Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, January 2012

Having been invited for a ten days' visit to Habana and Varadero, we went from Dublin to Paris in France to boarder an aircraft that would fly us to Habana.
Here were are in the Charles de Gaulle airport waiting to boarder the aircraft. McBear said it was a Boeing 747-400 Jumbo jet...

Click each photo to enlarge

In Habana, we were staying at the fabulous Hotel Parque Central in the heart of old Habana. Here we are in front of the hotel. Roger said it was a true five star hotel with roof top bar, swimming pool and...
"... and laundry facilities?", McBear was teasing.
"Stop shattering my posh visions with down-to-earth realities, you insensitive bear!" Roger was giving out.
Laughing, McBear had to take cover from Roger's excitement and they returned to the hotel as best friends.

Habana, Cuba, January 2012

It was indeed a true five star hotel! We had a lovely room with lots of space and a huge bed. McBear made an estimate that the bed could keep 450 bears warm for the night. Well, it wasn't really necessary to be kept warm as Cuba was an tropical island.

We wanted to tour around this world famous capital. Here we are at the Capitolio. It was completed in 1929 and was the tallest building in Habana at the time. But now, the monument of José Marti was considered to be the tallest.
"Considered??? Roger asked baffled. "Is it, or is it not the tallest?"
"I don't know", McBear responded. "It was our tour guide who told me...

Habana, Cuba, January 2012

We walked down the famous O'Reilly street in the old part of Habana and went for a visit to the O'Reilly café, the Irish pub. It was here in 2007, Tom had learned how to make Mojitos... It was also here that the world famous writer Ernest Hemmingway used to spend many hours enjoying the upstairs of the café.

Habana has lots of old buildings in the colonial style including the famous Habana Cathedral. The official name is Catedral de la Virgen María de la Concepción Inmaculada de La Habana and it was completed in 1777.

McBear is into old US cars big time and Cuba has thousands of old US cars from before the Cuban revolution in 1959. We hired a goverment taxi to take us around Habana.
Wow, it was a fine old taxi. McBear said it was a Chevrolet 1957. McBear and Roger had a chat with our driver, Enrique.

Habana, Cuba, January 2012

Enrique showed us a lot and told us a lot about Habana. Here we are enjoying the back seats.

Next morning we went by hop on-hop off bus to the Castillo do Los Tres Reyes del Morro which is an old fort. It was aimed at protecting the city from invasion from the sea.
We went up to the top of a tall wall to be able to view the skyline of Habana. It was very windy at the top. One of our humans was afraid Roger or Tom might be blown away, so they were told to stay in the bag.

La Cabaña, Habana, Cuba, January 2012

We also went to the La Cabaña. The fortress was finished in 1774 next to the older fortress the Morro. It is actually the largest fort in the Americas. It was here Che Guevara had his office after the revolution.

Both McBear, being a supporter of freedom, and Roger, being a charismatic star, could identify themselves with Che Guevara and they wanted to visit Che's office at the La Cabana. Here we are in the office. Apart from a large painting of Che at the back wall, there were no photos of Che.

"Well, I suppose it's not necessary with photos of Che Guevara", Roger pointed out. "I mean, with 9 billion T-shirts produced world wide with Che's face on the front, people probably know what he looks like...