After a long 11 hour flight from Frankfurt directly to Havana, we arrived at 20:00 Cuban time in the Josè Marti international airport. We were welcomed by a very hot and humid climate. As soon as we got out of the terminal it was even more extreme. With no wind at all it was quite uncomfortable at first but after time we got used to it. We changed some money into Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) in the terminal after having a well earned smoke :)
While queuing at the money exchange we met a nice couple that were on the same flight called Robert and Almut. After finding out that they were also heading for central Havana we decided to share a taxi together for 25 CUC (about 20 euro). After dropping them off at their hotel we arrived at our accommodation Casa Particular Juan Carlos about a min away by taxi from Plaza Josè Marti.
We received a warm welcome from Juan Carlos’s wife Clarita who was waiting outside the Casa and while we were grabbing our backpacks from the boot Juan Carlos himself pulled up in his glorious Red 1957 Chevy (see picture). We were given a quick tour of the Casa which is situated on the 1st floor. After climbing the stairs we arrived in the main hall which leads on to the beautifully decorated communal living room with balcony overlooking the street, the bedrooms and eating area towards the rear of the Casa. The living room is decorated with many different ornaments from around the world, that I assume we’re brought or left here by visiting guests. The Casa was very clean and tidy while our hosts were really nice and friendly.
As we got into the shockingly cool, air conditioned room we had just one thing on our minds… Shower! Well, for me it was cold beer, but after Victoria got out, i too jumped straight in for a most enjoyable rinse off :)
By this time it was about 22:00 (04:00 German time) so we were definitely feeling quite tired after having only intermittent sleep on the plane, but nevertheless we decided to go for a walk to find that beer I was dreaming of. We headed towards Malecon which is a road that runs right along the seafront about a 5 min walk away. As we got to the seafront it started raining cats and dogs, so we headed back to the bar with shelter we saw along the way there. As we were walking the rain got even heavier so we decided to take cover. While hiding under an entrance to a building we bumped into a local Cuban who we started conversation with. His name was Iran, yep same name as a country, so that made easy to remember.
He turned out to be a top bloke who then later joined us at the bar after we made a run for it in the rain. He had studied economics and is now studying to be a chef at university. He seemed genuine and after finding out that his birthday is on the 16th October he decided to invite us for his party with family and friends somewhere on the way to Pinar del rio! That, if all holds true would be a great opportunity to meet some real Cubans and speak some Spanish. Saying that, Victoria was having a decent basis of communication with the guy whereas I was finding some things challenging to say. Some of it I could understand but I kind of got the gist of it all.
After finding out that the guy behind the bar overcharged us for the initial beers, Iran kindly got us the second round of beers at half the price! Another great advantage of meeting honest and helpful Cubans :)
Once we grabbed his mobile number and finished the last slurp of beverages, we headed back to the Casa for some well earned 40 winks. By this time it was 12:00 local so 06:00 in Germany and my eyes were burning from tiredness. We headed back to the Casa and fell asleep as soon as the head hit the pillow…
