The shipped arrived in port early this morning.
We were docked in a great location in Havana. We went through a short line through immigration where they took our visa and stamped our passports (although mine doesn’t say Cuba very clearly).
I exchanged my Euros (80 Euro = 95 CUC), GBP (20 GBP = 24 CUC), and USD (200 USD = 175 CUC) to Cuban Convertible Pesos. There was a money exchange immediately after immigration.
Our wonderful tour guide met us across from the cruise ship. She took us on a nice walking tour of old Havana.
We had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant in old Havana. We had so much food that we didn’t need dinner. We were too full for desert – but when we heard it was creme brulee, we all found room.
After lunch we got in a wonderful antique convertible car.
First we visited Fusterlandia. It’s a very cool area in Havana. There is an artist who started decorating his house with mosaics. It reminded me of Celaron steps and the Casapueblo house in Punta del Este in Uruguay. After he decorated his house his neighbors asked their walls and roofs to be decorated as well.
We drove to a forested park along Rio Almendares. It was a very scenic area within the city.
After returning to the ship I took a few more photos of the ship and buildings in the area.
The tour guide picked us up at 830 PM to take us to Tropicana. We had the $85 tickets which gave us probably the best seats. Shortly after arriving the guests from the cruise ship buses started to arrive – and there were seated all around us. Despite a bunch of horrible reviews on Trip Advisor the show was very good. The rum needed to be cut a bit with the cola because it wasn’t very drinkable neat. There was no cigar smoke in our area. We were also lucky that it was a sunny day, because some of the reviews say they move the show inside if it rains.
