Post #775635 by mikehooker on Thu, May 4, 2017 11:44 AM

Can't wait to see how your trip varied from mine, Ace.

Late April in Havana is warm. Very warm. And humid. Thankfully it's very inexpensive to keep hydrated. The state run convenience stores sell 1.5L water bottles for just 1 CUC. We went through a ton of them. Still the constant sun exposure was exhausting so each day after a few hours of exploring we found ourselves returning to the casa for a spritz and siesta while we waited for it to cool off.

Our next destination was a somewhat lengthy walk for ice cream at the Parque Coppelia.

We came upon an entrance and waited in a line. When we were allowed to go forward to the counter they informed us they only accept CUP, the local currency. We asked where we could pay in CUC and they pointed somewhere around the corner. We got in another line which evidently was to go upstairs. (Below pic stolen from the web)

I really wish we would have gone up there cuz it looks freakin' awesome. But we were utterly confused as to where we were supposed to go and desperately in need of ice cream in our belly so we moved on. Finally we found a small area that accepted CUC and went to town on some pineapple ice cream.

The Habana Libre (formerly Havana Hilton) was directly across the street. It had some amazing design aspects including the 16 million tile mosaic.

And fun ceiling.

But our motivation lie elsewhere. Down in the basement.

We sat at the bar and Oswaldo greeted us with menus. Hey, those look familiar!

We got to talking and before you know it he brought out a bunch of goodies from his collection to show us.

The self proclaimed "Tiki Man" gave us the grand tour, showing off his "son," this Barney West carved tiki that is signed on the bottom.

The former Trader Vic's is an immaculate time capsule with so much wonderful eye candy.

And of course the Chinese ovens.

We had three rounds of drinks. Everyone's favorite was the Pirata, which is a twist on a Pina Colada and served in a newly manufactured skull mug (picture eludes me right now).

EDIT: Picture FOUND!

I forget what it's called on the menu, but their equivalent of a Fog Cutter was pretty good as well. You might want to avoid the Mai Tai which comes out red.

The secret ingredient of the Pirata is the coconut liqueur which is very fragrant. We scoured the city endlessly in search of a bottle. We saw every other flavor variation imaginable from Mulata and had finally given up the search until alas, in our final hour in Havana, sitting on the shelf at Duty Free...

That's all for now folks. The next days adventure awaits.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2017-05-06 10:59 ]