Last night a storm blew through: gusty high winds, lots of lightening, buckets of rain. This morning the skies are overcast and the temperature is a much nicer mid-80's. It has been hot and humid, unseasonably so per the officials we've talked with.

We take the 10am Hotel Acuarius bus to La Habana Vieja (Old Havana), paying the driver $1 CUC per person (a bit for him and a bargain for us) and start walking. La Havana Vieja is the area with the greatest concentration of restored Colonial buildings now housing museums, hotels and restaurants, with dozens more museums lining the narrow cobble-stone and wood-brick streets in between the plazas and squares and parks.

Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, La Plaza Vieja, Catedral de la Habana, Parque Central, Parque Fraternidad, Capitolio (closed for renovation), Teatro de La Havana (also closed for renovation), and of course, lots of classic cars competing for tourist taxi / tour business. One interesting aspect of Cuba is that the Spanish built this colonial city, and others around the country with beautiful buildings, squares / plazas, cathedrals, and the place names and many street names remain Spanish Catholic in spite of the Revolution and fact that most Cubans are not Catholic; most practice Santeria.



Of the two places we are willing to pay a tourist-priced admission fee, the cigar museum and Havana Club (formerly Bacardi prior to the Revolution) one; one is closed and the other is not located where the guide said it is. Oh well, we're getting a good walk in, and enjoyed a nice plaza-side lunch accompanied by live music.

Just a block or two off the tourist-track are the unimproved areas; work is ongoing, constant, but it'll be years before the entire area is restored. In these unimproved streets, people work and shop on the street-level and live above. I suspect that once their building is restored they'll no longer be able to live there so perhaps its a good thing progress is slow.



Lots more photos in the gallery.

A bit after 3pm we hear thunder getting near so we head back to Plaza Vieja and the brewpub we saw earlier (Fabrica Plaza Vieja). We just make it before the skies open up, gusty winds whip the sun shades, and the lightening show starts. And what a show it is. An hour and a half later, it's still going on. The plaza is flooded, as are surrounding streets, ankle to knee deep depending on where you step. Yikes! and we need to get back to the Palacio de Artesania for the last bus of the day.

The brewpub is where Jerry is handed this unsolicited portrait. We give the artist $1 CUC.



We had declined all taxi offers during our walk-about but there is no way we'll get back to Palacio de Artesania on our own in this storm; blue-tarp covered bicitaxi to the rescue! The only vehicles getting through and around now are the bicycle-taxi's. They zip around as fast as they can to take advantage of this temporary market opportunity, which is a little scary when you're in one of these rickety 2-seat buggys. At one intersection four meet and another collides with ours nearly toppling us into the fast running murky-brown water. Thankfully the two drivers keep everything upright, separate their structures and we're delivered to our destination a bit damp but safe. The usual fee is $3 CUC per person but this ride is $5 CUC per person. Others arrive in the same manner and they are all charged the same so we didn't get over over-charged.

The bus is a little late due to the flooding in the tunnel. The tunnel and Habana Vieja are not the only places flooded. As we travel through the streets of Havana we see fast moving rivers over streets & sidewalks, downed tree limbs, stranded & stopped cars, and closed streets, everywhere. The 45-minute trip in is a one-hour-forty detour filled trip back. With more rain expected tomorrow, we'll postpone our next excursion.

Initial observations: while not everyone's housing situation would be considered up-to-standard, there are no slums in or at the edges of Havana. Havana is vibrant with life and music; live music at lunchtime! While a large city of several million people, it is safe; we walked well outside the tourist-streets and never felt threatened. In fact, many people called out to us from their doorsteps asking where we were from and if we were enjoying their city.