Cuba, Costa Rica and a bit of the US.: Day 5. 7.4.16. Havana City. Locally Sourced Cuba Tours (LSCT) day # 1.

Breaky on the rooftop at 8.30, fresh fruit, tea, coffee, fresh rolls and omelettes (ham and cheese) and fresh pineapple juice made by Yilliam (pr. Gilliam) who is Rodney's girlfriend and another two girls.

View from our rooftop, looking down on the neighbours, with the washing out.

The only complaint is the use of powdered milk, we learnt later that fresh milk is used for children, adults have powdered.

Dennis was busy watering by hand the rooftop vegies, herbs and roses.

Yaniel our guide arrived at 9.15, then to the lounge for our orientation briefing and to hand over passports for Alex to do the required paperwork for the government, which all Casa's must do. We gathered some washing and got ready for our walking tour of Old Havana (pr. Habana.)

We are rapt that the area we are in is fantastic, with many interesting buildings, the Plaza Vieja, farmacias, schools, vehicles, people, signs etc OMG, our cameras are on overload.

The top of the Camera Grafica building in Plaza Vieja.

There were a stack of these 'cats' around the central foutain in Plaza Vieja, this one caught my eye.

We walked around town to some other squares/plazas – Plaza de Armas, Plaza San Francisco, Plaza de la Revolución, Gran Teatro, Capitolio Building (which is a direct copy of Washington’s Capitol building), the Forteleza de San Carlos de la Cabana, The Gran Teatro (theatre) is newly renovated, we booked to see a ballet there tomorrow night – opening night of the first ballet production from a company owned by a very famous Cuban male ballerina - Carlos Acosta. We are all very excited about that. Not only that this is the theatre where Obama spoke just recently.

We walked and photographed so much – I will let the photos tell the story.

People are out on the streets everywhere. Just rockin the day away.

Labour is manual, carrying an old door to a new location perhaps.

There are old cars EVERYWHERE. It was just amazing to see the variety.

Coloured buildings also prominent.

These bollards are replica cannons, placed barrell down to signify that Cuba is a peaceful nation.

Selling their fruits and vegies. People sold stuff from their front rooms of houses and in a range of ways on the street.

A school. Welcome to our school.

Inside the Sarre Farmacia.

An old car, in a state of re-repair. They keep these old things going, they are patched and bogged up. The engines are hybrids, kept running using whatever parts they can source.

Streetscape.

Old bikes and side cars are prevalent too.

Fruit in front of an old school sign, tho it may well have been an operational school.

Parking and repairs for the Bici-taxis. These were everywhere too and a very efficient and effective way to get around.

The scaffolding has been in place for some time, based on the cover of vines.

The Capitolio Building, oh and another old car, just happened by.

An old truck. Love the paintwork.

The top of the Gran Teatro. The theatre we are going to tomorrow night for the ballet.

Cars, cars and more old cars. These are the restored ones, used mainly for touring the tourists around town. They looked stunning in all their bright shiny colours.

Hotel Inglaterra and a copper tank on top.

Bands playing everywhere. She is getting up with the hat for the tip from me for taking the photo.

We walked down a busy pedestrian street - Obispo all the way to the other end near Port for lunch at Hotel Nao - Buen Provencho (Bon Appetite)

Coco Taxis outside La Floridita.

Yup, that's the street name.

Suzie buying us some Churros - and they were good too.

This bunch of people are lining the streets outside one of the hotels with Wi-Fi. They have an ETECSA card, which provides a username and password to access the Wi-Fi.

Cuban flag atop the church in Plaza de Armas.

One of the many statues.I'm pretty certain this one was Cespedes. A poet and thinker who became one of the heroes in Cuba.

This is Yaniel, our fantastic guide.

Lunch at Hotel Nao

There are many statues around town – Cespedes, Jose Marti, and others. Lots and lots of old convertibles around the Theatre and Capitol building.

After lunch we hopped into a couple of magnificent old Cars – ours was a 51 Chevrolet – purple and the others were in a pink one. We toured from the Old Fort area, through past the port area, train stations, past revolution square, my God it was hot, and sun beating down on us… hopefully the sunscreen has done its job.

The ladies and Yaniel in the pink one.

A cute taxi. Cross between a Coco Taxi and vintage car.

Another car, get used to it, we just kept seeing amazing cars.

Heading up the street towards one of the Churches, again the coloured buildings.

At Revolution Square we swapped cars, then we drove into new Havana – through the Forest and over the Almendares River, along the sea wall – Malecon and past the American Embassy, along here we finished with the cars and went into a building and up to the 33^rd floor of the Focsa building to La Torres Restaurant for a drink overlooking the bay and with grand views over the city. There were also a number of Turkey Vultures soaring around us.

Revolucion Square.

Our purple Chev at Revolucion square.

Here we all are.

Would have loved to drive.

The inside view.

Looking down onto the city from the Focsa Building. La Torres Bar.

The 138 flagpoles to the right signfy 73 Cuban athletes killed in the 1976 terrorist attack on a Cuban plane. The Flags were also placed right beside the American Embassy in protest at an LED message being displayed on the US embassy.

Here is pic and some info I pinched from Google.

Pinched from Google.

Looking down to one of the Forts.

After our drinks, we caught a couple of cabs back to Plaza San Francisco and walked back via Plaza Vieja to our Casa, here Yaniel left us with some dinner recommendations at 4.30.

The entry to La Torre

Typical little taxi.

Our 3rd floor Casa. The rooms surround the courtyard.

Some other observations from the day so far.

Lots and lots of muscled up blokes around Havana
Internet access is highly sought after, Wi-Fi spots require the purchase of a card to access, often in Hotels, so locals and visitors alike are sitting on kerbs outside these few spots, accessing Wi-Fi.
There is a real mixture around town – some parts are quite dilapidated with crumbling buildings, but others have been restored and look pretty schmick.
Yaniel is a fantastic guide, excellent English, a great sense of humour; he is married with 9 month old twin daughters – Amy and Leah, wife Lianne.
We are staying in a most interesting part of town.
The hustlers around town are polite and wish you well, when you say no thank you.
Churros here are very good.
There is so much more, our heads are swimming. Maybe the photos and captions will assist to recall the vast amount of stuff swirling in my brain.

Spent the couple of hours ‘off’ typing blog and starting to sort pics. Sat in kitchen area, there is a workman, creating another ‘room’ in the Casa, so there was banging, cutting, grinding etc coming from within.

Ready for dinner. We found one of the hotels with Wi-Fi, ordered a drink/coffee, only to find Wi-Fi not working well/at all. So then off to find Margot an ATM and dinner at recommended tapas place – 304 O’Reilly, it was full, but he had another restaurant ‘en frente’ in front at number 303 O’Reilly, we had a range of starters, some enjoyed their drinks, some not, then we were each presented with a gladioli on departure, back via ATM for Glenda to try again, to no avail and home again. Now 11.30, time for me to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow an earlier start as we head off at 8.30 for Vinales day trip and home again.