Havana Club

Trip Start Nov 13, 2005
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Trip End Jul 13, 2006


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Flag of Cuba  ,
Thursday, December 22, 2005

So we arrived in Cuba at 11pm at night and I really think I honestly forgot that nothing ever works in a developing country. After a fight to get through customs (and after waiting 1 hour) we finally reached the luggage only to find everyone else on our flight still waiting for their bags. 1.5 painful hours later we spotted our bags and made a beeline for them before pushing our way through a makeshift line that was supposed to be the line up for customs. Being chinese and an absolute expert at pushing I managed to get us to the top and get out - record timing only 2.5 hours to get out of Havana airport. So it was 1:30am and we didnt have a reservation and unlike everywhere else in the world you dont stay at hotels because they are so expensive. Instead most people choose to stay at Casa Particulars which is a B&B equivalent. For just under 30USD you can pay for to sleep in a room complete with a casa mum and dad who fuss all over you (for the price you hope so!). Luckily we met another american who had lined himself up with accommodation and we shared a expensive cab into the town.

Central havana itself was a scary sight to arrive in in pitch darkness. Its a area dotted with old buildings that though over the years of neglect have fallen and in pretty bad condition. No street lights work only because they have never been replaced, and the fact that there are so many Cubans just hanging around on dark street corners at 2am makes it a v. scary place to arrive in. Luckily later we discovered that it wasnt such a scary area after all. In daylight the area is very cool, and every photo we have taken is almost a picture perfect postcard. Cool rundown colonial buildings, people just hanging on the street, 1950s fiats and chevvys, music being played and sung on every corner.

We spent our days in havana learning discovering the black market local currency as opposed to the foreign currency (25 to 1.. think about which currency you would rather be using) and visiting many of the museums around the place. the city is divided up into so many areas, most of the time we just passed time walking for hours and hours discovering every little lane and alley of habana...
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