Sightseeing on the way to our next city! Nov 8

After a good nights rest, we are up early for breakfast because Alian is picking us up at 8 to move us along. Right on time, Alian pulls up and makes his presence known! We get in his taxi and he announces to us that the air conditioning is fixed! He turns it on and shows us. We are stoked. But it is soon evident that I cannot get good photos shooting through the windshield and windows so we opt for no air conditioning and down go the windows! This morning, we are traveling to a city called “Trinidad”. But on the way, we are going to check out a famous waterfall called, “El Nicho”. So here are some of the sights we see on the way.

So we get here early as we have been advised to. We have the trails in the park almost to ourselves before the afternoon crowds pour in. What a great nature park! Nothing assaults our ears except the distant sound of water and woodland creatures!

We marvel at nature’s beauty for a while and then reluctantly head down the path. We come across another group of tourists that arrived here early like we did. If any of you see this, please comment and let me know!

Back on the road again and sights of the rural countryside greet our eyes again. A roadside stand, farmer, signs celebrating famous people, the shores of the Caribbean and soon, our destination city looms in front of us.

And of course, some of the transport vehicles we saw on the way! And an interesting gateway!

And of course, signs to guide our journey!

So we have arrived in Trinidad, Cuba. Just when we thought we’d seen it all. This is going to be quite the new experience! Alian drives us into the city and we get excited as new eye candy awaits us!

A walk around Punta Gorda today, Nov 7

It’s been too long since I paused our story! So here we go!

That damn alarm clock goes off!  Oh wait, this is a good thing!  We have a new adventure and don’t want to miss it!  This country is so magical.  But I’ve used that word before.  Brace yourself, I’ll use it again!  True to the info I’ve received, breakfast is served to us at the time we request the night before.  Today, we don’t have a scheduled tour so we request breakfast at 8:30 AM.  Our plan is to explore Punta Gorda by foot and by ‘BiciTaxi’, a bicycle powered taxi, very common in this area of the world. So we ride along towards the wealthy part of town, quite the contrast from where we’ve been! Yacht Club, Mansions and well manicured properties.

At the end of the peninsula we come a long a park with magnificent views of the bay. A BiciTaxi Parking Lot, more mansions, and even a run down property for sale! Anyone want oceanfront property for cheap?

So we leave our BiciTaxi behind, 2 or 3 Dollars poorer and hoof it around the neighborhood. More Classic American cars, some pristine, some run down. Most of them act as taxis and commonly try to flag us down to give us a lift. We turn them all down and continue our walk through the streets and along the Malecon.

What is this? A park! But not just any park, and Artist Park! All kinds of strange sculptures made of all kinds of materials.

And then we come across “Villa Netty”, we’re told this was Fidel Castro’s ‘Home Away From Home’!

As any of you that know me, I always find ‘Lovers’ to photograph. And some other fun characters along the way including a man who enjoyed posing for my camera!

Then there was ‘Los Pinitos’, an estate on the water. Parks, Mermaid sculptures and gorgeous water views!

Are we having fun or what?

So we walk back to town where the luxurious properties gradually change back to less that grand, but still spectacular. The streets widen although we don’t know why. Not necessary for traffic, that’s for sure. We watch as all sorts of vehicles, both commercial and private abound. Many BiciTaxis and Horse Drawn Taxis appear.

Sidewalks show their once grand abundance of beauty. We find a restaurant that was recommended to us and we stop for lunch. After lunch, we see a delivery truck parked in front!

We come across an empty Horse Drawn Taxi, and since we haven’t ridden in one of these yet, we flag this guy down and climb aboard after he tells us it will cost 6 dollars to take us to an ancient cemetery that we heard was an interesting place to check out. So 15 minutes of bumpy ride later, we arrive at the entrance to an interesting place!

The front of the cemetery is just the epitome of another run down Cuban building that does not impress. But 6 dollars is 6 dollars and that’s what it cost to get us here (So we think), so inside we go. Ooops, the doorman want a dollar each too. Ok, ok, just another 2 dollars. I chuckle at myself as I continue my miserly ways and think like a poor Cuban! But we step inside and my camera thanks me profusely as eye candy awaits! Even though everything we see is hundreds of years old, it all lends itself to my camera lens for the next hour. This must have been very opulent in its day. Solid marble tombs and even the walls of the entire place are solid marble. Even decaying and crumbling, it is amazing to walk around here. We are soon aware that this is not only an old relic of Cuban history, but it is evident that to this day, people visit and memorialize their loved ones as we see withering wreaths and even a fresh rose lying on a tomb. One of the tombs is referred to “Sleeping Beauty” by people in town and is one of the reasons we were told to visit here. So this has been an interesting old cemetery to visit, but what’s that? Vultures circling overhead? What’s up with that? We never did find out the answer, but if this cemetery is that old, why are vultures circling?

