A seaside roadway that protects Havana from the sea. A meeting ground for young people and families. Construction started in 1901 its the most impressive waterfront I have ever seen. Not only because it is 5 miles long but because it serves a greater purpose than just being a seawall or a boardwalk - it is a social scene.
The 8 lane highway has no cross walks or stoplights yet you will see people crossing it on a constant basis without fear of getting run over by cars. Cubans do no believe in painting cross walks on streets. Eitherway it would be pointless because a highway that long would need crosswalks every block since people sit all along it.
Habana is a beautiful city. A mix of the old and the new but mostly old. Luckily the old stuff is more amazing than most of the new stuff in the rest of the Caribbean. I spent 6 days in cuba and all I did was walk up and down the maze of streets, alleys, buying food and saying "Buenos dias". I did take a city tour twice. Make sure you bring lots of water. Below are mostly pictures of buildings and sites I have a separate people project and even more buildings in the high life project.
The funny thing about mid-size airplanes is that just before landing you can hear a loud "thud" when the landing gear pops out of the under carriage. Freaks all the first time flyers out. lol. But this is normal and happens with the bigger airplanes as well except its just harder to hear it in the cabin. :)
Everyone gets a sweet before take off and they really don't care about seat numbers as long as everybody is seated. Do not be upset if a Cuban refuses to let you sit in your assigned seat number - just find another one - she probably has a relative coming on the flight with her.
niky commented: they need to assign seats at checking, when you are boarding is not nice, sometimes you are travelling with your family and everyone is seated separated, really bad thing , and also they need female cabin attendant, at least one, always are the same old men. ... read 2 more
The red airport with red signs. Mostly flights to Panama City, Panama and Bogotá, Colombia. Even though it was built in the 1950s it still looks brand new. I am continuously surprised how well the structures in cuba are maintained or maybe there were just well built?
I often buy a newspaper when I am in a foriegn country but since they speak Spanish in Cuba there was no point to buying a paper since I know very little spanish. I bring the paper to work to share with a co-worker who's always interested in the paper news.
The only reason I ended up buying this paper is because I had bought cake and pizza at a local bakery in Havana and ended up with 2 Pesos change.
Cuba has 2 currencies and some shops have prices in 1 or both. Pesos are the old Cuban currency which is 24 to 1 CUC. A CUC is the currency used tourists and government businesses. A CUC is worth $1.15 USD. So 2 Pesos is like useless and I had to get rid of them quickly. For fear of getting stuck with money that I could never spend or exchange.
Most times you can tell something is in Pesos if the Cost is very high like say for instance $50. In other cases if all the prices are low then the menu is in CUC. A bottle of water is $1 CUC and a flask of white run is $2 CUC. A fancy dinner is $12 CUC. A small pizza with pepperoni is 30 pesos.
The cheapest thing on the menu was 5 Pesos which means I was stuck because of my careless spending in a country of two currencies.
As luck would have it I saw an old man selling newspapers by the hotel for 1 Pesos so I bought 2. And for a even bigger twist the co-worker is studying spanish! A 2 birds with 1 stone scenario!
