Havana is abundant with beautiful wide streets, flanked with shady avenues such as Asubaweta, Las Miciones, Fifth Avenue and the famous Prado. The beautiful palaces and villas were built along such streets and even if not all have been remodeled, they’re jewels of the city even with crumbling plaster. A traveler recounted the following in 1861. In Havana, the downtown houses have got floors. They’re mainly built in Moorish style with spacious heavy arcs and covered corridors on vaults around the yard. Not a single house has an attic. The roof is covered with stone panels and is flat. Underclothes are usually hung out on the roof to dry and sometimes the people go walking up there in the evenings. The ceilings of the rooms are indeed high. In the old days, servants used to fan the air manually. Later electric fans were used to cool the air. The roof covered with stone tiles provide some protection from the heat as do the water spray of the fountains and the plants and the patios, the inner courtyards.
In this simple one floor building standing on the corner of --, the poet, Jose Marti was born in the winter of 1853. He later died a hero’s death. Today, the house is a museum, packed with Marti’s books, manuscripts and keepsakes. Hotel Nacional was built in 1933 during the stay of the Americans and its construction was mainly financed by the mafia’s money. In contemporary newsreel, Dictator Batista, the American ambassador Mr. Wells and some rather shady looking rough and tough guys can be seen taking part in the opening ceremony. Built in the colonial style, the two tower building has seven storeys with 416 rooms and though it belongs to the state, it still meets the luxurious needs of rich guests just like its neighbor the 30 storey five star hotel Habana Liobre. The park of the Hotel Nacional faces the bay and the fortresses and in the evening, we can watch an original Caribbean show. The streets and squares in the city center with their inhabitable atmosphere are the real soul to any sightseeing tour in Havana. We can find something interesting everywhere. The trees standing in the garden of the old ruinous church has a luck bringing feature. You should circle the tree three times and each time throw a coin to the bottom of the tree while making three wishes. One of the wishes of tourists may be to return to Havana.
The ashes of the great discoverer Columbus were taken to the Cathedral of Havana in 1795 where he remained in peace for a century until the Spanish took the ashes to Sevilla after the Americans marched in. Despite this, the cemetery in Havana is still called Cologne. The construction of the cathedral named after St. Christopher was begun by Jesuit monks. But it was consecrated only in 1777. The interesting feature of the three aisle church reflecting features of the Italian baroque are the two towers which are different from each other. Next to the cathedral, Hotel Ambos Mundos and La Bodeguita del Medio can be found. Both of them were made famous by Hemingway. La Bodeguita is not only the peak of the cocktails from rum but the cuisine of Cuba and the Caribbean is at its best here as well.
Among its guests are two Latin American writers, Pablo Neruda and Gabriele Garcia Marquez as well as a lot of famous actors and actresses like Errol Flynn, jack Lemon, Brigitte Bardot, Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu. The restaurant was opened in 1942 and is famous for its funny custom of famous and not so famous guests writing their autographs on the walls thus making painting impossible and unnecessary. We can also join the illustrious company. After a good dinner, we can ask the waiter for a pen and add our name to the illustrious collection if we can find room. Music is in the blood of the Cubans. They’ve given the world such artists as the singer Gloria Estefan or Kampay Segundo and the world famous Buenavista Social Club consisting of old musicians.
The famous market of Havana behind the cathedral is rather a kind of flea market as can be found in every capital. There’re T-shirts with the portrait of Che Guevara, objects made of shells and models of old timers made of Coke cans. Besides cheaper, run of the mill mass produced articles, we can also buy more imaginative and unique souvenirs. Among the countless paintings of various quality, you can sometimes find a real piece of art. The church El Templete was built on the site where the first mass was held by the Spanish who landed in 1517. Near the church, we can find the Palace of Chief Captains which used to be the residence of the Spanish captains of Cuba. All the houses in the square were formerly noble palaces but are today public or office buildings.
The fountain in the middle of the square is just as famous as a meeting place as Piccadilly in London. Growing sugarcane started on the territory that belongs to India and China today. Consequently spreading to other parts of Asia then through Arabian mediation, it spread into Egypt, Sicily and Spain. On the American continent, it was unknown before Columbus reaching Cuba in the middle of the 16th century. It was first grown in the valley of sugar mills. The Spanish government had black slaves brought from Africa and these slaves were made to work in the fields by the sugar barons. The squeezed juice of sugarcane is a popular refreshment mainly with children in all countries where it’s grown. Seasoned with rum, adults also like drinking it. Sugar is made from the squeezed sugarcane juice by refining. Rum is made by fermenting sugarcane juice or by fermenting treacle left after processing sugar. The juice gained in this way is distilled, filtered and bottled. Rum was made for the first time in the 17th century on the Caribbean islands and the rum from Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico is still the most famous.
White rum is made without aging. Gold rum is made by aging for a very short time. Dark heavy aromatic rum is ready to be drunk after aging it in oak barrels for five, seven or 10 years. Rum was the favorite drink of sailors for a long time. Let’s remember Treasure Island, 15 men on a dead man’s chest, yohoho and a bottle of rum. Of course not only sailors like it. Many people add some to their tea and it is of course an excellent ingredient for cocktails. At the rum museum in Havana, we can not only follow the history and manufacturing process of this beverage with the help of the tools, objects and models displayed, but we can also taste the various types of rum. The admission fee does include taste testing but if it is not enough, we can sit at the bar of the Havana Club and listening to Cuban music, we can enjoy an array of cocktails made with rum such as pina colada, cuba libre, mojito or zombie. Rum and drinks containing rum can be drunk not only cold with ice but also hot in the form of grog or punch.
The word for sugar comes from the old Sanskrit Sharkara while the word for rum originates from saccharum, the Latin word for sugar. Fruit flavored sugarcane distillate belongs to the liqueurs and the Spanish name of these is patida. These can include coconut, pineapple, banana or orange flavors.