We walk out, our eyes buzzing with excitement at the sights we have seen and our minds craving more. This is becoming quite the journey. Oh little do we know! We see our Horse Chauffeur still waiting for us and I swear I see dollar signs in his eyes. It occurs to me that his price of 6 dollars was to take us here, not to take us back. I estimate it was 2-3 miles to get here. We could walk that in an hour. An Hour??? I’m sure we can find better things to do with our hour than to walk through the same neighborhood we rode through to get here! So of course! Give us a ride back! After all, it’s only money! Hey, stop a moment, will you? I see some old trains and want to take a picture! No problem says the driver! Is that dollar signs rolling in his eyes again? Ok, got my shots. Take us back to the Historic District, will you please?

Ok, we’re back! How much do I owe you? Ok, sure. WAIT!!! 20 Bucks??? This is Highway Robbery!!! (Calm down Don, you’ll give yourself a coronary!) I feel like I’m being taken for a ride. Literally! Ok, what am I going to do, tick off a local that probably knows every other local and cab driver in a 5 mile radius? I pay the guy and pull out another dollar as a tip. Cheapskate Don! But wait, we were told that anything more than 5% is flaunting your wealth! I protest to the driver only a little and most of my consternation was in my own mind. He is not only appreciative, but truly thankful for our business! He should be, he just took us for a ride! Ok, I settle down and think about how long the guy spent with us and I am sort of ok with it. The most part of 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Is that worth $20? In Cuba? Oh stop it Don, in the States, you’d pay $120 for that same ride! Oh. Right. But this is Cuba! Am I ranting? Hope you got a chuckle out of my rant, I’m just kidding. It was worth every penny I spent!

So we’re back in the Historic District that we visited in the storm yesterday. And there was a tower to climb! I wish I could have climbed it at sunset last night with that beautiful sky! But it was closed when we got there. But it’s open now! And it is elevation and something to climb! The little boy comes out in me as if it were a tree with climbing branches. So up I go with all my cameras hanging around my neck!

Hmmm, so I thought the cemetery was photogenic! The views of the city amaze as I find the highest spot to climb to, a cupola with steep stairs that were thankfully not busy with other tourists for it was a one person climb descend. Two people could not pass here! Eye candy photographed, check. Old Cemetery visited, check. Punta Gorda, check. More Classic Cars, check. Hot and still humid, check. A cold beer, not check. Huh? Wait, got to get that check! So we find a bar in the square and we sit down for some cold refreshment. Beer, check. Mojito, check. friendly tourists to chat with, check. We sit next to this couple, one from Portugal, one from France. we wonder at the long distance relationship. Hey, who are we to judge? We all hit it off and they join us at out table and we chat and kibitz about our lives, Cuba and life in general. All is good. I give them the address of this Blog. I hope they see it. If you guys do, please comment so we can stay in touch! Excuse me new friends, I’ll be right back! Is that a 1956 Chevy out front? Yes, it is! I not only recognize the make and model, I used to own one. I was the second owner of it. (I’ve also owned every year Chevy from 1955 through 1969 except for a 1965 but that is a different story) So I take my camera, ever by my side, and I get a few views of a pristine 56 before returning to our table. So we are sitting there in the excruciating humidity and heat, staying cool with a couple drinks each (Hey don’t judge us, we weren’t driving, LOL!), and suddenly, this local Cuban approaches me and hands me a caricature of myself that he had been drawing off to the side, much to my surprise! And it was very good! I asked him how much he wanted and he said 5 CUC ($5). I said great and I paid him 6 CUC. A happy camper with new European friends and a new portrait of myself, I sit and order another beer. Wait! Take my temperature! I didn’t even haggle? I could have got that picture for 3 CUC! Where is that guy? (Slow down Don, be happy!) I chuckle out loud this time and my wife and new friends pick on me for my miserly ways! But at least, the man let me photograph him before I bought the picture! That makes it all worth it for he was a very photogenic character.

