Terri, Dan and I left in the same taxi. We were on the same flight to Miami. Porfirio would leave later in the day and fly home to Costa Rica.

One more goodbye at the airport to some special people. Standing: Terri going home to Iowa, Robin to Philadelphia. Sitting: Dan to Colorado Springs, Noreen to Alexandria, Terri (aka “my Terri”). We had a great travel group.

Miami. Customs was fast and easy. The meal I wanted most:

Dallas-Ft Worth airport, long layover:

After midnight: home SWEET home.

Our final full day in Cuba. Back to Havana.

A stop at Finca Vigia – the home of Ernest Hemingway.

His fishing boat, Pilar.

D’Brujas – the witches – are soap and skin care product makers who have been successful and recently opened a store in Los Angeles. We visited the workshop where all the products are made.

Next, a very large market where you can buy ANYthing.

After checking in at the hotel, we all met downstairs at 4 pm. A fleet of six 50s cars were waiting for us.

Three people per car. We made several stops so you could switch around and ride in 4 different models. So much fun.

A broad avenue along the water where many embassies are located.

Artist Jose Fuster reclaimed his impoverished Jaimanitas neighborhood by creating colorful mosaics everywhere. He started with his own studio then asked neighbors if he decorate their homes and businesses. Over a decade of work, Fusterlandia was born. To me, this is a not-to-be-missed highlight of Havana.

With our driver, Ramon:

We drove through a huge park in the middle of the city, aka the “lungs of Havana.”

Revolution Square surrounded by many government buildings.

Before dinner, a few of us walked to the amazing Hotel Nacional for a drink.

Our final dinner was at Casa Miglas,

followed by a one-hour performance by the Havana Queens dance company.

We toured the museum dedicated to the Bay of Pigs invasion – a military operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles which was secretly financed and directed by the USA, hopefully to overthrow Fidel Castro’s communist government. It failed within 72 hours.

A brief stop at a “secret garden” with many small trees and bird feeders in the backyard of a home Ray/tour director knew of.

So many little birds flitting about and hard to capture in a picture. There were many bee hummingbirds, the smallest species, just 2 inches long. I took 10 pictures, only one contained a bird, and it wasn’t a bee hummingbird:

Today, we were supposed to do a short bike ride. Although that particular activity was communicated to us, the travelers, it was not communicated to our tour directors. No arrangements had been made. Darn. To counter our disappointment, we stayed only one night in Cienfuegos instead of two, and came to an all-inclusive resort in Varadero called Melia Las Antillas. We had a very relaxing afternoon, many enjoyed the pool or beach (not me, I caught up on the blog and answered emails).

The view from my balcony:

Beautiful, relaxing, but not much to share. Giving you a break from super long blog posts.