Day 8 --- Cancun/home

We had breakfast outside on the veranda. The most noteworthy thing was the birds which went to the waiter’s station and ate the leftovers which were on the plates. We walked on the beach then relaxed on chaise lounge by the pool. We decided that resort life was not for us. The hotel is lovely, the beach is beautiful, everything is terribly overpriced and you are at the mercy of the resort because there is no place to go. Cancun has nothing to do with Mexico, at least the hotel zone doesn’t. It’s like being in a Mexican themed resort in Las Vegas with the added benefit of a beautiful beach. At 11:30 we took the shuttle to the airport. Cancun airport (departures) is like a shopping mall. They told us we had to be at the airport 2.5 hrs before departure and we know why – they just want you to spend more money. A burger at the airport is $20 and so are drinks.

Day 7 -- Havana/Cancun

The night at Hotel Inglaterra was interesting. Very loud music because the courtyards act as shafts and carry or even magnify sound. Also, they must have converted some bedrooms into bathrooms so the bedroom and bathroom are about the same size – huge for a bathroom, but small for a bedroom. Breakfast in our new hotel was OK. We packed and walked across the street to our former hotel to use up our prepaid internet access. It was raining. Good taxi ride to airport in the rain. We got to the airport 2.5 hours before the flight and there already was a long line for checkin. The Havana airport was very nice and efficient. The Cancun airport was a mad house. We took a 30 minute ride to our hotel – JW Marriot. Beautiful hotel on the beach. All hotel staff were shocked that we were staying only 1 night. We went to the gorgeous beach for a swim then into the pool. Then it started to pour. We retreated to our balcony and enjoyed the view with a bottle of wine. Dinner at the hotel was expensive, but not great.

Day 6 -- Havana

We set out for our morning walk, but ended up taking an hour-long pedicab tour through south Havana (for $6). He took us to places we hadn’t been to before, which included the house of Jose Marti, the railways station, the bar Dos Hermanos where Hemingway, Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando used to drink (Not together), Buena Vista Social Club, and a Russian Orthodox church. There we chatted with a Russian woman originally from Belarus who also had some Polish roots. She’s been living in Havana for many years because she married a Cuban man who studied in Russia. At noon, we checked out and walked across the plaza to Hotel Inglaterra. It’s one of the oldest hotels in Havana – from the 1800s and sixty years ago it was 5 star. Today it’s a faded 4 star, a far cry from our previous hotel. We hired a taxi to take us to Hemingway’s estate in San Francisco de Paula. It is 20 minute ride but well worth it. It’s a beautiful airy house overlooking the whole city of Havana, with lovely grounds, a large swimming pool and a place where his boat “Pilar” is kept. Overall, the place is pretty well maintained considering the state of many other historical places, but it’s hard to get to. When we got back, we set out to buy the only thing we really wanted to buy – a set of bongos for Beckett. Bo wanted to buy blue ones, but they were hard to find. We found a set near Plaza Catedral. The guy wanted $25 for it, but Bo managed to bargain it down to $12. For dinner we decided to go to the Russian restaurant rather than chance an unknown. The meal was good, and we met a nice young woman who just graduated from college in Boston and was working in Havana for 2 weeks teaching photography. Her ambition is to become a photojournalist. She told us about a good restaurant (O’Reilly 304), but we have no time to go there since we’re leaving before lunch tomorrow.. Bo has been able to practice her Spanish and Russian in Havana.

Day 5 -- Havana

After breakfast we set out to walk to the Museo de Revolucion. On the way we passed a beautiful art deco building “Bacardi Building”. It was built in the 30s and was the headquarters of the rum company until they moved to Puerto Rico in 1959. We went in and admired the decaying splendor. We spent 2 hours in the museum going through the minute details of the Cuban revolution. The museum is housed in the imposing building of the former presidential palace. Unfortunately, like most fabulously beautiful buildings in Havana, it’s in a state of decay. Some of the facades are renovated, some are being restored, but the interior is very sad with crumbling walls, boarded windows, and fading exhibits in glass cases with explanations typed on a typewriter. All the historical charts and information only goes to 1990. After the museum, we walked to the lively Plaza de Armas and then to lunch in our favorite sandwich place, O’Reilly Café. We took a cab to the Morro-Cabana fortress across the bay where there is an art exhibition called Zona Franca, part of the Havana Bienal. It was immense – 190 contemporary Cuban artists in this huge outdoor/indoor space. It was very well organized and there were many interesting, young artists exhibiting. It was also pretty well attended even though they required to buy a ticket to the fortress to see the exhibits. We spent a lot of time looking at all the exhibitions. For dinner we went to the recommended best restaurant in old Havana – Café Oriente --a very fancy French style place with exquisite table settings, good service and wine but mediocre food.

