Third day in Havana

We started the day with a visit to a place called El Ojo del Ciclón. This is the studio of artist Leo D'Lázaro. He wasn't there, but another guy who works with him (his agent, maybe?) showed us around. He looked quite hungover and told us he had partied too hard the night before. In any case, the place was fascinating. It's full of paintings, sculptures, and weird rooms, both by him and by other artists, and they're for sale. In fact, you can find other pieces by him around the streets of Havana, like the column in front of the studio or El Sancho de la Habana in Obispo Street.

After the studio, we went to Clandestina. We had heard about this store because a friend fo Dean in Boston, Eva, knows the owners, Idania and Leire. They make clothing with repurposed and recycled fabrics, accessories, and prints. It's not cheap, but it's cool. They also sell a little Havana guide with updated information about bars, galleries, restaurants, and stores for 2 CUC, a quite useful addition to the travel book.

We kept walking around and realized it was getting late. We had booked a tour at 2 PM in Vedado and needed to get lunch before heading there. That's how we ended up in a place called Mojito, which was neither particularly good nor affordable.

We took a car to go to Vedado (again: always negotiate the price in advance) to meet our guide, Jorge, at Parque El Quijote. We booked this tour through Airbnb and it seems like a perfect example of what a "support of Cuban people activity" looks like. It's an interesting concept that we saw advertised on several occasions. Because private businesses and tourism are way more lucrative than state jobs, you'll see things like "Havana tour led by an economist" or "Visit to Bay of Pigs led by the Head of the Department of History of the University of Havana".

In any case, this was less of a tour and more of an opportunity to walk around with a local who allowed the group to ask him questions about the history and current situation of the city and the country. Apparently, he does these tours with another guy, and we ended up the afternoon at the house of the mother of this other guy's girlfriend, "grandma", who shared her experience. It was quite an interesting visit.

When we left the house it was already dark and we walked back to Havana Vieja. We had dinner at a quite famous and well-reviewed restaurant called Doña Eutimia. I only remembered the "frituras de malanga", a quite popular Cuban dish similar to a yuca croquette or a tater tot, usually served with honey.

El Ojo del Ciclón
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/cuba/havana/attrac…

Clandestina
https://clandestina.co/

Airbnb Walk "Explore Cuban life with an economist"
https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/124469

Doña Eutimia
https://www.tripadvisor.es/Restaurant_Review-g1…Read more