Day 14 Guayaquil to Havana Cuba via Panama City

Cuba Day 1

When we checked in to our Hotel yesterday we were handed a sheet with ongoing information for us.  This included a 4am wake-up call and airport transfer at 5am for our 8:20am flight. It was a long wait at the airport, but the flight left on time and we arrived in Panama City Airport after a 2hr 15 min flight. We had a transit time of about 1 ½ hrs before boarding our final flight to Havana.

Turns out you can buy your Tourist Visa at the check-in counter at the gate, for about a fifth of what we paid at home!!!

Our flight left a little behind time, but they seem to be able to make up time pretty easily in this part of the world. (I think their timetables have a “rubber” factor built-in). The in-flight food has been pretty ordinary, but served with a smile. Deb has got a bit of reading done while I have used the time to go back through some photos, and play with them a bit, and also delete a few more. It is so hard to delete photos.

We arrived on time at 3:20pm, and then were pushed back from where we were first parked and then towed to another gate, a process that took about 30 mins. Once off the plane it took another hour to get through the “Stony faced” immigration, bags retrieval and customs. I am sure they were taking the bags off the plane one at a time!!!  And 3 flights landed close together.

We were met at the airport by a Rep from our tour company, Clara, she was filling in for our guide! Anyway, we eventually got a taxi with her and drove into Old Havana where our hotel is. The drive took about half an hour and I have never felt that 70kph was so fast as it was on this ride. The traffic is crazy in this town. There are lots of big, and I mean BIG, old American cars everywhere, quite a few of them seem to be broken down on the side of the road, and others are blowing black smoke as they drive around. But they are great looking cars. The Saratoga, our hotel, is opposite the Cuban Capitol Building, and is very colonial in appearance (the hotel that is). I don’t think it has been touched since it was built, all original fixtures! We had a bit of a hiccup with our booking but we eventually got it all sorted. We have a Junior Suite, which is very 1950’s in decor, it is much better than the first room we were put in that was small with no view. The view from our room is magnificent, looking out over the Capitol Building and the historic old section of town.

When we were dropped at the hotel the taxi driver told Clara that we were not doing anything tomorrow (our itinerary shows a full day sightseeing, also not sure how the taxi driver would know that??)   When we booked into the hotel there should have been an envelope with all of the info we need for our stay in Havana.   By this stage we were wondering how our time in Cuba was going to turn out.     The receptionist tried to ring the tour company for us but they had left for the day.    When we got  to our room we tried to send them an email, but our emails were not working.    The internet is censored here, so maybe that is why it won’t connect to Gmail??   Anyway Deb had an icloud email on her ipad  and fortunately that worked.   She sent an email to 3 different people regarding our vouchers and guide and within 45 minutes we had a reply from the Cuba representative and found out that the guide had been on another tour today and he was delayed as the bus had broken down (mmmmm think that is common here) but he would collect us tomorrow at 9.15am.    Shame that info was not relayed to Clara or the hotel.   But in any case we are sorted!!

After we settled in we took the lift to the top floor for Mojitos by the pool while we watched the sun set over Havana. We met a “young” American girl from New York (here for her 30^th birthday) up on the roof. She was so full of the joys of Cuba, we loved her energy and vitality. She gave us a few pointers on must do things, so we will see how we can go fitting them into our days.  Our trip to the roof was a great way to finish an otherwise forgettable day.

On another note Cuba is the first communist country Deb has visited.    Looking forward to exploring tomorrow.