DEC 12, MON: SAN FRANCISCO to CANCUN to HAVANA
Up most of the night packing and taking V to the St Francis emergency room to diagnose, and get Benadril for, his allergic reaction to walnuts in a cookie he ate after performing in the SoVoSo Christmas Concert at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. V dropped me off at SFO for my 08.15 Virgin America flight to Cancun. Met Mike-from-Denver at exit baggage screening; he was headed for the world-class rock climbing in Vinales and reported the beaches at Cayo Jutias really are tropical-island beautiful. <We ended up going and can attest to this too>. A picked me up at 15.40 (he'd arrived from Miami at 09.00) and we had a fajita-enchilada-cerveza dinner at the airport waiting for our 22.30 Aeromexico flight to Havana. Bought a visa for Cuba at the Aeromexico window in Cancun for USD 20. Landed Havana at 01.30 (now Tuesday), changed some Euros to Convertible Pesos (known as CUC or 'kook') at the airport, and caught a van-taxi into town with Mike. Got dropped off in Vedado at the 'casa particular' A had booked online. Maida Silvente came out to greet us (now 02.30) and then took her sleeping 1 1/2 year old grand-daughter Alison home to her own apartment in the building next door.
We found we had a ground-floor apartment all to ourselves, with two bedrooms (each with small bathroom attached) giving off an open-plan living room and kitchen area. The electrical wiring in the kitchen was hazardously exposed, the air-conditioner labeled in Russian, and the enclosed patio a small jungle of neglected plants and disused car parts. The TV in the bedroom did work, though fuzzily, and the shower's dribble was sufficient to wash in, though only sporadically the right temperature (when the pressure in the building dropped, the hot water ceased; when it came back on it was scalding).
Slideshow. Our First Experience of a Casa Particular: Casa Silvente & Maida, in Havana
Up most of the night packing and taking V to the St Francis emergency room to diagnose, and get Benadril for, his allergic reaction to walnuts in a cookie he ate after performing in the SoVoSo Christmas Concert at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. V dropped me off at SFO for my 08.15 Virgin America flight to Cancun. Met Mike-from-Denver at exit baggage screening; he was headed for the world-class rock climbing in Vinales and reported the beaches at Cayo Jutias really are tropical-island beautiful. <We ended up going and can attest to this too>. A picked me up at 15.40 (he'd arrived from Miami at 09.00) and we had a fajita-enchilada-cerveza dinner at the airport waiting for our 22.30 Aeromexico flight to Havana. Bought a visa for Cuba at the Aeromexico window in Cancun for USD 20. Landed Havana at 01.30 (now Tuesday), changed some Euros to Convertible Pesos (known as CUC or 'kook') at the airport, and caught a van-taxi into town with Mike. Got dropped off in Vedado at the 'casa particular' A had booked online. Maida Silvente came out to greet us (now 02.30) and then took her sleeping 1 1/2 year old grand-daughter Alison home to her own apartment in the building next door.
We found we had a ground-floor apartment all to ourselves, with two bedrooms (each with small bathroom attached) giving off an open-plan living room and kitchen area. The electrical wiring in the kitchen was hazardously exposed, the air-conditioner labeled in Russian, and the enclosed patio a small jungle of neglected plants and disused car parts. The TV in the bedroom did work, though fuzzily, and the shower's dribble was sufficient to wash in, though only sporadically the right temperature (when the pressure in the building dropped, the hot water ceased; when it came back on it was scalding).
Slideshow. Our First Experience of a Casa Particular: Casa Silvente & Maida, in Havana
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