Arriving in Cuba

Looking out over the dilapidated Havan skyline to the ocean, fantastic old cars passing noisily beneath our window, we giggled tiredly at the events of our first day of travelling. In between 16 hours of travel time we had had a few glitches.

The first came when we almost missed our connecting plane in Madrid. The flight from Heathrow was a little late, and we had failed to understand the Spanish instructions to help us make our connection (get off at the back onto a special bus) so we got off the front with everyone else, only to find we were at completely the wrong end of the wrong terminal. Glancing at the boarding card I estimated 15 minutes to make it! A cold sweat descended as we realised missing this flight could ruin our entire Cuba trip! Adrenaline kicked in as we raced down 2km of walkays, corridoors, escalators, lifts and 1 small train. Breathless, I confronted the lady at the boarding gate, waving my ticket at her. She made the internationally-recognised gesture for 'calm-the-hell-down', and explained that boarding would begin shortly. We had misread the boarding time on the ticket as the flight time. With very red faces, we joined the other waiting passengers and laughed at our own stupidity.

Once we had survived the flight and customs at Havana airport (very serious) we took a taxi to Havana itself - should take around 30 mins. I was feeling especially pleased with myself for having negotiated a fare with the driver in Spanish. However, we were unprepared for the Playstation-style auto-rampage that ensued as our driver felt it necessary to race a sporty red car along the 'race-track' that is the highway to Havana. He shouted and cackled incomprehensible Spanish at us as the clock span past 150 (kmph I hope!) and with the constant smell of burnt rubber he ran red lights, swerved past pedestrians and traffic police alike, and screeched into brake-locking drifts when confronted with cross-traffic, all before bringing us to a sudden jarring stop right outside our hotel in a bustling part of the Cuban capital. We had been geuninely terrified, and too frozen into our seats to look up 'slow down you maniac' in our phrase-books. But now it seemed fantastically silly. We lay back and wondered what else Cuba would have in store for us as we closed our eyes.