Ok, got to walk off the beers. Our new friends are missing out on their vacation and need to move along also. I find a couple more photogenic buildings to shoot before we return to our Casa. We find another Paladar for dinner and retire to our Casa where we have a view of Sunset over the Bay as I enjoy another Cuban Cigar. Later, I manage to capture the Milky Way over the city and its sparse street lights! I hope you enjoy!

Another night comes to a close. See you in the morning!

Day 2 in the Vinales Valley, Nov 5

After a night’s sleep, we’re up bright and early for another adventurous day!  Our Host has breakfast ready promptly at 7:00 AM as we requested.  The table is spread with omelets, fruit plates, meats, juice and rich Cuban coffee.  Our palates satiated, we get our gear ready for the day and Humberto is right on time at 7:30 AM with our taxi for the day.  Today our ride is a “Modern” taxi.  This just means it’s not a classic car.  It was some form of international Toyota product that was many years old, well worn, yet comfortable for our 1.5 hour ride.  So we chat and joke with Humberto and his driver, sometimes using our technology (We call it ‘Uncle Google’) for the more difficult words.  Humberto speaks pretty good English, however some colloquialisms and expressions need a bit of help.  After an educational and entertaining ride, we arrive at another tobacco farm where we’ll spend our day, “Living Like a Cuban”.

The farmer meets us outside and brings us in and introductions all around let us know his name is Omar and his wife is Mirella.  We get a tour of their Casa, simple yet quite functional.  Omar takes us outside and shows up one of his 6 tobacco barns.  A flock of turkeys greets us along with the family pig.  Omar shows us how he milks his goat while Mirella cleans and peels Yucca Roots for lunch.  We get a lesson in how to hang tobacco to dry from Omar.

Omar and I hit it off great and chat with each other like old friends!  Even though we don’t speak each others languages, that is what Humberto is for.  Omar and I chat with each other as Humberto stands to the side and translates.  It’s a great experience!  You’d never know there was a language barrier as Omar and I make eye contact with each other and converse.  We talk about what his life is like and how he manages all of the challenges of his day.  He takes us around the farm, across fields of newly planted tobacco, rice and other crops.  We watch workers as they plant the fields one plant at a time.  It is clearly a very difficult lifestyle.  He takes us to see a tree that they consider Holy.  We never understand the whole description, but we think this is a place they come for reverence.  Omar’s brother meets up with us.  He wears two hearing aids because he is almost completely deaf.  We relax in the shade of another tobacco barn for a brief respite from the extreme humidity.  I can’t imagine what it is like here in the hot months.  this is November!

Omar then takes us to see his water pump.  To us it is just a small diesel engine attached to a pipe.  Rustic at best.  But Omar is proud of it and I suddenly realize that this pump is a huge reason that Omar can run his farm and pump the water where he needs it and I understand!  We then walk across a couple more fields and we come across a very large stack of wood, stacked like a bonfire would be.  It is described to us as a ‘charcoal’ stack.  These stacks of wood, approximately 10-15 feet in diameter and 4-6 feet high are then covered with palm leaves a foot thick and 1-2 feet of mud on top of that.  Then, through a hole they make, the pile is ignited and it smolders for several days.  The resulting product is charcoal, a necessary item as we will soon discover.  Walking on, we come to small covered circle buildings and we are told they are for ‘cock fights’ but they are no longer used.  However, I can’t help but notice that they are in a well maintained condition.  It makes one wonder, but the farmer assures us that cock fights are a thing of the past.  Moving on, he takes us to watch his worker milk a cow.  Seems like a simple thing.  But they have to bring a calf the cow gave birth to yesterday close to the cow or the cow won’t give up it’s milk.  Interesting, I don’t know the science behind that!

Ok, we’ve been walking around in the heat and humidity all morning.  Omar tells us it is time for lunch and he departs from us to go help his wife.  We walk around for a few more minutes and take some more photos while our guide, Humberto, tells us more history of the farm.  We then arrive back at Omar’s Casa and we sit down to a lunch spread that would make a hungry army happy!  Here we see the need for charcoal as everything that is cooked is on a homemade charcoal stove.  There is no such thing as natural gas or propane here.  They do have electricity, but it is limited and is never used for stoves.  a couple light bulbs in the place is all.  I do notice they have a small deep freeze and I surmise that is their largest appliance and quite a valuable one at that!

