First Day!
Meredith Duvall
Today was a long day! We finally arrived in Cuba after flying out of Birmingham and a layover in Miami. We were ready to get to the hotel and drop off our luggage. Professor Tomas Robaina, a friend of Dr. Marouan, surprised us at the airport and escorted us to Hotel Sevilla where we stayed for the duration of our trip. While in the taxi we got to see the outskirts of Havana and part of the city. The outskirts looked and felt exactly like the Dominican Republic and some other parts of the Caribbean.
Hotel Sevilla has beautiful tile work, not only on the floor but also all over the walls and ceiling. The view outside each of our hotel rooms was magnificent! The windows open and the city is completely spread out before you all the way to the Straits of Florida. The city is hauntingly beautiful. There is incredible European architecture stemming from the island's colonial past, yet the buildings are dilapidated and one can easily see that there is hardly any effort to maintain or restore. Only the National Ballet Theater and very few other buildings seemed to be getting restored to their former glory. Yet this is understandable considering the history of Cuba and so much turmoil has occurred on the island. We were told that Havana Vieja (Old Havana) is still undergoing restoration and has been for a while.
For our first meal in Cuba we ate with our program coordinator in Cuba, Henry Heredia, at a little restaurant that we had to climb up three flights of stairs to access (unbeknownst to us the restaurant’s beautiful bar was below us where you can also eat). The food was wonderful and inexpensive with very large portions. By the time we left the restaurant and walked back to the hotel it had been 3.5 hours; definitely long Latin meals! I was astonished to see so many people hanging out on the streets at 11:30 on a Wednesday night. Grabbing a late dinner, catching up with friends, or just enjoying the summer night, everyone that was out was in a good mood and seemed to be enjoying themselves.