Walking Along the Malecón

My first taste of Cuba was a walk along the Malecón (mal-e-con) with three of my tour mates. The Malecón is an 8 km (5 mile) stretch of roadway and seawall stretching along the coast in Havana. It’s a popular place for people to walk, gather, and fish, especially on weekends. We walked down around 11 at night and were suprised by the bustling crowds and party atmosphere. Watching the old cars drive by and listening to the waves crash against the seawall made for a perfect first night in Cuba. A very talented street performer played for us and followed us around for a little while until we all indicated that we would give no more money. I think he played at least 4-5 songs for us so he had a good run.

We checked out the monument of Maximo Gomez and then walked down to a street bar where our tour mate Chris bought us all beers. I don’t normally drink beer but it was nice to have a drink bought for me. We talked to a few locals for awhile. When they asked where we were from and we told them we were from the U.S. they sort of lit up and hugged us. Donald Trump was mentioned at one point but none of us wanted to talk about him. lol