The evening before departure behind my house

I spent the day before departure giving myself a crash course in Cuban history, culture, music and dance. The speakers were blaring with Son, the name that refers to a mélange of Afro-European; YouTube videos showed me examples of Rumba, Mambo, Marengue and Salsa dancing which caused me to jump up and join in as I watched the computer screen. To top off the day of immersion, I watched the Netflix movie Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, a simple romance story about a Cuban waiter working at a hotel for wealthy Americans and an American girl, daughter of a wealthy business man. What makes the movie special is the irresistible music and sensuous body-to-body dancing, along with the glimpse into Cuban life just before the revolution in 1959.

Goodbye New Mexico!

Albuquerque-Dallas-Ft. Lauderdale with SW Airlines, shuttle to Miami. Margo and John are my travel companions.

We just now arrived at our designated hotel in Miami and discovered that 4 people in our group are still stuck at the airport in Albuquerque trying to figure out how to get here since the flights in Houston were canceled and they are not able to find seats of planes flying alternate routes due to storms. So, they will meet us in Havana in a couple of days.

At this moment, ten of us are gathering at the Miami airport waiting for 4 hours to board our chartered flight to Cuba. There are endless lines of American Cubans with carts and carts piled high with goods to bring to relatives on the island.

I spoke to the woman in the picture. She is sending refrigerator, TV, computers and other items to family members in Cuba. The items are heavily wrapped in plastic. The NY Times recently published an article about the increasing class disparity in Cuba, especially between the blacks and the white, related to the goods and currencies that the Cuban-American community is sending to their relatives on the island. The people who have American relatives are getting wealthier while the ones that don’t are getting poorer.

Well, it looks like we’re about to board. I better take advantage of this last chance to have secure, fast internet connection. So, I’ll sign off—without a chance to review what I said.

Stay tuned !