Havana, Cuba is today one of the most progressive cities of the Western
Hemisphere a bird's-eye view of the city reveals the many landmarks of his
progress and growth
good day first world travellers and welcome back today I am in Havana Cuba and in this
video I'm exploring the central area and also Old Havana an area full of color
full of history full of architecture and most of all full of the amazing old
style cars that you see driving around everywhere in Havana so on that note
let's go so welcome to a very sunny Monday morning in Havana Cuba I am in
the central area just down the road from the Capitol building which is one of the
key monuments in central Havana but first of all let's just talk about the
cars because let's face it that's probably the reason you've come to this video and
it is one of the main things you think of when you think of Havana or Cuba in
general so why these cars here why are there old style American Buicks and
dodges etc driving around here so in a nutshell is all through the Cuban
Revolution Che Guevara Fidel Castro's the embargo that America placed on Cuba and
the nuclear missile as a result of all of this they basically couldn't import
cars into the country from elsewhere but there is one thing that I am didn't
expect to be honest so as well as the old American Cars there's a lot of old
Soviet Union cars and this is as a result of the relationship that Cuba
had with the Soviet Union at that time just look up a nuclear missile crisis
hey man Cubans are very interested in what I'm doing by the way
yeah and the thing around these cars is when you look online I think that you
see them all looking in immaculate condition these are generally like the
taxis me like unregistered unmetered taxis you can get everywhere all the
vehicles that you can do a tour in I'll put some details down below some companies
but the great thing as well is that you walk around especially in the less
well-off areas and you see all these hard drive around and they are in the
condition you would think they would be in you know considering they are you
know 70/80 years old which is amazing and you know a lot of people talk about
Havana as being a time wzrp place that's exactly what it is and the cars are just
one aspect of that there's so many more aspects which I'll go into in other
videos now I'm going to share with you a money saving tip especially if you're a
long-term budget traveler like me and you're not staying in a resort across
the road from the capital building are some amazing places down here where you
can get some food paying with the local Cuban currency and I'm going to cover
the two currencies in another video so basically down here you've got a place
we can get a burger or a Cuban pesos you can get an ice-cream for one Cuban peso
and another place just there the drinks place one at Cuban peso for a little
glass of fizzy drink basically and I'll put the equivalent in u.s. dollars etc
down the bottom as you can see is monumental and extremely affordable
if you come to these sorts of places and if you're prepared to pay with the local
currency and in terms of getting around this area in terms of taxis there's a
number of difficulties you've got so as I mentioned the old American cars are
one full of taxi there is the black and yellow cab which most likely would have
got in the airport there's the small little yellow Coco tax even also like a
bike one as well also horses so there's numerous options the thing to remember
about this is that I've yet to find when we put any sort of meter so it's
important that you decide on the price you agree on the price before you even
get in the taxi because you don't want to get scammed
I've been lucky so far you don't have an issue but you know you just grab you
wits about you
we're now taking a walk to Old Havana the home of color the home of colonial
architecture museums restaurants art galleries and more let's take a look
around okay I'm in this Plaza and I've just got this amazing ice-cream at that
little place over there it's actually in a coconut shell and it's lemon flavor
there's lots of different ones like chocolate things like that yes it's too
convertible pesos or $2 but I'm in a tourist area and that's what you expect
this isn't stunning it's probably some of the best ice feeling I've ever had the
lemon taste is stunning stunning stunning stunning I need to think of other
adjectives it's beautiful two pesos for this there is tons it looks like a
half coconut shell the lemon taste is beautiful
so shall we or just this is heaven I could literally spend all day in this
part a leotard cream you've got all these awesome buildings different colors
you've got any classical music in a building up there this is lovely this is
why I travel okay it's awesome just leave me here eating ice cream all day I'll
be fine see you in the next video
when you get to the old town there is a really helpful map up here so some of
the areas that I will point out will be plaza de san francisco number 15 there
we go that's where we are now the one underneath is where we had the ice cream
and I'm going to go to Plaza de Armas which is another famous area in Old
Havana and as you can see there's so many cathedrals churches all sorts of
stuff you can see around here amazing architecture is off the scale and over
there of course we have some more cars now something's happened oh I didn't
expect this face Old Havana really reminds me of somewhere that I've been
previously on my channel or can you guess where it's Sorrento Italy largely
because of the European style building to the colors of the buildings the kind
of shots are around the plazas that are everywhere and the fact that it's near
the sea it's feels completely like Sorrento and the fact that I've had
ice cream has arrived remember that video I overdose on ice cream this area
is just stunning I could walk around here forever there's so many places to
go there's also a couple of museums which
I'm going to investigate next up now a car sitting on us one of
the key areas at Old Havana what I'm gonna work out
Cuba music in the background at a restaurant over there this is stunning
then there's an archaeology Museum there's a rum Museum there's a Planetarium
mop there that I can't find but one of the lesser-known museums is you can't
see my face now but never mind it's the Museo del chocolate yes chocolate is in and
you might know that I went to one in Mexico and you can check out up above
I'll link it in a card to be honest with you there's no probably going in there
to show you anything because it's like a cafe with an attached to display areas
I'm not sure that the history of chocolate in Cuba compared to the
history of chocolate in Mexico but you know it's a no interesting museum to go
to you and the smell of it in there is amazing you can smell the chocolates
it's beautiful so yeah there's lots of museums you can
go to I might head to the run Museum now check that out so the rum Museum
doesn't exist either so I've come to where Maps me told me there's a couple
of restaurants one looks like an abandoned building or some sort of
police building I don't know yeah Ron Museum doesn't exist if you know where
it is please tell me in the comments so I found the mysterious Rum Museum it was
one of the bars other thing about our restaurant it's seven CUC to get in
it's with a guided tour only and you can't video so I'm gonna go in I'll let
you know how he is after
okay I've come somewhere a little bit quieter to describe the rum use in it
was awesome I would absolutely recommend coming here when you're in Havana so I'm
not normally one for guided tours but this one was informative it was
interesting it was about an hour I suppose I think I'm kind of I've lost
concept of time because I've been drinking rum only a little bit but it
tells you all about the production of sugarcane and molasses which you can
actually taste it's like um it's like a licorice stroke treacle syrup kind of
mixture very nice and you see like a model factory fermentation distillation
see I've been learning today and one thing that I realized was there's so
many different types of Cuban rum is loads of them and the most expensive one
is about $1,700 for a bottle when it's between 50 and 100 years old in terms of
aging this is amazing this is what travel is about it's about learning
things so just a couple of things you do have to book this tour potentially I did
just walk in I had to wait about an hour because the next English tour was
an hour later and it cost seven cook or seven dollars effectively so when yeah
wonderful so I hope you've enjoyed having a look around Old Havana I
certainly have I love Havana it's awesome next up is a
very special video then there's a video from new Havana and also an obligatory
Havana advice and tips video so stay tuned for that and if you want to catch
those videos don't forget to subscribe thanks for watching catch you later