First Day in Havana

Woke up this morning still a little shell shocked but sorted ourselves out with a shower and got ready to face the day.

Met up with the tour leader who told us the time the whole group would be meeting up, which gave us most of the day to have a look around and see if we´d made the right decision coming to Cuba.

Headed out in a random direction and ended up on one of the main streets with a nice big walkway down the middle. With our spirits picking up we headed toward the sea to give us a better understanding of where we were and what the neighbourhood was like. At the end of the parade there´s a sea wall with a large sidewalk next to it so we ended up walking along till we got hungry and grabbed some food at a cafe/diner, we didn´t really enjoy it much as we were still wary of the food and what we should be avoiding eating.

Still, things were looking much better in the daylight.

We ventured further along and stopped at a monument consisting of 138 black flags with white stars on them which is visible from the other end of the seawall where we started off. This was erected in response to electronic messages being displayed by the US mission, some of which were about human rights abuses. Fidel tore down the parking building infront of the mission without anyone knowing what was being built until he unveiled it. The flags symbolise the people who have died as the result of violent acts against Cuba since its 1959 revolution - more than 3,400 of them.

Headed back to the hotel and met up with our tour group - 4 aussies, 1 aussie, 1 aussie, 1 englishman and us the only couple on the tour. Went over some general bits and pieces, introduced ourselves and arranged to meet later for dinner.

Out for dinner in Old Havana, wish we´d looked around there during the day but plenty of time after the tour finishes. The group seemed like it´d be a good group and we´d have plenty of fun on tour with them.

By the end of our first day we felt things were picking up and looked forward to the tour. Having a tour leader to lean on a bit gave us some comfort. Also just having that time to have a wonder around and get used to a completey new environment.