The Ambos Mundos Hotel, situated on the corner of Obispo, in Havana, combined the grandeur and faded glory of the Conquistadores with the grime of last month's tourists. The pregnant woman pointed out she could write her name in the dust on the bedside table. Funny place to leave your autograph. But that wasn't her only gripe. Because of over-booking and the sex ratio of single people, she and her husband had been separated and invited to sleep with two complete strangers. She with the blonde bombshell and he with an older gentleman. Strangely, they weren't keen on wife-swapping on the first night of their holiday. But isn't it always the way? Depending on your outlook, some people always seem to get runs of bad or good luck.
The following night she didn't have any hot water, the night after she had an army of ants running across the back of the bed, and later she found a toe-nail on the floor of her cabin. Not sure if that was the result of the torture she seemed to feel being in a group of rowdy old people. To be fair, although she felt sick and tired most of the holiday she kept a low profile. In fact, so low you could hardly see or hear her. On the other hand, her husband was extremely generous. He treated us all to lashings of 7 year old Havana rum and frequent rum cocktails. They maintained their status by sitting in the front seat of the bus for the whole holiday. Even when it broke down.
It's all a matter of expectations, I suppose. They had been on adventure holidays before and had clean rooms and good facilities. We, on the other hand, had been independent travellers staying in some really grotty places over the years. We hadn't expected swimming pools and hot water. So when they appeared it was a huge bonus. Not sure I would have wanted to have been split up from Rhys though, not on the first night. Not without our lock knife.
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