3/11 - day 2

We woke up at our regular times which meant that we were still many hours sleep-deprived since the day before was a loooong day. Even though we didn't change time zones (a very nice benefit!), we had still been up for over 18 hours.

Breakfast was included in the price of our room, so we went down to find an extravagant breakfast buffet. Knowing what the Cuban people generally eat, it was a little embarrassing. That said, we avoided the fresh cut fruit and the fresh-squeezed juices because of warnings about unpotable water.

We asked Cultural Cuba to book us a bike tour around Havana so our first activity was to drive to the bike shop and get set up on our bikes. 

Here's the bike shop, Velo Cuba.

It was a little funny that we had garage-sale bikes. But Cuba is a poor country, so the bikes were old but completely functional. Walter had a mountain bike. I had a women's hybrid. Mike had something a little closer to a touring bike.

Since Cultural Cuba arranged the ride, and perhaps because they felt responsible for our safety, our van (a state-owned taxi), followed behind us while we rode. It was a little disconcerting to always hear a motor vehicle behind us thinking it would soon pass us or run us off the road.

Our tour guide was a young 20-something named William (probably Guillermo). He was trained as a teacher, but as we found out later, many Cubans trained as teachers could make more money as tour guides than as teachers. Those specializing in English could transition easily.

We passed an arch for Chinatown and I asked for a detour, so we ducked in and walked a block or two. Here he is saying a few words about the Chinese in Cuba. It would have been interesting to eat in one of the restaurants to see what the food was like. 

We passed some portapotties and I had to pee, so we stopped at a coffee shop on our way back to the bike shop. There were no public bathrooms around, but it wouldn't be a bike ride without a stop at a coffee shop anyway.

We covered a lot more ground on bikes than we would have on a walking tour.

Here's what we did: https://www.strava.com/activities/8697529183 

In the afternoon, we went to the Museo Nacional de Bella Artes.

Here's Omar giving us a tour.

We went to a small gallery across the street where I saw a couple of interesting pieces.

Recharge your brain? Acquiring knowledge?

Sometime during the day, we passed this piece. It's hard to know how tall this is without a person in the picture to provide scale, but it was probably 20' tall.

We walked back on a street famous for its graffiti. I would call it street art.

I liked this next one because it was on a garage door and not a flat wall.

This next one is by Azul, a female artist.

He took us to another rooftop restaurant for dinner that was supposed to be the best place in town. 

More stairs.

We met some Americans at the airport while we were waiting in line and had a nice chat. We ran into them again at the restaurant for lunch. More chatting. They were at the same restaurant for dinner and when we walked in, the guy in their party came over and gave me a big hug like we were long-lost friends. I gave him my card and maybe we'll connect when we're home. Maybe not.

Joining us for dinner was a local entrepreneur who spoke to us about changes in the economy. Cuba is slowly transitioning into an economy that allows small private businesses in certain industries because they are simply more efficient than being run by the state. Even in a small country, the bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace. 

I really liked their bathroom.