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Day 16 & 17 : La Habana revisited.
For our last days of the trip we went back to Havana. Now that we were fully accustomed to Cuba, we enjoyed the city even more. We walked across the malecon, and had some more Mojitos. Also we went to see some of the many museums that Havana has. We even saw Ché Guevara's old Chevrolet, and had a nice chat with the lady that works as a guide in one of the high towers you can visit. She told us she liked her job but the wind was driving her crazy (the tower is about 60 meters high and very breezy) and there was no way she could do something with her hair anymore.
That evening we splashed out on dinner at the "roof garden" restaurant of Hotel Sevilla. This place has a most impressive view of the city, and what's more, you can still feel some of the atmosphere from when Gangsters dined there in style....The food was wonderful, certainly compared to the normal diet of beans & rice and rice & beans. I asked one of the waiters to bring me a cigar, which I later found back on the bill for 10$. He let me keep the lighter though. And it was a very nice cigar. I smoked it while drinking some of that 7 year old Havana Club rum, marking the end of a very nice vacation indeed.
The next day we went to see the Partagas cigar factory. Even if you're a fanatic non-smoker, you should go visit this if you're ever in Havana. Watching the people make cigars completely by hand, and seeing how much attention and devotion to detail goes into them was very very impressive. It also made me understand why these Cohiba's are so expensive. Actually, I was amazed that they aren't even more expensive.
We bought us a box of 25 Romeo & Julieta No. 2 in Aluminium tubes for 45$, which is a bargain. We bought them in an official shop (but not in the factory), and not from one of the many pushers outside the factory. They are very nice cigars, although when you smoke one normally the taste lasts until halfway the next day. And they say that these are mild-cigars. I wonder what a Bolivar tastes like.....pfew...
The way back....
I could say that finding your way to the airport is confusing, but you'll just have to discover yourself....Our flight back was incredibly boring. The jet-lag wasn't so bad but it took me a couple of days to get back into the stressy western European rhythm again. Next time we'll visit another Island....
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