Old Havana in the rain is an amazing place to be. After two weeks in Cuba, in the hottest weather I have ever known, the rains came. We were on our way to dinner, looking for a place that had been recommended to us, one of Havana's many paladares—family-run, home-based restaurants—which are often unmarked and known only by word of mouth.
Our taxi driver, of course, had never heard of the place we were looking for, so he dropped us off somewhere in the middle of Old Havana and left us to find our way. We had been wandering without luck for about ten minutes when the clouds broke. Within seconds the rain was coming down in sheets and we were soaked to the skin. The streets quickly emptied as locals sought shelter in their homes, and the few tourists who were in the area took refuge under whatever cover they could find.
Our refuge was a tunnel where a road went under a raised apartment building. In the tunnel there was a group of young boys playing a kind of handball. They seemed oblivious to the rain, playing and shouting for the ball or score, plunging through the large puddle forming in the middle of the road as we stayed close to the raised edges of the tunnel in an attempt to keep our shoes dry.
Watching the boys, we realised our own foolishness in hiding from the warm rain, and we emerged from our hideaway back into the near-deserted streets of Havana. We found the street where we had been told the paladar was located. We walked up and down the block three times before we noticed a young woman sitting on the side of the road. We asked her if she knew of the place, and she stood up and yelled up at the window above. A man upstairs threw down a key: we had found our paladar.
We had an enormous and wonderful meal in the upstairs room that was covered but had open walls through which we watched and heard the rain. The huge and beautiful rooster that lived in the upstairs courtyard kept his eye on the weather as well. By the time we had finished our meal and paid the small bill, the rain had stopped. It stopped as suddenly as it had come, and we arrived back at our apartment happy and dry. My memories of Cuba will stay with me forever, and I will always be grateful that I chanced to experience Old Havana in the rain.
For more information about paladares in Havana visit these websites:
Photo Credits: "Lluvia" by javiekitela; "Domesticity in Old Havana" by peamasher; "paladar la guarida" by bruna benvegnù. All images via Flickr (Creative Commons).
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Posts are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. It is very interesting information. Nice job keep it up.
I can just feel that warm rain. What a wonderful experience.
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