Havana

I had an early morning flight from Bogota to Havana. This means an early wake up and off to the airport. The check in line is really long and takes near an hour to pass through! I am able to purchase my Cuban tourist card at the Avianca counter and only need this and proof of an exit flight and I am good to go.

On the plane we receive two forms- a health declaration and a customs declaration. The customs form asks for the usual: cash, drugs, pornography, plant material and do you have any satellite equipment to declare. I have my hand held GPS which I use for hiking and it also has an SOS function. I thus declare this. Which immediately means that I am in the longest to declare line ever known to mankind as any Cuban who bought anything overseas needs to declare it and pay customs. I am moved through a bit quicker…but this means one hour still! I get asked, for the second time in 15minutes who I am, what job I do where I live etc. Then the customs lady fills in a long form with more information and I find out that I have to pay for storage for this unit as I get it back before my return flight.

After such a long delay I was sure that the man arranged to pick me up would have left, but luckily not- he was still waiting. Had approximately 35min transfer to my accommodation, which was very pleasant.

I walked around for a few hours and returned to the accommodation for our team meeting – I use the term team loosely as it was myself, another lady (64-year-old Margreth) and our guide. The lady had paid a single supplement and thus I had private rooms throughout without paying extra J .

The city is definitely frozen in time and frozen in maintenance. If you use your imagination you can see what sort of a magnificent and ultra-rich city this once was. The buildings have fabulous details and are multi story. There is also a mixture of various building styles as Spanish, French, Americans all had influence. The government is paying for the restoration of buildings around the main squares, which have come up looking great, while some private individuals or companies are renovating other rundown buildings.

This first stay in Havana is in the old city, which was once entirely walled. Few remnants of the wall are still around today. It is near the port, which also boasts the largest arrival/customs building I think I have ever seen – it goes on for a few city blocks and is completely ruined. The sheer size is impressive though.

Walking the streets of the city is stepping back in time, with such a large proportion of old models of vehicles such as Ladas, Fiats and Dodges. These vehicles are surprisingly expensive due to supply. A 1980s Lada will set you back 30-40,000 USD!!! There are newer Peugeots driving around- which surprised me. These, and other fancy car models, usually start out life in government, then rental cars, then taxis and then get sold to the public. The price then is about 85,000 USD!