celebrating Rory’s 20th Birthday. Professor Z recommended visiting a roof-top restaurant called La Guardia, which is where we went next. We stayed at the restaurant for a while, enjoying the beautiful views of Havana and celebrating Rory.
Images 4 & 5: El Capitolio and the Sunset
Image 6: View from La Guardia Rooftop
After La Guardia, we realized we were far from the Residencia and decided to take a taxi back to Casa Vera to get more money for the night. We took two taxis, which were a little scary but safe, and accidentally told the drivers to take us to the wrong street. After getting dropped off, we walked an extra few blocks to make it back to Casa Vera. We quickly grabbed US dollars and Cuban pesos and returned to our welcome dinner restaurant, El Idilio, for Rory’s birthday dinner. After dinner, we continued celebrating Rory’s birthday before heading back to Casa Vera to prepare for our new adventures in the morning.
Our fifth day in Cuba was full of adventure and celebration. Before this trip, I did not know much about Cuba or its history. Our flexibility and willingness to explore allowed us to discover some of the prettiest views of Old Havana. By exploring Old Havana, absorbing Cuban history, celebrating my friend’s birthday, and commemorating the experience with my first tattoo, I created memories that will stay with me for a lifetime.