The District Magazine Vol. 2 Issue 3, Fall 2017 | Page 46

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it was suddenly obvious we’d left
Tampa behind. No jetway, no air-
conditioned monorail whisking
us to a modern terminal. I looked
down the steps to the tarmac -- like
you’d see in a 60’s movie -- and a
view to an aging terminal building.
Sure, I felt a little Sean Connery-era
007 descending those stairs as I
single-handed my sunglasses into
place. A couple of care-free mutts
relieving themselves on the tarmac
killed that vibe pretty quick.
After one short hour flying I’d
stepped into a place profoundly
outside of time, and worlds apart.
Havana is a difficult place, yet
magical. A study in contrasts….
beauty and decay, subtle and
brash, light and dark, old and new,
all swirling in some slow tropical
hurricane. A riot of sounds and
colors and smells and geometries,
with intense tropical heat that’s
somehow not oppressive. It
simultaneously overwhelms you
and embraces you. monuments, and the physical
environment. It’s like the city was
born of Eden, designed by master
Renaissance artists and built by
artisans. With the ocean breeze in
the air and an avalanche of sensory
input it often feels mythic and
surreal, the magical realism of a
Garcia Marquez novel come to life.
And often, sadly, in varying states of
deterioration.
I found it difficult to fit Havana into a
paradigm that felt familiar. Getting
into the flow of everyday life felt
harder. Usually, I’ll walk out the
door and wander until the rhythm
and rhyme of things click into
place. Havana had me me feeling
a little disconcerted. But that
exhilarating sense of being slightly
lost, rudderless, foreign, is a reason
I travel. Havana delivers in spades. The city feels arrested in time.
Rather
than
halted
entirely
though at one point, it seems
that history, modernity, beauty,
and decay occupy the same
spaces simultaneously. Invisible
tropical gods seem to be steadily
reclaiming the city back to the
jungle while deciding if a truce
may be in order. They reason this
place is too beautiful, too grand
to destroy utterly. So they pause to
give Havana a chance to remember
what it was, what it essentially still
A magnificent beauty is woven
into the fabric of Havana. In
the
architecture,
boulevards,
is. The thing is, once you’ve fallen
in love with this place you root for it.
Havana is bigger, more sprawling
than I anticipated, with a diversity
of well-spread-out neighborhoods.
281.2 square miles and 2.1M
inhabitants. By contrast, Tampa
is 175.2 square miles. Mostly
on foot, we explored Havana
neighborhoods such as Vedado,
Centro Habana, Miramar, and
of course Habana Vieja or Old
Havana. If your plans include just
a few days in Cuba you’ll want to
focus on Old Havana; it’s the heart
of the city much like mid-town
Manhattan is for NYC.
Walking tree-lined side streets in
neighborhoods like Vedado and
Miramar gave glimpses into the
daily life of everyday Cubans.
Moms taking kids to school, people
scurrying here and there, in line at
the mercados. A plethora of make-
shift micro-businesses run out of
front yards and garages make for
a peculiar sight. It becomes clear
that Cubans have to get creative to
make ends meet.
Havana is bordered on its northern
edge by the famous Malecon
seawall, a hugely popular scenic
and social gathering spot. The
Malecon was hopping on Friday
and Saturday nights. Couples and
larger groups enjoyed the sea
breeze and convenient seating
provided by the low wall. There was
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