Arrived in Havana, the plane cold as ice with outside humid and hot... and we arrived at night. Went from the plane to a bus and filed onto it with business first on and the rest slowly packed in. The last person had what I'm sure were 2 police to guard him, one uniform one not. We drove past an entrance and turned around. Believe it or not but turning around was the longest part of the humid and sweaty 15minutes. Customs were lovely and we were through simply without insurance or emergency passport questions. We changed the euros we changed above rate for into CUC. This is a tourist currency worth 25 times the local currency.
Into the cab and off to Ricky's room rentals, our first Casa. We arrived at a place way to close to be tickets from the map, and settled into a low roof small room for a little less at a different Casa, we didn't know yet. This got changed the next day. A sleep night in a slightly smelly room. First night worked out. We got up slowly the next day reading and writing postcards, showered and Sarah broke a sink with her knee getting out of the shower. No bruise and 25CUC later the Casa got a little more money. Packed up and left things out so they could go in the new room. Havana is amazing, the place, the people and the atmosphere, everything I expected and nothing in the same sentence. Just sit down in the square and experience. With sarah sick and fading we finished the walking tour in the lonely planet and headed quickly back. After an afternoon nap I headed out for a bottle of Havana club special reserve, $4.49CUC and sipped a little, licking my wounds of the first day in Cuba, little by little with a great rum. Dinner at a recommended private restaurant, amazing chicken, great mojito and it turns out a tortilla in Cuba is an omelet, lesson happily learnt on the cheep.
Andrew