Day 10 - Thursday, December 12th, 2013 - Vinales - Havana

Bus is leaving at 7:30, so we got up around 6:30, packed, ate our usual breakfast and walked up to the bus pickup area. Slept a bit on the bus, got a little rain. Found a man willing to take us near the Tropicana and look for a casa particular to stay in. He was very nice, stopped to change more money on the way. The first casa was full, but the lady was very nice and pointed us to another about 3 blocks away.

 The lady that met us was called Leidy. She is 6 months pregnant, has a very nice accommodation for us for 35 CUC per night. It is also a short walk to the Tropicana show we want to see tonight, so it saves us on a cab fare, and it's away from the downtown area that neither of us were fond of. Pretty perfect.

We walked up to the Tropicana to buy tickets early and we had a couple beers each. No real plans today, just a chill day, and the show isn't until 10pm. Pretty late for an event in Cuba, from our experience. After a couple of beers, we found a lunch spot not far away and got Rachel's beef fix temporarily subsided. We had a burger and lasagna.

After that, back to the casa for a 3 hour nap and some Matt & Rachel time. We gave each other massages, showered, and got ready for the show with plenty of time to spare.

We got ready and walked to the Tropicana. The sight was impressive. A lot of neon. A '57 fully restored Ford Fairlane parked outside. We had purchased the best tickets in the house. We were escorted to the front table, right by the stage and we were met by our two tablemates. They were from Spain, one of them visited Cuba regularly because of his business relationship with a manufacturing plant in eastern Cuba. They were great. His friend was an animated man who was very excited. It was his first time at the Tropicana as well. Our tickets included ½ bottle of rum, a can of cola each, a sparkling wine starter, and some nut snacks.

 The show was great, very fancy. Big costumes and good choreographed dancing. After the main part of the show, our friends parted. The next part was all male dancers, and they said, “I think this part of the show is for the gays.” It was a small dance part, then they invited the crowd up to dance onstage, country by country. They didn't call the U.S., but we found ourselves up there anyway. We danced and drank until fairly late. We headed back to the house and smoked a Cuban cigar on the walk back.

For photos from this trip click here.