The three amigos with a pink Chevy
Today we had a guided tour with B, walking through many of the streets we’d seen yesterday, but with the addition of historical facts and stories.
It’s lucky apparently…
Once we’d walked for long enough to be pretty hot and bothered, we had a car tour around some of the other areas of Havana in a classic convertible car. Beautiful, but they must be very difficult to keep in good condition.
Curves for days!
We stopped at Revolution Square to check out the memorial, and then headed to an area where Afro-Cuban music was being played. It was incredibly hot by this point and we were sweating buckets, so we were not too keen on joining in with the dancing this time!
Drumming and dancing
Lastly, we were dropped off back at the Capitol building with a recommendation for a lunch place. Unfortunately, it looked like every tourist in town had also been given that recommendation, and the queue for tables was out on the street, with only vague assurances of “half an hour…” We decided to keep walking back to the casa, and to stop at the first place that looked good, which ended up being a little restaurant down a side street that had reasonable drinks, a generous serve of prawns, but the icecream on the menu turned out to be unavailable… Is there an icecream shortage in Havana?
A virgin Pina Colada will cool me down
After a siesta, we headed out to find San Jose, a marketplace full of souvenirs, apparently. We headed down the waterfront in the opposite direction than our previous forays, going past what would have fit in well in Fremantle: a craft brewery in what looks like a big shed on the wharf, with loud music.
We found San Jose as the shops were all packing up, but it didn’t look like we’d missed much, seeming to be four shops repeated like they often are in touristy marketplaces – a leather goods shop, a wood carving and musical instrument shop, a “local art” shop, and a jewellery shop.
Finding a place to have dinner was our next mission, so we walked back along the water to the old cruise terminal, now sadly crumbling due to the US embargo. Like a lot of things in Cuba, it looked like it would have been amazing in its heyday.
We decided on another cafe just out of the Old Square for dinner, and sat down to wait. Just as we settled, a pair of gents sat down at the next table and proceeded to chain smoke huge cigars, while lots of people coming up and down the street stopped and greeted them. Social aristocracy I guess!
After dinner, we finally found icecream, at a small gelateria off one of the streets off the square. Mission accomplished! And good timing too, as we’re off to Santiago de Cuba tomorrow.
Two Weeks Away 