As for the screaming kids on this flight! LAN seemed to pack them all in down at my end!!! At least I had the 3 rear seats to kind of stretch out and get some more shut eye.

The off shore islands, blue clear water of the Caribbean Sea and patch work fields greeted me. This was the second time that I had seen Cuba from the air with the first back in the late 80's when I flew over Cuba from Miami to Kingston, Jamaica.

Instead of a 2.00 pm (14:00) touchdown, it was 45 minutes later but considering we left an hour later than scheduled, it wasn't too bad.

Now for the "fun and games". Immigration no problems. Have I been to Africa in the last 2 weeks? No. They did even ask for my medical insurance cover letter.

Security and my Birkenstock shoes must have set off the metal detector scanner.

Then what seems hours waiting for my bag to emerge from the conveyor belt. Trouble is all of the arrival flights bags seem to all come out on the one belt when they have several sitting idle (broken?).

Out into arrival area and I spotted a guy with a sign that had the Explore logo and 3 names on it. Yes, "Bruce" was one of them but was it me? Somehow part of inside me said "I don't think so". Didn't feel right". (Explore had several groups arriving and this listed "Bruce" must have been with the cycling group.) Told the guy that I was going to get some money.

Off and out of the main entrance to get some money. Do I turn left or right? I think I turned the wrong way as our queue took at least an hour before I made it to the front. Hint to future travellers: Go back inside and upstairs to the departure hall where you will find two more money exchange at either end of the check-in counters with probably much shorter queues. This is for departing passengers to change their remaining CUC to another currency.

Then back inside and I didn't see the guy. Short story is I asked the G Adventure guy if he knew where the Explore guy was. He said go to the Havanatur office. Yes, I had read this in the pre-trip notes but had forgotten. My name was listed and a taxi was provided to get me to Plaza Hotel. Just a 45 minute drive away. By now the overhead skies looked a nasty dark grey and sure enough it had started to rain.

First impressions. Buildings had seen better days and yes, it reminded me of the Soviet buildings I had seen in 1990, many shops all shut up, Chinese built bendy buses packed with the locals, modern Trans Tur buses with their tourists, yellow taxis but it certainly wasn't the Big Apple / NYC cabs.

Check in after 5.30 pm (17:30) now and was told that the hotel had no water. It's undergoing renovations and I had expected this having read the many "bad" or "negative" Trip Advisor reviews a couple of days ago. My single bed in room 453 was fine. Ok, the door needed a plane at the bottom to open it properly, but being besides the inside courtyard at least it was quiet to those rooms by the street plus had a quiet air con unit. Muggy outside and no doubt to me anyway felt like a near 100% humidity. Probably wasn't.

A wander outside and by now it was pitch dark but many people were out and about.

My first impressions were of the:
- just renovated Gran Teatro de la Habana theatre across from the Parque Central, all lit up and sparkling next to the darkened Capitolio Nacional
- classic American cars cruising around picking up tourists
- lovely old colonial buildings with their thick columns standing proud and gracing in front of them.

So this is Cuba!

Into the up market Iberstar Hotel across the road from Hotel Plaza for a local Cristal national beer CUC$2.75 / US$2.75 / NZ$4.25 but more importantly to use their bathroom, buy a 1 hour Wi-Fi / internet card for CUC$4.50 / US$4.50 / NZ$6.90 and in their beautiful foyer set about to use their Wi-Fi. I found out later that my Plaza Hotel were charging CUC$6 / US$6 / NZ$9.25 for an hour's Wi-Fi card. This was the most expensive I heard of on the trip while the cheapest that some members of the group paid was just CUC$2 / US$2 /NZ$3 for an hour's card.

Look at the photos and tell me which hotel lobby would you prefer to sit in and surf? The brightly lit Iberstar Hotel or the dull poorly lit Hotel Plaza?

Islands just south of Cuba

Islands just south of Cuba

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Currency Exchange queue

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Plaza Hotel

Plaza Hotel

Gran Teatro de la Habana

Gran Teatro de la Habana

Gran Teatro de la Habana

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Iberstar Hotel

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Iberstar Hotel

Iberstar Hotel

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Plaza Hotel

Plaza Hotel

Plaza Hotel