Hot Havana

Today we got the bus to Havana. We are staying at the Hotel Valencia which is lovely and in a nice part of town. After checking in we walked around San Cristobal Cathedral, which supposedly housed Colombus’ bones and then had Mojitos in Bodeguita del Medio, one of the bars that Hemingway frequented. We were disappointed not to see Neruda’s signature on the wall amongst all the others.

Lunch was in La Mina in Plaza de Armas. The food wasn’t that good but there was a very inquisitive peacock wandering around. We walked down Opispo Street and popped into an old pharmacy, Taquechel, which still used old jars to store ingredients in. We enjoyed an hour or so in the General’s Palace, where independence from Spain was confirmed then walked around the Fort and back to the hotel to cool down but our room was still baking hot, even though the aircon had been on for hours. In the evening we went to La Floridita, another bar Hemingway was a regular at and really enjoyed the daiquiris.