2024-03-20: Arrival
Author: Rob
We landed in Havana yesterday evening and enjoyed a pretty hassle-free exit from the airport. We're staying between Habana Vieja (Old Havana) and Centro Habana, in what's called a Casa Particular. These are essentially Airbnbs, a private room with en suite bathroom inside a personal home. The Cuban government owns at least a 51% share in all hotels and resorts in Cuba, and the Casas Particulares are the only accommodations that are completely privately owned. This is important because technically the US government doesn't allow Americans to support the government owned places, and practically the government owned places in Cuba only accept credit card, and American credit cards don't work in Cuba.
Our casa particular is well situated in a nice part of town that's close to most of the things we want to see or do, so last night we decided to just walk around a bit before dinner, with the goal of spotting a decent place to eat on our way. The first place we tried looked very nice and had a live band playing salsa music, but after waiting for a server for fifteen minutes we learned that they only accept credit cards. After another failed attempt we ended up at a weird little bar that was trying to be a club, but served food along with drinks. David got chicken and I got fish, and both were pretty bleak, but they were edible and nourishing and the whole thing was a funny experience.
We had been up since 5:30 am to catch our first flight out of LaGuardia, so we opted to get to bed early so we would be ready for our first full day in the city.
