Last Full Dia

Where do I begin? What an amazing last full day in Havana. The day started with Chap and Mary leaving a day early because something came up that needed tending to leaving me with the whole day to do with what I pleased. I've learned over recent trips how much I enjoy walking, so walk I did today to the tune of about 31,000 steps around Havana. The day started at the Malia Cohiba to get some Google Maps routing done and off I walked up Linea to the Ave De Los Presidentes, then to the Havana Libre where I asked where the Capital was and they laughed saying it was about a 40 minute walk(I was thinking "sounds perfect to me.), then I met up with the Free Walking Tour crew for three hours of walking around Old Havana. What a wonderful tour it was. Maybe I'll post some of the notes from Johan and crew.  I highly recommend these tours.  I took one in London years ago and had a similar awesome experience.

I met a few Americans on the tour. One in particular, Leslie, and I decided to continue our trek which took us to the fort across the harbor. The views of Havana were absolutely incredible. Maybe the guide books I've read have talked about this fort, and I must have missed then, because it was incredible. The cannon firing at 9pm was really cool too.

We cabbed to La Cathedral for dinner after the fort. It was a blast getting to hear about all the cool things she had done in Cuba and about her life in NYC. Spending time trekking around the city and getting to know awesome people reminded me yet again of a few things:
1. I love traveling
2. I love meeting new people and finding out who they are
3. I love talking about real things
4. I love walking cities
5. I hate the night before I leave a city for home
6. I love keeping this blog as a way to remember some of the cool things I've been able to do
7. I learn tons about myself through traveling
8. God takes care of me in ways that I could have never imagined

This trip to Cuba was awesome. Flat out awesome. It was capped by an amazing day today with some unbelievable people. I can't thank Leslie enough for hanging out and tooling around Havana with me. I can't express enough in words the gratitude I feel for being able to come here, see the things I've seen, do the things I've done and meet the people I've met.

I really think I just scratched the surface of Cuba and with every scratch I noticed even more depth to be explored. Maybe other places are like that too, but it seems to be on another level here in Cuba.

Thanks, my fictional readers, for following along with this trip! It turned out better than I could have even imagined.