It's amazing how quickly you get used to a country, Havana seems far less hectic than when I arrived three weeks ago, helped by the fact that I have worked out how the dual currency works, everything seems a lot easier.
My day starts with a tour around Havana's largest cigar factory where the myth of Cuban cigars being rolled on the thighs of virgins is quickly dispelled, but advertising works and I guess that line is always going to sound better than 'Rolled on the dirty desk of a crone'.
Next stop on the Keith Richards itinery was the rum museum where the process of making Havana Club was shown – there is no Bacardi in Cuba, Fidel sent them packing for being capitalist imperialist pig-dogs. The tour included a tasting session of the various Havana Club varieties served by a girl with the longest legs and the shortest skirt I have seen in quite a while. Personally, I would have her rolling smokes in the cigar factory and selling them for £200 a piece.
In the evening I visit the National Theatre. I had taken the guided tour of the building earlier in the day and was left a little disappointed, after relieving me of my money a bored and sulky looking woman whisked me around two rooms in about six minutes giving such nuggets of information as "This was not always theatre', before wandering off and leaving me wondering if that was the end.
Whilst there I had noticed that an opera (La Dulcia Moor) was playing in the evening and as we queued for the £36 tickets a rather shady looking character in a long coat and trilby hat appeared from a fog of cigar smoke (I seem to attract the attention of shady street dealers in the same way that Angeline Jolie attracts the attention of African adoption agencies) 'Senor, you want tickets? I have'. Before I could say 'Isn't that the lead actress?' we were being led through the stage door, across the backstage and into the Presidential seats so called as they are favoured by Fidel himself. The shady character was given a nice little earner and the next time I saw him he was operating the main spotlight.
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