Havana - Part II (I don't have time for witty titles)

Sunday morning, we took a cab to the church and enjoyed warm greetings before taking our seats prepared for another our of amazing worship and a sermon by Will's dad (the senior pastor), translated by Will (who took a break half way through to change and take a shower...we fired him as our translator). That morning was all very hazy for me as I was still quite sick but what I do remember was being called up to greet the church; something Bonnie had warned me might happen. So Braulio (Will's dad), wearing his Canadian flag tag in honor of our presence, called us up after making the introductions and we each took a turn with the mic to greet and thank the congregation; translated into Spanish, of course, by Will. We spent the rest of the afternoon with the Herreras and Dilliam and her husband, Albert, eating lunch, chatting with Will's parents (through Will), playing Dominoes and generally enjoying the time we had together before heading back to the hotel for the night. We hadn't eaten so we made our way to a romantic restaurant across the street from our hotel where we sat side by side in a dimly lit room and enjoyed a wonderful candlelit dinner of steak and lobster while listening to a Cuban man play piano nearby. I am amazed at how cheap things are in Cuba.

We had originally planned on doing a tour of Partagas cigar factory on Saturday but because I had to cut that outing short, we decided to go on Monday morning before heading back to the church to spend our final afternoon with Will and his family. The tour was very cool and vary informative, taking us through every stage of the cigar and allowing us to see the progression by visiting the rooms where the work was being done in a building that was built near the end of the 1800's. We ended the tour with a visit to the shop and purchased a few mementos which we then stuffed in our bag to avoid getting hassled by the young gentleman outside who had offered to sell us the product out back at a cheaper price...clearly, we declined.

For lunch, we stopped at a very nice restaurant in the middle of Old Havana that Andres recommended, saying "Since you're staying at the Nationale (hotel), than it's a very nice place you can go to." (insinuation: you can afford it). The restaurant was very beautiful and "high-class", the service impeccable and the food was amazing, costing us hardly a third of what it would have been at home. After lunch we took a Co-Co cab to the church (an oval shaped shell over a 3 wheeled dirk bike with two seats behind the driver), which I loved. It was much cooler than regular cabs given the fact that it was open; this perk was pointed out when the driver pressed an imaginary button within the shell and said air-conditioning"with a playful smirk on his face. We spent the rest of the afternoon with Dillam and the Herreras just hanging out and having dinner together. Dilliam left and Andres joined us to spend our last evening out on the town with Waldee and Wilbur (another brother). As we would be heading directly to the hotel after, this is when we had to say goodbye to Wanner (Will's 5 year old brother) and his parents. This was extremely hard and quite prolonged as gifts were given and words and prayers were shared between us. I must have hugged them all 5 or six times before heading out the door, at which time I could no longer hold back the tears. I have truly come to love this family, but I'll share more about that later.

The six of us hopped on a bus and headed towards the water, grabbed a bunch of small tubs of ice cream from a hole-in-the-wall shop and sat on some grass near the hotel to spend our last bits of time together. When we parted ways, from Will, Waldee and Wilbur we got a hug and a kiss as the two brothers hardly spoke a word of English and we were expecting to see Will at the hotel the next morning. But from Andres, we got one of the best compliments I've ever received: "You behave like Cubans", he said; and, for the record, he did mean it as a good thing. He also expressed that he'd grown to love and care for us like sisters, would truly miss us and that once they left, he would not look back for fear of weeping.

As it happened, our transfer to Varadero left much earlier then we expected and we didn't find out in time to make other arrangements with Will so we had to say our final goodbyes over the phone. Again, I was left in tears.

That morning, I woke up very early and nauseous for unexplained reasons. I never did get physically sick but took a Gravol before boarding the bus just in case. Side note: since leaving home, I have become a certifiable pill popper. In Haiti, that first week it was Gravol and Immodium and this last couple weeks, almost everyday, it's been antibiotics and/or daytime cold medication, night-time cold medication and Ibuprofen for my throat. Luckily, now, I'm down to just the antibiotics. I am usually very anti-medications but I've had no choice in order to be as comfortable as possible and to keep up the pace we held in Havana, which didn't help either of us get better.

On the way to Varadero, we made a pit stop at a cafe where a live band was playing and a woman sat at a table outside the bathrooms selling toilet paper. Luckily, due to our ever-running noses, Bonnie and I had a decent supply in our purses. We made a couple quick purchases and headed back to the bus as I was having trouble walking straight and not falling over due to the Gravol I'd taken. I never did fully recover so our arrival at the resort is a little hazy but I do remember both of our jaws dragging along the floor as we toured the grounds before gaining access to our room. This place is absolutely beautiful. i have said to Bonnie that I think I'm ruined for anything less then a 5 star resort as everything is impeccable. Our room is beautiful, the food is ever plentiful and amazing, everything is clean and the resort itself is so incredible. This was my first time seeing the clear blue waters of the tropical Caribbean ocean i person and I was left a little bit speechless. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon sleeping off the Gravol on the beach and the first night, we caught the "Latin Show"in the theatre which was quite horrible and involved a number of Cuban men in unnecessarily tight spandex.

The first day we arrived here, I do admit to thinking to myself, "Ok, now what?" I was concerned I'd have trouble adjusting to the incredibly slow pace of the day and get bored, but my fears were premature. Lounging in the pool with a fruity drink from the pool bar is absolutely heaven and reading a book on the beach under the shade of a thatch umbrella or just floating around in the incredibly warm, turquoise waters of the ocean is equally amazing. I am definitely not having any trouble adjusting.