It is a five 5 hour drive back to Havana. We stop briefly for a comfort break and arrive back at our hotel at 14.00 having been told that is when our rooms will be ready. That is not the case and we are told to wait until 16.00. This is really annoying as we want to go for lunch without carrying loads of kit around and have a final shoot in Havana. We can leave our suitcases with the concierge but it does means carrying full backpacks around in the mid-day heat. Less than ideal.

People have different plans for the afternoon but a group of us head back to what we call the LP bar. It has a music theme and all the table mats are LP mock-ups. The food and company is good. Fully sated we set off for one last photography session.

The light is perfect and I decide to set myself the challenge showing the essence of Havana using light and shadow. I felt I failed in this when we first arrived so have something to prove to myself and I am delighted with the results.

My new room has a great view of the pool, which looks inviting…

… but I do not have time for such niceties. I have photos to analyse before our presentation. We meet on the 2nd floor lobby for a final review. We all have completely different styles and without exception everyone has made tremendous progress and met their personal goals.

Matt has told us we are going to a very special restaurant for dinner. He is not wrong. It is THE place to go and be seen in Havana. We enter the building through a courtyard with a sweeping staircase.

We climb right to the top storey where there is a magnificent roof-top bar with great views over the city.

Our table is not ready so we order cocktails and enjoy the ambience. What a great last night. Now the problem with swanky restaurants is that they have swankier prices. By UK standards it was still not hugely expensive but by Cuban standards it was. Our bar bill alone was more than the cost of previous night’s meals and drinks.

This led to a problem when ordering food as people had not brought enough money out with them. In the knowledge that credit cards are generally not accepted and it is hit and miss whether credit cards, US$ or Euros will be acceptable, I took them all out with me, so did not have a problem. Not everyone did likewise and some people could not pay their bill. I will not bore you with the minutiae of the problem but settling the bill took easily over an hour and somehow I ended up being the accountant for the evening. Not easy as the alcohol had been flowing!!  

I certainly needed more when we left the restaurant! I will say that the food was very good indeed.

The important thing to know about Cuba is that things don’t always go according to plan and you need to be flexible. But it is just the most amazing country with so much to offer the open minded traveller. I shall return….