Cathedrals and Mojitos

Yesterday was Anne and Rick's last full day in Havana so of course we tried to cram everything into a few hours. We took the shuttle bus to Old Havana and walked to the Mercado where we wandered around looking for bargains. Nothing found!

We didn't have any real destination in mind so we stopped to look at anything that caught our attention. Havana does have some beautiful churches, many of which look fully restored.

We eventually ended up at Hemingway's hotel and went on the short tour of his room where he wrote two of his novels. Nothing special, but it does give some insight into his life.

It was Mojito and music time so we stopped at a bar to listen to a Cuban group while sipping a Mojito, or in my case a beer. Still looking for that perfect place to have my Mojito! The "keeper of the toilets" was starting to get into the music scene!


We continued to wander the streets until we were picked up by a pair of fast talking Cubans. They were going to lead us to an International Salsa Festival - that's what we thought we heard, but we ended up at a restaurant. We knew something was up, but we didn't know how they were going to do it. I would have stopped there but one of the members of the band was the last living member of the Buena Vista Social Club, one of Fred's favourite musical groups so why not give it a shot.


We ordered pop and beer and a Cuba Libra for our "friends" thinking that was one of the cheapest drinks around. That was how they got us - their two drinks cost us close to $18 Cdn. No tip offered to the waitress as she was obviously in on this scam. Other than the cost, I love doing things like this, but I don't know how my three travelling partners felt. And, I was too afraid to ask!!

Back to our wandering of the streets! I thought we walked up and down every street in Old Havana, but Fred warns me there are many more to explore!



We walked back to the same restaurant as last night for a good, cheap and filling meal. There is a cigar shop connected to the restaurant so we spent some time buying cigars for a certain Calgarian!