All around Havana

 This has been a fun, but exhausting day.  We started off with a lecture from a University professor who is an expert on gender studies and sociology.  She talked about women in Cuba.  She was very interesting and we could have listened for much longer than one hour.  Next we attended a performance by members of a professional dance team.  Their strength and versatility was amazing.  We had an opportunity to visit with the dancers.  One of the dancers wants to visit Chicago because she saw a television show that showed that Chicago had poor people, too, and it gave her hope.  Next we visited the Fine Arts Museum of Havana where the curator lead us on a tour. first, we had to walk up a ramp that was the equivalent of 4 stories —OMG.  He showed us paintings that were the outstanding ones in the museum and explained them in DETAIL.  Next, we walked on down the street for lunch.  Excellent lunch—you know the menu. This time we had cake for dessert. 

Old Havana has four squares.  We walked through two of them.  We had the option of taking a convertible ride in one of the antique cars. We rode in a red 52 Chevy convertible with a Hundai motor in it.  There were five cars loaded with people from our group parading around the city, honking musical horns, etc. Of course, there was a strong breeze that threatened to blow our hats off.  Ramon was our driver. He is also a nurse married to a psychologist.  They have two children.  He spoke good English and pointed our items of interest as he drove us back to our hotel. It was absolutely a fun adventure.