Well got a bit of catching up to do... Cuba is not the best place for internet... or phones... or atms or generally any sort of modern technology that isn´t at snails pace and ridiculously expensive. Havana was a huge culture shock for everyone- with the funky smells, the cuban men and most of all the food. We visited the so-called grocery stores and the only thing on the shelves that was always well stocked was rum. I could not believe how little food there was!!! Very glad i packed my weetbix and susty to keep me going. For dinner i ordered an Ensalada which was pretty much a plate of frozen veges and rice... which by havana standards was delicious.
Those cuban men!! We could not walk anywhere without someone calling out “lady, lady, beautiful lady” or whistling at us, or talking to us, or basically anything to get our attention. It definately grew tiresome after a while.
But despite the food (and the men) Cuba was definitely worth it. We spent alot of time in Habana Vieja (old havana) where alot of the old buildings have been done up and look beautiful. The atmosphere was awesome. Cuban music is lots of fun. Everyone is so social and in the arvo the streets are jam packed with people- men playing dominoes, kids playing baseball. The streets were crazy. There were heaps of horses carrying carts, bikes carrying passengers, trucks with masses of people on top. There were also these buses called camels which was basically a truck carrying this massive carriage absolutely jam packed with people. Road rules or lines on the road or obeying traffic lights is pretty much non-existant.
We stayed in a casa (house) in the dodgiest street in havana. The lady who owns the place warned us to hold onto our bags tightly. But it really wasn´t too bad. They were very friendly- although it would have been very helpful if we knew some spanish.
We spent 3 nights in Havana doing lots of walking seeing the buildings, churches, Capitoli Nacional, the Malecon along the sea walland just simple people watching. The fashion is really different too. The women wear anything that´s bright, short, and tight!
After Havana we caught the bus to trinidad.
