Exploring La Habana by foot.

Having still not properly seen La Habana yet, we chose to spend the day walking around the city.  We started at my favorite place (because of the political significance) in La Habana: the U.S. Diplomatic Mission, which is located in Vedado across from Hotel Nacional.  In 2006, Castro erected huge flag poles with 138 black flags, each centered with a white star, that block an electronic sign beaming messages from the facade of the Mission.  It is basically Castro’s way of giving his middle finger to the U.S. while still “respecting” the idea of freedom of speech.  Cubans say the flags symbolize the people who have died as the result of violent acts against Cuba by Americans since its 1959 Revolution.

 

Then we took a taxi into downtown La Habana and simply got lost in the colorful and rhythmic city for the rest of the day.  We did get scammed though, which was my fault.  I am obsessed with the musical group Buena Vista Social Club and when two Cuban ladies approached us and said that they happened to be playing in a small courtyard in Chinatown to celebrate the Salsa Festival I naively convinced Marc and Kristin that we simply HAD to go!  While we waited for the group to perform the Cubans asked us to buy them drinks and lunch.  After about an hour of waiting we sadly realized that this was all a ploy and got up to leave.  However, as we were leaving the ladies announced that they had cigars for sale in their casa.  Marc and I decided to check them out.  Sure enough they had every Cuban cigar you could desire.  I spent some time trying to think how I was logistically going to smuggle these beauties back into the States without getting caught.  Finally, I decided I would take the wrappers off and hide them in my wallet, so that they just looked like regular cigars.  If I happened to be caught I would tell security that they were cheap cigars from Mexico and if they wanted them they could have them.

Marc thought I was a bit crazy to take this chance, but I welcomed the challenge!  I ended up leaving the casa with my fingers crossed and 30 Cohibas for the bargain price of 70USD$.  My Dad would be so proud!

 

Unfortunately, Kristin and I had to leave Hotel Nacional for our new casa (Sergio and Miriam’s place was booked up for the next couple of days).  This casa was also located in Habana Vieja.  It was a charming place, but not as intimate as the first, because it had a lot of guests staying there and the owners were not very talkative.  The casa’s contact information can be found here: www.juanacasaderenta.webcindario.com/index.html. 

Since Kristin was feeling better we were determined to go dancing.

  We decided the plan for the evening would include: strawberry daiquiris at Hotel Inglattera, dinner at La Floridita, and then salsa dancing at La Casa de la Musica Centro Habana.

 

We put our dancing dresses on and met Marc at the Inglattera, which was another one of La Habana’s finest hotels.  It was located in a pretty section of the city called Parque Central.  While we sipped our daiquiris a salsa band played and when the first intoxicating trumpet notes of “El Chan Chan” began it really hit me that I was actually in Cuba...a country I had been dreaming of visiting for such a long time.

 

Then we dined at La Floridita, or commonly known as “Hemingway's hang-out.

”  I love the simplistic way that Hemingway writes.  He is able to vividly capture one’s imagination with only a few words.  Apparently while he was creating “The Old Man and the Sea,” a novel about a Cuban fisherman who refuses to be defeated by nature, he would eat at La Floridita often.  And even though the restaurant was a tourist trap, I still wanted to visit the places that he frequented during his time in Cuba.

 

Once satiated, we headed over to dance at La Casa de la Musica Centro Habana.  On the way we met a Cuban man whom begged us to bring him in the club with us.  The only way a Cuban could enter was with the permission of a tourist.  Marc told him that he would pay for his entrance fee under one condition: he had to discuss Cuban affairs with us over a couple of drinks.  Haha, the poor guy agreed not knowing what he was getting himself into!  Marc and I can talk about that kind of stuff for hours and hours.  La Casa has a fantastic reputation for being the best salsa club in La Habana, as they bring in the top-name bands, but I was not really impressed.  It was not the real Cuba; I wanted to dance where the locals danced.  So my only choice was to grab the fellow that came in with us to the dance floor to practice my terrible salsa skills.  Thankfully, he was not too embarrassed with my moves.  I vowed after that evening to take salsa classes sometime during our last days in Cuba.