Day 3: Touring Havana With Marilyn

A guy from Spain who I'm Facebook friends with arranged for Marilyn, a 45 year old Cuban woman, to meet up with me and give me a tour of Havana. He said she spoke English and her emails to me showed good mastery of the language. Nice to have a local connection! She showed up at 10 this morning with a taxi. The greatest expense here in Havana is transportation via taxis. $10 to get to the city. $10 to get to Marilyn's house in Playa, then $10 for me to get back home. The hosts at my AirBnb always help the guests to take the bus to the city then catch a cab home later. But the advantage of our taxi which was a friend of hers was a tour of the city. Each ride showed me a different area which was really great. The area I'm in now is Colonial and quite crumbling. And yet at the same time quite clean. Well swept.

Havana Vieja (Old Havana) was quite typical of any old European city with cathedrals and palaces and castles and narrow streets. The Malecon is the break wall along great the Florida Strait where massive waves were breaking.

Quite ornate architecture but I don't remember what building this was.

Castillo del Morro across the mouth of the Bay of Havana.

"Che" Guevara art

Eating corn on the contrary!

"Che" Guevara was a hunk!!

A compounding pharmacy.

A perfumery.

A wooden street.

Beautiful tile floor

Christopher Columbus

Palacio de los Capitanes Generales

And the streets are just full of these colorful classics!! One of my favorite things to see here!!!!!

After wander the old town we grabbed a cab and headed back to Marilyn's part of town, Playa. This took us near Raul's palace but I didn't see it. The neighborhoods were quite different from where I'm staying. More modern, less colonial. More restoration.

And many people are entrepreneurs. They often ooen a restaurant right in their home or garage. We had pizza at The Garage:). Delicious and made in a cute small space.

Also interesting was going to a "mall". It's a fenced in area of shops. First we had to check your bags and purses. Then we went into the grocery store with lots of one kind of things. One brand of coffee. One type of crackers or cookies. No choices. No variety. Not many things to choose among. Easy decisions. Then we went into some other shops. Dingy. Few selections. Mostly cheap dollar store stuff. I tried to find a new bungee cord at the ferreteria but when I saw how little they had I knew it was a lost cause. I'll have to improvise with rope.

Then off to Marilyn's place where she lives with her mother. Cute little house. Here are some pics.

Back yard

Kitchen

Marilyn and Momma in the dining area.

They were so sweet and kind to me. Thanks Marilyn for a fabulous day of laughs and learning. I'm exhausted and I'm sure your brain is tired of speaking English :))