Havana: first room, first love

From Tijuana to Cape Horn, there are 20 Latin Americas but sometimes it feels as if there are 19, and Cuba. It spent years being virtually cut off from most of the world and still differs in many ways from most of it. It's no exaggeration to say that in many ways Cuba is locked in a time warp. The internet is starting to make inroads but for most people, access is only via prepaid cards. There are still shortages of household goods and queues outside shops are common. Electricity and water outages are frequent as well. In most streets traffic is very sparse but everything they say about the ancient American behemoths is true; some of them are lovingly restored while others rust away quietly in the backstreets.
And the currency; where else would you find a banknote in 3 units, or parallel rates for local people who pay in pesos nacionales while tourists pay in convertibles? European winter has begun and I can't wait to get started.

The driver collects me from the airport in the vehicle shown here. A Chevrolet of 1957 perhaps. Culture shock overtakes me as he drops me off in one of the main streets of Havana Centro. It's very run down and looks threatening but the hearsay is that the crime rate is relatively low, maybe because there isn't a serious drug issue (yet). As the days go by I start to feel that this quarter is home. An increasingly popular Cuban institution is the "casa particular", a private house where the owners let out rooms to visitors. And these can be booked in advance on line. Belascoain 360 has 4 such rooms; my hosts Daniel and Fina are charm itself and full of useful information.Read more