5/19/2023 0 Comments The dark heart of old havana![]() ![]() ![]() In reality, it's a UNESCO World Heritage site encircled by 500-year-old forts and the Atlantic Ocean. Old Havana looks as surreal as a film set. Life may be tough here, but visitors sure wouldn't know it. Hundreds of Cubans with Spanish ancestry are dressed to the nines, pleading for a visa to get out of the city. In March 2016, President Obama became the first sitting president to visit Havana since 1928, as 500,000 Cubans watched the Rolling Stones play a free concert to mark the occasion. In the final two years of his presidency, the country became a top attraction for US tourists, and travellers from across the world.Ĭruise ships filled Havana's harbours, hundreds of commercial planes arrived at its international airports by 2015, the number of US tourists jumped 77 per cent against 2014's tally a year later that number increased another 74 per cent. In 2008, US President-elect Barack Obama promised to create a new beginning with Cuba. Now, the moment I leave La Bodeguita del Medio behind, I'm almost the only foreign tourist in town. Pre-COVID (and pre-Trump) cruise ships full of Americans filled its harbour, and tourist coaches dwarfed Old Havana's narrow streets. This is the first crowd of American tourists – or any international tourists at all - I've seen in Cuba since I got here a week ago and it's a sign of things to come.
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