And a quick note to say what ive been upto....

got back from trinidad on wednesday, after 3 and a bit days there.
its so different from habana. barely big enough to be a town, let alone a city as it claims, and the people have a totally different mentality. generally friendlier. not that people arent friendly here, but i think like all big cities the feeling is just different.
trinidad is right on the coast and has the most beautiful beach possible. barely any waves, white white sand and amazing turquoise sea. i thought the beaches in havana were incredible, until i saw the ones in trinidad!
when we (esther, tom, hannah marlise and alex) arrivede alberto (maestro de la escuela) was supposed to have arranged a casa particular for us. no such luck and had to find our own way. not that is was a problem and we had more than enough people desperate for us to experience their air conditioning and state of the art flushing toilet.
was late when we finally sorted out casas, and so became very difficult to work out where we were. however, found a paladare (private family restaurant) after a bit of wandering. was starving and the food was amazing, all included for 5 CUC.
in the morning we went to the beach, and as i already said it was beautiful. hired a pedalo withy everyone and we played piratas del caribe. very funny, especially when we attempted to confront a little canoe and told them we were pirates...dont think they actually noticed as we couldnt pedal fast enough to even get close!
everyone got sunburnt, even 'im so tanned im cuban but from switzerland anyway' alex. serves him right! not sure how i managed it as was wearing factor 50 but the sun was incredibly hot. had gone down the next day anyway.
next day we had to renew our visas, which gave us an interesting insight into the totally hopeless and time consuming beaurocracy in Cuba. Made me respect their patience and 'can do' attitude even more.
went to the casa de la musica that night. amazing music, but by far the best bit was watching this 6ft2 dutch guy we met, dancing with ancient old man....they kept getting stuck on the salsa turns...
nearly running out of time, but anyway..for the last night we went to the famous trinidad club that is an underground cave. even the fact is was playing reggaeton (carribean style watery RnB) couldnt take away from the amazing experience!!

almost forgot, on our last night, est and i had (illegal) supper in someones actual house, as opposed to a normal restaurant. was an incredible meal, black bean stew, rice, sea food, the best wine ive ever tasted, guava smoothie, and fried banana. all for 2 50 CUC each. have now acquired an extra grandad who we watched the baseball with before our meal. still cant believe how kind all the people in trinidad were. have so much more to say, but no time left on the net as always.

hope you're all well, see you in 3 weeks. i will attempt to do more of the quick updates soon.

un beso,
elly