Tash and I awoke to breakfast being served by Marilyn's mother, an older, incredibly sweet cubano woman. We enjoyed our food leisurely, not realizing that we would have to vacate the premises that morning and that the couple who would be staying in our room would arrive early. We were shooed out with less than 10 minutes to get our things together. Talk about a rushed morning!
Demaris came to pick us up and walk us to our new homestay, Villegas 66. She is a good friend of Frank's and because Frank didn't have room for us he set us up with her. Her apartment was huge and it was completely vacant. She lived in a flat down the road with her husband so we had the place all to ourselves. There was a walk in shower, which we both took advantage of, because at Frank's they had "run out of water". This happens sometimes because the way water delivery works in Cuba is much different than in other places. Each walk up has big blue tanks on the roof, porch or somewhere inside. These tanks hold the water for the household. Each week a truck comes around to refill these giant tanks. However, if you use all of the water in the tank before the truck comes around again, you're SOL.
After freshening up, Demaris set us up for a driving tour of Havana. She told us that her friend would take us and that he had a GREAT car for it. A few minutes before the tour, Demaris' friend showed up with his car. A few minutes later, the cops showed up. Demaris told us to wait upstairs. She headed down with lemonade and sweet talked the cops for a few minutes before Tash and I were allowed to take our seats in the car. Demaris' friend wasn't a great guide because he didn't say much at all, but she was right, he did have a pretty cool car. We drove around Havana in the HOT, HOT sun and saw many of the beautiful buildings, landscapes and monuments. There were even a few people who asked to take photos with our car!
After driving around Tash and I headed to Cha Cha Cha, an open air restaurant with an upstairs seating area. We ordered what we thought were chicken fajitas, but were really fried chicken fingers. Ooops! We went back to our homestay where Demaris gave us a cigar from her humidor. Papi Frank had recommended a taco joint for dinner, so we headed there. It was a super small place that was really difficult to find. Tash and I thought the tacos were questionable at best, especially considering we weren't exactly sure what the mystery meat was in the middle. Because Demaris' apartment had a cute little balcony we decided to have a few beers at the house before hitting up the Buenavista Social Club.
This is an outdoor club with live music where you're allowed to smoke cigars. The place was flooded with old people. Tash and I were the youngest there by years and years. We didn't care though, because when it came time to light and cut our cigar, there were plenty of people around who were able to help us out. We did some dancing while at the club, but mostly just listened to the music.
As the band was wrapping up, we noticed a guy around our age lingering, so we headed over to chat. He was a tour guide who was just getting ready to bring his group back to their hotel for the evening. He offered for us to jump on the bus so that we could learn a few more things about Havana on our way home. We dropped off the chinese tourists at their hotel, and then Edgar the tour guide and Michael the bus driver took us on an adventure we'll never forget! They brought us to a store to buy a few beers so that we could sit back, relax and enjoy the views as we drove around. They then took us to a completely cubano club. I mean no tourists, none. Not only was the club all cubano, but they allowed smoking INSIDE the club. Not on the dance floor though, rather, on the floor before the dance floor. Last time I checked smoke rises, but who am I to judge? We danced the night away and I even tried some of my spanish on a local, Ariel. Shoutout to Mo for all of those helpful spanish lessons! I was able to roughly communicate but that was more than enough for him. He offered to take Tash and I for pizza, however Edgar warned that it wasn't in a great neighborhood, so we turned back and taxied home. What a night in Havana!
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