Hectic Havana

A new day and new travel companions, well those that were not affected and delayed by the French pilots strike. Flipping French! There will eventually be 18 of us. We met our Cuban guide and Ramone our driver, who promptly took us to Revolution Square. It is very apparent that there there are no advertising billboards anywhere, just political extortations, and murals of various heros to Cuba, usually citing Che, Fidel, Chavez, Jose Marti, or any of the various revolutionaries. 

Old Havana really reminded me of Cartagena but without as much money. More faded, crumbling and rotting neo classical buildings. A quick tour of the rum factory provided us with the basic knowledge on the distilling process, but to be honest I suspect we will drink far too much rum to care about such trivialities over the next few days! After wandering around in the sweltering heat a quick stop at Hotel Ambos Mundos was most welcome. We sat on the roof top balcony and I had my first Cuban beer, Crystal (no Grade 10 rapids here!). This hotel was where Ernst Hemingway lived for some years and apparently thought they made the best mojitos! Free to wander a few of us headed to the Museum of the Revolution, housed in the colonial building that Batista had ruled from. Very old and ramshackled it appeared that the displays had probably been made in the 1960's and never updated. Mostly in Spanish there were some English translations that detailed the bloodied item of clothing we were looking at, referred to the atrocities committed by "Imperialist America", hailed the actions of the revolutionaries, and detailed the nationalisation of the country. It was noticeable that there was no mention of the Cuban Missile Crisis, or indeed really anything after the 1980's.

Our first group dinner was on a roof top in Old Havana. My first mojito! And it's claim to fame was that Beyoncé and Jay Z, had frequented the same place when they had visited!