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Posted On Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at
at
8:52 PM
by Alvin
Sipping a Mojito in the pleasant suburb of Vedado in Havana, tasting the fine Cuban rum and watching local life lazily go by - ahh, pure bliss ... But first things first - we arrived by Aeroflot (our current favourite airlines !), having spent a relaxing night at a boutique hotel that was attached to the Moscow airport. Changing our Euros into the local currency CUC (that's pronounced as Coke) at the Jose Marti International Airport was a breeze and we were ready to start this wonderful journey in Cuba. We found a Casa Particular (a private B&B) in Vedado (close to the Norwegian Embassy !) - a mansion with ceilings about 5 meters in height, decked out with solid old-timer wooden furniture, a massive cool shady dining hall and a smiling middle-aged couple with their teenage daughter welcoming us. It was most interesting to hear their stories during our stay (but we don't have time for those stories here I'm afraid) and they made us feel welcomed and made us huge breakfasts everyday that lasted us till dinner time.
We spent our time in Havana visiting the tourists-packed Obispo, the fort over in Casablanca, the local village of Regla, the nostalgic China town (we even met a 96 years-old Cantonese man who regaled us his troubled life during his many years in Cuba when he had lost everything ...), paid a visit to the landmarks of Hotel Nacional and Capitolio Nacional, impressed by the sheer space at the Plaza de la Revolucion and of course we walked along the Malecon many times. Havana had a unique atmosphere in that the place felt time-frozen as we saw countless old American cars (another Blog entry) being driven in avenues packed with local clothes, barber and cake shops with not an international brand name in sight; the local people went by their lives seemingly paying no notice of the world outside the shores of this island. Having adjusted fully to the heat and life style (delicious coffee, icy local cola and excellent seafood), we felt ready to move on and bought our bus tickets to Trinidad - a sleepy village on the Caribbean coast that was suddenly woken up by its UNESCO fame.
