First impressions of Havana, Cuba

Flying into Cuba

We had a lovely early morning wake up at 3am to go to the airport, we shared a cab with two British people who were also catching the flight by coincidence! We eventually boarded our flight around 5.30 and I slept on the first one. There was a stopover in El Salvador, then we were on our way to Cuba!

As we flew in you could see red dirt roads and green forestry on very flat land. Customs took ages to clear and at one point I thought they had lost my luggage. Joao was waiting with our driver, we were almost 2 hours late thanks to the flight and customs.

Driving into Cuba was cool. Austere soviet style buildings lined the outskirts, the city centre had crumbing colonial buildings. The roads were torn up everywhere and there were heaps of old American cars still driving about.

We are staying in a 'casa', like an Air Bnb approved by the government, and it is lovely. We checked in and our casa owner and his mum were there. They gave us tips on the best mojitos, overview of the city and yelled at each other in Spanish a lot. In fact, they talked for so long (something I was about to learn about all Cuban people) I just wanted a shower and to brush my teeth!

Eventually they left at 4pm. Then we got changed, freshened up and went to the rooftop of a cool nearby hotel for a really good mojito. There were lots of other tourists there but the cocktail was great!

I got money out and we went for dinner on the main road of the old town. Every place had someone on the street trying to get you to go inside. One crazy thing we saw was the ‘supermarket’. A hole in the wall with a few sparse items to buy on the glass shelves – like a prison tuck shop! There was no water available. We ended up having dinner at an open air restaurant where two Cuban women spent about an hour trying to take the perfect selfie in their super tight white crop tops and a band set up behind them. I tried Ropa Viejo, a traditional beef stew.

Then we walked around the Malecon (the waterfront) in time to see the sunset. It was really beautiful but I was exhausted from the day. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Our first full day in Havana

I woke up around 7.30am and could’ve kept sleeping, but thought I better have a shower before 8am. Jorgito and the cleaner/cook showed up at 8 and started cooking this incredible breakfast. I woke Susie and Joao at about 8.45am, when our tour was meant to start at 9! We delayed it, as it was a private one, and tucked into a huge vege omelette, stir fry vegetables, fruit platter, fresh coffee and fruit smoothie. All for $5 CUC each.

Then we met our tour guide Yassa, who took us around the Old Town of Havana. It was filled with squares, each one packed full of historic buildings, all from different periods. In between the squares were dirty roads with colourful houses, all in various states of crumbling. Old cars filled the road, but new ones occassionally shocked you back in the 21st century. We saw the main road that divides the Old and working class suburbs of the city, a moor-styled Hotel Sevilla, the Capitol building still under construction, the place Ernest Hemmingway used to get drunk, Obispa road, more squares, puppies in a cage in the heat, the Francis of Asis church and monestary, a really cool sculpture called La Conversaccion, and then the heat sort of muddled my memory. We ended up an icecream place near our house. It had airconditioning! Cuba only got icecream in 2008, those poor people.

We got a taxi to the Viazul bus station, hearing that you need to book tickets a week in advance in summer and we wanted one for tomorrow! Luckily we managed to get some for Trinidad. Our taxi driver (in one of those old fashioned cars) was hilarious. He was a doctor but earnt more driving a taxi ($60 a month versus $16 for one ride). (All education is free in Cuba, hence the highest population of doctors in the world). He played really loud 70s american rock music, they have only had access to this for a few years, so to them it’s like the latest top 40.

Next we checked out the Museum of the Revolution. It was in a slightly run down building that had elidgedly been decorated by Tiffany’s, filled with propaganda printed out on A4 paper and stuck to exhibits that required a huge amount of pre-existing knowledge to make sense. I saw Che Guevara’s beret, that was cool. There was also the Gramna boat (the entire yacht) he and Fidel Castro sailed from Mexico to Cuba to begin the revolucion.

After that we went back to the apartment to clean up and cool down. We had the leftover veges from breakfast, of which there was heaps, when a huge thunderstorm rolled in. At first it was rain, but then we could see lightening bolts from our 8th floor the exact same time thunder cracked the sky! The rain became torrential. Then after about half an hour, it just stopped and went back to sunny.

We walked to another rooftop hotel bar for mojitos. It took a long time to find the right one, only to find it was shut for construction, but there was a sister hotel next door. This was had a great view from the pool, but from the bar you could mainly see the dirtier side of the city. The mojito was pretty good.

We had dinner at a great place where we had to queue. We sat in the doorway which wasn’t so atmospheric, but the mojitos were great and the food was delicious. I had pork Ropa Vieja and it was delicious! Then we went to bed early for our 7am bus ride the next day.