At 7:30 am I peeled myself out of the bed I hardly slept in – the long journey had taken its toll, I didn’t sleep much. It was a hot, humid and noisy night. Already I was wondering what the hell I was doing here.
My room in Hostal la Caridad, a ‘casa particular’ – private accommodation, had two single beds. For the duration of the tour I would be sharing, my roomie was arriving later today. The ensuite bathroom, simple but very clean provided a bin for used toilet paper, this gave my delicate 1st world sensitivities a jolt – it was time to ‘harden up Princess’, or hold-on for 4 weeks.
I wandered through the casa, finding the ‘good room’ and eventually the spiral staircase leading to the rooftop terrace where breakfast awaited.
The view over the rooftops of Old Havana showed the dilapidated state of the beautiful old buildings, most of which rose to about 3 levels.
All had roof-top terraces where washing was dried, big plastic water tanks stored and provided water pressure to the house below, or homemade gyms were left to rust. Some rooftops were being repaired, but most looked pretty rough.
Breakfast
As I had arrived a night before everyone else, I enjoyed breakfast alone. There were servings of fruit salad – pineapple, mango pawpaw, banana and something fleshy & deep magenta which I didn’t touch (another ‘Princess’ moment), a fruit smoothie, a choice of eggs, a bread roll with butter, honey or jelly/jam – it was very generous, and enough to get you through the morning.
After eating, I took in the view of the street from the 1st-floor balcony. Leonor Perez, the small road running alongside our digs and beyond towards El Malecón, was rough and mostly paved with cobblestones. Potholes, puddles, and rubble completed the picture. Most buildings were in the same state of disrepair, although in patches, there seemed to be a lot of ‘renovating’ going on.
I had the day to myself, to orientate and to rest. For the moment I chose the latter, after 36 hours of travel I needed to take it slowly. Cleverly, I would explore the neighbourhood later, in the scorching heat of the middle of the day.