Havanna 24-26/12-06
At Christmas Eve there was a big buffet at the Comodoro hotel. Lots of cubanian dishes were served. The food was very good, but the santa never arrived. But I am a big boy now, and someone have told me that the santa does not exist!
The next day I relaxed in the pool and continued studying Spanish. Not much to tell actually from that day, except that it started raining heavily when I was relaxing in the swimming pool and it started to pour down for an hour or so. Since the weather was not to good I decided to stay at the hotel. It also started to blow and it continued to blow also the next day (26'th) but then it was not raining.
The 26'th I had ordered a city trip to Havanna in the morning. However, nobody came to pick me up so I had to do the trip in the afternoon instead. It was a very interesting trip, even though it was basicly showing us the best of town, and I think some of the information was a bit uncorrect at times. During the trip we visited one of the places that makes rum in Havanna. 
Free tasting was a part of the program. That should have been in Norway!
The public transportation in Cuba is a very interesting sight. One of the most famous public transportation is the so called Camel that is trailer remade to transport people instead of goods. I think the guide said that this way of transporting was not that old, maybe from the around 1994 or something, without I am totally sure about it. However, this transportation was ment to transport 100 passengers, which is almost the double of a ordinary bus, but the people are very crammed in those Camels and they take at least three times the number of passangers that was intended for.
On the guided tour we visited the Cathedral square. In this area Cuba have recieved money for restoring the buildings and it was a very nice area to walk in, even dough it is not representative for the general areas in Havanna, which basicly looks as if a war have been taking place there the latest 10 years.
For those that are planning to go to Cuba, I have some word of advice. The first one you have heard before, buy a travel guide and do some basic study before getting there. When it comes to Havanna I really will recommend to take one of those city tours one of the first days to get to know the city a little bit and to know where the different things are. If you plan to live in the central parts of Havanna I would suggest to go for an area invicinity to the Cathedral square. It might be a bit more expencive to go for a Casa Particular or a hotel in this area, but you do not need to travel by a taxi to get anywhere, so you save a little bit there.
Another thing that you will notice are that when you are in a shop and pay, what you recive back is not always what you are expecting. In the beginning I thought it was a kind of touris tax or something, becourse I always got less than I was expecting. But after I while I understood that this was a easy way for the locals to earn some extra, and most of the tourist do not care much if they are getting a dollar less than what you were supposed to.
As a last comment I would like to thank Ernestro and his crew on the Holiday Place for a great stay at the Comodoro Hotel.
The next day I relaxed in the pool and continued studying Spanish. Not much to tell actually from that day, except that it started raining heavily when I was relaxing in the swimming pool and it started to pour down for an hour or so. Since the weather was not to good I decided to stay at the hotel. It also started to blow and it continued to blow also the next day (26'th) but then it was not raining.
The 26'th I had ordered a city trip to Havanna in the morning. However, nobody came to pick me up so I had to do the trip in the afternoon instead. It was a very interesting trip, even though it was basicly showing us the best of town, and I think some of the information was a bit uncorrect at times. During the trip we visited one of the places that makes rum in Havanna. 
Free tasting was a part of the program. That should have been in Norway!The public transportation in Cuba is a very interesting sight. One of the most famous public transportation is the so called Camel that is trailer remade to transport people instead of goods. I think the guide said that this way of transporting was not that old, maybe from the around 1994 or something, without I am totally sure about it. However, this transportation was ment to transport 100 passengers, which is almost the double of a ordinary bus, but the people are very crammed in those Camels and they take at least three times the number of passangers that was intended for.
On the guided tour we visited the Cathedral square. In this area Cuba have recieved money for restoring the buildings and it was a very nice area to walk in, even dough it is not representative for the general areas in Havanna, which basicly looks as if a war have been taking place there the latest 10 years.For those that are planning to go to Cuba, I have some word of advice. The first one you have heard before, buy a travel guide and do some basic study before getting there. When it comes to Havanna I really will recommend to take one of those city tours one of the first days to get to know the city a little bit and to know where the different things are. If you plan to live in the central parts of Havanna I would suggest to go for an area invicinity to the Cathedral square. It might be a bit more expencive to go for a Casa Particular or a hotel in this area, but you do not need to travel by a taxi to get anywhere, so you save a little bit there.
Another thing that you will notice are that when you are in a shop and pay, what you recive back is not always what you are expecting. In the beginning I thought it was a kind of touris tax or something, becourse I always got less than I was expecting. But after I while I understood that this was a easy way for the locals to earn some extra, and most of the tourist do not care much if they are getting a dollar less than what you were supposed to.
As a last comment I would like to thank Ernestro and his crew on the Holiday Place for a great stay at the Comodoro Hotel.
posted by Øyvind Thiem at 1:36 AM
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