So I’m in Cuba. The flight was incredible. I have never been one to look out of the window but the light was beautiful and the sky so clear that as we crossed the Atlantic I could see ships crossing the ocean. I couldn’t help but put my iPod on and just stare out across the Atlantic. It was so vast, which slightly terrifies me but it was just incredibly beautiful. Then after a few hours suddenly there was a tiny island surrounded by a beautiful turquoise coastline, Bermuda.

I arrived in Cuba just before 6pm and it was startling to walk off the plane to an airport full of workers wearing face masks. We then all had to fill in a sanitisation form declaring we hadn’t suffered from certain symptoms. It seems Cuba is not taking any chances when it comes to Swine Flu. The other aspect of the airport that I found myself marvelling at was people standing around smoking cigars in the terminal. It truly shows how quickly we have adapted to the smoking ban in the UK.

The only way to get your hands on Cuban currency is to exchange it at the Cuban airport, it was my first experience with indifferent Cuban service but finally I got my convertible pesos and got into a taxi to take my into Havana and on to my hotel. The taxi driver delighted in putting on his special CD for my benefit. It consisted of serious 80s power ballads, the Beatles and the Eagles. It certainly was in interesting soundtrack to my first views of Cuba. Driving into Havana my eyes couldn’t help but boggle at the ranges of cars from Chevys to Ladas, we drove pass tiny cars in pieces wedged into the backs of buses. We had to stop for my taxi driver to exchange a few more of his special CDs with another cab driver. Through factories, apartment blocks and government buildings we then entered Havana and the streets full of hoards of people waiting for buses amongst incredible old and run down buildings. The taxi driver gave me a guided tour of the monuments in Spanish.

I realised that I was responding to him in a mixture of French and Italian and vowed that I would go through my Spanish phrase book as soon as I arrived at the hotel. We managed to be in fits of giggles through the mixture of his Spanish and my pigeon mix of languages and then arrived at Hotel Saratoga which stands out like a sore thumb of decadence among the other historic and shabby buildings.Across from the hotel is the capitol building, which is a carbon copy of it’s US counterpart. After a strawberry daiquiri and some very strange Cuban national television I am going to bed with my bag packed full of camera, film and maps for a day on foot into old Havana for coffee and photos. It is beautiful here and I can’t wait to hit the streets.