Havana Good Time

Having cracked that joke a thousand times back home, I could hardly pass it up, now I'm actually here.

First impressions of Havana are that, like everywhere else around here, it's very hot.  I don't know about the April sun in Cuba but this June sun is blazing.  And, seemingly irrespective of the temperature, the afternoons are thundery affairs with the storms sometimes rolling in, sometimes just providing a lightning show.

Our visa was a painless experience at the check-in counter in Panama - and we could have even apparently got one at the departure gate but that seemed, even to us retrospective planners, to be cutting it a little fine.

The ride in from the airport sees you pass very little traffic.  Then, when you do see cars, at least half of them appear to be American cars from the 1950's.  Now I had heard about this but it only registers when you see it.  There's a wide array of transport available, very little of it modern but some of it looking magnificent nonetheless.

Cuba Classico

Cab rank Havana style

As for Havana itself, the old city is something quite remarkable.  Not so much faded glamour as crumbling grandeur.

View of the Capitolio from the Malecon end of town

Stately and ornate buildings alongside a grid of narrow laneways and piazzas making up the largest old city I've ever seen.

This report brought to you by
our man in Havana

Every doorway seems to have somebody sitting in it and every passer-by you meet seems to have a secret line on a cigar factory deal, which, regrettably, they are very anxious to share with you.

As well as the old town, there's a great strip along the waterfront, the Malecon, which looks like something out of a movie set.

Our other man in Havana

As the sun falls, while we marvel at what we've seen, the locals seem to just be enjoying the simple things in life.