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Published: January 11th 2016
Saturday 9
thJanuary 2016
Today we had a free day to explore Havana and what’s more it was not raining! However before that we had to cope with waking up to a hotel without water. Apparently this happens quite often. Not too stressful and after breakfast it was back on.
The Taylors and Woods decided to go their separate ways in the morning – not because we’ve squabbled but we wanted to do different things.
This is a Wood take on the morning. First we visited the cathedral and went up the tower. Great views from the top but a bit tricky with crumbling masonry, not much protection at the edge and bare electrical wires everywhere. Outside the cathedral the enormous nativity scene was still there and a group of children sang Christmas carols (including jingle bells) – enchanting! As this was a Saturday and sunny, there were lots of people and we were hassled everywhere to buy and to have photographs taken with cigar-smoking women dressed in old Caribbean costumes. One market trader said we should buy from him to break the blockade and he would give us a certificate to prove it! After meandering around and enjoying
every moment we went to the rum museum and learned how they made the stuff, tasted 7-year-old rum – and of course bought some.
After all meeting up for lunch off the Woods went to buy cigars from the place that the Taylors had visited. However we succumbed to the persuasion of two guys not to buy from the official shop but to buy some cigars from them that were surplus to government stock – ie they pinched it! We had been warned not to do this but we did it nonetheless. We ended up with a box of cigars that looked and smelled like the real thing and were sealed in a box with official-looking tape but who knows what we bought.
Meanwhile the Taylors also did some meandering, Dianne was serenaded by a soulful trumpeter, we saw lots of street entertainment and visited the Capitol ( for info it’s an exact copy but 4 metre higher than the Washington one) then a trip to the official cigar shop.
We also took a trip round the Revolution museum, tricky to navigate through the history as it was mostly in Spanish, and the bit we could understand
seemed to have a lot of propaganda !! Final room had lifesize cartoon pictures of Reagan George Bush senior and George W, with captions … ‘thankyou Cretins for ensuring the socialist evolution will endure’. … rather cruelly it had George W reading a colouring book up side down!! Ended up having a cocktail called sexyberry at a street bar, no need to say more!!
In the evening we tried to get into a recommended restaurant but couldn’t, so the bouncer on the door told us to go to his brother’s restaurant 3 blocks away. It wasn’t an area of Havana that we were comfortable in but there were 4 of us after all. After an indifferent meal we left and sought solace in a mojito or three in a bar near Hemingway’s bar. There was live music, a great atmosphere and all Cuban nightlife passed by on the pavement outside – and yes Malcolm was given a cigar from two Canadians. John and Malcolm finished the evening with vintage rum, which was amazing. What a great way to end our stay in Havana.
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Hannah
non-member comment
I love this picture xx
What a great shot x