Riding in cars with boys

This post title was the name of a book that I read for my thesis about the undertones of feminism in a male dominated culture.  Mum and I sitting in the back seat of an awesome orange convertible classic car while our male driver and guide sat in the front seats was a bit like this.  We were headed west to the modern part of the city wind in our hair and sun shining on our backs (shoulda brought sun screen).

First stop was Revolution Square where Castro addresses the masses - once for seven hours straight - and likenesses of Guevara and Ceinfuegos adorn various government buildings.  Next we hit the suburbs and stopped at the urban forest.  Apparently ritual sacrifices are common here so there's a bit of a smell of dead animals.  Onto Fifth Avenue where most of the embassies  are.  Then to the Hotel Nacional which has great views along the Malecon and a long list of famous guests.   There's a couple of canons there installed by the Spanish to keep away the Americans.  More importantly,  Enrique bought us a mojito here.  A good mojito not the awful sugary crap we'd had in our hotel on our first day.

While we drank, we had a good chat about Cuban life.  Before the crisis of the 1990s the average  wage was 300 a month and there was a decent exchange rate.  Now most people earn 30-50 a month and the exchange rate is diabolical.   That's not enough to live on so the black market and a barter system prevail.  Chef X brings home the leftover cheese and ham, which he person X who has money from tips buys off him.  Jobs with no fringe benefits are very hard to fill as people are no better than being unemployed.

We drove along the Malecon to our final stop.  We'd been here the night before as we'd wandered the darkened streets looking for a recommended restaurant, Castas and Tal.  The cocktails here are magnificent and cheap.  We'd had a Mary Pickford at out hotel earlier which was pleasant.   At C&T I had a daiquiri which was divine (like a lime sorbet in a pool of alcohol).  Mum's Pina Colada was "almost as good as the one Janice bought in Vanuatu".  The food there wasn't bad (which means quite good for Cuba) and the service was excellent.  We walked home along the Malecon with the waves crashing over the wall and locals hanging out.

But back to our tour today.  It started with some small drops of rain that were quite pleasant but got quite a bit heavier so we stopped to put the top up.  Once we (our driver and guide) got that done, it stopped raining. We left our driver behind at the edge of the old town and Enrique gave us a tour of the museum of the city.  There are some rooms full of old furniture (a bit like Buckingham Palace), some old coaches, and some revolutionary war stuff.  Here we learned the origin of the Cuban flag.  Way back when, some Cubans wanted to become a state of the US so they made a flag a lot like the US one but with only one star.  The US then had its Civil War and abolished slavery which didn't appeal to the pro-US faction as they were largely landowners who relied on slavery. But the flag stuck.   #Irony

It was then goodbye to Enrique.  Left to our own devices we had lunch at Donde Lis.  Hallelujah!  I was a little dubious as it is away from the main restaurants and in a street that smelled.  But the coffee was great and the food a-maz-ing.  I had lobster ceviche and croquettes that I think we're made with curry.  Mum had grilled lobster which was nice, but doesn’t compare to Darryn's.

We stopped at the museum of fine arts on the way home (the Cuban Art location).  It's very pro-Cuban/anti-American, some quirky art, your standard religious art, portrait art, abstract art.  I did like the coffee pot castle in the cafe.

We've just been for a swim and are relaxing before dinner tonight at LA Torre del Oro in our hotel.  Tomorrow we leave for Las Terrazas.