Recently I did a post talking about my arrival and first day in Cuba. Today I’m going to talk about the rest of my time spent on this lovely island. During my time in Havana I stayed a Hostel Casa Caribe Havana  a place I would highly recommend to any budget travelers. It’s about a 20ish minute walk from Havana Vieja, and was clean and cheap. During my stay I saw four other travelers both coming and leaving during my four day stay. I loved the ladies who worked/lived at the hostel and spent hours chatting with them. I was also able to exchange money with one of them, and even though it was a bit of an ordeal because of timing I was a much better rate than the banks.

Whenever I go to a new place I always try to walk everywhere. I want to see and explore the city and find that I’m able to best accomplish this by walking. I walked all over Havana Vieja and explored the crumbing alleyways. I highly recommend visiting the Museum of the Revolution, it’s not massive but definitely offered a completely different perspective then I’ve ever seen on the Cuban Revolution. I also tried to go to Bellas Artes and the Castles but be warned they were CLOSED on MONDAYS. Whenever I return, because I do plan on going back, I will make sure to hit the museums and castles I missed.

I also did a hop-on, hop-off bus which was nice to give me an idea of the city however, looking back I wish I would have paid a bit more to do the old car tour. It’s essentially the exact same tour, but you have your own personal tour guide and are supporting the local people.

One of my top “must do” items was to dance Cuban Salsa. After spending 3 months going to daily salsa classes I was excited to show my moves in the “motherland” unfortunately every place that I went to was closed. If you are planning a trip to Cuba and want to dance salsa here’s what I learned”

• Fabrica de Arte is really popular/famous but was closed when I was there
• Casa de la musica for the center is also closed but I was told to check out Miramar
• After talking with a bunch of locals I was told Reggaton has taken over the younger generation and if I wanted to dance salsa I would have more luck going to Trinidad.

All in all I really enjoyed my trip to Cuba. I have never been to a place that has felt so full of live and love. When the sun starts to go down, and the heat no longer is beating on your face the streets and parks fill with people eager to play with their neighbors; be that kids playing dice, abuelas gossiping in chairs, or the old man feeding the chicken.