After attending the international course on ferrocement I returned to the intersection near my hotel where taxis waited for travelers. This was my first experience with a cooperative taxi, which I believe was a 1950 Chevrolet station wagon. Cooperative means that I shared the back of the station wagon with approximately 8 people. Benches had been installed lengthwise so that we could look across at each other. The person directly across from me was a young mother with a 3 or 4-year-old child sitting on her lap, the child was soon fast asleep. Conversation in the taxi was occasionally animated, punctuated by comfortable silences.

I had told the driver that I was interested in seeing “old Havana.” The driver dropped me front of this large capital building. I objected, saying that I wanted to see old Havana. He smiled and waved to me out the door saying, “You are here, Mister.”

I took a picture of this fine capital building and then turned my camera down the street in the direction from which we had come. Havana is a large city, 2.4 million plus or minus.

I turned a little further and photographed these buildings directly across the street from the domed Capital building. This covered sidewalk architecture is a larger yet similar version of the waterfront at Cedar Key, Florida. Covered sidewalks serve pedestrians well during tropical thunder storms, and this style adds more useable room to the upper stories. I kept turning and started walking in an easterly direction, the same direction the yellow car is traveling.

I turned right at the first corner and walked south around the circumference of a large park. The area exhibits some economic stress yet there is an overall comfortable and relaxed feeling. I turned right again, now traveling towards the West, and encountered an interesting antique railroad restoration facility.

I crossed the street for a closer look at the engines and realized some of them had been almost completely restored. The workmanship is so perfect I doubt these engines looked any better the day they were built.

I do not know how old and dilapidated the restored engine was and wonder if the even older model below will eventually look as nice. Cubans are world renowned for their wizard-like skill at restoration of old machinery. This extraordinary ability developed because of the warlike belligerence of the US naval blockade. US hostility appears to have inadvertently strengthened and preserved Cuban independence, while at the same time helping prepare the country for difficult economic times resulting from accelerating ecological collapse. Ironically, Cuban life expectancy is rising as it declines to the north; US women now have the shortest life expectancy among all women in so called advanced economies. Cuban women enjoy the former long life expectancy of the US with less old-age problems than the US population ever had. There's more to learn from old trains than first meets the eye.

Immediately south of the restoration facility is an interesting looking gateway, I decided to take a look. Notice the single-story light blue building with greenery coming from the top. As I passed that building a person attempted to entice me in for a drink at the bar, telling me that this was Hemingway's favorite place in all of Havana. I told him, “thank you but there is much for me to see, perhaps I will stop when I return.” He waved me on with a smile, telling me to turn right as I entered Chinatown. The gate into this barrio is the entrance to Chinatown, to Barrio Chine, there are no Chinese but there must have been some at one time. I turned to the right after the gate.

This is a closer view of the curved street that turns to the right, visible in the above Chinatown gate picture. This area of Havana is much more densely populated than the area near my hotel. I did not feel overwhelmed but felt somewhat isolated among busy people intent on the busy life of a large inner-city area. I continued walking, several blocks into Chinatown, only speaking briefly to ask specific questions. Early evening was approaching and this is an area of many restaurants, young callers are positioned at restaurant entrances attempting to convince one to enter and enjoy the fine cuisine within. The feeling is festive; a playful banter quickly develops if one politely declines an invitation. There are also many stores here that seem to sell just about anything and everything, this commercial district feels like a cleaner version of the more pleasant market districts in Brooklyn or San Francisco.

I soon realized that this area is so dense with people and and activities that it would take a very long time to explore, I returned to Hemingway's favorite restaurant and bar, similar to the open roofed El Paseo, in Santa Barbara, with trees added for an internal park ambience. While there I enjoyed an interesting conversation with the bartender and the man who calls out to customers. The conversation turned pleasantly yet intensely political, perhaps due to proximity of the capital rotunda. My new drinking friends were visibly disappointed when I left after only one drink.

I walked back to the park where the taxis waited and attempted to find my own ride rather than tag along behind some older women who I eventually realized were employed filling the cooperative taxis according to destination. I ended up in a private taxi rather than a cooperative taxi, the ride was as expensive as any big city and not as much fun as the cooperative mode.

We drove along the waterfront toward the setting sun. I realized I had started the day at the Miami airport before the sun was up and that I was quite tired. It had been a long day and I returned to my hotel without exploring anywhere else, a weary traveler ready to rest.