Day 4 -- Havana

Al’s birthday. We walked to Plaza San Francisco and walked up to the tower of the Saint Francisco church for great aerial views. Nice large plaza. We went into the stock exchange building and a friendly guard took us to the top and the scenic veranda around the building. We stopped at many galleries since there is an art bienniale in Havana. We stopped at a couple of tourist information places to inquire about visiting Hemingway’s house in the village of San Francisco de Paula. They said that there’s a travel agency in Hotel Sevilla that may offer a tour so we walked there to ask. Unfortunately, they need a minimum of 6 people to do it and the likelihood is minimal of this happening in the low season. Our best option is taking a cab. On the way back, we got Al’s Bday present, a nice Cuban shirt, There is a cigar factory near the hotel so we wanted to go there to buy some cigars, but it was closed. We were approached by a grungy-looking black guy to follow him into a cigar cooperative, but when we saw the building he wanted us to enter, we got out of the areas as quickly as we could. For dinner we walked to the hotel Sevilla’s beautiful restaurant on the 9th floor with huge windows all around and the view of all Havana. We didn’t have lunch so we got there at 6:30 and they did not open till 7. We then walked to Prado 115, a restaurant our concierge recommended for dinner, but we were disappointed in the food. After dinner we went to Hotel Sevilla for dessert but it was dead so we left. We took a pedicab to café Europa because they had good flan. But they would not let us sit at a table for dessert only and told us to sit at the bar. But there were no seats there so we left. We had soft serve ice cream on the street for our dessert.

Day 3 -- Havana

We are staying at the best hotel in old Havana. It is a 5 star hotel. The room is big and nice and there is a coffee maker. No coffee-must purchase at the lobby. The breakfast buffet is immense. But it is difficult to find anything that is good. One would think that in this tropical place there would be an abundance of good fresh fruit. Not so. The hotel website says that wifi is available. Yes, but you have to buy a card ($4.50 per hour) and the connection is painfully slow and sometimes you can’t connect at all. That’s why we can’t post the blog from there. Cards are only for hotel guests, but yesterday a young man from the outside approached Bo and asked her if she could buy him a card. Why not. We took a tour of the city in a beautiful red 1951 Chevy convertible. Our driver, Ramon, took us to the other side of the Havana Bay via a tunnel. There, we stopped at a big statue of Christ with gorgeous views of the city, we also stopped at the Morro fort. At a military installation along the way we saw missiles and a soviet MIG. Then we drove back to our side of the bay and along Malecon to the famous Hotel Nacional where heads of state used to stay. Ramon took us through several interesting neighborhoods – Vedado, Cohi (??) where government people live in big villas, Miramar -- with big expensive houses and many big and small embassies. Havana is a beautiful city, and the number of spectacular buildings (most unfortunately in a state of complete or partial decay) is astonishing. If this city ever gets completely renovated, it will be a gem. We also stopped at Plaza de la Revolucion and took pictures of the famous mural of Che Guevara and the statue of Jose Marti; saw one of the biggest cemeteries in the world with over 2 million graves and drove through Bosque de Havana ( a little forest inside the city) with amazing walls of trees. After a 2-hour rest in the hotel to avoid the mid-day heat, we emerged again and walked O’Reilly street towards Plaza de Armas (Main Square). On the way, we stopped in a nice café for a sandwich and coffee. Then, we went to the City Museum housed in the former palace of the Spanish Governor. The palace is a beautiful colonial building, but the museum is very poor and doesn’t have much to show. In front of the palace is “Wooden Street”; this street was paved with wood because the governor didn’t like the noise the carriages made on cobblestones in front of his palace. The Havana symphony orchestra plays a concert in front of the palace every Friday at 4 pm so we saw that too. Then, we walked to the Templete, a small temple-like building where the city of Havana was founded in 1516, A black female guide gave us a great tour of this small building – with funny commentaries and stories. She said she wanted to practice her English to prepare for all the Americans that will soon be coming. Then we walked along the pretty Mercaderos Street to Plaza Vieja. On the way we stopped at the historical society to see an amazingly intricate and big model of Old Havana and in a beautifully renovated small colonial hotel Comte de Villanueva where we saw great photographs of a Cuban photographer Francis Reyes. In Plaza Vieja we were hoping to see a couple of exhibitions of the Havana Arts Biennale, but they were closing at 5 pm so we had beer instead. Then we walked and walked until we got to the hotel exhausted. After a short rest we asked the concierge for restaurant recommendations. He recommended a Russian restaurant Nazdorovye. It was excellent sitting on a balcony on the third floor with a great view of the sunset. We met a nice couple from Tasmania and compared our Cuban experiences.

