Vinales

A small town a couple of hours away from Havana that is surrounded by forests with limestone rock faces (mogotes), and tobacco fields (where we learnt how cigars were made). Absolutely gorgeous!

Mogotes 

Learning the magic of cigar making

A terrible view

The city of not so delightful smells...Havana

After a restful nights sleep we ventured out into Havana after we met a local lady who was genuinely friendly (and who was also a neighbour of the owner of the Casa). She was kind enough to help us find a new, more central Casa in Centro Habana and we then wandered the streets and started to take in present day Havana.

To describe Havana in a few short words, lets say...
Smelly - lots of erm, lovely aromas
Alive - the Cuban passion for life, music, dancing and rum
Hustling - many Cubans are trying to make some extra dollars
Backwards - an economical split in society has taken shape and is growing

The Malecon

Our Casa

Our first moments in Cuba

The not so legit Casa...
We arrive in Havana in the evening. It is dark outside and we get a taxi to take us into town to see a lady who we had been put in touch with, who could help us find a casa to stay in. As the taxi pulls up in the back streets, in an area a little outside the Centro Habana area we look around the streets with some caution. We find out from our contact that she could organise somewhere for us to stay, but it was only at casas which are not registered with the government (which would have been nice if she told us earlier), we were a bit hesitant about it but then worked out that it would be them who could be arrested and not us, so it was ok with us. Before our very kind taxi driver drove off into the night, we had a quick chat and checked with him if we were in a safe neighbourhood and he provided the necessary reassurance we needed. We were then shown to our casa, set up camp for the evening and all was well.

The first mojitos...
Our stomachs were then grumbling and calling out for rum, so we walked off in search of food and booze. As we were in Cuba, we thought it very appropriate to make our first beverage a mojito. Our waitress delivered our drinks to our table, then waited for us to have a sip, and kindly asked if we needed some more rum - which seemed to be the approach many Cubans take when offering you a mojito - hey I am not going to complain! The mojitos were slurped with enthusiasm, and more were ordered.

The not so spectacular spectacular show...
Our entertainment venue for the evening involved a spectacular show full of music and comedy, well so we were told. As the evening progressed, we realised the music component of the spectacular evening were some less than entertaining Latin American music videos. And as for the comedy, well we left before that started...somehow the UV lights guided us out into the night.

Zacatecus

Writers block...

... OK, we have been lazy and not updated anything in a few weeks, so if you want to see where we have been, just check out this google map...
Basically this is everywhere that we have been AND written about...

View Larger Map

This is everywhere we have been since and not written about... Click on the balloon to see where/what it is. Will add some more images an videos shortly.

View America's Road Trip: Pt 2 in a larger map

The other view of La Paz

Well when it wasn't raining, we got the chance to hang out by the beach and enjoy the
awesome views...though we were a little hesitant to go swimming due to the storms and
what may have run off into the water...

The view from the Malecon (boardwalk)

Having a final drink before we take the ferry over to mainland Mexico

Say "Hello" to our little friend...