This morning as our welcome orientation to Havana we have a tour of the city in classic cars. But before this, we start the day with a hearty breakfast in the chic hotel restaurant, which also has great views of El Malacon (the seafront).

On the way back to my room I sneak a preview of the rooftop pool, which also has great views.

Parked outside the hotel are four shiny open top classic cars – two pink, one green and one purple. We choose our car and set off. What fun!

We cruise past the Capitol building….

…and into Revolution Square, where we stop for a brief photo opportunity.

We swap cars and head on around Havana. I am surprised by the number of leafy, green avenues and the juxtaposition of modern buildings butting up to the crumbling relics of former grandeur. We park on El Malacon. The wind is strong and large waves are crashing over the promenade wall. There has obviously been a big storm out at sea but the weather in Havana is currently exactly what you would expect in the Caribbean – hot and sunny!

We arrive back at the hotel feeling eager now to explore Havana on foot. We set off for lunch and our first assignment.

Matt, our tutor leads us to a little restaurant tucked away in the cobbled back streets. He shows us his accommodation which is opposite the restaurant and pretty basic. Certainly not as nice as our plush hotel. We settle outside and order lunch. The service is terrible but eventually the drinks turn up and they actually were worth waiting for. My caipirinha is quite excellent.

My delicious caipirinha

We are then let loose to wander the shabby streets and try and capture the essence of Cuba. I am like a child in a sweet shop. This city is an assault on the senses and I take far too many pictures with little thought of composition or the assignment in hand. Surprisingly, amongst my aimless clicking, there are some keepers.

This has been a long day and it is not over yet. We have a short time to freshen up before drinks on the rooftop terrace at 18.00 followed by dinner at Casa Migles – a Swedish/Cuban restaurant. We have high hopes as we enter the the restaurant and are shown to our table. This is a grand old building with unusual artwork. For example a wrench hung on the wall with a frame hung around it. There were also cups and saucers, saucepans etc given the same treatment. How cool?

The reality was that from a huge menu there were no starters available and only 3 main courses left. I opt for the fish with potatoes. It feels like a safe option. How wrong can a girl be? What I received was a grey piece of dry fish with half a boiled potato and it turns out that half of that was black and inedible. I feel that eating out will not be the highlight of the holiday! On a plus side the mojitos were excellent and as it was Eleanor’s birthday we consumed a few.

We return to the hotel and head straight to the bar. We learned last night that the bartenders have little cocktail making prowess and the safest option is to drink beer and Cuba libres. Everyone is very willing to buy rounds and as the drink is on the inexpensive side, we probably consume slightly more than we should. There is a theme here! We are joined by an annoying local who makes out that he is staying at the hotel and is an artist. Well he is certainly an artist – of the con variety. His main aim is to try chatting us up, talk bullshit and see if he can extract drinks from us. He is like one of those annoying flies that you can’t get rid of, continually buzzing around your ears. It takes a good hour but eventually he gets the message.