The PENguin Blog

View of the house from the back 9 February 2017 We began the day in the Road Scholar way with a superb lecture by Dr. Carlos Alzugaray, one of those scholar/diplomats that represent, in one way and another, the best of any nation. This presentation resonated for me, given my background having taught American foreign policy for so many years. The presentation rather brilliantly combined a tour d’horizon with a constructivist theoretical approach. Then we were off to the fine arts museum, a most interesting excursion. They do not, of course, allow phgotography inside the museum, which is unfortunate. The guide, a curator, gave us a historical tour of Cuban art. What struck me most was the degree to which protest art was hung, here on the walls of the official national museum. If the building looks vaguely familiar, it was built in the mid-1950s and patterned on Frank Lloyd Wright’s design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York.   Our curator...

It has been a while since my last post, not sure why, though it is hard to choose from among more than a hundred images I shot that day. 8 February 2017 Our second day in Havana began with another lecture on the complex subject of religion in Cuba, this time by Dr. Maritza Corrales a member of Cuba’s small Jewish community and a leading expert on the subject. She spoke not only on Jews in Cuba but Cuban religion and culture in general. After that we were off to old town Havana and a tour of the city’s plazas led by our own guide, José.   We were already familiar with Cathedral Square, so we began with the oldest plaza, Plaza de Armas, followed by the Plaza Vieja and finally the Plaza de San Francisco. Join us as we ramble the streets and squares of Habana. We started where we left off, near Cathedral Square The Castillo Real Having not taken notes, I am not able to identify all these buildings. This is, I think, part of the archeological museum. What'...

7 February 2017 Habana!! (In Spanish, Havana is Habana, just check the band on your cigar or that bottle of Habanero sauce in the fridge.) For ten days Jim, José and Juan Antonio  had  guided us through the highways and byways of Cuba, now we come to the main event as it were, Habana. The big city, a world class capital and we are to have lots of free time. How will we manage? That thought briefly crosses my mind as we approach the city before I remember that we have navigated major cities around the world on our own. It will be fine. And it is. The bus pulls into the car park just off Cathedral Square in Old Havana where we will begin our exploration of the city. But first lunch. Throughout the trip logistics surrounding meals have been a constant, so we get off the bus, troup across the car park to La Moneda Cubana a paladar just off Cathedral Square. This is definitely a tourist destination which means that the food is OK, but not up to the standards of the best...