Day 187 to Day 189 - Havana a great time

Havana

Day 187

Where we are staying in the suburb of Vedado isn't too far from the Havana Libre hotel (the former Hilton) where Fidel Castro first stayed when he entered Havana.

We caught the open topped tourist bus from there, and hopped off at Central Park where there were heaps of classic cars parked, all there as "taxis" for the tourists, We watched the salsa dancing for a while, then then walked down Calle Obispo, the "main" street with lots of restaurants and shops. We knew we'd found an internet shop when we saw the long queue down the street. In Cuba the internet is provided via a card, 2 CUC for an hour (1 CUC = US$1), which you then use at a wifi hotspot - these are easy to tell by the large numbers of people staring at their phones. We joined the queue and waited about 30 minutes before giving up, based on the rate we calculated it would be another hour or so before the eight people in front of us had their turn.

After wandering through town we visited the Museum of the Revolution. They say the winners get to write the history, so of course this was all told from the view of Castro, with lots of anti-US commentary interspersed in the exhibits and photos related to the Cuban revolution.

After that we hopped back on the bus and took the ride away from the city centre and along the waterfront, where wasn't much hopping on or off though, in the next two hours it only stopped about three times. It was a great way to see Havana, although very hot in the scorching heat, but at least we didn't have to walk around in it.

Back at Central Park the bus did a short loop along the Malecon in the other direction, giving us a view of the old city and the waterfront. We had met two English girls on the bus earlier in the day, we saw them again on the bus in the afternoon and they told us of their adventures - they'd been "befriended" by a scam artist who convinced them he was the son of the owner of the casa they were staying in. By the time he'd finished with them, he and his accomplices in the bar they had been taken to (who looked like normal patrons but were all apparently in on the scam) had extracted about $200 from them. They finished up their story by adding "we're not telling our parents"!

Day 188

Our nice little Airbnb has a kitchen so we decided to check out the shopping options that our host Yuri had shown us. First was the "farmers market" -   a couple of small shopfronts with hanging slabs of meat covered in flies, and unidentifiable mounds of vegetables in the corner. Next stop was the supermarket where M was told to leave, since he was carrying a bag. The shelves there were worse than what we'd seen on Easter Island - various cans of odds and ends, none of which appealed to us (canned beans for dinner anyone?). There was plenty of alcohol though (not sure what that says about Cuban priorities), perhaps that's what they thought we might shoplift? We had been told it is hard buying food in Cuba, and from what we'd seen we can definitely agree. The restaurants we'd seen seemed to have a reasonable selection of meals, so the food must be out there somewhere, but perhaps not generally available from shops?

We also had to arrange our ongoing travel out of Havana, our hosts weren't really able to help us so we ended up visiting one of larger Casa Particulares in the old city, where the owner helped us get a spot in a shared taxi to Viñales.

We then had lunch at the famous Sloppy Joes, which was a really popular and cheap bar (and apparently also quite dirty, hence the name "sloppy") back in the early to mid 20th century, followed by a visit to the Hotel Nacional for mojitos in a nice spot with a view of the ocean.

Day 189

We took a taxi to the San Jose market in the old city down by the waterfront, disappointingly though it all seemed to be mass produced kitsch (including hundreds of paintings of classic cars in front of old buildings). We then revisited the casa we'd booked our shared taxi through to pay and confirm the pickup time.

By this time it was getting very hot, so it was back to the airconditioned comfort of Sloppy Joes for lunch. We finished the afternoon with a visit to the Museo de la Ciudad which was housed in an old home complete with baroque European furniture and ornaments, as well as the now familiar photos and stories of Fidel Castro and his revolution, followed by a stop at Plaza Vieja (the Old Square).