Back to Havana

April 1 -

We are up at 9, brekkies at 10, and our ride is supposed to come at 11.  Ahem, key word, supposed to.  At 11:45, a call to the casa comes in, the car broke down on the highway, she can arrange for another if we like.  What were you going to pay for your ride she asks, 80 CUC we tell her.  She comes back and says that she found someone who will take us to Havana for the 80 CUC.  But they will be 40 minutes.  12:30 comes and goes, no ride yet.  Bill goes inside to say, lookie here, we need to get back to Havana, we can go down town and get the bus if this ride doesn't show up soon.  Just at 1 PM, up rolls a VW 2-door of dubious quality, and tahdah there is Frankie, our driver.

We take a detour to Pinar del Rio because he had to stop at his house, only to have what looked like a "disagreement" with the wife.  She's yelling out the door, and he's saying "no" and pulling away...sounds like they were on different pages about how he was to spend his Saturday!

3 hours later as we roll into Havana, it has started to rain off and on and I found myself thinking of my dad, and his admonition about driving at the beginning of a rain shower, it's really dangerous then, the road is really slippery because the motor oil is just wet enough to cause problems...that and his always yelling not to drive near the shoulders as that was where all the crap that can blow out your tire lives.  Dad, full of practical info, he was.

We wanted to have dinner at Dona Eutima's paladar which is just around the corner, and I had  read about it in one of the guide books.  Unfortunately, we didn't have reservations and ate at a place across the alleyway.  We did get a reservation for Monday.  Bill had a seafood plate and I had the grilled lobster.  It was ok, not fantastic, but identifiable as lobster.  

The black umbrella belongs to Dona Eutima's "little patio piece", we could see it, but no room at the inn!

After dinner, it was too early to crash, so we went to Ambos Mundo Hotel for a night cap and it turned out that the first of the 2 semi finals for the Final Four was on the tube.  So we stayed to see Gonzaga get into the finals.

I was drinking 7 year old Santiago de Cuba rum, and let me say, that shit was dope!  I want a hundred bottles of that!