The heat and humidity not only have worn us down, but Omar is also susceptible to the elements.  After lunch, Omar declares that it is too hot to return to work!  (I have to wonder what his workers are told!)  So he tells us it is time to play Dominos!  A custom Dominos Table (think of a Scrabble Table with built in trays to hold the pieces) is brought out and set up.  Cigars and Honey Cups are supplied and the Game is Afoot!  Omar and Humberto teach us the rules of this simple childhood game.  But Strategies and procedures are also taught to us and a fairly intense game takes off!  Teams consisting of my wife and I vs Omar and Humberto soon reveals this game is more than we thought!  Loss after loss brings me to challenge a team change.  So now it is Humberto and my wife vs Omar and I.  Ok, now the teams are more even!  Omar ‘High-Fives’ me on regular occasion as we become the dominant team and it is clear Omar is quite good at this!  It reminds me of ‘Card-Counting’ Poker Players in Las Vegas.  There are a certain quantity of each Domino Chip and that plays a big part in the game.  Also, Omar teaches us different Strategies for opening, playing and closing the game!  Did you know Dominos was that complex?  One more thing, did you know that an official Dominos Set has numbers up to 9 dots per chip?  And Double 9’s?  Wow, quite the afternoon of spirited play and a great time was had by all…..

Oh, did I mention that Omar had Cigars to sell also?  Oh but he did!  And I liked yesterday’s cigars better, but Omar’s were really smooth ang good also!  So I was presented with cigars from Omar and I bought another 2/3 of my allotment from Omar.  But not to worry, I will smoke the extra 1/3 while I’m in Cuba!  Ok, it’s time to depart!  It is with heavy heart that we get back in our taxi and say goodbye to Omar and Mirella!  They have poured out their hearts to us and made us feel welcome in their home!  But we get in the taxi with our memories and start heading back to our Casa in Vinales.  But wait!  Our day is not done yet!  There are still places to visit on our tour for the day!  We heard about a river cave that is an astounding find and our guide knows we want to see it!  So we arrive at the Cave and go in.  Wow.  Just Wow.  An Underground Cave with Boats to take us through!  Got to do this!

So that was fun!  But there is one more thing we want to see before we go back.  We heard about a painted cliff on a Mogote that is fun to see!  Our guide knows about it and takes us to a lookout point where we can see it.  Supposedly, an artist friend of Diego Rivera painted this in 1961 and the colors have survived the years!  Fun stuff!  Even more so because we have visited Diego Rivera’s house in Alcapulco, Mexico!

Ok,  hang out with a local farmer, check.  Tourist sights, check.  Cave, check.  Time to go back to town.  Humberto takes us back to our Casa and lightens our wallet a bit more.  But it is budgeted and we have had a good day!  We relax in our Casa for an hour or so and it’s time to go into town and find dinner.  We ate with our Casa Family last night.  We want to find a local restaurant tonight, aka a ‘Paladar’.  The Main street is lined with places to see and eat at.  But wait, it is sunset time and we aren’t hungry yet!  Let’s find a rooftop bar and have a drink!  Yeah, that’s the ticket!  Ok, here’s one!  So we go upstairs and sit and chill.  Specifically, a chill Cerveza and a Mojito!  But you forget, I’m a photographer.  And it’s sunset.  Got to take a few shots.  Fun stuff.

First day in the Valley, Sunday, Nov 4

Wow, our Casa Particular in Vinales is nicer than I thought it would be.  Our Host family seems nice and accommodating, even some English spoken!  We’ll leave our bags with them and we’re off with our Tour Guide, Humberto for a tour of Vinales.  Let’s go!

First stop, Lunch!  Humberto assigns us to a friend of his for the day as he has another tour to attend to. All is good.  We are taken to a local “Paladar”, a locally owned and operated restaurant.  Ladera del Valle is an open air building with no windows.  No Glass windows, that is.  We will soon learn that glass is an expensive commodity that is not afforded by many except the rich and the government.

But all is ok.  We’re here to live like locals today and tomorrow.  It is hot and humid, almost uncomfortably so.  The worker in the restaurant (I’d like to call her a waitress, but it appears that the 2 or 3 people that work here do everything necessary to run the place.) turns on a fan and points it in our direction and the breeze feels good.  We attempt to navigate the Spanish Only menu when a thought hits me.  I am not bothered by almost any food, so I ask our guide to order a Cuban meal for us.  He proceeds to order plates of pulled pork, fried plantains and Cuba’s famous Rice & Black Bean Soup.

