At the Rafael San Juan's Primavera sculpture, right up Av de Italia and left into Trocadero before continuing my way towards Paseo de Marti (Prado). This whole Centro Habana area that I walked through looks so dilapidated yet no doubt so full of life.
 
Time to do one more thing.

Last stop was to get to the chocolate museum back down in Habana Vieja, the old town (Calle Mercaderes). Yesterday afternoon when I went pass it was crowded with a long queue waiting outside. Even at 11 am (11:00) there were a couple of free tables inside. The tourists were not here in their droves ... just yet. Yes, a hot chocolate CUC .55 / US .55 / NZ$ .85c was great. Perhaps I should have had a cold chocolate for CUC$1 / US$1 / NZ$1.50 like so many of the others who were there? But with a 12 noon check out, no time for it. By now I know the old town streets layout so it was a quick walk back to the Plaza Hotel.

Inspired in the Royal Museum of the Real Square in Brussels, Belgium, and born thanks to the support of Madame Jo Draps, its director, this singular place in Havana offers a tour through the history of cacao, its harvesting, production and commercialization.

In panels placed in the museum’s rooms are exhibited texts with the history of the chocolate, from its discovery by the Spaniards in America, and its use by the native population before the colonization. It also has posters showing different times and famous foreign and Cuban industries and enterprises related to the chocolate.

The permanent exhibition presents a collection of china cups for chocolate, from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy, examples of the variety of designs in this pieces in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is relevant a French bow cup, used by men to drink the delicious liquid without wetting their moustaches. Bakelite molds and containers for comfitures donated by the Royal Museum of the Real Square in Brussels, enriched this collection. It also holds simple ceramic chocolate cups, pots, containers and large English bowls found in archeological excavations in the Old Havana. They evidence the presence of this kind of articles in the domestic and religious environment of Havana in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Chocolate Museum, inaugurated on November, 2003, is placed in the well known House of the Green Cross, former residence of the Counts of Lagunilla and starting point of the Saint Via Crucis procession.

Visitors can appreciate the techniques to manufacture candies, every Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 am, or taste the delicious drink prepared either in the traditional form or in the Aztecs way.

http://www.oldhavanaweb.com/the_chocolate_museum_an_option_to_taste.html