Tuesday March 1 2016
~~ Day 5
We wake up early to another gorgeous warm morning. We finish packing up and then head out
the door for one last walkabout.
I LOVE this view!
I LOVE this view!
Just down the hill to Habana 61….
We walk towards Artesanias and the t-shirt shop to get my
Ché souvenir, enjoying the varied scenery along the way…
One way to create a dead end!
Farmacia turned restaurant…
The balcony is the place to enjoy the fresh morning air…
I love these light standards…
There is a lot of renovation/restoration going on
everywhere…
Notice the puppy peeking out…
We didn’t tour inside, but this looks like a nice place to
stay…
Artesanias….Got my Ché shirt!
You never know what might be inside….
Street scenes….
Posies…
How to move a bed…
Vince feels lucky…found a centavo on the street…
Love this photo…notice the cigar…
The fumigators….just down the street from us. Our place was going to be sprayed after
we left. They take bugs very
seriously!
La Cecilia…it’s so hard to leave. We loved this place and the
neighbourhood. We will definitely
stay here again!
The owner of our casa has an art gallery in front…beautiful
work…
The artist is Inti Alvarez...he has had numerous international showings. Here is a short article about him from 2014...
Looking from our apartment into the gallery…
From the gallery into our apartment…
Maylú…gallery and apartment caretaker. She is a sweetheart!
Too soon our prearranged cab arrives to whisk us away….adios
to our pretty little plaza…
About 30 minutes later we arrive at Jose Marti airport. Check in with AeroMexico is quick and
easy as we only have carryon. We
exchange our Cuban pesos back to Canadian…they do not exchange CUP, the local
currency. We picked up a few
trinkets…little Cuban flag and some fridge magnets.
We go through Emigration (?)…not sure, but we had our
passports and boarding passes stamped.
Next stop is security…usual process through xray. Quick and easy.
We have time to relax in the departures lounge. We sat at the gate listed on our
boarding pass, but our plane was actually at another gate, so we moved closer.
Looking back at the area where there are a few little shops
for souvenirs…
Vince just had to have one last Cuban cerveza…
At 215 we board the plane…wheels up at 3pm…
We enjoy a wonderful view…
Havana….
Where we stayed in Habana Vieja…..the area of old Havana is
to the south and east of our casa….
Thank you for reading!
We hope you enjoyed our
Habana Vieja adventure!
**Final thoughts on our short but wonderful visit…..
Would we return?
Oh yes, in a heartbeat!!
Would we stay in the same casa? For sure!!!
Loved it!
Would we like to explore more of Cuba? You bet!! It’s a big beautiful island!
We barely scratched the surface and could easily have stayed
much longer. Although I was a bit
nervous about our plans, reality far exceeded my expectations. The casa was perfect, the location was
perfect, all the food we enjoyed was perfect…and the mojitos were perfect! All of the people that we met were
friendly and polite.
Some hopefully, helpful hints…..
~~Research the area you’re going to as much as possible
~~Buy some good maps and study them…highlight spots to visit
~~Bring anything that you might need…ie, meds, hand
sanitizer etc
~~Drink mojitos….I didn’t like rum before this trip…now I’m
addicted to mojitos!
~~Be patient…relax, enjoy the scenery
~~Go with the flow…have a general agenda but be flexible. Some things will take longer than
expected or you may easily divert from plans. Stay and listen to the music!
~~Tip!...Some restaurants add a 10% ‘servicio’ on the bill…which
goes directly to the restaurant and not the server. Please tip generously!
~~Learn some basic Spanish…bring a little dictionary/phrase
book along
~~Take extra toilet paper…some to carry along in your bag,
or, as in our case, to have at the casa if they don’t supply a lot
~~People will approach you and begin conversations…yes, they
are probably trying to get you to come to a specific shop or restaurant. A polite ‘no gracias’ is all that is
needed
~~Museum guides….please tip
~~Museum guides….please tip
~~Take more money than you think you’ll need….we did not
find Havana cheap but then we did spend quite a few pesos on mojitos! The dinners we enjoyed were definitely
cheaper than anything comparable here at home
~~Smile and enjoy!
