More From Havana

From what has been a particularly miserable winter it’s easy to reminisce about the two weeks spent in Cuba last summer, the heat, the cultural contrast, the distance from home and the ease with which I could switch off from all of the “wonders” of modern Britain.

The room in the hotel was as might be expected from what we had experienced of the hotel so far. It was bright and airy, basic but very comfortable and had fantastic views of the hotel grounds and the area around the hotel and the sea.




On what was left of the first day we had a wander in the gardens of the hotel, walking to the flagpole and looking at the Cuban life going on around the area and spending time sitting on the terrace people watching and drinking cocktails. As darkness crept in we went for our first meal which was as quick and easy as we could make it as the journey was catching up on us. A burger and beer in the American style diner, a very peculiar situation considering the hatred Cuba has of it’s neighbour just 90 miles away. To finish off the evening it was a moonlight stroll in the hotel grounds to see what we could of the Cuban nightlife. There were many cars cruising up and down the Malecon, the main coastal road in Havana and a multitude of locals sitting on the sea wall to socialise, chat and play music. A final cocktail before turning in for what might be a restless night now the body clock had been interrupted.

Next day was a Monday and waking early I thought taking a video of what could be seen from the hotel window would help kill time as breakfast would be an hour or so away. The buffet breakfast was interesting as there seemed to be as wide a range of food as was possible for breakfast including sprouts and carrots, chilli, eggs, very fatty bacon, pancakes, fruit and so on. I decided to pass on the sprouts. Once full a walk around Havana was planned, checking out the Malecon first. Once outside the hotel the many styles of architecture found in Havana were quite evident ranging from the classier buildings built prior to the revolution to the more ramshackle affairs built since. Apparently due to the lack of attention to their building stock Havana sees the collapse of 200 buildings every year!

Crossing the wide roads was a doddle as there is plenty of road available for the traffic to run on it but the first encounter with “street entertainers” was found on the other side. Two young Habanero’s, one with a guitar, the other with maraca’s began performing following the route taken until I gave them a couple of coins. Lesson learnt – avoid people loitering with musical instruments! Half a mile along the road to the west was another intriguing sight, I was going to cross back over the road to investigate further but this move invited some interest from the armed guards which were in evidence.

What had interested me was a square in which there must have been around 100 flag poles all flying black flags, each with a white star on. I later learnt that the building being guarded was the U.S. Interests Section (USINT) representing American citizens and the U.S. Government in Cuba and operates under the legal protection of the Swiss government. The armed guards were Cuban police who were there to restrict access to the Interests Section. The flags in the square opposite were erected in 2006 by Castro to obstruct a display board at USINT which showed ticker tape news on human rights issues and each apparently represents a Cuban who had died as a result of the U.S. foreign policy in Cuba.

Anyway back to the hotel for a quick lunch and then on the bus for a trip around Havana, but more on that next time. If you want to see more photo's then join me on Facebook.