Return to Havana.......to the Hotel Ambos Mundos

We had intended to stay in a Casa Particular, the Casa Blanca, when we returned to Havana. The place looked delightful online and I am sure it would have been.....however after we passed it a few times on the Malecon we weren't sure about staying there...........

It says there are sea views from two bedrooms....but as there was only one  window on the side wall and the front ones would be the living room space.... it looked as though the bedrooms were on the floor above and  we were going to have to climb up 2 floors ...... quite a climb, with suitcases.
We had not appreciated before being in Havana how high the ceilings of most buildings are......first floor meant usually going up to a height of 20+ feet......
So we cancelled! But only after having a definite booking at a hotel in Old Havana.....which was difficult as all were sold out!
Apparently, since the beginning of the year, hotel bookings there are up 250%, as tourists want to see Havana before it changes!
 We would have been happy to return to our first hotel the Palacio San Felipe..... however it was fully booked and therefore not a  possibility!
Our only choice, because of last minute cancellations, ended up being either a Junior suite at the Saratoga.....very, very expensive...or the Ambos Mundos.
We knew exactly where the Ambos Mundos was located and it was half the price, 1CUC=$1

 ..... so we elected to take that reservation. And when we saw the location of the Saratoga, which is not centrally located in Old Havana,we were happy with our decision!
The Hotel Ambos Mundos was where Ernest Hemingway stayed while he started writing 'For whom the bell tolls'....... he actually stayed there for 7 years!

We were in the room next door......

...the room was quite nice, if a little tight! But that may have been because we had been in a huge room the prior two nights!

However the room Hemingway had occupied was on the tourist route.....
so getting on the very old 90 year Otis elevator was a challenge......

mitigated by the tour guides who persuaded their tourists to walk up 5 floors......and presumably end up in the roof bar for a mojito!

Judging by the crowd in the downstairs bar they needed one also when they got back to the ground floor.......

The bar area was delightful after the day tours finished.....

 ... with music......

The room in the hotel was absolutely fine......and the roof area for breakfast was great....... an outdoor room with a view....

On our last day, when we woke up in the morning, we had no water...absolutely none!
We thought we would have some water after breakfast.......NADA!
And by the time 'check out' arrived still no water to the hotel! We felt sorry for the people checking in.......
But we did see a delivery of water just down the street in the afternoon......

The delivery was  to the Paladar Los Mercaderes, where we had eaten  twice...... definitely to be recommended!
Apparently the lack of water affected the whole of Old Havana and it is not an unusual occurence to have water delivered.......

Around the corner from the hotel we found a delightful coffee place.....

Those of you who know me will realise why we found it interesting! I mentioned to the waiter why we were enticed to come in and his response was...'Is that a real name'!!!

It had been delightfully restored....

They roast their own coffee ......

 and as the coffee was great we couldn't resist buying some coffee beans to take home!

We did return to try the Daiquiri O'Reilly and the Mojicafe!  Good but not as good as the normal version!

Varadero......to live like the Duponts.... in the Mansion Xanadu...

We decided that we would return to staying in hotels after our 7 day stint of staying in Casa Particulares. Varadero as a beach area seemed interesting once I found that the du Pont mansion is now being run as a very small 8 room hotel, the Mansion Xanadu!  All the other hotels there seem to be 300+ roomed complexes on an 'All Inclusive' basis! Too large for us!

The house was splendid!

We were booked in on a 'semi inclusive' basis....breakfast and dinner.  The only choice!
Which was fine as it is considered the best choice of restaurant in the area.
Casual lunch was possible next door at the Varadero golf 19th hole!

Arriving at the door of our room we felt like the owner's guest..... it didn't look as though anything had been changed since the DuPonts left after the revolution.....

...the room itself was enormous...

...with a walk in dressing room.....

...and a very large bathroom......probably larger than the casa particular room we had stayed in the night before! The walls were Carrara marble up to around 7 feet! The large bath looked very inviting....until we discovered that the taps didn't work! There appears to be a lack of plumbers/plumbing supplies in present day Cuba!

We had a superb view from our balcony.....

.....particularly at sunset...

and the view from the roof bar was also great!

.....as were the mojitos!!

The main rooms were quite formal........ but in a beautifully preserved condition....

The original dining room now seems to be reserved for private parties..... or perhaps for windy days when eating on the terrace is not possible....

...the original name Xanadu was from the DuPont era......

We obviously had dinner there both nights as we had prepaid for it..... and the food was indeed excellent.

and we definitely could not say 'no' to dessert as it was included!

We were surprised that we were not restricted on what we could choose to eat from the menu...the lobster was very good .....and it was an expensive choice......

we were, of course, serenaded at dinner..... this seems to happen in just about every restaurant in Cuba!

Service at breakfast was a little slow!

but we weren't in a hurry..... given the view....

The original Otis lift was still working......most of the time....

as long as one closed the doors......

The beach just beside the house was also very nice...it was serviced by the  Melia Las Americas.....

......just past the jetty where the DuPonts, arriving from Florida, used to dock....

....and where they had a spectacular view of their home on arrival......

We did check out the Melia complex...mainly to use their internet, sadly the Xanadu didn't run to wifi!
We would have liked to have a drink from the bar at the Melia as everyone was traipsing around with a mojito in hand!  However there was no possibility of  external guests buying as everyone there had free access to all they could drink.... we definitely didn't want to draw attention to ourselves and  be turned out before we had checked our email!