Cool Cuba Havana and Varadero

Cuba is one different place and right from the moment we got off the plane we knew it was not going to be your usual Caribbean island. We didn’t expect ‘usual’ but didn’t know what the alternative was. Havana - is amazing! Once you get past how decrepit a lot of the buildings are it is a truly beautiful city, The architecture is stunning and in its hey day must have been so colourful. There are restored buildings right next door to ones that are falling down all of which you can wander past. There are so many 1950’s American cars on the roads and parked up in bright colours some better maintained than others! There is so much to see and do in Havana. We spent a lot of time just wandering round in awe of the sights. February is a great time for exploring as its not too hot and humid, pretty much like a good summers day in UK. There are loads of museums if that’s your thing. We trawled the guide books before we went to try and make sure we saw the main sights and think we did. We ticked off the following on foot or by a 2.5 hour guided tour on a horse and cart ride.

Old Havana and Central Havana • Plaza de Armas and the wooden road outside the Museo il Ciudad (city museum) • Shops, markets, street entertainers, bars and restaurants on streets O’Reilly and Obispo • La Floridita at top of Obispo where Ernest Hemingway like to drink. • Plaza de San Francisco de Asis • Plaza Vieja - drinking Mojitos from and upstairs bar overlooking the square. There a camera obscure here we wanted to look at but sadly it was closed. • Parque Central - a tree lined square and meeting place for well maintained 1950;s American cars to show off, taxis, horse and carriage rides and also the hop on hop off bus. Big hotels and museums line the streets together. Hotel Inglaterra had street lined cafe /bar which we went to for drinks and snacks a couple of times. A good place to people watch. • Along the road from Parque Central is the Gran Teatro de la Habana and Capitolio Nacional de Cuba. • Gran Teatro de Habana - did a guided tour around this theatre that’s in the process of been refurbished though a shortage of money will mean it will be a few years before its completed. Will be spectacular when done. • Museo del Ron - Rum Museum. Guided tour around the museum with rum tasting at the end. Very good guide. • Drive along The Malecon (4 miles of seafront promenade from the old quarters to Vedado (newer area). A good place to see lots of 1950’s American cars in various states of disrepair. • Museo de la Revolution / Memorial Granma - Museum and commemorative site with Castro’s boat and other military vehicles (Russian). • Remains of the old city walls • Plaza de la Cathedral with Cathedral de San Cristobel (free entry) • La Bodeguita De Medio - Bar and restaurant Ernest Hemingway liked to go to. • John Lennon Bar - a bar dedicated to John Lennon and The Beatles playing Beatles music and 60”s decorated. Mojitos and Pina Colada’s a speciality. • Almacenes / San Jose Artisan Market. Undercover huge market selling all sorts of souvenirs, art, rum and cigars.. • Horse & carriage ride concluded going through a very run down part of the city only frequented by locals and wasn’t comfortable taking photos at this point. How some buildings were still standing was astonishing. • Plaza de la Revolucion with the wire sculpture of Che Guevara on the facade of the Minister del Interior and one of Fidel Castrol on the adjacent one. The square is a massive open space where several main roads meet. The presidential palace and the Memorial Jose Marti are there too. The square also attracts many 1950’s American cars. • Memorial Jose Marti, the huge grey marble tower. Very impressive and there’s a lift to the top to take in spectacular 360 degree views of Havana. • Made a circular walk back to the hotel from Plaza de la Revolucion taking in Avenida de los Presidentes, Rampa to the coast by Hotel Nacional, The Malecon and Linea to Paseo and hotel.

Varadero

Totally different to Havana. I’m afraid you’ve not seen Cuba if you’ve just stayed at the beach resort. As beautiful as it is you could have been at any beach resort. You really need to venture outside of Varadero to appreciate how different Cuba is. Great food and no shortages.

The Airport in Varadero - is like stepping back in time. A Russian influenced utilitarian style building with little organisation. On arrival we got through passport control ok but then had to wait an age to go through security as they only had 2 scanners and hundreds of people waiting. Lots of shouting by staff - god knows what they were saying ??. Coming home was entertaining watching the staff perform to find a missing key to a door that would let us and the air crew board the plane, took them an hour to find it and let the crew on for it then to go missing again. Must only be one key ???????.

Taxi's- the pre booked taxi’s all turned up as arranged (the one from Havana to Varadero a day early but we sorted it. Taxi’s are ancient and in varying states if disrepair. All got us to where we needed to be fortunately but one was particularly dodge in that no seat belt on one of back seats, failing gearbox, upside down steering wheel, broken drivers seat, and interior roof lining missing, was an experience and i was a tad anxious at one point. Getting around Havana in taxis is easy, all the drivers had smart phones so could use goggle translate to get through the language barrier, (think their phones were worth more than the cars??). We paid in dollars or euros and negotiated price before getting in. Never had any problems. We were told by hotel which taxi’s to use, they were regulated by the government less dodgy that others.

Money - there’s a lot of hype on social media what to take and what you need. You need to take enough cash to pay for everything, you cannot get money out of service tills or banks. We were going to pay the hotel bill from drinks & meals by credit card but there was a 7% charge on top of bill so opted for cash. However, restaurants tend to be cheaper if paid in Cuban Peso’s. Only get enough peso’s for what you will spend as you cannot change them back to USD or Euros. We took Euros and US $1 notes for tips as you can’t get €1 notes. At one point we had a wallet full of euros, dollars and peso's and it got confusing so i recommend sticking with USD and a few pesos.