At last, eventually a half decent night sleep.

With now a 9.00 am (9:00) group meeting, I decided not to put the alarm on and awoke at 8 am. Last night when I got back to the hotel, it had its water reconnected. So thankfully it was still on and had a welcomed morning lukewarm shower.

Breakfast was up on the 5th floor with the open terrace. I wouldn't write home about the usual buffet selection but with a couple of fried eggs it was enough.

Group meeting was at 9.00 am (9:00) also up on the windy open air terrace where our Explore guide Jose effectively didn't cover anything new that was not already covered in the trip's pre notes. Plus he collected the CUC$40 / US$40 / NZ$61.60 for the group kitty.

From the 5^th floor terrace there were nice views below of the American cars, Cocotaxis and horse drawn buggies all lined up outside the Iberstar Hotel plus the elegant Edifico Barcardi building.

On board a comfortable 24 seater #2630 Chinese built "Yutong" with Leo as our driver, so plenty of spare seats for our city tour which was literally walking through to Habana Vieja, the old town's main 4 plazas. Thankfully it wasn't of those smaller Chinese built "Coaster" often used around the world by small groups and not designed for tall Kiwis like me.

Note – Because I visited Habana Vieja (old town historical area) several times during my trip, I have as best I can merge all the photos. That would explain the different lighting / shadow on the buildings and in the Plaza de San Francisco de Asis why the temporary XICO sculpture exhibition had disappeared on my return at the end of the trip.

Starting off at Plaza de Armas.

Havana's oldest square was laid out in the early 1520s, soon after the city's foundation, and was originally known as Plaza de Iglesia after a church – the Parroquial Mayor – that once stood on the site of the present-day Palacio de los Capitanes Generales.

The name Plaza de Armas (Square of Arms) wasn't adopted until the late 16th century, when the colonial governor, then housed in the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, used the site to conduct military exercises. Today's plaza, along with most of the buildings around it, dates from the late 1700s.

In the center of the square, which is lined with royal palms and hosts a daily (except Sundays) second-hand book market, is a marble statue of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes , the man who set Cuba on the road to independence in 1868. The statue replaced one of unpopular Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, in 1955.

Also of note on the square's eastern aspect is the late-18th-century Palacio de los Condes de Santovenia, today the five-star, 27-room Hotel Santa Isabel.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cuba/havana/sights/squares-plazas/plaza-de-armas#ixzz3wvGEcXd9