Havana In Winter – Part Two – More Of The Same With Jan & Lili

15 Dec

The second week started with more friends flying in, Jan & Lili brought much welcomed butter to Havana and joined Christian and me at our Casa bringing more life into it.

After some last minute uncertainty and a lost flight even Anthony and Maegan made it, giving me a winning bet of 5 cookies against Jan … 🙂

Also very happy to see good old friends from the US and Canada as well as the Fox brothers and the Irish contingent.

Beautiful seafront house in Jaimanitas, thanks Rob, Stuart, Andy, Keith and Cory for meeting up and the great Pizza dinner !

It was basically more of the same, fun, rum and cigars with some good meals had at Santy’s and La Foresta while showing Jan and Lili around – but also some serious themes such as visiting the Lung Kong home for the elderly in Chinatown. Very happy their bakery was going to reopen after hurricane Irma and the shortages in its wake kept them closed.

Christian had insisted I attend the Belgian National Day celebration at the Ambassador’s residence and in the end I was happy I did. Very nice affair and I had the chance to meet the new Chinese Ambassador and his wife and we spent a good hour conversing in perfect Spanish.
I had the pleasure of smoking vintage MRN cigars with his predecessor in Havana and that was just one of the topics.

We did the rounds of all the good Casas del Habano and felt specially welcome at Partagas as usual as well as with Reynaldo, always a good cafecito and a nice CR cigar and with Alex, the shooting star at the new LCDH Comodoro.

And as always the Raquel hotel lobby and a cold Mojata provided an oasis for a quiet hour or two away from the hustle and bustle – this time even at a discount as Jose, our faithful friend, received a good commission from the bartender who believed he had brought us “tourists” to the bar …

Anthony would not be so lucky as once again one of the shifts at the terrace Restaurant of the Centro Asturiano tried to swindle him and Maegan with an overpriced “tourist” Menu, pork chops being 23 CUC instead of 10 CUC.

When he complained he received a lame ass excuse about the place having a members and non-members Menu. Big lie, so be careful and don’t let them steal your money with that trick.

Christian sadly had to return home so it was just Jan, Lili and me that had the pleasure of the big party for our Cuban friends and their families at Jose’s beach house in Playas del Este.

Once again a nice pork, rice and beans feast plus good rum and better cigars and a nice pool for a quick dip.

More of the same the perfect way …. 🙂

Nino

 

 

 

 

 

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