Havana

I decided to put all of the Havana stuff into a single page.

The flight out was fine. We'd chosen to leave our large suitcases in the hotel and travel light from here on. With no check in luggage to declare getting onto the plane was straightforward and even though our hand luggage was over the 5kg limit that was waived. The other passengers weren't travelling as light as us with all sorts of items being checked in, car tyres and fans amongst the random selection of items that were being taken on board.

We had breakfast in a rather stupidly named restaurant called "Flap's". I thought at first it was an aircraft reference but then the apostrophe confused me. Anyway we enjoyed eating at flaps, and the drinks were good too. 

The plane left late due to some confusion with all the random items being checked in. Luggage was taken off and put back on several times with an official getting more and more irate the longer it went on. In the end a lot of the tyres and stuff were taken off the plane. I was glad we didn't check luggage in.

Immigration was pretty strict. I was spoken to 3 different times before I'd even made it to the passport gate. They wanted to know why we were here, how we knew each other, what my job was, how good my Spanish was (I think I impressed them with my response of "poco" haha"). I know that in these sort of checks they're reading body language and not really caring about the answers. I guess I did OK as they let me in. So the first observation wasn't that good. The female immigration staff looked very sexy. That was a much nicer observation, and it made the queues at the desks much more tolerable.

After collecting our local currency and grabbing a taxi into Havana we reached our hotel the lovely looking Hotel Inglaterra where we dumped our cases.

The hotel has some history and must be on the tour guides as the odd tourist would walk in, take pictures and then leave. In the evening a couple of stunning looking prostitutes would also be in attendance and during dinner one night we did have one ask to join us, which we politely declined.

This would be my room for the duration of our stay in Cuba. It served its purpose and was well ventilated. We were quickly going to realise that it was quite hot here so being able to come back here made this a nice sanctuary.

The buildings around the hotel were stunning and exactly as I imagined they'd be.

This is the Capitol building next to our hotel. When Thomas visited this before it was being renovated. Today it was being renovated. So I would guess its in a permanent state of being renovated i.e. not being renovated at all and just sitting under a scaffolding.

There are plenty of old cars serving as taxis and they look immaculate and very well maintained.

On our first day we did a bit of sightseeing so we could see the real Cuba. We quickly realised that the Cuba beyond the tourist facade isn't quite up to the same quality in some places the blocks looked like they'd been bombed.

The graveyard was full of some ridiculous displays to dead people. They must have thought they were really important, a shame that most of them are forgotten and only known from the engravings they've left behind. I would never want to make such an arrogant statement.

Neptune again.

El Parque Candado was a small park which is now closed. The ferris wheel stands as a fitting monument. No coasters people so move along. There's nothing to see here.

On our first night we took an evening walk along the waters edge with an aim to catch the sunset. The locals here are very friendly until they realise they're getting no money off you at which point they politely leave and go off to try their luck with someone else. Only one guy was legit who stopped and chatted to us only because he'd never seen white guys and Indian guys together, which he thought was quite unusual although no big deal to me and Tal. We would regularly be offered cigars, entrance to authentic Cuban nightclubs and on one occasion any woman I wanted, which finally revealed to me what happened to the machine from Weird Science. 

"You want white, black, Cuban. You want big tits, little tits, I get you anyone you want"

(This was actually his spiel)

On the final day we took the sightseeing bus which visited some of the tourist attractions before doing a run out to the hotels out to the west. Buses left our hotel every 30 minutes so it was easy to get one. By now the heat was starting to get quite bad and we started to behave out of character, very similar to what I'd experienced in China. It's weird to describe but clearly something different happens to us when exposed to the heat (not necessarily the sun) for a length of time.

A couple of shots of the Plaza del Revolucion. Unfortunately the public aren't allowed to climb the tower so we hung about taking photos until the next bus arrived.

This is Camilo Cienfuegos, not to be confused with the Ayatollah, who I thought it was.

With this one there was no confusion whatsoever. Che Guevera

The tower is pretty cool, and I imagine the view from the top would be great!

These little taxi mopeds were common place and I imagine would be a peculiar way to get about Havana.

Most tourists were choosing the old American cars instead though.

A view from our hotel on the final night. 

Random cocktails which matched the colours of the Mexican flag completely by coincidence. Mine was the random tomato cocktail on the left which I chose at random. It was pretty horrid but I drank it. The best drinks were in the hotel. We found it very difficult to get good drinks outside. Even bottled water was tricky to obtain, we only found one shop around the hotel that sold it for example.

Nice mural. I've not a clue who it is though.

More pics of revolutionaries, this time Hugo Chavez, the former leader of nearby Venezuelan and Che again.

This looked like the Tyrrell corporation building from Blade Runner but was in fact a large hotel complex that the tour bus stopped at.

This looked like the work of graffiti artist Blu although the detail was a little lacking so I'm not sure if it was his or not.

Thomas was saying that last time he was here 10 years ago there were many more revolution sights like this.

A cute cartoony piece.

Some of the less glamorous buildings seen around the city. 

The city has a train museum if you're into trains.

This looks a bit orthodox.

A statue of Neptune with one of the citadels in the background.

More Che

After the tour bus on the final day I was really feeling the heat. I wasn't sunburnt, I'd been sensible in that regards, however I'd broken out in blisters pretty badly here. It started in Botswana but peaked here and rather than stay out in the heat I retreated back to my room where I had the longest cold shower in an attempt to get my temperature down, this alleviated the pain. I then snuck out when the sun went down. 

On getting home I discovered I was probably suffering from Polymorphic Light Eruption, which is a condition that arises when someone is exposed to heat for a length of time when they're not used to it ironic given this year I'd already been to India, South Africa and now here. I guess a Doctor would say I need to get out more...(and as I type this I've been indoors all day typing this up, I can't win!)

Anyway the symptoms do disappear and I've not had them since I've been home.

This is part of a military museum.

Some simple but emotive graffiti down the road from the hotel.

The main square is beautifully lit.

More old cars.

I think this is Don Quixote.

This was one of the bars that Ernest Hemingway frequented whilst in Havana and is now a popular tourist attraction.

This is another nice hotel, which used to be a palace, close to the water's edge.

A temple type building

Finishing with one my nicest photos of the sun going down.

Havana an interesting country which was what I expected but more, the more unfortunately being negative. People are very friendly but it feels forced and all about getting you to part with your cash. Do they really have a cigar festival on the one night I'm there or is it every night but marketed that way? How do I know I'm getting an authentic Cuban cigar?

My rash outbreak didn't set me up to be positive about the place but the climate is very nice if you like beach weather or going out at night when it's cooler. It's not for me though. What I am glad about is that I got to visit the country before America invaded. This unfortunately is inevitable and if I was to visit in 10 years time I imagine coke would be in abundance and McDonalds would exist on every corner and the capital building would still be under a ton of scaffolding. 

We did of course do a whole lot more with our time in Cuba which are on the following pages.

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