Oh Havana. How quickly you inspire & captivate. I stayed for 6 days & didn’t want to leave. I could spend a month here alone. Or more. It’s stunning in a unique, broken down dilapidated sort of way. I aimlessly wandered the city, trying to lose myself as one often does in Venice. There is clearly a lot of investment happening in Havana as construction & rehabs pop up around every corner; though it’s since slowed as my casa owner confirmed the Trump election has resulted in a hold up of foreign funding. Sad but hopefully with time, things will settle & they’ll work it out. 
Casa = casa particular or a homestay. Essentially a large home w private rooms w baths to rent. This lodging was recommended by the travel guides as well as by word of mouth as many are nicer than the worn, tired hotels, certainly cheaper & also offer great access to local Cubans & their culture (& the money also goes to support local Cubans rather than government owned hotels which is an added bonus). My casa was fabulous – right in the heart of Habana Vieja complete w 20-ft ceilings & a balcony overlooking the street chaos below – and my casa owner was so helpful as well as enlightening on Cuban culture. He arranged for my airport pickup in a classic 1955 blue American car so he started off on a high note. 
As far as my Spanish goes, I was forced to use it a lot. First off w my airport driver – not a lick of English spoken. Most folks don’t speak it. Tourist sights have descriptions in Spanish only. Pretty refreshing. And unlike SE Asia, I actually have a clue as to what’s going on around me. I intended to take a week long Spanish course to “refresh” since freshman year in college but I was soooo busy prior to my trip, I couldn’t find time (yes I’m still enjoying my mid-life retirement but before you roll your eyes, the World Series winning Cubs’ playoff run really did keep me pretty busy). I did buy a pocket phrase book w a helpful dictionary & briefly reviewed it during my layover in Mexico City. After day 1, I realized how much better (i.e. easier) my life would be with improved conversational Spanish as I noted several instances after which I cursed myself as I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to say something. So night 1, I fell asleep quizzing myself. The nerd in me lives. 
Prior to the trip & in fact from several travelers I met in SE Asia, I heard there were still issues finding good food in Cuba as only since 2011 have private restaurants been allowed to sit more than 12 people (now max is 50) & employ non-family members in addition to the government food rations still required. This notion I can now dispute as I found some great tiny spots w amazing food & drinks including a trendy new tapas joint serving the best mojitos I’ve ever enjoyed (& of course pretty dope food too) & a tiny obscure higher-end resto whose suckling pig dish blew my mind. 
But the best part of Havana was the people & their stories, eerily often connected back to some crazy cool history from the casa owner’s friend whose driver’s dad was Fidel’s personal chauffeur to the chef of the high-end resto, whose talents I obsessed over through the open kitchen for 2 hours, & who also previously served Fidel as his personal chef. And everyone’s just so friendly, especially considering my poor Spanish skills. My go-to phrase has been “mas despacio, por favor” & they smile, slowing down to use simpler language, & politely refrain from laughing as I stumble through my reply. They don’t seem to be annoyed one bit as they happily join me for conversations about both our lives. When coming out of the tapas joint after a late lunch & a couple killer passion fruit mojitos the day after the suckling pig dinner, I ran into the suckling pig chef as he was heading to work, we laughed as he said how much he loved the food & drinks there, said I had great taste in restos & walked me to my casa, offering to squeeze me into his resto later that night. If only. I had previously promised I’d attend a pig roast hosted by my casa owner & friend so I reluctantly turned down his invitation as I knew his food would be far superior. But the pig roast turned out to be fun & afterwards, we went to see a reggae-ton show which was pretty entertaining. 
I can’t wait to bring friends back to Havana. 

El Malecon

https://youtu.be/x0RC2h-EQNk
El Malecon in the convertible passing El Hotel Nacional, an old hangout of US gangsters before the embargo back when Cuba was the American playground of the rich & famous. I had a mojito in the outside terrace at sunset overlooking el Malecon. 

https://youtu.be/YlGYu2QiUCU
Walking along el Malecon on a Saturday morning, I stumbled upon a little league baseball game. While taking pix & a video, a couple balls were missed by the catcher & I served to be such an adequate backup catcher, that the coaches asked if I officially wanted the role, so I gleefully accepted for a couple innings. It surely helped that I was wearing my Cubs baseball cap. 

https://youtu.be/95fTQYRtb8Y