Full Match Report - Cancun & Havana

So finally I get the chance to put fingers to keyboard and type up my trip report. Bloody hell life has been mad since I got back.

The flight over to Houston on Emirates’ new non-stop service was pretty good but 17 hours is a very long time to be cooped up in a cigar tube. Getting served three meals during the flight was also quite a novelty though I suspect that this would have been some people’s idea of one of Dante’s Circles of Hell.

One short night in Houston and we set off early the next morning to Cancun in the eastern-most state of Mexico. I had no real preconceptions as to what to expect in Cancun but I have to say I was horrified by what I found. The ‘hotel zone’ is a 19kms long thin strip of land with the ocean on one side and a large lagoon with mangrove swamps on the other and every single spare inch has been built on. I am not exaggerating. It is 19kms of hotel after hotel after hotel; all incredibly ugly, incredible tacky and the place is absolutely ghastly.

Cancun caters to a not very discerning American clientele and everything seems to be set at the lowest possible common denominator. Downtown Cancun is about a ten minute taxi ride from the north end of the hotel zone and is a town that has sprung up solely as a result of the hotel trade. In 30 years Cancun has grown from a tiny fishing and agricultural community into a town of 600,000 residents. The power of the mighty greenback in play.

We had one dinner out in downtown Cancun but the experience was so dire that we ate in the hotel for the rest of the time. The food was no better but we saved the cost of a taxi ride!

We struggled through our annual brainwashing and re-programming and at the end of the week, with a spring in our step we set off to Havana.

What a difference!

I had expected a bit of difficulty getting into Cuba but you booked the fight, picked up the tourist visa at the airport in Cancun for a mere US$15 and off you went. The airport in Havana was pretty good, straight through no problem and before we knew it we were careering along in an old beaten up jeep into Havana.



Whilst Havana is only a one hour flight from Cancun there is a 30 year time change. It is caught in a time warp, somehow stuck in the 70’s.



We stayed at the incredible National Hotel which used to be THE place to stay. The walls are adorned with photos of the great and the good and the hotel having been recently restored is absolutely fantastic. The hotel is situated on the cornice looking over the Caribbean Sea and only a short distance from ‘Old Havana’, the historical heart of the city.



Not having much time bags were dropped and we headed off into the Old Town. We wandered aimlessly around stopping every 100m or so for a quick mojito or cerveza and listened to the most incredible bands. The best street for this was Obispo which starts with the Café Floridita, (supposedly Hemingway’s favourite) and ends down in the Plaza de Armee.

Hemingway’s ghost was everywhere and I know he liked a drink but if he really frequented as many of the bars and restaurants as the pictures and signs indicated I seriously doubt he would have had time for any writing.



You’ll find more comments about eating in Havana on The Fat Expat but suffice to say don’t go to Cuba for the food.

Havana is a wonderful city and just wandering around the old town is fantastic, especially as there was no hassle, no one trying to sell you stuff. At night there is little street lighting and despite a pretty heavy police presence in the touristy areas and little bit of care and attention is needed.

The journey home was nothing short of epic; we left the National Hotel at 0515hrs on the morning of Monday and three flights and lots of hanging around airports later I opened my front door at 2130hrs Tuesday night.