dance show and vedado

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We woke up to a lovely sunny morning. With uncharacteristic forsight we had packed our suitcases the night before as were changing hotels so we could relax and enjoy yummy breakfast. Alex bravely tried these fried ball things, one turned out to be pork (cubans love pork) and the other one was a mystery. Back in our room, the sun was shining beautifully onto our east-facing balcony. I decided to practice my salsa/cha cha cha/whatever on the balcony listening to my grandad's latin music collection that I had conveniently added to my iPod. Dancing was so much fun, I felt so Cuban and it was just a lovely way (and good exercise!) to pass the morning in the sun. Some tourists even filmed us! Alex wasn´t feeling the salsa beat but she joined in with some S Club 7 moves...

Soon it was checkout time so we struggled downstairs with our cases and a taxi was outside. After all the people shouting ¨Taxi!¨ at us it made a pleasant change to say yes. So we drove across Havana for the agreeable price of 5pesos.

As we drove through Havana, we noticed the landscape starting to change. The buildings were a lot newer and the roads were wider like American roads. It was a livelier area - less historically significant but teeming with cafes restaurants bars and clubs. Although it is one of Cuba´s most popular tourist areas, with lots of famous hotels, it didn´t seem at all overrun by tourists.

Our hotel the Vedado is an interesting juxtaposition of a scruffy concrete exterior with a slick black mirror glass entrance and light spacious lobby. Our room is very nice, not as nice as the Inglaterra but the bathroom is way better.

We went for a walk to the Plaza de la Revolucion - along the lively street La Rampa and then through some parkland via an imposing monument (they are everywhere in Havana). We passed some impeccably clean government buildings, such a difference from the individual homes, and found ourselves in the huge square. In one direction there is a big monument (that we didn´t want to pay to investigate further); in the other direction the outlines of Che´s face represented in steel on the wall of the Ministerio del interior. After a mini'photoshoot, we headed back to the hotel. My fllipflops were really hurting, i have nasty blisterscars. The hotel has a pol and bar with live music and an attached internet caff. From our room you can often hear loud music being played in the street, a typical impromptu Cuban party. They love "Hips Don´t Lie" by Shakira.

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