I got up around 5AM and headed off to the ensuite shower, which in all honesty was so small that you couldn’t change your mind, let alone clothing. On the way into the shower, I brushed up against the hand basin in getting around the toilet and managed to knock it off the wall, smashing it. Now that’s a different start to the day I reckon.
After sorting out the hand basin situation with the hosts, I sat down to breakfast with Gretta, who hails from Mildura (Victoria, Australia) but is currently based in Vancouver (British Colombia, Canada). We got to chatting, as you do when travelling alone in foreign countries, and decided to combine our talents and take a wander around Havana together for the day.
From our Casa, we headed out up to one of the local squares, which is also the neighbourhood Wi-Fi hotspot. Just so you’re in the know – aside from brand name Cuban Hotels, the internet is strictly controlled by the government and as such you have to purchase one hour blocks for $1 USD directly from ETECSA and then got to the dedicated Wi-Fi spots to access the service. Theses area are usually the local square in every town or large neighbourhood.
As we hadn’t purchased a Wi-Fi access card, we continued down to the waterfront and along the foreshore to the opening of Havana Harbour. From there we cut through the cobblestone streets of Old Havana, behind the Capitola building and popped up on the wharves at the Artists’ Market that is housed in one of the huge old Bonded Goods storage facilities i.e. a whooping great big shed.
On a whim, and the fact bus was sitting right outside the market, we made use of the $10 USD all day hop on/hop off tourist bus just to get a feel of the size and scope of Havana. It’s easy to see the change in capitalism in Havana with several multi-acre waterfront sites have large hotel construction projects in progress.
One lap of the city takes about 3 hours, but as it was just after 1:30 PM and in need of a feed & watering, we legged it off the bus at the Capitola and headed to El Chanchullero to get that sorted real quick.
Dinner tonight was $15 USD set menu affair at the Espacio Old Fashion which included a welcoming Mojito, a main course and either coffee or papaya with cheese as a desert. It was pretty ordinary if the truth be told. I arrived back at the hotel room to find a new hand basin installed and a bill for $50 USD in replacing the unit. I figured it was a fair amount, even though most would dispute the charge as the old unit was obviously not installed correctly, but when you know that these folks live on less than $100 USD a month, then what is $50 USD to me as compared to ½ their earnings for the month?
