DAY 30
Week 5
HAVANA (La Habana, CUB)
Saturday April 13th, 2019
TODAYS MILEAGE – 17 miles / 27 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 16,153 miles / 25,996 kilometres
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 to pieces. Now that’s a different start to the day I reckon.
After sorting out the hand basin situation with the Casa 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 Casa Reyna, we headed out up to one of the local squares - Plaza del Cristo, which is also one of the neighbourhood Wi-Fi hotspots. 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 go sit in one of the dedicated Wi-Fi spots to access the service. These spots are usually the local public square found 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 Almacenes San José Artisans' Market that is housed in one of the huge old Bonded Goods storage facilities i.e. a whopping 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 Habana Bus Tour just to get a feel, size and scope of Havana. It’s easy to see the change in capital funding restrictions 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. For mind, it was a pretty ordinary affair 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?
• HAVANA ~ Exploring The City (La Habana, CUB)