Dancing in the rain

Yep, it had the audacity to rain the other day, but am forgiving the country as am still having a fab time and not even a day of rain can put me off! So escaped Havana after a couple of days for some pottering around in the countryside, 3 hours west of Havana in a place called Vinales. Its an amazingly relaxed place in the middle of these incredible ¨pin cushion¨ (to paraphrase a certain guidebook) mountains and have spent a great deal of time enjoying the countryside and meeting a surprisingly large number of lovely old men! One in particular accosted me when i was having a rest after getting a bit lost on my day long wander! After a bit of chat, the marriage question of course came up and he then spent the next 15mins or so trying to convince me to marry him! Unfortunately I had to turn him down but promised if i was still single in three years (and, unspokenly if he was still alive) I would come back for him! Quite an adventurous walk one way and another as I also came across my first (and last) cock fight....that will teach me for being too curious....and there i was thinking it was a footie match in the middle of nowhere!

Unfortunately the pope´s rather inconsiderate death on Saturday put an end tp the festivities (no music for 3 nights...how inconvenient) but still managed to meet quite a few lovely locals, including some girls for a change, and had a great time chatting with them and trying out my consistently awful spanish (you would have thought by now that it would get better, but no, my brain constantly refuses to retain any new words)

Loads more to write but am at risk of boring you stupid....so heres my ¨things I love about cuba¨ list
1) theres music everywhere (except when important religious leaders die)
2) guava a newly discovered (by me at any rate) and delicious fruit
3) the men only shout at you, they dont hiss (its a sad day when the lack of hissing is considered a virtue)
4) chocoilltas (a cuban version of the oreo, mmmmmm)
5) friendly, mad old men
6) cajitas (a meal in a box....quite literally)
7) the apparent necessity for 3 men to fix a car (there should be a joke)
8) cuba libres
9) men think its ok to dance

more next week....