Cuba libre

The story begins in the home of quality rum, Buena Vista Social Club and shaking salsa booties; and even at a glance you can see how all compliment each other perfectly.

An early morning strole along the Malecon

, the 10km stretch of sea-wall sheltering Havana (though not always the tourists) from the worst of the storms, is where a lot of Cubans come to meet and pasty English tourists are easy to spot by the local jineteros (hustlers). With the promise of Buena Vista Social Club playing in their old haunts for óne day only' being too hard to resist I took a wander with 'John' into Centro Havana. Ok it was blatantly a lie, but in my experience the best way to see the true side of a country rather than the tourist façade is with a local, and even paying them $1-2 is a lot cheaper than I would get for a 1-1 spanish lesson in London.

You can easily see the wealth that was prevalent in this place

that has made it what it is now, but with the last few years of fighting and trade embargos everything has been neglected and so most places are in quite a state of disrepair, and when you see people queing at the ration shop for their weekly supply of rice, eggs and maize you know this is the real deal.

We go for a mohito in Bar Pekin, one of Buena Vista Social Club's favourite places, and after paying we leave but he returns to the bar for his commission. On returning this to me he explains how tourists are charged double if they are with a Cuban; maybe he's a nice guy after all?

The thing you can't miss is the beautiful cars

they're everywhere and obiously without any replacement parts coming in the resourceful engineering keeping them going is a testament to Cubans throughout the country.

Its hard to keep from shouting McFly and hitching a lift on the back of them on my hoverboard…

The next day is was over to the other side of the harbor to visit the Fortulazee San Carlos + lighthouse by cunningly joining on to the tail of an American tour group (they are good for something afterall!)

A lot more peaceful place although the metal detectors and body searches getting the ferry back across the harbor from Casablanca was strange (are they seriously worried about people hijacking the boat for passage to florida?!)

A tour and samples at the Havana Club rum factory put me in good stead to sample the pretty but more touristy parts of Havana Vieja (old town) before watching the sun set over the Malecon with the locals

The last part of the Havana tour is into the main revolutionary sites. Including the Havana Libre hotel where Fidel ran the country from the 23 rd floor

and the massive Plaza commemorating the revolution

Noticing a lot of people wandering around with bundles of plantain it was cool to stumble across the monthly locals market where produce is shipped in from the surrounding provinces, but even with the masses of food on offer there were still the obligatory queues for everything.