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**Unfortunately some of the photos have uploaded very badly and i tried a few times and can't seem to resolve this 😞 Shame cos I really like the photos but you're all welcome to a full slide show when I get back 😉....
I arrived in Havana after a terrible journey in which we'd been stalled at the end of Lima runway with a 'technical fault' and then I ended up missing my connecting flight as a result. Anyway I arrived and attempted to check into the hotel (/tapas bar with rooms that is described as being for those who 'need a room nearby for when they drink too much at the tapas bar') but due to some problem with the room they marched me around town trying to find me a casa particular instead. In Cuba, there is a real separation between the touristy hotels which, for the most part, are extremely expensive and posh and the
Casa Particulares which are rooms let out but families and usually just as good and give you a good feel for the country and closer contact with the people.
Anyway I settled in with Senora Juana and looked around the town.
As a girl on your own, Cuba can be quite hard as the men seem to give everyone a lot of unwanted attention. I managed to narrowly avoid a scam as well when one guy, claiming to be a drummer in Buena Vista Social Club, stopped me in the street and asked if i'd like an invite to see them play for free. Now, i'd met a couple in Lima who had seen Buena Vista Social Club play and who had LOVED it so i half fell for this and said that, yeah sure i'd take a free invite. Anyway he then 'needed to go into a bar to get a pen and paper' and proceded to order us both a mojito (it was 10am) and tell me all about how he could buy me cheaper cigars (he even sent someone off to get them and tried to get 160 quid off me) and then asked me to buy him some powdered milk for his kids (this is a classic Cuban scam- they say they need it cos milk is rationed in Cuba but apparently they then return the milk and get the money back once you give it to
them- someone in Peru warned me about that!!) Anyway when he insisted that I give him money for the mojitos he'd ordered, the cigars i didnt want and the milk I claimed I needed to go to the cash point and never went back!!
On the Thursday night I went out for dinner with some girls I met and then went to a live salsa show at the Casa de la Musica and then i waited up for Jon to arrive at 3am. We spent Friday exploring Havana and I had planned a day that involved mostly eating and drinking (breakfast, lunch, afternoon cocktails, dinner, more drinks) and then on Saturday we woke late and headed to Trinidad (see next blog). Oh no, we did actually squeeze in a museum for good measure but it mostly involved me telling Jon how Che Guevara was quite good looking!
We came back to Havana on Tuesday night and after a night in a cheap hotel we found some elderly
hermanas (as Jon likes to call them in a bad Spanish accent) to stay with. Theywere 3 70-year old sisters with a nice flat and the first hot showers we'd found
all trip. To sum up the reat of an amazing few days in Havana: we had mojitos in the Hotel Nacional, went to see their Grandson's band play (very good), ate a lot of good (mostly Italian) food (don't go to Cuba for good food!), watched Buena Vista Social Club play live (this time it really was them), visited the rum and cigar factories, gazed at Bush: TERRORIST posters, went to the Aquarium, drank Daiquiris at Hemingway's favorite El Floriditia bar and the Hotel Inglaterra, went to Miramar's Casa de la Musica for great live music and prositute-with-old-western-man watching, salsa danced (yes, this is Jon I am talking about!), visited the Havana Forts, watched sunset on the
malecon and the highlight of it all, sent my excess baggage home which involved the most drawn-out process of listing and showing each item individually at least 3 times for various officials at DHL.
On the last night we stayed at hotel Sevilla, a hotel where Al Capone stayed for a while and which was a real treat. Its an amazing old building and Jon must have turned on his charm because we got an upgrade to a superior room somehow. We
had our last dinner on their 9th floor restaurant looking over Havana and smoking Cuban cigars (well, actually just Jon did that!)
I'm sad to be heading off on my own and leaving Jon again but only have 5 weeks left now so need to make the most of it! I really want to go back to Cuba one day and hope it won't change too much too soon.
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