Blogs from La Habana, Oeste, Cuba, Central America Caribbean - page 28

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 ... read more

In the afternoon we decided to go to a shopping centre. On our way we befriended two Cuban guys, Ernesto and Carmelo. Cuban people are friendly but quite bossy so we got bored of them pretty quickly. It's actually very hard to feel comfortable in their company because the cultural divide is so huge and you always feel like they want something from you. The vast majority stare you up and down, a large percentage of them try to chat to you, some of them shout "Taxi!" at everyone, of "Money?" and quite a few of them make this "Tsssth, Tsssth" sound at you, or the noise you make to call a cat, which we find really rude. I am quite disappointed with Cuban men in general, I expected them to all look like Che, but ... read more

After getting all excited driving from the airport to Habana Vieja where we were beginning our stay, we were delighted upon arriving at the Hotel Inglaterra. It is Cuba's oldest hotel, it's beautiful! As I write this, I am at a marble table, in a very elegant marble-floored and chandelier-lit 'internet cafe' room, with photos of the American celebrities who stayed here in Havana's glamorous pre-Communism days and stained glass windows. We got out of our tax and a uniformed doorman opened the door, and we walked into a very luxurious, decadent-looking place - so different from the rest of Cuba. And very reasonably priced! (cocktails here are 3 pesos...that's like less than 2 pounds. Everything in cuba is very slow, from the driving to the waiters to the toilet flushes...the hotel lift is no esception, ... read more

Unlike many of the world's capital cities, the tourist centre of Havana is also home to a large proportion of the city's residents, with some of the poorest crammed into apartment buildings right next door to museums, hotels, restaurants & bars. It's hard to see how everyone is equal under communism when the standard of living varies wildly. Havana is incredibly charming, even though it is literally crumbling around you. Staircases wobble precariously and a la Kingston, there are holes in every pavement. Having said that, it was totally safe to walk around, even at night, and there were around 2 policemen to every street. The one thing you notice is that there are no ads, at all. It's hard even to pick out shops and banks because everything looks the same. The city is caught ... read more

So here we are in La Habana - its pretty cloudy and raining - not exactly what we expected! Got pissed on the plane watching Jackass and Borat and arrived 1.5 hours late due to mist in London! we were greeted by a massive queue at immigration and we somehow managed to be the last to go through - and then......there was a power failure and we were left searching for our bags in the dark!! Taxi ride to hotel was pretty spectacular - vintage cars and people, buildings, music, the smell of tobacco in the air - a million miles from Londres... Our plan was to go and explore the city but instead we fell asleep and woke up this morning completely confused.. Today we had breakfast on the roof overlooking the city - got ... read more