Last Few Days in Havana

Spent the last few days in Havana catching up on sights we´d missed and doing a bit of shopping. Got some nice tacky souvenirs to prove it!

Some of the girls were staying on an extra day so we spent most of Sunday hanging out with them, looking at the sights and looking for Che notes to take home. Found an interesting shop which we visited subsequently.

Also checked out the Mueseum of the Revolution for some history and tripped around Old Havana. Dinner out at a place where some Flamenco dancers put on a show.

The next couple of days more of the same with a lot more exploring of Old Havana, getting a ride in a Coco Taxi, and some time waiting in a line at the bank to get some Che notes which as it turns out are in short supply. The 3 Cuban Peso note (1/8 of a Convertible Peso) has a picture of Che on it and a lot of the locals sell them as souvenirs for somewhere in the vicinity of 1-3 Covertible Pesos (roughly 1-3 USD). I bought a couple for 1 CUC each off a local but wanted to get a couple more at face value, instead I ended up with some coins (with Che on them) from the bank instead which will have to do.

Spent a bit of time at the square outside the cathedral people watching, it was quite nice to chill out and watch the old hustlers posing for photos and the tourists generally doing touristy stuff. Didn´t get to either of the castles over the habour as we ran out of time and dinero (though Nicola later found some she´d squirreled away). Getting a bit of a cold (ironic considering the climate) over those few days didn´t help with making use of the entire day, by the afternoon I´d had enough of sun and walking around. Got to a few markets, looked for some paintings but couldn´d find any we liked, found some nice photos though so we got a couple of those.

We walked past the Capitol building quite a few times while in Havana, looks a lot like another building doesn´t it?

Travel in luxary and style while in Havana.

Our final day and we flew out very early in the morning. We´d organised a taxi but there were a couple waiting outside, we ended up with the one that judging by the looks of it we didn´t want (with an extra passenger, which I´m assuming was the wife and a generally not organised looking driver).

We headed off in some wierd direction, but I figured the driver knew what he was doing. Well the next thing the taxi stops, no lights on the dashboard!! Driver gets out fiddles around a bit under the hood and after a few attempts gets the taxi started. Nicola and I were both starting to get a little concerned, expesically considering we were going what seemed like a very bizarre route. Well this happened another 3 times each time we´re thinking will it start again, are we going to miss our flight. Well we managed to arrive with enough time only to wait in a line that literally didn´t move for 1/2 an hour. We got there in the end and had an uneventful flight to Mexico.

That´s the close of the Cuban chapter. We´ve had some challenges along the way but for the most part it´s been smooth sailing. It´s been a great country to visit and I´d recommend people go before it changes too much more. I´m sure I´ll be posting more after thoughts soon.