Havana Este

Breakfast at the Casa and then we were supplied with all the necessary ‘information’ by our host, Luis – by which I mean we allowed ourselves to be talked into changing some money (don’t ever use the black market, he says, but this is okay because he ‘knows a man’, “very safe”) as well as booking a vintage car tour and a bit of Cuban Music cabaret for later on; in for a penny, in for a peso…! The tour in the morning was a very good – just the two-hour ‘highlights’ trip (quite enough time in the back of a convertible in that sunshine) but as well as taking in the Malecon, Revolution Square, etc  we drove through the tunnel to Havana East, to the Fortalesa, the Barracks and the statue of Christ that overlooks the city from that side of the Straits (where a man named Fidel Castro – he’ll show you his id card to prove it – takes your phone and makes you do a series of ridiculous poses for an amusing – and, to be fair, very well thought out; seriously, the guy’s an artist – set of photos of you patting the statue’s head, etc. and you give him 50 pesos but don’t buy a hat…) Afterwards we went for a walk around Havana Vieja and started to feel a little bit more acclimatized (our initial pre-breakfast foray to the Malecon had made everything seem more than a little chaotic and scary.) The evening’s show was really good too: a very mixed tourist crowd, okay food, what I’m assured was a very strong mojito (or three) and a decent mix of cabaret-style entertainment and actually really good music – some of which featured excellent singing by some now rather elderly performers credited on the original Buena Vista Social Club albums…