CUBA
Havana club On the look out for safe, female-friendly destinations, Heidi Fuller-love dons her dancing shoes in the Cuban capital The musky scent of hand rolled cigars drifts on the air as a bright pink Chevrolet Bel Air with gleaming tails fins (known locally as a cacharros, meaning ‘bone shaker’) bucks along Havana’s seaside Malecón to the sultry sounds of salsa. Hitching my skirt and skipping over potholes, I follow the music to local dance hangout 1830, order a mint and rumpacked mojito and mingle with the crowds to enjoy the
WiFi tip – Wi-fi almost inexistent inside buildings – the best place to get online is in one of the city’s parks
quick stepping dance that was invented here in the 1920s. As a big fan of solo travel, I’m always on the look out for female-friendly destinations where I can take dance lessons and meet locals – and fellow travellers – without worrying about safety. Latin American countries can be a challenge for women travelling alone, but here in magical, mysterious Havana, capital of this Caribbean country which was cut off from most of the world for several decades, time seems to have stopped sometime in the fifties: not only because of those vintage American cars, but also because – apart from petty theft and being accosted by the occasional gigolo-like jinetero there’s very little in the way of crime here.
Bike sharing – Ha’bici is Havana’s new bike sharing scheme, but most of the pick up points are in Havana Vieja
Seeking somewhere central, but less touristy than Habana Vieja with it’s Unesco designated sites, I decide to stay in Centro, one of the city’s most colourful districts, whose ornate and spectacularly shabby buildings look out over potholed streets where old men play dominoes, and young couples dance salsa day and night. Home of the waterfront Malecón – known as the city’s ‘sofa’ because this is where SOLUSMAGAZINE.COM
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