It was definitely love at first sight. A dream come true. Part of my heart has definitely been left in Havana.
Before travelling to Cuba, Cuba was the place with colourful buildings, no WiFi and instagrammable locations everywhere. Cuba and in particular Havana, is so much more than that to me now.
Havana is full of life with Cuban people flooding the streets with joy and love. On every corner in Old Havana is a party, people smiling and dancing to the sweet sounds of Salsa.
I also ate an immense amount of churros while out there. Churros with chocolate, churros with sugar and churros with condensed milk. It’s safe to say, I do truly love churros and I don’t think I’ll love any other churros as much as the churros I had in Havana – haha.
Puppy corner! I visited puppy corner every single day. There was a gentleman selling puppies and hamsters. Unfortunately they were kept in pretty small cages all day, but they were being homed. A blue-eyed baby boy caught my eye. He was literally the cutest of them all, a cute little husky. The gentleman selling the puppies let my hold him of the huskies and I instantly fell in love. I named him “Baby” because he’s my baby. He was so sweet and just lay his little head on my chest – my heart is aching just thinking about him. I’m still heartbroken that I couldn’t buy him and bring him back to the UK with me.
The best part of being in Havana (other than Baby) was meeting and spending time with locals. When people say Cubans are friendly, they are not lying. On my first day in Havana we met a guy from takeaway shop and who knew that we end up spending the week with him, meeting his family and friends and them becoming our family. I genuinely love these guys and I am so glad we met. They showed us Havana in a way you wouldn’t see as a typical visitor to Cuba.
We also met a lovely group of guys who all work at a souvenir shop and promoters for restaurants. Literally the most friendly bundles of joy ever! We made genuine friendships in Havana. I find that most tourists will travel somewhere, be super sceptical of the locals and avoid communications with them. When I travel, I like to get to know the locals. Obviously you have to be wise about it, but locals are usually so friendly – especially in Cuba.
I’m hoping that 2018 takes me back to Cuba, I honestly did leave part of my heart in Havana.
This city looks so vibrant and colorful. Definitely makes my heart sing “Havan Oh na na”. I do understand when you said you left a piece of your heart there!