The Dainty Traveller

Tarara is a resort town in the municipality of Habana del Este in Havana, Cuba. It is about 15 to 20 minutes outside of the Havana city centre. It is a very relaxed beautiful beach. There is a beach club located before you reach the beach where you can pay to use the pools and bar. The bathrooms are free to use, however there is usually no toilet paper or soap and one of the toilets did not flush. On the beach there is a hut style cafe that serves soft drinks, water, alcoholic beverages, and cafeteria food like burgers and french fries. Also there is a man that frequents the beach selling hot tamales. The day we went to the beach it was very windy, too windy to swim. There was a red flag posted in the sand and the life guard warned us to only dip our feet because the waves were so strong and the undercurrent was dangerous. Other than the wind and the fact we couldn't go in the water (the water was really cold that day) we had a very fun, relaxing, hot and sunny beach day! ...

It is quite a fun way to see Havana. You go to parque Central (Central Park) which is located in Old Havana. The cars are all lined up beside each other. They are quite stunning, like a rainbow. The drivers will tell you it costs 35 CUC, but do not pay more than 30. Bargaining is the way of life for a tourist in Cuba. They will accept 30, because the drivers are very friendly and polite. We, like most people ended up paying more than 30 because we wanted to leave a tip. There are three different options you can choose for the tour. The first is around Old Havana. The second is a drive to the beautiful suburb of Miramar. The third is to Moro, a beautiful colonial military fortress. We choose the third option. On our way to Moro, we drove through old Havana, passed the fire station, the San Jose Craft Market, the sea port, the Malecon, the Jesus Statue and then we ended up at El Moro. 

This restaurant is just a five minute walk from Habana Libre Hotel or Hotel Nacional. It is in the neighbourhood of Vedado. We ate here almost every day. Clean, good service, and tasty food. Our favourite item on the menu were the tostones (fried green plantains) topped with shredded beef or tuna and cheese. Very yummy. 

It all seemed fine and normal when we checked in. We got to the airport super early and were some of the first people checked on to the flight. My mother has knee problems and I am very tall so we asked the lady to make sure we were seated in the front of the plane. She said "don't worry you are way up in row 9 and you'll be fine". We thanked her, went through security, waited by our gate and then boarded the plane. The spaces between the seats on the CUBANA airplanes are EXTREMELY SMALL. I mean smaller than average (I will never say anything bad about Air Canada or Delta again, I didn't know how good I had it). I mean your knees, even if you are short or average height, instantly hit the seat in front of you. Then because we were in row 9 and behind was row 10, which is the emergency exit, seats in row 9 are not allowed to recline back. What kind of nonsense is that? So everyone on the plane started pushing their seats back. You can't blame them, because th...