Last night in Havana

Havana sounds like a woman's name. She is beautiful, but past her prime. There are wrinkles around her red lipstick smile, and her tight dress is a little faded. She still can dance the salsa.


We had a good last night in Havana. We had wandered into Vedado, which used to be the fanciest neighborhood in the city and even after the Revolution is home to its swankiest hotels. While much of Havana is stuck in the 1860s, Vedado is stuck in the 1960s.

This looks like it should be the sign for a roller rink

 We found a live band playing at a restaurant with more staff than customers, and stopped there for a while. As the sun was going down, we caught a taxi back to the city center and walked into a little bar we'd spotted on the corner. It had a juke box inside. I still don't know what the bar was called, but we sat for a while spotting all the classic cars passing by. 


We also watched a slide show playing inside the bar, of old photos of Havana from the 20s and 30s. She was beautiful then. Her buildings sparkled, as shiny cars and streetcars and men in white hats filled the streets. There were big department stores and ads for Walworth's and Coca-Cola. All of that is gone now.


Then we had dinner at a paladar, one of those private restaurants that are part of someone's home. This one was all colorful and lit up for Christmas. The family was playing a board game in a room behind the kitchen.

With help from the Pope and the Canadians, Obama and Castro are starting to repair their countries' relationship and allow more commerce. I wonder how Havana will change. While people around Cuba wanted to talk about it as soon as they heard we were from the U.S., I got the most honest answer from the waiter at that corner bar. "How is it going to be?" I asked, "better or worse?" "We don't know yet," he said.


More tourists could come to his bar, paying higher prices and leaving bigger tips. Or the corner bar, the paladar restaurant and other tiny private businesses could be choked out by Starbucks and McDonald's. Or maybe the new American tourists will stay in their hotels and resorts and not even come to this part of town. It all depends on what the Cuban government allows to happen.


Will Havana get a makeover? Or will she fade away?