The food is delicious!  The meat is cooked on outdoor BBQ’s, just like we’d do at home.  We chow down accompanied by a cold Cerveza and a Mojito for my wife.  The meal is more than satisfying.

Ok, full bellies and ready for an adventure!  We start hiking from the restaurant, down this dirt trail, somewhat muddy at times, but scenic.  The ground reminds me of Georgia clay, bright red.  My shoes will be permanently stained, a memento to take home!

Lush vegetation fills our vision dotted with occasional flowers that are unique to this area.  A roaming cow and horse from the farm we are approaching are grazing along the trail.  We get our first glimpse of the “Mogotes”, the hills in the valley that seem to rise straight up out of nowhere.  The reality is the valley was eroded away over time and left the Mogotes standing.  We approach the farm and are greeted by a friendly farmer, his wife, and his young daughter climbing a guava tree.  The farmhouse has windows, but no glass, like the restaurant we had lunch in.  We didn’t notice at the restaurant, but the farmhouse has wooden shutters to cover the windows at night and in storms.  It is obvious that they don’t actually seal the window, just sort of cover it for the most part.

We walk with the farmer where one worker is sharpening a machete (hopefully not because the tourists have arrived!) and watch as another changes a horseshoe that has worn out on one of the horses.  We go inside his tobacco barn and are shown how the tobacco is dried and taken care of.  Then he sits us down on a bench in the barn and hands me a cigar and I light up my first cigar in over 20 years.  I stopped smoking cigars a long time ago because I just didn’t like them.  They are just too harsh!  However, just before he offers me a light, he puts a small bowl of honey down and shows me how local Cubans dip the end in honey and then light it.

Wow!  That’s all I can say for a moment, Wow!  Along with the Honey Trick, the farmer also shows us how they strip the central vein out of the tobacco leaf where 98% of the nicotine is.  Then they proceed to crush and roll the cigar without the noxious nicotine that makes a cigar harsh.  But don’t worry, friends, if you even get a chance to buy Cuban cigars that are packaged and banded, you are getting 100% of that horrible nicotine experience!

This is because the tobacco farmers are forced to sell 90% (not a typo) of their tobacco to the government, which in turn crushes & rolls up 100% of the tobacco leaf and turns it into Cuban cigars for profit!  So, unless you get Cuban cigars straight off a farm in Cuba from the farmer, you are not getting what has to be the smoothest cigars anywhere!  For the record, I bought 2/3 of my allowable limit from this guy!

Then the Farmer gives a leaf to my wife and she strips the central vein out of it like a pro!  The leaf is passed to me and I get to roll this one into a finished cigar!  One leaf, one cigar.  I like the math!  Twist up the end into a ‘pigtail’ and voila, it’s a cigar!  Don’t try to smoke it for at least a month, I’m told.  Let it dry out.  But not too much.  That is what Humidors are for.  Might have to get me one of those!  In the meantime, ziplock bags (which I have been traveling with for many years because they just come in handy for packing and even those times when you have to move from one place to another with wet swim trunks?  But here I go digressing again!) will have to do along with a refrigerator when we can find it and then back at home.

So, if you want to smoke the best Cuban cigars in the world, you have two options.  1.) Go to Cuba and spend some time with the tobacco farmers.  2.)  Come visit me and sit a spell.  Perhaps I’ll pull out a couple of the good ones!

We proceed to go back to the farmers house where his wife treats us with real Cuban coffee, rich and full of flavor!  This day is only getting better by the minute!  The farmer presents me with a pack of cigars and I am given a price.  So, many dollars poorer, but many cigars richer, we sit and visit with the farmer and his wife!  Then we go outside where a farmhand is saddling up the horses, our transportation for the rest of the afternoon.

I climb onto my first horse in probably 15 plus years and I’m a bit nervous.  But not to worry, it just like riding a bicycle, right?  It turns out it is just like riding a horse!  But I have ridden horses many dozens of times in my life, so this turns out to be fun!  My horse, “Mojito”, aptly named, is lively yet clearly a trail horse.  He loves to lead the pack but is equally comfortable with following.  Getting him next to the lead horse is the most fun because he is competitive and starts to compete for the lead.  But hey, what is it with trail horses around the world?  If your horse is not leading, it follows with its nose stuck to the tail of the horse in front of it.  Don’t horses know it’s not nice to ‘tailgate’?

