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Published: April 29th 2005
Well today had to take a break from the tourist thing to try and arrange a visa to travel to Cuba. (My travel agent said that I could arrange it with the airline on the day I travel, but I thought I would try and get it sorted earlier.) Took the Metro, thankfully sightly after the rush hour, was still really crowded but not too bad. Had to walk about half an hour from the Metro stop to the Cuban Embassy. The streets that I walked down were a lot less crowded that those in the centre, and must have been a lot more up market, there were shops with western designer brands. The street had shade trees to provide a respite from the sun. Could have been streets in any western country, except if you looked up you could see the sky was tinged with brown from the pollution, and every so often there were security guards and police outside the shops. Even saw a couple of police with shot guns. Only the occasional street vendor or shoe shine person. (But I guess even well off people want shiny shoes and something to eat.)
My Spanish was not really up to talking to anyone at the Cuban embassy. But I think they said that it would take either 24 hours or possibly 3 days to arrange a tourist visa, however since I already had a ticket to Cuba, I could get the visa from the airline. Since today is Friday, and I am supposed to fly to Cuba in less than 3 days, I have no choice but to trust the advice of the travel agent. Hope it turns out alright.
Ended up walking back towards the Metro Station, but decided to have a wander through the nearby Chapultepec Park, (it is near the Anthropological Museum, so could have had another look.) Didn´t get far in the park, main entrance was closed, and a second that lead to the Zoo was filled with people selling all sorts of stuff, but mainly food and water. By this time had had enough of walking around and people yelling, and noise and the heat, so got to the nearest Metro Station for a very crowded ride back to the relative quite of the hostel.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Wow what an adventure
Como estas Muchacho! well by the sounds of things, you've been busy (alot of walking, wow i love reading your journals as i have no life myself it kinda makes me more motivated to save even harder and travel. I'am glad your enjoying yourself overall hey if any one deserves a good vacation its you. Good luck with cuba i heard it is a beautiful country, my cousin used to live there but when things got a bit rough he decided to move back to canada, unfortunetly the cuban embassy woudlnt let him leave cuba for 3mths......anyways enough of the horror stories, enjoy your time over there, we here at state miss you heaps and make sure you stay hydrated. take care - Priya