El Morro, Rumba, El Prado

And on we went. The next day we visited El Morro, a massive fortress built in the late 16th century to spot enemies approaching the city.

Vedado and Habana Vieja

We then moved on to the Plaza de la Revolución. The memorial in the middle of the square – named after the national hero José Martí - is not really pleasant, due to its height of 109m yet impressive. We judged most of the monuments that way, seems to be common in communist countries. Nice contrast to the massive concrete building: By chance we saw a colourful parade with dancers on stilts.


While going around the city in the coconuts you obviously get a very good impression of the day to day life in Havana. Most remarkable are the means of transport, pictured below.

The old part (Habana Vieja, above) where we stopped next is totally different from the newer quarters. Here you find colourful houses, newly renovated sights and nicely cobblestoned streets. Could have been southern Italy or so.

I especially liked the houses round Plaza de la Catedral with its balconies and stained-glass windows.

Sightseeing in Havana

We started our first day with a sightseeing tour in the notorious coconut taxis (right, short movie available on request). Eddy our Cuban guide - who speaks an almost perfect but funny German and also a very good English - suggested to start with the real Havana "where the people live" (Centro Habana). We saw some beautifully renovated houses, but mainly ruined buildings. Rather shocking when you see people living under these circumtances. Also sad that the architecture of these houses is superb, but there is no money to reconstruct them. People, however, have more trouble getting everything they need for the day to day life - the average earnings are about 250 Cuban Pesos (ca. £6). At least they don't have to pay the rent.

El Morro seen from Malecón

Our Hotel was directly on Malecón, Havana's famous coast road, opposite El Morro fortress.

Off to Cuba we go!

After a nine hour flight we touched down and the stewardess announced: "Welcome to Jose Marti international airport. The temperature is 28 degrees Celsius." Wow, this was going to be my warmest Christmas eve. My first impression of Cuba, however, was not so positive. First of all, o one seems to work in this country. While waiting at the passport checkpoint we counted as many as 14 uniformed men and women walking around the hall and/or chatting with each other. It took as two hours to get through the checks. And that's considered to be normal our guide explained later. As is the xray hand luggage check on arrival.

Anyway, we were glad to see him the minute we got our baggage and off we drove through the Havana night to our hotel.

Back from Cuba

After an almost 24 hours journey I'm back in London. The last 17 days were really great, I've seen a lot of wonderful places, met lovely people and had a lot of fun. I'm still not completely back, a bit of my mind and heart are still on the island. But, let's face it, tomorrow is the first working day... I took some 800 pictures that I hope will help to bring across a bit of the Cuban spirit. Have fun. BTW there will soon be a Cuba revival party. Christina, Martin?