Following the friendly advice of our hosts, we decided to take a bus to the beach called Playas del Este more specifically to Santa Maria beach. Up to now we didn’t manage to escape the touristy routes and this was no exception. Took a touristy bus there hoping that it will bring us to the local beach called Boca i Ciega. When we asked if the bus goes there the question was answered with raised eyebrows “what are you, tourists, meant to do on the local beach???”. At the end we travelled to the furthest point of Santa Maria and decided to walk along the beach to Boca I Ciega. On the bus we went through some resorts filled with holiday villas but no one was occupying them, a bit like going through the ghost town with only police to be seen on every corner.

When we reached the shore it was basically like stepping into the postcard you generally see sent from Caribbean islands, turquoise water, palm trees and white sand. The water was probably just as warm as the air and I got bit carried away with swimming hence the lobster face at the moment (even with 30 protection on). The walk to the beginning of Boca i Ciega took a bit over an hour, but there we were rewarded by a drink of coconut milk directly from the fruit chopped from the palm tree on demand. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out on by the beach bar, swimming, drinking local beer and enjoying nice fatty pizza with locally caught shrimps. Very pleasant day indeed! :)

In the evening our host family made us and our friends (Almut and Robert) a lovely dinner, lobster for girls ;) and chicken for guys. The quality of the food was amazing and accompanied by nice Havana Club rum the dinner was splendid.

The new day started at 08:00 with a delicious breakfast consisting of two courses. 1st course was a collection of freshly chopped pieces of banana, guava, watermelon, pineapple and papaya. 2nd course involved fresh bread, cheese, slices of tomatoes and cucumber, some sort of unknown potato type root and a really tasty omelette. A feast for kings it was indeed.

After breakfast we went to the Hotel Plaza at Parque Central to meet Robert and Almut at 10:00. We took a 1 1/2 hour, open top tour bus around Havana together to find our bearings and get an overview of the area. About 30 mins into our tour the clouds decided to move in very quickly and to our luck a light rain hit us :(

Post rainy but cloudy bus tour we decided to have a look around Havana Vieja to find some food. We entered a local food market where we ate Cuban style… Pork chop, rice and salad for €1.80. No stomach problems after either. After that we wanted to see Havana central so we headed off in search of adventure. On the way however we were greeted by a Cuban man who seemed nice at first, but was of course a jinetero (tout) which we found out after he was feeding us complete bullshit. He claimed to be in a band that was playing at the buena vista social club and that he could get us in for free! Yeah right! But we went along with it for a while. We ended up in a bar that he invited us to and we all had a Mojito together. Turned out that one round for 5 people was about €35! We complained and said that it was a rip off (for Cuban standards). Victoria acted and decided to ask the neighboring table how much they paid for theirs. Turned out, they couldn’t/didn’t want to say of course. The bar man even had a special “tourist” price list printed off with extortionary prices! In the end we paid 4 CUC each which came up to a rough total of about €15. That’s more like it :)

We carried on our adventure after nearly being completely ripped off with disappointment as it seems that in Havana central, it’s hard to know if you can trust someone. 90% of the time they cant be trusted. It really all bubbles down to one thing, money. Even if they seem nice at first, it commonly ends with something like… “I need to feed my children” or “I need to buy milk for my child”. Inequality is the cause for this behavior as if they had the same access to money and inherently resources as I, they wouldn’t bother me. What would be the point of asking some someone else for milk when u know u can get it from the store yourself?

Anyway after that we walked around central Havana and through part of china town until we got back to the local bar near the Casa. Here we had a nice cool beer while enjoying the rain which came out of nowhere. Again, cats and dogs. Very heavy rain. But it didn’t last long. We then went back to the Casa for a shower and nap.  In the evening we went out on the street and got some cheap pizzas from a local house window and lemonade for about 0.90 euro / pizza and 0.07 euro / lemonade! A cheap dinner :)

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…