The trail through the valley was spectacular!  Dark red soil, lush vegetation, Mogotes on every horizon, quaint farmhouses and tobacco barns around every turn.  Horseback riding, as fun as it is, I couldn’t help but think to my dirt bike riding days.  A throttle would be nice on this thing!  I’d be like, “Come on Mojito, pick up this pace!”  And Mojito would be like, “Chill, Rider, I’ll get you there at MY pace!”  So we ride at Mojito’s pace and check out the scenery and the Mogotes!

So after a couple hours of riding, we arrive at a Sugar Cane Farm and dismount for a visit.  Oxen are commonly used here to work the fields and, of course, every farmer has a tobacco barn.

We first notice the working kitchen at the farm, consisting of a charcoal stove table where all the cooking is done.  Strolling outside, we see coffee beans ripening on the bushes, an old fashioned, yet working plow that is used to this day to till the fields.  We come across coffee beans drying in the sun and horses tied randomly to places where the workers intend to get back on them.  And, of course, the ‘Parking Lot’ where my ‘Mojito” is resting with the other steeds!

So after visiting with the local farmers and finding myself a few more dollars poorer after buying a water bottle filled with local coffee beans that I wonder if I can bring back home, I take some fun photos that the locals are thrilled for me to take.  They have shown us how they crush the sugar cane and extract the juice.  Then they made us rum drinks using the sugar cane (which I’m sure was designed to loosen our wallets so we would buy their wares!) and we sat and chatted with our guide over very sweet and cold drinks in the hot humid weather.  After a relaxing time at the sugar cane farm, we mount our trusty steeds once more and ride off in the sunset past more Mogotes and we finally dismount our horses on a lonely trail a mile or so from the farm we started at and Mojito and his pals trot happily off towards the farm they call home, all by themselves!  We find our next ride back to our Casa waiting for us (a welcome relief), a 1956 Chevy in pretty decent shape!

We ride back the few miles to our Casa and bid our guide goodbye.  Oh, right, pay him for the day too.  Now with my wallet getting lighter, but happily so because so far, we’re not overspending our budget, even with the couple of glitches we have experienced.  I did plan for a few spending errors.  And we are a bit hungry and a little sore from being on horseback all afternoon.  But we have enough energy to take a walk into town, a mere 3 blocks away.  I manage to find a place where I can buy some internet cards because our host has told us he has WiFi and I need to contact my Cuban “Hero” that helped me put my trip together and inform her of the no-show taxi this morning and try to make sure it doesn’t occur again.  Because two mornings from now we are scheduled to take a booked taxi on an all day trip (several hundred miles) to our next destination.  We then make it back to our Casa where our host has dinner ready.  What a marvelous spread her mom has made for us! 

Ok, things are improving as it concerns our well being and our travel plans.  We have had a wonderful day!  Top it off with a home cooked Cuban meal by the Grandmother of the Children of our Host, LOL.  But the meal was delicious! (I have to admit that I augmented it with a small bottle of hot sauce I brought from home, but only because I love spice!  Cuban food is basically bland, but that only refers to their spice levels, not their overall flavor!)

Ok, dinner has been consumed.  Time to relax and retire for the evening.  But wait, there is more to explore!  Our host asks if we want to enjoy the rooftop patio because he can leave the lights on.  I tell him ‘no, do not leave the lights on, we want to drink a cervesa and maybe enjoy a cigar and look at the stars!  Leave the lights off!  But I DO ask him for a small cup of honey and a lighter.  His wife obliges me and I climb to the roof (an easy set of stairs) with the obligatory camera gear, cervesa, and cigar and honey supplies and begin to kick back for some relaxation and camera fun.  My wife joins me but retires before I get really into my Astro Photography.  Perhaps this photo will be worth it?  Should I send it to my host?

Ok, get some sleep Don!  Tomorrow will come soon!  Oh wait, it’s here now?  It’s after midnight?  By how many hours?  Darn…  Better get to bed!  Humberto will be picking us up at 7:30 AM!  Good thing our host will have breakfast ready at 7 AM!  I like this “Breakfast at our Casa thing”!  What happened in Habana???  Ok, ok, haul the camera rig down the stairs and go to bed!  Goodnight all !!!