Having spent a full day in Havana with other like minded travelers I have gotten a much better impression of the city than the one I had yesterday.
Breakfast at my hotel Mercure Sevilla was superb, not because of the food istself (as they seem to lack Ingredients Neccessary to make most kind of meals here), but because of the whole athmosphere where a full band was playing for us in the beautiful colonial style room and they refused me to pour my own coffee, as they had plenty of waitors ensuring that everything was well for their guests.
After breakfast I header to my new hotel, Ambos Mundos, where I was served a welcome drink at 9am consisting of what looked like some red sirup with lots of whater, but when asking they just said that there was no water, just rum. A lot of things like internet and electronics are very hard to come by and super expensive, while other things like rum and cigars are quite the oposite. Having some rum in the morning was a good way to start the day in a country where everyone is relaxed and all things go slow.
Havana and the rest of Cuba can be said to be very unique in many ways, being one of the oldest cities in the western hemisphere, and quite wealthy due to the shipments of treasures coming through Havana from South and Central America and over to Europe, so it was quite popular among pirates. The Spanish colonists were not that popular though so they got kicked out by the Americans who freed the slaves and made it open for trade with all nations. After a while the Cubans got fed up with the American mafia as well and in 1953 Fidel Castro and Che Guevara fought the Americans off and introduced the communist system that they still have today. The country has also still kept the best of all their eras with the lively black slave music, the beautiful colonial style buildings and all the old cars from the pre-revolution time.
In the evening after walking hours and hours through the streets of Havana, we asked some locals with a beautiful old Buick to take us to Casa de la Musica (the house of music) in Miramar, a salsa club 15-20 minutes drive away from Old Havana which proved to be a much better way of experiencing Havana at night than walking By myself up and down through the city center like I did the night before.
Here are some photos that I took from my city walking safari in Havana:
