We started the day with a nostalgic journey in a 1950 Plymouth to a travel agent in the north-east side of Vedado to book us a nice campismo (Holiday Park Cabin) for next week 8th – 13th October. After making the reservation we got the receipt and didnt realise that we had to pay there an then. As we didnt have enough cash with us we told them we would be back tomorrow.
After that we went for another walk zig zag through Vedado to eventually arrive at a phone repair shop we crossed paths with yesterday to try and fix the speaker and wifi on iPhone. The trip was again a very interesting one. We found some nice small stands where food and drinks were being sold in national pesos, so and stopped off at one for a refreshing fruit cocktail and freshly pressed sugar cane! This idea of setting up a small shop in your own front yard is very common practice throughout Havana.
Post liquids refill, we carried on through and noticed a small school on the corner where some of the kids were taking turns cleaning the floors outside. I also noticed behind the school, quite a few vegtable patches where I assume they learn how to plant and grow food. This is very important for Cuba as it has at least 10,000 micro farms in urban areas all around the country (quoted from a documentary I watched on Cuba). Interesting, because you dont see it that much in UK schools or at least not during my curriculum at school anyway. We planted the odd pot of chives in play school but thats about it.
Carrying on we ended up walking past the historical hotel “Havana Libre” where Che and his movement proclaimed the start of the revolution on the 23rd floor. Just around the corner was the university of Havana. Most entrances were guarded but we found an unguarded side entrance into the campus, so we acted like students and sneaked in. The grounds and buildings were just stunning. We took a look at the computing and mathematics block where we found a grand building with columns and a beautiful, huge tree in the center courtyard. Nothing much was going on as it was a holiday period.
We then headed over to the Estadio Universitario (university stadium) where we allowed to enter pass the guard. Unkept was the word we came up with that best described the condition of the stadium. The grassed seemed like it it hadn’t be cut for a long time, the 100m long outdoor swimming was dry and there was no equipment to be found. However, it was being used by several groups including people doing track, what seems like boxers using the steps as workout aids and some kids playing football.
Eventually we arrived at the iPhone repair shop, but we were too late, so we took an unofficial taxi (well it was family) for 3 CUC (€2.50) back to the casa. Just before thy dropped us off they reccommended a restaurante called castropol just around the corner from us on the sea front which we then visited in the evening.
Castropol was actually the name of the building which hosted two seperate restaurants with different menus and prices. We opted for the ground floor as the menu looked great and the prices were very acceptable. Victoria had the fish of the day which was swordfish and I had a 750g lamb roll. To our delight the food was excellent, service was amazing, cocktails were delicious and we ended up paying a reasonable 23 CUC (€18) for two mains, 2 beers, 1 cocktail and a compementary starter. I was no doubt that we will be coming back here at some point for a treat.
After we went for a short walk along Malecon (sea front) and took some rather nice long exposures…
