Cuba Bound: Day 5

Yesterday with Marisela's help we worked out to hire the 1937 car for about 4 or 5 hours so we could go see Fusterlandia and a few other places that we wanted to check off our list. Amazingly the price was going to be $15 CUC an hour to have a car take us pretty much anywhere we wanted and wait for us while we toured the sites. Fusterlandia is a neighborhood where an artist named José Rodríguez Fuster has slowly transformed it by doing his art all over the houses and walkways. It is one of the things that I cannot begin to describe so I will just let the pictures do the talking.

The car arrived at 9 and the driver apologized that the car we wanted was being repaired but he had a friend that had agreed to take us and he would also come along and be our unofficial unofficial tour guide. So now we had a 50's car and two people for 15 CUC an hour. Although we were disappointed in the car it was still a great deal and we were glad that the same friendly driver that we knew was coming along for the ride. Julie found a cool restaurant for breakfast and we headed out. The restaurant was called the Cafe ArcAngel. It was yet another place with a really cool vibe and a great breakfast menu. We had a leisurely breakfast and when we finished we walked out to our waiting car and headed to Fusterlandia. It was about 30 minutes away and the way that we went took us up the Malecon. The Malecon is the roadway that goes along the seawall in Havana. It is beautiful in just about every way. Our ride eventually took us down embassy road which has just about every embassy lined up next to each other. It was really cool to see and I am glad that we got to go through it. We were totally enjoying the ride when all of a sudden we were being pulled over by the police. I think we all had a brief flash of being locked up in a Cuban prison.......one that were pretty sure would night serve Mojitos and play cool Cuban music. Anyway our two drivers got their paper work to together and went to go talk to the police. The police had actually pulled two cars at the same time. We all sat there talking about what if anything we should do. We even discussed making a run for it but decided that with Dad's running ability we would probably be apprehended about three and half feet from the car. After about ten minutes our drivers came back and said it was just a routine road check. So we were off again and soon we arrived at Fusterlandia.

When we walked into the entrance we were all amazed at how much detail was needed to create every piece of artwork. But as we walked into the neighborhood we were overwhelmed by how much there was. It went on and on. We toured it for a little over an hour and then headed out to the Marina de Hemingway. There were all kids of yachts and we walked up and down the rows just checking out the boats and talking to a few of the boat owners. Tim and I were secretly hoping that someone had diet coke on board and would share but unfortunately there was none to be had. After hanging out at the Marina we decided to go see the John Lennon Memorial. We had heard that it was a cool park and since we are fans we wanted to go check it out. We had also heard that there was a statue of John Lennon sitting on a bench and that they had had a problem with taking his glasses from time to time so now there was someone that was paid to put them on for pictures and to guard them from theft.

After about a 20 minute drive we arrived and got out and took some pictures. Because this was a popular spot we there were also a lot of taxi's there. It was fun just checking out all of the cars. By this time it was getting close to lunch so we had our drivers take us back to Old Havana and drop us off. We thanked them for a great time and were back in familiar territory once again. We checked on a few restaurants and decided we wanted to go back to Bar Montserrat. We got a table and soon found out that they were out of just about everything. Oh well just tell us what you do have and we will make do. We all found something to eat and enjoyed another Cuban band. After lunch we strolled down Obisbo street and looked in a few of the shops. Finally about we headed back to our room in a beautiful red convertible. As we headed out we got pulled by the police again. The driver went to talk to them and this time there was military police involved as well. Since we knew running was not an option we enjoyed our extra time in this beautiful car. After about 10 minutes the driver came back and said that he had been going too fast. keep in mind that most of the speedometers do not work in these cars so I am not sure how they maintain their speed. We found out later that they were having some government meetings and security had been increased in the area.

Finally we arrived home and Tim did some work while the rest of us napped and figured out where to go to dinner. I had read about a place called Meson Sancha Panza so we decided to all walk down and check it out while Tim finished up a few calls. It was about three blocks away and looked great so we made a reservation for 7 and headed back to the room. One thing that is cool in Havana when you make a reservation you actually pick your table as well. So we all headed down at 7 and had yet another great meal. We ended up having one last drink at a Bar named Wahoo's which was very close to our home. We deided to call it a night knowing that tomorrow would be a busy travel day and we had high hopes that the good ole USA would welcome us back with open arms.