Cienfuegos, the Pearl of the South

Miami-like homes in the Punta Gorda neighborhood of
Cienfuegos, Cuba

The city of Cienfuegos, Cuba was founded by the French and the influences are still apparent. What a charming, elegant city. We wanted to rent a house and stay for a while!

Hotel Azul in wealthy Punta Gorda

Cienfuegos City Tour

We boarded a tour bus to do a Cienfuegos City Tour. We started the tour in Punta Gorda, the upscale neighborhood in Cienfuegos. It was so gorgeous and obviously wealthy we had to remind ourselves we were still in Cuba. How do Cubans own houses like these with a starting price of $100,000? We are still not really sure, but houses can only be bought by Cubans (their law requires that a Cuban be on the deed), so some foreigners buy a house with a Cuban buddy, and then the Cuban lives there most of the year except when the foreigner is in town.

Palacio de Valle

Our first stop was the Palacio de Valle, an intriguing mish-mash of architectural styles. The three towers on the rooftop are in three distinct styles: a military one to represent strength,  a sculpted Moorish tower to represent love, and a dome that represents the church. 

Typical geometric designs in Palacio de Valle
representing the Moorish influence

Don Valle designed and built this marvel, but he lived here only a short time before he returned to Spain and gave the house to his maid!

Anne delights in exploring
Palacio de Valle

Inside, the palace is a Moorish fantasy of typical geometric design with amazing carved ceilings, walls, and doorways. Anne wanted to move in! 

Frank admires the art at Project Trazos Libre

Our next stop was the Project Trazos Libre, a wonderful collaborative effort of local street artists. 

Street entertainment at Project Trazos Libre

The small enclave had several art galleries, street actors doing their thing, and of course, live music. We realized as always what a small world this is when we learned that one of the most beloved musicians from this group was killed in the Orlando, Florida nightclub shooting back on 12 June 2016.

Che Guevara is still considered a hero to the Cubans

We did a walking tour down the main drag, Paseo del Prado, with its colorful old buildings, palm trees, and great vibe. 

At the food rationing store -- where's the food?

Our guide Jose pointed out a food ration store. Castro instituted food rationing that only costs pennies. However, it’s not enough to live on. This place didn’t even look like a store, no items on display just austere counters (like in an old Post Office) and dour-looking customers walking out with identical plastic bags.

Utilitarian barber shop for cutting hair mass production style

We also stopped by a state-run barbershop. It was just a big room with maybe 20 identical hair cutting stations along the walls, one side for men and one side for women. So plain, minimal decorations other than a big poster on the front window of revolution hero Che Guevara!

Constant roadside reminders that Fidel Castro
is still an honored Cuban hero

Lectures with Jorge

We learned some very interesting stuff today about religion. 65% of Cubans practice Santeria which is a kind of a mixed religion which came from Africa but was kept secret by blending it with Catholicism. Santeria has no churches, but people go to a healer/priest for help. We always thought it was voodoo (and it is similar), but Santeria is completely acceptable here and all kinds of people believe in it. Animal sacrifice is often a part of the Santeria belief.

Typical local with ubiquitous Cuban cigar

We understand that Cubans have unrestricted internet access. This is recent, and it came as a big surprise to us. Jorge has internet access in his home (dial-up), but he had to buy his modem on the very active Black Market. Now, Jorge is a prominent professor at University of Havana, so he may have some “benefits” that ordinary Cubans may not have.  But, he talked about watching Netflix shows like “Game of Thrones.” 

Is everybody happy?

This is weird though, because he gets access to Netflix by going to some guy’s house where he asks to buy “The Package,” a variety of downloads including newspapers, magazines, and movies. Sounds very cloak and dagger, doesn’t it?  This skullduggery is a result of present-day communism in Cuba, and a continuation of the Castro influence.  It shows a confirmation of our original  thoughts on Cuba – very contradictory.

More pics:

Street art in Punta Gorda

Simple transportation common to local Cubans

Anne checks out a neighborhood art gallery

Typical street scene in Cienfuegos
 (on the poorer side of town)

Tribute to Benny More,
legendary Cuban musican

On Paseo del Prado in Cienfuegos

Transportation contradictions: bus, horse-drawn carriage,
and motorcycle