Day 2 -- Havana

Before leaving the US, we were only able to book 4 nights in the hotel in Havana and we need 6 (the hotel was fully booked for the remaining 2) so in the morning we started inquiries about additional nights. Since our cards don’t work here, we thought we’d have to pay cash. Luckily, the travel agency Bo originally booked this hotel (Cuba Travel Network) was able to get us one night here and one night across the square. And they took credit card. After taking care of the accommodations, we embarked on a walk to the Cathedral. Somehow, we got off course and ended in a different part of the city, near Museo de la Revolucion. A nice young woman showed us the right way and walked with us. Bo chatted with her in Spanish. Her intentions were not quite pure, though because later he asked us for money (supposedly for milk for her kids). We walked to the beautiful Cathedral Plaza, then to the embankment. Saw a lot of old cars, got at least 5 offers of a city tour (two in a vintage car, two in a horse-drawn carriage, and one in a pedi-cab), bought a bottle of Cuban rum for $3.85 and heard a lot of music. The heat forced us to retire to our room for a siesta. Late afternoon we walked to Plaza Vieja, to talk to Alex from Cuba Travel Network about city tours. Plaza Vieja and surrounding streets, particularly Calle Mercaderes, is probably the prettiest part of Havana Vieja. It’s totally renovated, with lovely buildings, pedestrian streets with no potholes and attractive restaurants and stores. We needed more local currency but there is only one place to exchange money. The line was at least 30 long so Al waited while Bo explored. When Al got to number 2 he realized he did not have his passport. Fortunately, just then Bo showed up and was able to go into the bank and do the exchange. After a short stop at the hotel, we started walking towards the most popular coastal boulevard of the city, Malecon. On the way, we stopped for dinner at a home-cooking restaurant of Dona Blanquita. The place was nice and attractive, but the prices really surprised us because they were higher than in really posh restaurants. We got to Malecon in time for sunset. There were lots of people there, sitting, walking, watching the sunset, eating. When we couldn’t walk any more, we took a tuk tuk back to the hotel.

Day 1 -- Travel

JAX to Charlotte was easy. We were lucky and there were seats available on an earlier flight to Cancun. With our booked flight much later we would not have made our connection to Havana in Cancun. The Cancun airport is very big and modern. We were told our Cubana flight was in terminal 2. It is a 25 minute walk. There is a free shuttle but it runs every 40 minutes. We opted for a personal ride. Terminal 2 was glorious. Lots of upscale shops there are tons of little restaurants and almost every one of them has live music and tons of Americans. Other than Mexican souvenir shops, it felts like being in the US. We had to purchase Cuban visas, but it was pretty quick and easy. A friendly Cuban guy even gave us a wifi code to a secure wifi of one of the restaurants (no public wifi at this glorious airport). At checkin we had to pay an airport tax. Cubana airlines to Havana was short (1 hr) and nice. Bo breezed through immigration but not Al. He had to stand in line to buy health insurance, and on the other side Bo was wondering if he got detained or arrested or deported. We took a taxi to the hotel (Iberostar Parque Central). The taxi was a 50’s Chevy with manual shift lever on steering column. We are finally here but $200 of our cash depleted. AND nobody in the city takes US credit or debit cards. We walked through the center of Old Havana in the evening. Along the main street (Calle Obispo) there are tons of little restaurants and each of them has live music so the whole street is full of sounds. Unfortunately it is also full of holes because they are starting to install water, gas and electricity in the houses in Old Havana so streets are torn up. We ate in a restaurant called Europa with great music but mediocre (but cheap) food. It reminded Bo of communist times in Poland because whatever we wanted to order from the menu was not available so we had to eat what they had whether we want it or not.

Preamble

This is our 49th trip together. We are going to an island in the Caribbean. It is the most populous city in the Americas not attached to the mainland. Hopefully there will be WiFi so we can post while we are there.