Rubics Cuba (Part II)

The afternoon before we were due to depart on our trip, a message, slipped under the door, informed us that the trip had been cancelled.  So, another trip to the travel agent, another set of online bookings and non-working cancellation web-pages later, we were advised that that there was another trip leaving in two days' time...

By now, we were celebrities in our hotel.  This is probably why, the next day, instead of having breakfast downstairs, we were ushered up to the 9th floor, which according to their service guide, is where the VIPs have breakfast.

Given the amount of time we're spending trying to leave our hotel, it seems reasonable to try and say more about the place.  All of the (bigger) hotels have a wall of fame with fabulous black and white photos of the celebrities who've stayed there.  Ours is very literary with not only Hemmingway and Simenon having been special guests, but Room 501 being the very room in which the main protaganist from Our Man in Havana was placed, "The Graham Greene" room as the receptionist calls it.

But on a less literary note, apparently Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, "The Mob's Accountant" (with a face only a mother could love) also stayed here.  One can only wonder what it must have been like in those days.

Hemingway at the Floridita

Hemming way deserves special mention - he seems to have drunk, and presumably been drunk, in every bar in town with all manner of cocktails named after him.  One even has a life-size statue of him propping up one end of the bar.








Infrastructure is fragile to say the least, so wi-fi is only limited (and expensive at $8.00 for an hour of unreliable access).  My bathroom shower has a 50 degree sign over the hot water tap but having had a couple of showers, I wonder if this is in fahrenheit or perhaps refers to some aspirational target.

View over the avenue towards the Malecon

So, a further 2 days in Havana before we would make our third attempt to leave.

Still, when you're sitting on a rooftop bar watching the World Cup with a gentle breeze blowing while sipping a mojito, it's not a bad place to be, despite the difficulties.