Part 3. Arriving at the Nacional de Cuba.

Wow! What can I say? This place was truly astounding. It was built in 1930 and it overlooks the Bay of Havana. I guess it's like the grand old lady of Cuba. The paint outside is a bit worn in places, and there are still a lot of bullet scars from the Revolution when Fidel and his cronies had their meetings here. It was beautifully refurbished in the 50's, and still has that 50's feel to it, but it still retains it's air of elegance. It's not modernized, and I was pretty nervous in the elevators. I have a fear of elevators at the best of times, and these ones clunked and creaked and hesitated and shuddered just like all the ones in my nightmares.

I tried to go down the stairs once, I usually do use stairs in hotels as opposed to elevators and in this case, as soon as the door shut behind me I realized it locked and I could not get back in. Goddammit! I ran down the 3 flights to the lobby, and thank goodness that door was open. That was the only time that I found that door to be unlocked, they keep the Emergency Stairs well under lock & key. Why? I don't have a clue, but I was a little worried about what to do if there was a fire...jump? 'Cause I sure wasn't going into the nightmare elevators during a fire/power outage. But there was no fire or power failure, so all was well.

This hotel has had many famous guests, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway, as well as many gangsters, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Al Capone. During the days when the Americans were welcomed here, it was a hotbed of casinos, prostitution, drugs and drink, and it was easy to imagine any of them strolling down the garden paths, or sitting in the giant wicker chairs in the gardens, smoking a stogie and drinking a Cuba Libre or mojito.