08/04/2019 – Epilepticus! Havana, Cuba

We started the morning with a 10:00am breakfast, a la Granny. We had lovely fresh pineapple and guava alongside the usual. We sun cream up, now part of our daily ritual, both still a little pink round the edges from day 1. Then head out to find a bank to get some more money out. When we get there they ask for our passports, which we don’t have on us, so that was task 1 failed. Then we went to camera oscura – a 360* telescopic lens up a tower that is supposed to give you great views of Havana. However, it is closed today, task 2 failed! Then, as we start walking back up Calle Brasil, Josh hears a slap on the floor and grabs my arm and says that lady is having a seizure. There is a Cuban lady on the floor, seizing, being held upright by what looks like her son that she is with. Josh grabs me and says we have to help, pointing at me saying Doctor, (Josh! 1. not true! 2. I literally briefed you on this in England on Wednesday saying do not tell anyone I am a nurse, lets just walk right on by!). I start trying to encourage the locals who have started to gather to lay her on the floor. They drag her to the local bar that she has collapsed next to and hold her in a chair. I pick up her flip-flops from the road and Josh and I follow them in. They get a spoon and start trying to force her mouth open, which was really distressing to see. We were still trying to ask them to lay her on the floor. Some of the locals cottoned on to Josh saying Doctor and pointing at me (omg, btw I am literally dead with embarrassment at this point!), and join in with us to try and encourage the son to lay his mother down and stop with the spoon. Thankfully she stopped seizing and we were thanked for our help so we left them to it. I am not sure what the healthcare system is like here, but it does make you wonder? That made us feel a bit weird but I don’t think there was much more we could have done, and, ultimately, the lady was ok, ish!

We popped into the same shop we had bought the cigar fridge magnet from the other day and bought a wooden hummingbird, beautifully made! The shop lady teaches us the phrase ‘el sol es fuerte’ (don’t know how to spell that!) – the sun is strong! It is about 35*C I think today! Then we pop into trusty El Dandy for coffee and some lunch.

Next up we head down the road to see the Musee de la Revolucion, walk around the park and see the statues of san Jose (again, not exactly sure of who he is yet, but must do some reading as soon as we have any internet access!) Then, an urgent need from me for the toilet! I look at the map and see we can take a road called Colon street to a nearby hotel with toilets that actually have toilet roll, but the detour probably wasn’t worth it, we were cutting it fine! Thankfully we made it there in time (just). So far so good since FYI! We stay in this hotel (Plaza), and get some WIFI for an hour, whatsapp some pictures over, and take a look at how to get to our next destination etc. In the meantime we are serenaded by a man playing Titanic and The Beatles on the piano.

Along the walk to Musee de la Revolucion.

Then we go home and get a super strong coffee from granny. It starts pouring with rain, really tropical, heavy, wet rain. Josh edits some photos and we chill in our room for a couple of hours. When the rain stops the sun comes out again and it is golden hour, so Josh cant resist popping out with the camera. We stroll through some backstreets of Old Havana, which is very picturesque, especially at this time, in this light. The children are playing in the street again and the low light is reflecting in the glassy water on the ground. I think Joshy must catch some good shots, he seems pretty excited about it!

After the rain fall.

We stumble across a street vendor selling pizza, (now I am excited!) so we grab one each and then go and sit on the sea wall at Malecon to eat and watch the sunset. The light across the Atlantic Ocean is a real scarlet red, and there are many silhouettes of Cuban men fishing along the sea wall.

We head back to the casa and make some food – Susannah has bought us our ingredients so that we don’t get ripped off again, and we cook an aubergine and tomato ragu with some spaghetti. Then we head upstairs to shower and hop into bed.