Our trip was cut short

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Elisa, Sergio and I enjoyed a very beautiful 4 days of family time together in Cienfuegos and Trinidad. We walked Cienfuegos...a very well kept, not crowded, colonial city that had a lot more wealthy neighborhoods than I had previously seen...at least wealthy by the standards of a soicalist country in the developing world. We stayed in the most adorable house with the nicest family who cooked delicious, fresh seafood for us everyday. On Sunday we took a day trip to some very popular waterfalls...it seemed that most of the families of the city were there too...swimming, diving, drinking up bottles of rum, splashing, lounging, eating and enjoying one of the most beautiful spots in their country. It was fun to witness...but definatly not the peace and quiet that could have been in such a beautiful natural setting high up in the mountainous forests. I climbed high up the falls and found some pools all to myself...que tranquilo!
We spent 2 short days in the beautiful, small, colonial town of Trinidad. Our first night we watched a very good salsa band until 2 in the morning...along with at least 200 other toursists...most of them from Europe who take salsa classes at home and came to Cuba to do it for real! Very fun to watch.
The next day we spent lounging on the resort beach of Playa Ancon...with those same 200 European tourists and a spattering of Cubans...beautiful setting and interesting social dynamic to observe. It was like a mini Cancun.
However, it was here at one of the hotels that we found a computer to check internet for the first time in a couple days. When we did, we received some bad news regarding our grandfather. He was doing very poorly in the hospital. Two hours later we managed to find a phone card and phone that allowed us to call our father in the States...our little granfather had passed the day before.
We celebrated him with a bottle of rum under the stars on top of our Casas roof top terrace overlooking the town and the ocean in the distance. We told stories and danced to Frank Sinatra in his honor.
Now we are in Habana once again...changed our flight to fly home today to Los Angeles to be with our family for the funeral the week after.
I will return to my travels when the time is right. I won´t know until I am back with my family again.

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