Well, the last few days in Havana were a bit of a culture-overload! On Wednesday we visited the Revolution Museum. It was quite educational, but way too much information to take in in one go! I learnt quite alot on Cuba's troubled past, we were there for most of the day and by the end of it my concentration was lapsing a bit, which is a shame because parts of it were really interesting. It spoke of the Spanish invasion, the destruction of the Amerindian groups, the slavery, the war of independence. Then of course it went into great detail about the revolution. Some of this was really interesting but parts (ie; battle plans) grew a bit tedious. There were some great classic photos of the revolution and the events leading up to it. And there was an interesting part about Che and Camilo and their friendship. Then a whole lot about Castro's post-revolution plans and all of the positive (though none of the negative) things he acheived like almost abolishing illiteracy, healthcare and education for all, anti-racism, housing, rural-land destribution, and surprisingly sport played a big part of the reform. It was all one-sided but interesting none the less. The building itself was impressive; the old presidential palace of the 1950's dictator Batista. It included a great mural on one of the ceilings depicting a celebration of the republic with an angel carrying the Cuban flag. At the end of the exhibition you also get to see the actual boat on which Castro arrived in Cuba from Mexico to start the revolution. Wednesday night we went out with the ozzie as it was his last night here. We found a nice little cafe/bar in Old Habana where there was a live band playing, had a couple of mojitos there and moved onto a small nightclub place, which was alright - lots of salsa dancing and a live band - where the singer, drummer, guitarist and pianist were surprisingly all women! On Thursday, with dodgy hangover (no more mojitos for me - well not many anyway!), we went to the Fabrica de Tobacos Partagas (one of the largest and oldest cigar factories in Cuba). The tour around it was really insightful. They walked us around while everyone was busy at work and showed us how they dry, sort, roll and box the different cigars. In the basement they wet and dried the various leaves, then on the 2nd floor they sorted the cigars into colours (soley so they look good in their boxes!) stuck labels on and wrapped or boxed them, on the 3rd floor they have their own little school were the students learn to roll for 9 months then take a test! Then on the top floor (where the smell was intoxicating and made us quite light-headed!) you got to see the professional rollers do their thing, the guide explained to us how and why they rolled a certain way and meanwhile the workers sang away whilst rolling. Each morning someone comes in and reads the newspaper to everyone while they work, and each afternoon they get someone reading them stories or they have live-music! He also told us that along with their rations of rice, beans etc each family in Cuba also gets a ration of cigars! That afternoon we went and saw the Che and Marti memorial. And we caught this little yellow bubble taxi thing home! Which is really funny - if a little bumpy! Today we went to the Havana Club museum and learnt how rum was made, which was cool, although it wasnt actually a factory but it had re-created alot of the processes and had a cool mini-model of a sugar-mill factory complete with a steam train and village. After the tour you get to taste some rum and they also have a delicous drink for sale (which I felt obliged to try of course) - a blend of sugar cane (which they juice infront of you), freshly squeezed orange and rum! Yum! Could drink that all day long, probably best not though. :( Afterwards we went to the best internet cafe ever! Inside the Capitolio National - impressive from the outside and even more so inside, like a huge palace! And with great views of the Central Plaza. Anyway, Havana has kind of exhausted us for now so we're heading to Trinidad, a much smaller town on the southern side of the island. But we have decided to come back to Havana before we fly out, especially since the old woman which we've been staying with has been really kind to us, she's even been waiting up for us when we go out at night! Which of course makes us feel really bad.