Day 2: Restaurante El Baturro

Upon arriving at our final destination El Baturro we were greeted by a waiter wearing a tuxedo standing just outside the front door. This seems to be the standard for restaurants catering to tourists in Havana, the waiters wear fancy tuxedos and the tourists wear shorts and t-shirts.

The atmosphere was quite nice and the waiters were friendly and spoke at least enough English to understand what we wanted to order. They mentioned the specialty of the day and pointed out any items that they thought would be of particular interest to us.

From what I could see there were mostly European tourists in this particular restaurant and it wasn't too busy but busy enough that the place wasn't completely deserted. Each table was set with napkins folded into triangles and placed on the table with wine glasses each surrounding a large plate featuring the logo of the place, a man drinking from a water sack.

Once we decided what we wanted to eat the pretty plates and cutlery were taken away to be replaced by regular plates and cutlery once the food came. I found this to be somewhat of a standard in restaurants; the plates and cutlery on the tables are for show.

While I wouldn't say that the food at this restaurant was the best food I've ever had it wasn't too bad. Plus, while we were eating they had a band singing Cuban songs (or at least songs sung in Spanish with that type of style). After singing a few songs they would go around to the tables asking for tips which I found to be a little bit annoying, however they weren't pushy about it if you declined.

We passed on dessert asked for the bill (la cuenta) and headed back out to do some more exploring.

Day 2: First Breakfast in Havana

We started off our second day in Havana with a buffet breakfast at the hotel which was included in the cost of our stay. The buffet included eggs made up any way you wanted, bacon as well as the usual North American type things you'd expect to find for breakfast. They also included a few Cuban/Spanish type foods including chorizos (pronounced chor-ee-thos) which are a type of spicy pepperoni-like sausage.

There were also a type of breaded, deep fried mashed potato that I'm not sure what the name was. They even had some sweet desserts, like cakes that looked like Nanaimo bars but just had regular cake as a filling; or rather, to quote Craig they were "Nanaimo bars without the Nanaimo", which doesn't make any sense but there you have it.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was quite nice, very bright and not too crowded, the waiters were very polite and proper as was the standard in most restaurants we went to in Havana. The main waiter was dressed in a tuxedo while the others dressed in a sort of colourful (but muted) vest, white shirt and black pants.

Day 1: Hotel Parque Central

Upon arrival at Hotel Parque Central we checked in and were told about the ammenities of the hotel including a rooftop pool and an in-room safe (very Vegas).

The first thing we noticed as we went around the hotel was the first two floors are inside the building and the other 6 floors are outside with a hollow center. So from the upper floors you can look down past the glass ceiling and into the hotel or look up to see the clear blue sky.

The rooftop pool on the 9th floor also featured beautiful panoramic views of the city and since El Capitolio (the Capital Building) was only a block away there was a clear view of it.


Down on the main level of the hotel are 2 restaurants and a bar. The main bar area is right in the lobby and during main eating/drinking hours musicians sing and play.

For our first night we decided to have dinner at one of the lovely restaurants at the hotel. The prices weren't too bad and since we didn't know the town that well we figured it would probably be best not to go walking around in the dark for our first night. It was a lovely restaurant and featured what I would soon find out to be a very odd thing about Havana; the restaurant was completely empty.

Yes, the restaurant was completely empty at around 6:30pm and continued to be so for the duration of our meal. It was a very classy restaurant, complete with piano player and lovely crystal glasses.

The piano player even came up to us and asked if we had any requests for a type/style of music for him to play. As for the food, it was great, we even got a little slice of pork with a light vinagrette served over shredded cabbage, compliments of the chef. Craig had the monkfish and I had a lovely pepper and beef roulade, all served up in a very classy style.