January 14, Havana

Today was a day of many things: street sweepers, plazas, old men, dogs, cats, music.

We slept later than we had planned, getting out of bed about 9, opening the doors to our balcony and looking out at the street scene unfolding (which we of course had heard since early morning). We are on the second floor of the hotel, overlooking a corner near one of the Government buildings. Lots of people and vehicular traffic. There are bicycle taxis (called bicitaxis), car taxis, motorcycles, and of course people. There seems to always be a police officer at the corner, whose job seems to be to scrutinize the young women as they go buy. Darlene entertained herself watching the male heads turning each time a tightly-clad, low-neckline mademoiselle walked by (or bouced by, as was sometimes the case). One of the women, though, was a street sweeper, a woman of about 40, it seemed. She wore a hat with wildly coloured artificial flowers, and sang and danced her way across the intersection at times of the morning, to the attention of the policeman and to the delight of us.

In the morning, after our hotel breakfast (buffet, quite nice), we went out for a walk, going west and north from the hotel, and finding our way through several small streets eventually to the Capitolo building, a magnificent building which houses the main government. We also stopped at one of several statues to Jose Marti, walked across to the Hotel Inglaterra (one of the oldest in Havana, and one with decided Moorish tendencies), past the Teatro, and then past the Hotel Sarasota, before heading back towards the Hotel Florida. We stopped by the bank to get some more money changed, and I tried out the ATM, which worked well.

After a stop at the hotel, we went off on what we had decided to do: a walking tour laid out by Lonely Planet, which included four Plazas. We began at the Plaza de la Catedral, where there was a lot of music and frivolity going on: decidely not Catholic in nature. There was a sense of Carnival, enhanced by several people in costume and on stilts, playing music reminiscent of Mardi Gras. We exlored the oldest Plaza in town, decided we wanted to come back for a meal at the Restaurante El Patio (which we walked through), before heading off. From there, we went to the Plaza de Armas (my favourite), several old and grand buildings surrounding a square with magnificent old trees and a statue (? of Marti?, not sure), some fountains, and lots of people. There was an orchestra there playing Cuban music. There were outdoor booksellers in many areas, and generally a wonderful atmosphere to be had.

As we were leaving, we were accosted by an old many who said that he had played with the Buena Vista Social Club at Massey Hall in Toronto, and he had a CD which he just had to sell to us, since we were his best friends. He said he was 95, and he looked it, almost blind, and walking slowly and painfully. We bought the CD; the story was worth it.

From there to the Plaza de San Francisco de Asis, with its old monastery, and several sculptures, one from the 19th Century done by an Italian, one incongruously of Frederich Chopin, and one of a street person who was in that area in the 1950's.

And on past the Museo de Chocolat, with the longest lineups we had seen anywhere, to the Plaza Vieja, another elegant plaza with colunnaded buildings around it and modern sculpture in the centre.

Supper had been decided upon, at Torrelavega, outside, at a fixed price deal (of course they tried to get you to order above the fixed price, but we got what we had asked for, and eating outside in mid-January is still a treat). Then back via an Internet cafe supposedly part of the Hotel Florida, but "it's really on the third floor of the hotel next door which you can get to via the archway by the bathroom, and then take the elevator, but the elevator isn't working, so you may have to walk up". We did, and it is about as fast as a dial-up can be, and expensive. And doesn't work with Macs, so we're out of luck that way. Wireless? forget it!

We thought we might go to the hotel bar tonight, but bed beckons, and looks pretty good.


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Location:Havana