Saturday

Friday was a long night! We stayed out until about 2:45am. We slept until about 8:30am and our abuletia made us breakfast for about 6 CUC per person! The breakfast included Cuban sandwiches, eggs, pan, fruit, fruit juice, water, etc. For one reason or another we did not get the day started until about 11:00am. The ticket item for the das was a long journey to Vinales a historic site that was about 2.5 hours from Havana. Vinales is extremely scenic, think Vermont if you ever been – you drive through a valley with gorgeous mountains on both sides. The agenda for today was to drive through the valley, enjoy the scenery, visit a local tobacco farm, maybe purchase a few authentic Cuban cigars, horse back riding, and ride through the natural lake that cuts through a cave!
Vinales was amazing. I personally am into scenery – so this day was heaven for me! I would have to say that my favorite part of the day was meeting a local pastor. I walked up to this older gentlemen and saying, “Que Bola, Ascere!” (Cuban slang for whats up!) and he replied with something that I did not understand LOL – he went on to tell me how he was a pastor at a church in Havana! He loved our convo and asked me what I do in the US. I replied: Soy Maestro de Historia, in Estatados Unidos! This simple yet authentic experience reminds me that sometimes when we travel we live behind the third wall taking pictures of people places and items as if they are dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. This is not traveling and the people here are not tourist attractions: make yourself uncomfortable and talk to them! My Spanish proficiency is basically zero, but I tried my best to speak, listen!

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