Our little group of 9 pile off the bus and head into the hotel with easily 20 minutes to spare before the 4pm tour. We all separate and head our own ways, exploring the lobby and garden areas on our own.
We head outside to enjoy the sea breeze and the beautiful setting – sitting all alone on a promontory overlooking the Atlantic and the city of Havana in the distance.
Completed in 1930….
the hotel is a mix of all sorts of architectural styles: Art Deco, Arabic, Moorish, neo-classical and even centuries-old Californian styles. It’s a huge, imposing, yet elegant structure – to which many famous people have flocked throughout its long, strange history.We head back inside, deciding to pass on a cocktail from the outside bar (we may have enough time, but we want to ensure we don’t miss the tour).
Sadly, though, I realize I have lost my little notebook in which I have been taking copious notes. We retrace our steps out front, searching the sidewalk, the road, everywhere, but no little composition book. I’m devastated! But there is nothing to do but soldier on – using loose leaf little tablets we’ve purloined from a lot of the hotels where we have stayed. Boo hoo.
Back inside, we meet our tour guide – Estele – who is an energetic little dynamo – all 4 feet 10 of her! We start in the lobby, where the noise level is ferocious – there is a Latin Film Festival convention here (the reason why we aren’t staying here, btw) and the lobby is bustling. So much so that unfortunately I can only hear every 3rd word Estele says, but her enthusiasm and facial expressions conveys her points and makes up for the lack of audio.
See the ceilings – they look like mahogany wood –but they’re not – they are cement fashioned and painted to appear like wood. See the original room key/mail slots….
…here are the original elevators, complete with the old ‘clock’ style floor indicator….
…most of the hotel – well actually all I think – was built by American companies – because Estele keeps asking who do you think built this? Then she screws up her precious face, shakes her head and says Noooooo, the Americans!
She goes through a whole ton of history – most of which I don’t catch – but piecing things together once home – the hotel was always a busy hive of important people. In the 30’s Batista bombed it when military elite and a dethroned President were stationed there. Then afterward came the celebrities: Johnny Weissmuller, Jack Dempsey, Buster Keaton, Errol Flynn (whose room Steve our tour leader always gets when the group stays here – and who has a great ghost story about the room too!). Thanks Steve for the pix!
The mafia also began to visit the hotel in the 30’s, with names like Santos Traficante and Meyer Lansky in residence.
The Hotel Nacional is reputed to be the place where Meyer Lansky negotiated with Batista to set up what became the thriving casino business in Cuba.
In the garden, Estele points out the balcony on the left side of the hotel that was only for the Mafia – one door at the end of the balcony – the only way to get in our out for security reasons.
There is an outside restaurant/bar area and a wide green expanse of land that Estele troops us through.
Then we go down into the Cuban Missile Crisis exposition!
This is what most of us have been waiting for – exploring the tunnels and trenches that were put into place during the missile crisis. It is here where men and women would come when the crisis heated up and the threat of attack loomed. Estele goes into lots of explanations about the attack, the causes, the blockade, all of it – and there are tons of large educational posters mounted on the walls explaining the crisis.
Unfortunately though, we are running tight on time. We thought the tour would last only 1/2 hour and we are close to an hour now – with a 10 minute taxi ride back to the hotel, we are pushing the limits to make it back on time for our lecture. We explain to Estele that we really must go – so – even though there is another couple (a mean couple from Canada btw) who are on the tour but not with our group – Estele speeds up the tour by exclaiming – but you must see the tunnels! Ok – well – off we go!
Talk about a piece of history! A claustrophobic piece of history, but still…the pictures tell it all (and show exactly how diminutive our wonderful little guide is!).
Oh – an remember that picture of the lawn? And those green boxes? Well those were escape tunnels with air holes! Escape hatch on the left – view from the tunnel on the right.
We thank Estele for her wonderful tour and walk rapidly back through the garden to get back into town for our lecture! Phew – this is tight! There are 9 of us, so we definitely need 2 cabs. We tell the doorman and he magically procures an old Impala for 5 of us and another, regular cab for the other 4. How fun! We grab the Impala and head back to the Hotel Telegrafo!
Here a couple of videos of our taxi ride – you can see the car (a little bit) but these will give you a great feel for the Malecon – and the reconstruction going on in those grand old buildings.
We actually make it back with 10 minutes to spare! Phew! But we are tired, dirty and dusty from our full day adventure. Ed and I take the fastest showers ever known to man and present ourselves downstairs at the 5:30 bewitching hour – in time to walk across the street to the Parque Central hotel for our Cuban Lecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment