La Habana, Cuba.
Kara says: Cuba. Finally! Karl's been bonding with his old friend, Che, and strengthening his communist roots although his Vietnam T-shirt has remained conspicuously absent. Viva la revolucion! Spent the first couple of nights in the fancy schmancy hotel we had to stay in to get our visas. Is this not straight out of a Doris Day & Rock Hudson film? It had just opened as the Havana Hilton in 1958 when the Castristos took over (Jan 1st 1959) and Fidel initally ran the country from a suite in the suddenly renamed "Habana Libre" hotel. We brought Christmas with us, photo of Karl with the tinsel and tiny christmas tree. Havana is fabulous. Lively, tropical, beautiful buildings - some crumbling, some not. Salsa music everywhere all the time. Friendly, helpful people (our guidebook calls then "the Irish of the Carribean" and I think it might just be right). Cocktails. It has it all. The architecture is a combination of colonial, art deco and ......stuff that looks