Havana, Cuba

  Havana, Cuba
Sunday, November 12, 2006

Well HELLO Everyone!!!

Jeez, we didn´t realise so many people were worried about us!!!!

First off... the reason that we have been out of contact for 1 month is plain and simple... Fidel and his regime!! It costs 6 Euro an hour for the internet and 4 Euro a minute to call Ireland... LOCO!!!! But we´ll get to all that in due time!!!

Before we left Cancun for Havana we had great fun in trying to find ourselves some place to live in our first few days in Cuba. We spent about 4 hours looking for a place the night before we left and it was only when we were AT the airport in Cancun that we managed to ring a lady who had a Casa Particular in the La Habana Vieja part of the city. Now before we go any further, for those of you out there who know nothing about Cuba and the alternative to hotel lodging, we´ll enlighten you. The cheapest form of accommodation is by staying with Cuban families in their houses or apartments, these are the Casa Particulars. They cost on average between US$20 to US$30 a night. Most of the Casas will cook meals for you also... at a cost of US$5 to US$8.. but we´ll talk about that at some stage. Finally the money.. Foreigners in Cuba have their own currency, the CUC, 1 CUC is worth 25 Cuban Pesos and about 1.18 Euros. Ok... so the stage is set... we have our Casa for the first 3 nights... away we go.

We arrived into Havana´s Josie Marti airport at about 5pm. We breezed through the dreaded Cuban immigration authorities with ease and got a taxi to our Casa. It was really cool seeing the old cars going by and seeing all the folks hitching.

08 On the Street Where You Live

As we pulled up to the complex that housed our Casa, both of us were like... "oh sh1t, what the hell have we done here... uh oh!!!", the lane was lit by pathetic street lighting and the sound of dogs barking like mad was scary. We were met by a little man called Luis, the head of the family. He took us into the apartment complex, down a dimly lit hallway, to the lift, even the lift looked like something from the forties. Up to the top floor and into the apartment. We were greeted by Fefita (you guessed it, Luis´ wife)... "Ola Chicas"... giving us hugs and welcoming us like long lost friends. The place was not as we expected. The room we got had a FANTASTIC view across Havana, a giant 40" TV, our own fridge and private bathroom.... sweet...!!!

Being the first night in Cuba, we said that we´d head out. Fefita and Luis recommended a restaurant. The fact there was little or no street lights made it a bit daunting to get there, but as soon as we walked in the door, Sarah was in her element, the food was all rice and veggies, a big difference from all the cheese in Mexico!!! They had an absolutely BRILLIANT trio of musicians banging out the tunes, so good, that we actually bought their CD. We then continued down to the "party" street in Havana, Obispo. We soon realised that virtually EVERY bar/restaurant had live music in them. This place is NUTZ... the BEES KNEES!!! In one bar Sarah even got to play the maracas with the band... ha ha!! First night, and we loved the place.

07 Infamous Hotel Inglaterre

We got up next morning and Fefita made our breakfast.... well the daughter did, we got fruit, lovely fresh bread, coffee and a potato omelette.. all for $3 CUCs. We spent the day wandering around Havana, walked along the infamous Malecon seaside walkway. We got photos by the bucket of the all the 1950s cars and crockety Ladas. The buses are always, always, always JAM packed, how people can get off is still a mystery. We also saw big truckloads of people going past, all squashed in like moo cows, one wouldn´t want to be claustrophobic!! We spent that night doing a pub crawl... sitting up at the counter in the old style bars, drinking Mojitos and listening to live music... lovin it!!!

The next day, Saturday, was a total write off, severely struggling with manky hangovers. We went and had an ice cream at the posh Hotel Inglaterre before... wait for it... going to the cinema!!! Ha ! Ha ! We saw "El Codigo Da Vinci", it was in english with Spanish subtitles. For those of you who haven´t seen it, in the words of Alf Stewart "Don´t flaming bother, read the book instead".

Though we loved Havana... we decided it was time to move on ... next stop... the infamous beach resort of Varadero.
 
Some costings:
Beer: depends on the barman... ususally between 1 cuc and 2 cucs
Food: depends on were you go and what currency you are charged in.... for a pizza in a bar, about 1.50 cucs, for exactly the same pizza in a cuban premises about 5 cuban pesos (that´s 0.20cucs)
Soft Drink: once again, depends, if there is no menu then its up to how much the barman thinks he´ll get from you, if they have a menu its usually about 1cuc
There is hardly ever anything less than 1cuc.