The Eastern Beach like a tourist

April 3 -   

On the left, the National Theatre, and on the right, Hotel Inglaterra.

We took the other tourist bus T3 around Havana.  

It was a glorious day, sunny and hot.  We got   good and burned.  This route went to the eastern beaches.  We got off at the Atlantico Hotel stop, which was the furthest eastern stop.  We walked along the beach for about 45 minutes, then stopped into a roadside cafe.  We have had excellent luck with food. 

 

At this place I had the  roasted lobster and Bill had the pork.  Both were excellent along with the little salad and ubiquitous rice and beans, it was a fine late lunch.

Our second stop was at the  castle Morro.  We wandered  around and found a a cafe with a smoke shop at the front.  It was very hot outside and I had forgotten my cooling tie.  

I checked out the cigars and didn't want to purchase them there.  I wasn't sure what I wanted, but Bill said, if there is another Caracol shop, the prices are set  by the government, so they would be the same.  I was convinced.

We had a reservation back at Dona Eutima, at what we thought was 7, but it turned out it was 6....ooops.  At first I was pissed, but we had a very nice meal at Dominica which was on O'Reilly and Mercadores.  The food was Italian, or I should say Cubanize Italian.    I opted for chicken Milanese and Bill got Saltimbucca.  There were a plethora of cats that were hanging out.  Another tourist was throwing scraps from her plate to them.  There had to be at least 6 of them surrounding her.  

When her plate was empty, two of the cats paid a visit to Bill and I.  The first one was cross-eyed.  I have never seen a cross eyed cat, it was sort of weird.  Feeling like I shouldn't stare, but couldn't help myself.  What did the cat see?  Did it get dizzy?  He/She wandered away and another orange tabby wandered over.  This one only had 1 eye.  That was really freaking me out.  We tried to give it a funny name, Blinky, Pir-cat, One-Eyed Jack, etc, we exhausted our feeble minds at that point. 

The band playing at the restaurant was quite good.  We bought another CD of Cuban songs.  The vocalist had a superb voice.  Most of the members of the band were women, with 2 men, one on bass, the other guitar.  The rest, percussion, and sax were women.  At one point a young boy walks us and starts to dance to the music.  He really gets into it, and is pumping his fists in the air and bumping his hips around.  It was hysterical.

It became apparent to me that American tourists are really not liked around the world.  They like our spending on vacation, but our boorish behaviors have not earned us much.  A Spanish couple sat next to us and then a table of loud drunken 20 somethings sat down and made it difficult to hear the band.  The Spanish couple, commented about "Los Americans" to each other, I don't think that they knew we were.  Eventually the young group quieted down and began to applaud the band after each number.  Better behavior. 

Off to Ambos Mundo for our nightcap.  The Final 4 game was on later so we wanted a seat at the bar.  Bill and I talked to the bartender about getting a flight of aged rums to try.  He suggested that since I had the Santiago de Cuba the other night, I should try the Havana Club 7 yr and the Maestro's Blend.   The Havana club was very hot.  Really alcoholic in flavor which masked the sweetness of the rum.

I finished the night with a Santiago and slept pretty good.