J'entreprends a travelogue therefore: should I have the talent and art to re sumer in a few lines wonderful week in Cuba? This is not New York, and culture to improve Rican and review. This is not Montreal, where I am at home more than anything else. It looks like that trip to India, there is less a year. Other modes of life, another culture, yet not so far away. I decided to division s st my story 
into three sections, which correspond to three major cities and regions discovered in one week. Because No u s have run, with rifle and walking bus! Between our arrival in La Hav ane December 30 and n ur dewaxing rt the same city on January 6, a new year, es de bell experiences with stars in the s eyes. Parlo ns therefore Havana first. End point, drop point, entry point e Cuban territory. Everything has been said about Havana, ghettos, his insecurity, dilapidated houses attacked by the wind and sea salt. What it justice! We will only have little opportunity to discover, this City of a Thousand Columns. On 31 December, last day 2010, we are devoting most possible. With Catherine, Eleona ore and Aurelie, my adventurous, we booked two rooms in advance in a casa Particular in Vedado, modern residential district of the capital e Cuba. The c asas particulares , it is these individuals, these people like us, that involve two of their rooms. Once the authorization of the Cuban regime, who really controls everything (Communist dictatorship forces), these couples generally welcome foreigners, offering a bed, meals and lunches in exchange for some money. Subject to severe constraints, casas pa rticulares are struggling to keep: the owners must pay each month, tourists or not at home, 200 CUC (pesos c Ubain convertible, I will return) to the state. However, this is the best place to stay, and according to many tourist guides: less dispendi them, especially for real close to the people of Cuba. Our prem ier host (we'll never see!) Is Elein. In reality, it was not a casa particular , plus a guest house-hotel. We know thereafter a warmer welcome and more intimate.
31, therefore,
after a good night at the Casa Colonial Elaina, here we started our city tour. of Vedado Habana Vieja the historic district listed in the A ESCO, 5 good miles we undertake to walk along the sea along the Malecon. The Malecon is the model fitted walk along the coast, a true symbol cable for each Cuban, it seems, would lend oath of f idélité overboard here. A beautiful legend, which is confirmed by what crosses along the Malecon. A man played s trumpet. An MOU researcher. More importantly, a woman reciting incantations for the sea, a follower of the Santeria religion Afro-Cuban (inspired by Nigerian tribal religions imported by slaves in the days of Triangular Trade). No us time to walk along a few minutes of buildings guarded by Cuban police. We are asked to proceed without taking ph otos. At one point, a 
e grandstand, with iron frames, and the famous slogan of Fidel: "Patria o Muerte!". Unknown to guard, I cleverly capture two or three shots of this magnificent demonstration of the communist dictatorship q ui still rampant in Cuba (again, I will return later). The real pleasure of this walk along the sea, are the conditions clim atic: po ur the first time in four months, we are T-shirt and trousers short. The hot sun, sunscreen is in the bag, we drop the sunglasses. And every two minutes, we repeat the same sentence: we are in Cuba! 
After this long walk on the Malecon, we enter the heart of the matter, and 
penetrate with curios tee of has ns de La Habana. A few steps from the cobbled streets and maintained historic district, Centro H Abana, the real city. One where the waste o rnent sidewalks, where everyone sells its fruit as he can. The windows e s clothes dryer in large quantities, it chatter, and all the houses escaped s music. Salsa, of course. Many times we see people out of casas with cream cakes and sugar : tonight is family reunion for the Cubans. No big celebration, as we c. ez, for passage to the New Year. And 1 January, we do not celebrate 2011, but the Revolution Day. Another time, another era. We plunge into the streets more narrow. The crumbling facades recall that there are still 60 years, Havana e was the "brothel of America," where each U.S. citizen could have fun in a city of debauchery and sex. On the road, no cars m odern 
, but old American, again straight out of a period film. Pink, blue, all colors, we are entranced by the colorful palette. A film set. And all this world breaststroke, shouting in English, the same ho and women who are watching with connivance, we wish a happy new year, bo nDays, ask us where we are. Eleanor only speaks a little English, we try to understand what we are trying to say. It directs us, we are informed. 
After the Prado, a gr
ande street, we came out on the Parque Central, with its statue of Jose Marti . A revolutionary, as many Cuban personalities. This was the first to launch a possible Cuban nation free, in the nineteenth century. Friend of Victor Hugo, he has oday, with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, the man most celebrated in the country. Statues, representations of all kinds, streets, Jose Marti is everywhere! After the Parque Central, we arrived at the theater in Havana, very nice building and the Capitol. Reply almost consistent from the Capitol in Washington, built when Cuba was still a protectorate, it served as Chamber of Deputies under Batista. Strange, it still continues to be there, this building has nothing to do with culture and especially the Cuban revolution .... 
But it's getting hot, it is past noon, and ch Acun us hungry. The peti
lunch t d u morning, made of eggs and fruit (a fruit smoothie with strawberries and papaya excellent!) Is quickly eliminated by force walking r and rave. We decided to find a paladar (small inexpensive restaurant) in Habana Vieja. No u s we go there quietly, making a detour through the Plaza of the Cathedral of San Cristobal, where the servers are busy. That evening, there is spectacle, and it prepares tables for a few hundred guests who pay in advance 120 CUC for dinner and show. The cathedral is magnificent and bougainvillea that reigns over one of palace next enchants instead. I fall in love, and asks the girls to come back when we return to Havana, the last day. But soon, some pictures, some explanations on the Plaza, and we crash near the Church of San Francisco to eat at the Gardens of East, a delightful paladar cheap, where everyone enjoyed a chicken and a mojito (the first of many more) for only 4 CUC (4 bucks!). 
the afternoon, we walk in Habana Vieja. Incidentally, I stroked his beard from Caballero the effigy of a mad man who wandered for 50 years on the streets of Havana, proclaiming himself as the Knight of Paris. True symbol of the city, it is customary to stroke his goatee. Then, the Plaza de Armas, Calle Obispo, Plaza Vieja. Our red nose growing in the back a light sweat is felt. Backpacker and Lonely Planet in hand, we walk the streets. We want ice, impossible to find a nice small glacier. While we continue to advance, without having too s where you go. Getting lost, that's a good idea. At the end of the day, we're back on the Malecon, to make the journey back to the casa particular . The sun sets on the Miramar district in the distance and the sea is always beautiful. 
the evening
we find Anne-Sophie and Helen, parts the same week that we in Cuba, but prefer to stay in Havana, with an excursion on the beaches paradise of Varadero. On the Plaza Vieja, a small meal with pina colada and daiquiri . Before midnight, we begin to go one last time on the Malecon, with a beer. The girls, tired, abandon us, and we find all four of the leading team. A cerveza in hand, it is midnight, we kiss. No big celebration, two only three guns, a toast, and is spun by taxi this time at home. At one o'clock in the morning, we all lie: it must be said that the next day we take a bus to Trinidad to 8 hours. It changes the previous wake: for four years, I partied all night. This year, simple and exotic, Cuba, simply. We'll come back for one night at Havana on the evening of Jan. 3. Sleeping in the same house as before, to leave the next day in Vinales. Then the last day, back in the Cuban capital. After coming ...
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