{"id":5631,"date":"2016-04-24T15:44:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T15:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5631"},"modified":"2016-04-24T15:44:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T15:44:39","slug":"thats-it-we-are-never-leaving-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5631","title":{"rendered":"That\u2019s it, we are NEVER leaving Cuba."},"content":{"rendered":"

We are all settled in Marina Hemingway here in Havana for a few days prior to heading back to the States and what a great spot it is. Pandora is tied up adjacent to the hotel and pool, a great place to just hang out and enjoy the moment.\u00a0\"4-24-16cHowever, we really don\u2019t have time to sit around as there is just so much to do in Havana.\u00a0 And yesterday, we \u201cdid\u201d plenty.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Pandora, tied up right across the street from the pool.\"4-24-16cShe has a nice looking neighbor, a lovely trawler.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that the owners are nearby right now as she looks vacant.\u00a0 \"4-24-16cActually, there are plenty of yachts in the marina that appear to be in storage waiting for their owners to return.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps that\u2019s because staying here is a lot less expensive at about $1\/ft than the Keys or southern FL , only 100 miles away where the rates are 3-4x that.\u00a0 Like so much of Cuba, the marina is \u201cmixed\u201d with some parts very nice and others, well not so nice.\u00a0 Happily, Pandora is in a very nice section and she should be as I specifically asked to move here yesterday after scoping out the area to find the best spot,\u00a0 being the \u201cshy guy\u201d that I am.<\/p>\n

Yesterday we took a cab the 20 minutes from Marina Hemmingway into old Havana, the home of a remarkable number of beautifully restored buildings.\u00a0 According to the guidebook, there are more than 1,000 historic buildings that have been meticulously restored to their former glory and how glorious they are.\u00a0\u00a0 We had been told that the buildings in Cuba were crumbling and certainly many are but an amazing number have been kept up and are as beautiful as those that you will see in any European city.\u00a0\u00a0 Havana, and \u201cold Havana\u201d in particular, has something beautiful to see on every street corner.\u00a0\"IMG_2225\" \"IMG_2112\"\"IMG_2219\"And, unlike so many so called \u201chistoric districts\u201d people still live and work in these areas and I don\u2019t just mean in T-shirt shops selling stuff to tourists.\u00a0 These magnificent buildings are still occupied by families, as they have been for hundreds of years, as witnessed by the laundry hanging on many balconies. \u00a0 And, of course, the constant parade of beautiful old “Detroit iron”.\u00a0\"IMG_2115\"There are lovely public squares, green spaces, surrounded by magnificent buildings, some dating back to the 1500s.\u00a0\"OLYMPUS\"OLYMPUSI particularly loved this coffee shop doorway.\"OLYMPUSOf course, there are the cars, many in amazingly great condition.\u00a0 We happened upon several areas that have been claimed by a group of convertibles.\u00a0 This lineup looks like a car show but they are actually working taxies ready to hire.\"IMG_2203\"Everywhere you look, beautiful cars.
\n\"OLYMPUSHow about this beautiful T-bird on its\u2019 way for a tour of the city?\"OLYMPUSThey come in every color of the rainbow.\u00a0 I doubt that any of these left Detroit in the colors that they sport these days.\"OLYMPUS \"OLYMPUS\"OLYMPUSYou don’t see many Sunbeams these days either. \u00a0\"OLYMPUSNot sure the interior is original. \u00a0 NOT, for sure but a show stopper.\u00a0\"OLYMPUSIn addition to the cars, everywhere you turn there is something colorful to see and hear.\u00a0 A group of minstrels paraded through one of the squares, complete with two on stilts.\u00a0 No missing them, that\u2019s for sure.\"OLYMPUSWe went to dinner in a beautiful paladar, a private, family run restaurant.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I mistakenly deleted those photos.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to go back to day to take them again.\u00a0 Such is the power of computers and clumsy operators, moi, made more so by a bit too much vino.<\/p>\n

On the way home to the marina and Pandora we chose a 1952 Chevy convertible with a white interior that blasted it\u2019s way through Havana.\u00a0 \"IMG_2238\"In the balmy “summer” evening air, it was a wonderful\u00a0 trip. \u00a0The driver said that he had never delivered anyone to a \u201cyacht\u201d before and was quite interested in having his car parked near Pandora. \u00a0Sorry, but even an i-Phone won\u2019t take good photos in the dark.\u00a0 I guess you had to be there to appreciate the moment.\"IMG_2243\"Earlier in the day we walked through this lovely square where they were setting up for some sort of tour dinner.\u00a0 The tables looked beautiful in the afternoon light.\u00a0\"IMG_2216\"The entertainment was \u201cangelic\u201d as witnessed by this group of entertainers and like everyone else we have encountered in Cuba, they were very friendly and were happy to pose for a \u201cKodak moment\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"4-24-16aAfter dark, the square really came alive.\u00a0 What a beautiful sight.\"IMG_2235\" \"IMG_2231\"I asked one of the \u201cparty goers\u201d who was attending the dinner and learned that it was a group of architects, members of the American Institute of Architects.\u00a0\u00a0 Of all the groups that I might have encountered in Havana, I couldn\u2019t believe it was a group of architects as my Dad was publisher of a magazine in that field for many years.\u00a0 He passed away two years ago and hardly a day goes by, especially during our tour of Cuba, that I haven\u2019t thought about how much he would have loved to \u201cfollow along\u201d with us.<\/p>\n

It was a very emotional moment when I thought about how much he would have enjoyed hearing about this serendipitous moment of rubbing elbows with the AIA in Havana, of all places. \u00a0\u00a0For over 7 years I kept this blog for him and my mother, who would read my posts together in the evenings over a glass of wine.<\/p>\n

I wrote about this in \u201cwhy I write this blog\u201d<\/a> shortly after his passing and I still think about him every time I write a post. \u00a0\u00a0Running into the AIA last night brought back such a flood of memories.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly two months since we cleared into Cuba, after our run from the Bahamas and what a trip it has been.\u00a0 And now, here in Havana, our last stop in Cuba, we have indeed saved the \u201cbest for last\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yes, I am looking forward to being home again in CT but as I sit here aboard Pandora in the \u201chistoric\u201d marina Hemingway, \u00a0I have to say that it\u2019s going to be hard to pry ourselves away from this beautiful city.<\/p>\n

In a way, perhaps we\u2019ll never really leave Cuba with so many amazing memories from our visit.<\/p>\n

Dad, if you are reading along, and I hope you are, you would have loved this place and this post is for you, as they all are.<\/p>\n

Enough nostalgia for now.\u00a0 Time to get going as there\u2019s just so much to see and Havana beckons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are all settled in Marina Hemingway here in Havana for a few days prior to heading back to the States and what a great spot it is. Pandora is tied up adjacent to the hotel and pool, a great place to just hang out and enjoy the moment.\u00a0However, we really don\u2019t have time to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5662,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5631\/revisions\/5662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}