The first thing to strike me in Cuba was their evident love of the Rule Of Three. Every self-respecting organisation, it seems, has adopted a tripartite motto. The back of every national bus proclaims their dedication to Punctuality, Safety, and Comfort. The XXI Congress even-handedly trumpeted its ideals of Unity, Compromise, and Victory. Even entities whose only existence seemed to be to have a slogan had a slogan: the 60th anniversary of the Law of Agrarian Reform is an occasion to celebrate Revolution, Independence, and Dignity. Or to print posters saying so, anyway.

After a couple of days, when the novelty of seeing old American cars on the street and decaying Art Deco buildings everywhere had begun to wear off, I started feeling rather ambivalent about the whole place.

I did rather appreciate this small sign in a bar we went to. So many places claim Hemingway drank there - which I suppose is both plausible and hard to check - so it was good to see somebody leaning hard the other way.