Managua and Cuba

Amelie's boyfriend, Marco, travelled up with me tp Managua and we jumped in a taxi to get to my hostal. The taxi driver dropped us off by a school as he didn't know where the hostal was - there are no street names and no house numbers which makes finding places very difficult. Eventually we had to ring to get directions as policemen a few streets away hadn't a clue.
TUesday  11th December 4.20 a.m. I am sitting in the garden watching little white pieces of flowers that illuminate the dark, move down a tree and across the garden, courteousy of leaf cutter ants.
I breakfast in San Salvador where you have to pay in dollars as there is no local currency.
Tea time and it's Cuba, which is slow to enter due to the leisurely pace of immigration and baggage retrieval. The first thing I notice is 2 storey houses, which you don't get many of in Nicaragua - probably due to the existence of regulars tremors and earthquakes. Then it's the cars. The famous American cars of the 40s, 50s and 60s (I had model cars of a Chevrolet Impala and a Ford Thunderbird) are interspersed with lots of Ladas as well as modern cars. When we get into Habana there are lots of motorcycle and sidecars, bicycle rickshaws called bici-taxis, and threewheelers called huevitos because they look like eggs - they are even painted yellow. Taxis are are either red, white or yellow - I even saw a yellow stretch Lada!
I found my Casa Particular in Habana Vieja and then rang Indira and Paco. Indira is a Cuban singer who lives in Bristol with her Spanish boyfriend Paco, who works as a waiter at  La Ruca, but who amongst  other things was once in charge of the Belgian sailing team and has captained yachts across to and around the Caribbean. We met up at the Hotel Nacional, a very large hotel on the seafront that once was owned by Lucky Luciano. The 45th Latin Americal Festival was being held in Hanaba so the terrace bar with directors, actors and the like.