Back to Havana

I had a pretty bad night between the bug bites and some weird nightmares. I had planned to get up early to see the sunrise in Playa Larga, but I couldn't do it.

This was the day we were getting back to Havana. After the Viazul experience, we had decided that we didn't want to repeat, so we took a fairly rundown shared taxi for 20 CUC/person.

Our new place was in the center, near Vedado. It was a bit older than the previous one, but our hosts were extremely nice and helpful. We spent some time chatting with them and then we left to explore the city again.

We grabbed food at El Biky, a pretty good and affordable place. It didn't look particularly special but both our guidebook and our hosts praised it, and it was definitely worth it.

After eating, we went to the Callejón de Hamel, a highlight in every tourist guide that we hadn't had the chance to check out yet. It's a quite peculiar street, with murals, art and sculptures.

We walked towards the Hotel Nacional de Cuba. The bug bites were killing me and I was hoping to be able to find some aloe lotion there. The Hotel Nacional de Cuba is a government-run hotel, and therefore one of the places you're not allowed to stay in under the "support for the Cuban people" travel requirement. Not that we would have wanted to stay there instead of locals anyway... They do, however, have a little store with a selection of skin and hair products that would be hard to find somewhere else, and quite nice views from the patio.

After stopping for a bit at a square to check internet, we went back home to rest and change. We had a dinner at a place called TOKE that was simple but offered pretty decent food. This is a LGBT-friendly bar and you can see rainbows everywhere.Read more