Malecon*

Yesterday we found a nice café for breakfast called Arcangel for but we didn’t make it back this morning as we were initially on a mission to find a bank and suss out the best way to top-up our currency reserves (apparently if you leave it too late in the day the banks run out of cash.) We ended up instead at a place in Plaza Vieja for what we now realise is the standard ‘Cuban Breakfast’ – fruit, omelette, luncheon meat, dry bread and margarine – and then set out to explore Havana Vieja in more detail, determined to walk a little less than yesterday and rest a little more. The man at the Capitol told us we needed to reserve an entry ticket at an office in the Plaza de Armas so we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes instead – the Cuban Art half, at least – to take our pictures with Raul Martinez’ paintings of Che and Fidel. A really good gallery it is too – a big, cool modern space with long ramps between floors and lots of interesting art. Afterwards we went to the Plaza de Armas, failed to find any office and waited instead for the Fortesa to re-open for the afternoon. After that we were more than ready for a siesta but the woman at the fortress positively insisted that tickets for the Capitol were not only available from the Capitol itself but that you just had stroll up the main stairs and in through the front door so we thought we’d better have another go. An elderly security guard chased us back down the stairs, waving a chair at us, and we gave up. In the evening we ate at our casa but not until after we’d ventured out to watch the sunset over the Malecon – the wind was up and the waves were crashing periodically over the barriers and across the road so we stuck mostly to the landward side of the street…!

*I changed the photo - this is one of Beck's that I'd forgotten about but I like it more...