Self-guided grand tour

With a little help from a guidebook, we took a 1950s taxi with the wonderful David to the newer part of Havana. I was laughing for the first ten minutes as it was raining, but he didn't bother to turn on the windscreen wipers to the extent I thought they had simply stopped functioning. No, not quite, there just seemed to be a point at which the rain needed to be laying heavily enough on the windscreen for the disintegrated wipers to do slightly better than smear the water across the surface.

We were dropped off at Hotel Nacional and wandered around the reception and grounds of the building where Winston Churchill, Fred Astaire, Buster Keaton and Walt Disney have stayed. We then meandered along a suggested route through Vedado, a very different but fascinating experience. It's been showery but a perfect temperature for walking. At the John Lennon memorial plaza (which we can only guess is there for tourists given Beatles music was once banned), a security guard adds his glasses for you to take a photo. We stopped for lunch on a wonderful first floor terrace opposite. I tried out a bit of Spanish and although it's coming out in bits and pieces, I'm pleased to be trying and Cubans are very good humoured. Estoy llena (I think that's the spelling) is my new learning after a very filling lunch... I'm full! 

We walked it off, heading to the imposing cemetery of two million people before heading to Plaza de la Revolución and ascending in the lift to the top of Memorial José Martí, Havana's tallest structure and a fantastic 360° view of the city.  It was a stunning vista with the skies now giving way to blue and an added bonus of numerous vultures enjoying the mountain feel, with whirling acrobatics in the strong winds and updraft from the monument.

My blip will probably be shortly after lunch of classic examples of pre-revolution gutted buildings in this area - they will hopefully, one day, be restored to magnificent homes.

From the square, we took a coco taxi which is a three-wheel moped with a yellow fibreglass coconut shell on the back that you sit in. Putting your life in the driver's hands, we were driven at speed, weaving through cars, buses, people and potholes back to the tightly packed tumbledown buildings of Havana old town. Dios Mío (OMG!) and la gente loca (crazy people) were uttered more than once from us and our wacky but fun-loving muchacha.

Two fantastic modes of transport both with friendly informal guides topped and tailed the day nicely. Just time for a coffee and tostones before feet up time before dinner.

...It's been a wonderful evening. Dinner in a small restaurant overlooking the square as the sun sets; a few atmospheric circuits of lively streets zinging with people and music from almost every window; and finishing off at a bar with animated musicians. 

Only a few blocks away from the tourist centres, there's a dog poking its nose through first floor balcony railings, a tattoo artist at work behind a tiny window and an old fashioned nail bar visible through an open rustic wooden doors. Everyone appears on the streets for the cooler evening air. Youngsters playing football don't notice you're there and cars and bici-taxis toot as they come through. 

It's real Cuba; it's local life; and it's vibrant across every one of your senses.