Last Day

Although we were due to leave today it was an evening flight and our taxi pickup was confirmed for 5.25 p.m. so we had pretty much the whole day still free.  We were booked on a conservation tour of Havana Vieja, which we already felt we knew quite well , but our very enthusiastic guide was able to show us a number of the social projects which are funded by revenue from tourism. We saw a specialist maternity hospital, a primary school, a housing project where families are decanted while their homes are restored, a school which trains local young people in the skills required for all the restoration work, and an amazing old people’s day centre in part of a former convent which is being restored in stages. It’s good to know that all the tourist money spent in the centre of town in the bars, hotels and even tours is used to fund the restoration of the old buildings as well as these social projects.

After that we were free to soak up the last of the atmosphere and the sunshine for the afternoon. The main highlight of the afternoon was when we went looking for the old railway locomotives we had seen from the taxi the first night we arrived, and almost accidentally discovered a huge indoor market in an old warehouse building. Sadly we had no money left to spend due to difficulties in using our credit card. It was just as well as the cases were pretty full anyway.

Once again our taxi turned up on time and we were whisked off to the airport, where we had two surprises. First the crowd which seemed to fill the departures hall consisted almost entirely of the queue for our flight and the check-in had not yet opened. Second, when we finally reached the desk, not only did we get the aisle seats we wanted for a ten hour overnight flight, but also a free upgrade to Premium Economy. This meant the return flight was a rather more pleasant experience than the outward one, spoiled only by the long wait in Paris for our onward connection to Edinburgh. We finally made it home around 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Viva Cuba!

Tom and Norma Smith