La Habana, 11th-17th of December

So I´ve been spending the last few days of my trip here in Havana. A bit different from the rest of my trip really, as I haven't visited many cities, preferring to stay out in the countryside and do more outdoorsy things.On Friday I went for an explore of what is known as Habana vieja, or the oldest part of Havana. Really interesting just to walk around for a few hours and drop into a few museums. The buildings are truly amazing here. The grand colonial architecture is in some building beautifully restored and maintained, and crumbling to the point of falling down on others. Also, refreshingly for a big latin American city Havana is relatively safe. So even at night time you can wander the streets without being quite as on edge as you would in other big cities.On Saturday I went with a couple of girls (staying in the same casa as me) on a bit of a trip by bus out of the city. First we travelled out west to Marina Hemingway, were there are views of the coast and several foreign boats moored. We then travelled back into the city visited the necropolis Cristobal Colon. This is a huge graveyard, with over a million people interred there. Its a lot less imposing than Recoleta in Buenos Aires, but the shear scale of the place is quite amazing.Later in the afternoon I visited the Malecon, Havana´s famous promenade. A very pleasant place to wander, watching the waves and the numerous Cubans who go there to fish from the sea wall. To get back to my casa I took an open top bus back along the Malecon. Great sitting up on the top deck in the cool evening sea breeze.Sunday was another day for exploring the city, but this time Centro Havana. I started at the revolution museum, housed in the old presidential palace and detailing the whole history of the revolution from Independence to the present day. Obviously it all the information has to be taken with a pinch of salt (all revolutionaries killed in battle as referred to as being ´murdered´and those on the other side are referred to as criminals), but is still very interesting.On Monday I got out of Havana completely, taking the bus out to Playa del Este. This is a beach about 20km east of the city. Your stereotypical Caribbean beach really, with white sand and turquoise water. I found a nice spot of beach and spend the day lounging with my book, and the occasional mojito. I spent the evening wandering along the Malecon at sunsetYesterday was my last full day in the city. I first visited the biggest (and best) art gallery in Cuba the Museo National Bellas Artes. Several hours worth of mainly contemporary painting and sculpture, including a whole room of Wilfredo Lam.In the afternoon i visited the Museo del Ron. Housed in an old Havana Club (Cuba´s finest rum) factory. It makes for a very interesting tour of the rum making process, and of course there is the tasting at the end of the tour!That afternoon I managed to meet up with Emm and Elise, who I met in Tulum(Mexico). In the evening we decided to go with two other guys from my casa and watch the Cuban national sport of baseball. The whole country loves it and of the 3 tv channels they have here, one shows a game every night! We found are way to the Estadio Latinamerico, and paid our 3 pesos to get in (sport is very heavily subsidised here to make it accessible to all). A very nice, and very Cuban way to spend my last evening sat up in the stands. The very lax security (we could have got in for free as the old man who collected the tickets had gone to the toilet when we got to the gate.:!) meant we could bring in a bottle of Havana Club and cola to enjoy some Cuba Libres while watching the game. Afterwards we got a cab out to the Malecon and sat watching the waves for a while. Funny to think looking out that Florida was less than a hundred miles away to the north.My flight is not until this evening and I think i´m just going to have a fairly lazy day, maybe wander around my favourite parts of the city again.so yep, that's the end of my trip. I´m in a way looking forward to going home, but then again it means having to take things seriously again. I´m sure come January when i´m sat behind my desk i´ll be longing to be away again!I will try and upload photos of Cuba in the next day or two when I get back, so keep a look out for them.Hope you have enjoyed/found interesting reading this blog, and i hope to see you all soon.
O