There appeared to be another possibility of meeting Che
Guavera’s son at his bar again this morning.
After breakfast we hopped back into cabs to Old Havana. Some of us explored the streets around the
bar while others of us enjoyed an adult beverage. After Che’s son stood us up, we headed back
to our Casa Particulars to pack up and continue on to the next part of our
journey.
Our group met back up with our guide, Tony, from earlier
in the trip to return to Santa Clara for their flight home tomorrow
morning. David and I still have another
10 days to explore the city of Havana.
We bid our farewells to Marie who had been a wonderful hostess and
caught a cab to our home for the next week.
Our three bedroom apartment was located near the Capital
towards the main train station. Luis,
the caretaker, met us at the door and helped us into the apartment. The three bedrooms were in a row on the way
to the bathroom although all the rooms have access to an outdoor walkway with
bathroom access. There’s a living room
and also an upstairs. This is where the
apartment really shines with a nice bright kitchen and a large outdoor rooftop
deck surrounded by lush plants. The deck
is shared with the one bedroom apartment off the deck but everything else is
ours. The refrigerator was stocked with
beer and water and we also had wine and rum if we wanted it. Another full bathroom upstairs rounds out our
quarters. This was definitely the nicest
place we had stayed during the trip.
The owner, Catherine, is French but lives fulltime in
Costa Rica. She travels here every three
weeks or so to check on her house, the apartments and several other projects
she has going here. She’s an interior
designer by trade which is quite apparent looking at the appointments in our
apartment. I had been communicating with
her son who lives in Paris and works for Christian Dior. Catherine happened to be on one of her visits
here so it was nice to meet her. Three
women take care of cleaning the apartments and cooking breakfast each
morning. They also did a load of laundry
for us for 1 CUC ($1)! I could get used
to this!
After relaxing a bit on the deck, we decided to wonder
back towards the Capital to find dinner.
The bar that we were heading for was completely packed, so we headed
towards a neon sign down the street.
This little diversion would change the rest of our trip. El Dandy’s is a bar that serves tapas and
very good drinks. With all the tables
being filled, we took seats at the bar.
We ordered several tapas and a couple of drinks.
The bartender asked us a few questions about where we were
from, if this was our first trip and how we liked his country. He also asked us about the Presidential
election since they were a little concerned that Trump would roll back the
changes made by the Obama administration.
After a little chat, he asked what we had planned for the next day. Having nothing set in stone, he offered to
take us on a walking tour of what he called the ‘real’ Cuba. We agreed to a noon meeting and headed back
to our place.
I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed a queen size bed
with real pillows and nice linens. It
felt like we were staying at a five star hotel.
We quickly drifted off to sleep to prepare for a big adventure tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Nestor’s world
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