As a downtown L.A. business leader, Carol Schatz is no stranger to high-rises. But she was caught off-guard by a trip to a restaurant atop a high-rise – in Havana.

Schatz, chief executive of the Central City Association, was one of about 60 local business leaders and executives who recently completed an educational trip to Cuba. Also on the trip was Gary Toebben, chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Schatz said what most struck her on the trip was just how dilapidated many of the buildings were.

“The architecture is gorgeous, but most of the buildings are deteriorating,”she said.

One building in particular amazed her: the tallest high-rise near the hotel where the group stayed. The outside of the 40-story tower looked like it was crumbling and Schatz wondered how people could still venture inside.

So she was surprised when on the last night of the trip about two dozen people on the tour were invited to dine at a restaurant on the tower’s top floor. The ride up the elevator was “a bit discomforting,” she said.

Then, while they were eating in the restaurant, the lights went out.

“We were really spooked,” she said. “The building that had looked so bad on the outside was just as bad on the inside. We thought we were going to have to walk down 40 flights of stairs to get out.”

But it turned out that the lights had been switched off as a way to get the diners’ attention for an announcement. About five seconds later, they came on again.

“We were so relieved,” Schatz said.

Kilimanjaro, Unplugged

And speaking of going to the top at some exotic spot, John Baudhuin recently spent six days climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. That was unusual enough, but he went with a group of Greek bankers at the very moment the Greek banking system was threatening to topple the European economy.

Baudhuin, 48, is chief executive of Mad Dogg Athletics, an exercise cycle and equipment company in Venice. He undertook the Kilimanjaro climb as part of a trip with Young Presidents Organization, a network of chief executives. His group of climbers included the contingent of Greek bank presidents.

“Rarely do you get to talk with Greek bankers about a Greek debt crisis while it’s going on,” said Baudhuin, who could tell the crisis weighed heavily on the Greeks. They didn’t have any quick answers, but they assumed any solution would involve the European Union.

“Otherwise, they were remarkably focused on the mountain, as you must be during such a climb,” he said.

Indeed, all conversation dwindled as the group approached the summit. For the last few miles up Kilimanjaro – the world’s highest stand-alone peak at 19,300 feet – the atmosphere had only half as much oxygen as the air in Los Angeles that Baudhuin normally breathes.

“You take one step and need one breath,” he recalled. “You realize how high you are when you look out on the clouds. It’s similar to what you’d see from an airplane.”

Baudhuin said his biggest unexpected pleasure on the mountain was the absence of e-mails, phone messages and other distractions.

“In the last 15 years, I’ve never felt so disconnected,” he said. “I enjoyed that aspect of it.”

Staff reporters Howard Fine and Joel Russell contributed to this column Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].