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Published: July 14th 2011
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Some places attract our imagination more than others, and La Havana is one of these great mystical place. I don't know really where to start this entry, as there are tenth of ways to write about the Capital of Cuba. May I start by a wish, that the leaders of the country will stop keeping their own people trap like in a jail, unable to provide a lot of the basic necessities and choices that the 21st century should bring to such nice people. It's a wish, but I'm sure it's just a question of time...
Why come to La Habana, multiple reasons, for the people, the cigars, the rum, the jump straight back in the past, or even for the architecture. We did all this, plus some diving and even a round of golf.
After 5 nights in the Bahamas, it's time for 4 nights in La Habana. I certainly don't claim that we have visited Cuba and its diversity, but we have for sure got a nice inside of La Habana. Our base for these 4 nights, the Hotel Sevilla right in the middle of the action. Service was great, our room looking a little historic but
pretty nice, wow, everything seems to work here, at least with what the hotel staff have in their hands.
I've been smoking a certain amount of cuban cigars since 2002, so my first priority was to visit the Partagas cigar factory. For info, brands may exist in Cuba, but all are still nationalised, so for info, Cohiba, Montecristo, Romeo and Juliette and other Partagas, are all rolled under the same roof and ownership. The visit takes one hour, 10usd, and the only sad thing is that we couldn't take any picture....But we did open our eyes, listen we did, and better, smell we enjoyed!
In Havana, they proposed you cigars at every corner. But a cigar is such a complex thing, that the look may be right, the smell may be ok, it could still be shit inside....so I kept myself to official shops. Prices are here around 25% cheaper than the cheapest dutyfree I ever found, aka Beirut. Did I tell you I smoke few cigars during these last four days?
For Mari, it was a different feeling. Having grown in Hungary, experienced in her childhood the communism inefficiency, it was like a jump back into
her early youth...and she could name any single car around...quite an experience!
Cars, well, all way of transport are pretty amazing in La Havana. I thought we would see some old american cars, I didn't expect we would see so many of them!
So we visited the cigar factory, we smoked cigars....and yes, we drunk some fair amount of rhum too. As Pierre Bourdain put it , and I quote, "In Cuba there are three types of cocktails...rhum, rhum and rhum". So we tried many daiquiries, pina coladas and other mojitos....listening to great local music in a certain amount of bars....this is la movida, Habana way! Oh, yes, I forgot, aged rhum is also pretty nice with a good cigar!
The best in Havana may simply be to lose yourself, and walk around, saving some time to also enjoy the Malecon (the sea front). Cuba may not move fast, I garantee you that the Malecon will look amazing in few years to come.
And we did 2 dives! 24km out of Habana is Marina Hemingway from where we did our morning dives. Everybody will tell you this is not the best Cuba has to offer. We
knew about it, but still wanted to dive without losing too much time in Habana. Little info, cubans, beside your dive masters cannot dive from boats...yes, crazy official paranoia! First dive was deep, and we saw a lot of sponges, and sadly witnessed the recent invasion of lion fishes. Our second dive was shallower, around 18 meters, full of fishes this time. The fishes do come to eat in your hands....are all cubans starving, even the fishes?
We are for sure going to come back one day to Cuba to explore further the different diving options.
Next, golf! Playing golf in Cuba, you are going to think I'm crazy. There is one championship course in Varadero, but this has been recently built to attract foreign currencies in the country, not really what I was after. Habana has a campo del Golf, not far from the airport. This is only a 9 holes golf course, nice, but nothing amazing to dream about. But it is a part of history. Figure out that before going on his revolution, Fidel was not only smoking cigars, he was playing golf too! Did he planed a socialist revolution on a golf course, let's
figure out! I play 9 holes, under a scrotching sun, before coming back to town for more discoveries (I didn't say one more rhum!).
So you guess it, we had a great time. I was expecting crap service, but we only met amazing people, with a smile, a proper sens of proudness and service....what a place!
Our last experience, flying into a russian plane from Havana to Cancun. That was something! We never had such a noisy ride, and we made it...alive...
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The Travel Camel
Shane Dallas
What is going on here; it looks most concerning!