Cuba (Part 2)

1 July:

With the change in the clocks, we've got 5 extra hours. First full day; we chose to check out Havana; went to the Museum of the Revolution (of course); fantastic building, the contents unfortunately were very depressing.

The taxi journey into town had been jaw droppingly interesting, but not for the reasons you'd expect. Very very little in the way of building seems to be younger than 1960; and some are in a pretty poor state of repair.

The extreme lack of traffic, the huge age (and quality) difference in the vehicles, from 1950 Chevvies, through 1980 Ladas to brand new Mercs catches the eye. The public transport is the same; brand new tourist coaches to 50 year old overcrowded buses that are belching black fumes. We see old Dutch buses that still have Amsterdam livery and, believe it or not, the original dutch terminii on the destination boards.

After an eventful ride in a horse and cart (with 6 "big" guys, average 14 stone, the horse needed a bit of help over the potholes) we ended the day with a mini pub-crawl that, with the excellent company, raised everyone's spirits (literally).


A full set of my pics of the tour can be found at Flikr