Havana Night Life.....

Our first stop for the evening was at a well recommended paladar, Ivan Chef Justo, in Old Havana.
Our greeting at the top of the stairs!

 ...lots of old photos and posters around the walls.....

 ...the menu choice is from the blackboard....... a little difficult to read!

The food was quite good but we felt it was a little over rated as the service was extremely slow and there were large tour groups who were getting preferential service!

Cute place though..

Our nice driver...

 and classic car was waiting for us after we had dinner......

 ......to take us to the Fabrica de Arte Cubana.......

 I had read about this place in an article in the Guardian....and it seemed fascinating!

It was!!

We arrived to a classical concert which was great...

......had we known there was food and drink to be bought there we would not have bothered to go elsewhere for dinner........ we would have just snacked on arrival.

One pays just $2 to get in......any food/drink is discretionary....

After the concert ended we wandered around the gallery....

 This door panel describes rather accurately most cars we were driven around in!

 .....all shapes and sizes.......and yes I do have close ups!

This was an old oil mill.....transformed.......

..... even when we were leaving there were still lots of people arriving.  Definitely one of the 'IN' places to be!

Wandering around in Old Havana........

The difference between one street and the next in Old Havana was amazing..... beautiful, renovated buildings in some streets and some very decayed ones in others.  Presumably UNESCO money has been put to good use.....not necessarily for the poorer people who live there...but they are trying to preserve the buildings, or at least the facades. Also apparently the profits received from the State hotel group is going towards renovating Old Havana.

Typical traffic problem...... outside the Raquel Hotel!

...which has a beautiful stained glass ceiling.....

...the number of beautiful buildings was amazing..... which must have meant Old Havana was superb in its heyday....

.....most with interior courtyards......

This was the  original house of Representatives........ until the Capitolio was opened in 1929.....

Straying down towards the dock areas it was at first OK.......

.... passing the Dos Hermanos ......

favoured by......

...then around the corner it deteriorated rapidly......

...so I decided a quick return to the area around the hotel we were staying in was in order  and discovered the Chocolate Museum just around the corner ........

 .. a  delightful place to spend some time even if one does not like chocolate drinks.... which were only $1 a glass with biscuit!

...the modern moulds were there....

 .....with the finished product for sale.....

and so were the older moulds....

and it had lots of old posters......