The grounds of the Nacional are quite large, and include these old gunnery emplacements that guard the harbor. The guns are set into deep pits. There is a major road that runs along the corniche between the hotel and the ocean, and it drops off with just rocks (no beach) into the water.

There's even a little gift shop in the old underground powder magazine. They sell mostly jewelry.

Here's a Cuban flag that flies right at the top of the waterfall. You can vaguely see it in the photo above between the two traffic signal posts. Interestingly, this picture was so badly out of focus as to be unusable when it came out of the camera. I'm not sure what I had done wrong, but it would have been unsalvageable with a normal film camera. Here, I applied a little image processing and cleaned it up quite a bit. Still not a great pic, but definitely usable!

Here is the hotel pool. This is actually the smaller of two pools, but I think its the prettiest. The big pool was drained and having some work done on it. Sadly, nobody thought to take a picture of it. The larger pool is in an enclosed area near the front of the hotel, so there is not view. This pool was plenty large, and was very elegant. You can see the Veranda outside the hotel bar above the awnings at the back of this picture.

This is the spot where I discovered my new favorite cocktail, the Mojito!

Moving back indoors, the hotel has a number of small but beautiful meeting rooms that are furnished with antiques. I overheard many conversations by Europeans and South Americans who were contemplating investment opportunities in Cuba. It felt like the area is getting ready to explode on this front. I read some statistics that indicated they had 300,000 tourists in 1996 and 1.8 million in 2000. That's some kind of growth!

What kinds of deals and misadventures must the likes of Meyer Lansky and the other gangsters discussed in these private rooms? Can't you just imagine two mugs with suits, hats down over their eyes, and bulges under their arms standing guard outside the door?

Of course they sell individual cigars, and the pool is so inviting that we couldn't resist. The cigars were extremely smooth, flavorful, and drew well. Aaah, what could be better than having a Cuban cigar poolside while sipping the local beer?

Actually, I discovered what shortly after this picture was taken when I ordered my first Mojito, the minty Cuban national cocktail!

Having explored the environs of the hotel, it was time to venture forth to see Havana at large. Here is the view from our hotel window. Most of the buildings are pre-Castro, and the town has a bustling yet retro feel about it that's somehow fun and hip.

If the US ever normalizes relations with Cuba, I have a hunch Cuba would rapidly take over the Caribbean as the premier vacation spot. There's something here for everyone, its so undiscovered, so unique, and so tastes of forbidden fruit. Yummy!