Friday - March 7th

Had a long interesting talk with Louisa, Maria's daughter in law. She's about my age, painfully skinny and a chain smoker but she's very down to earth and lots of fun. We were talking about life in Cuba and how tough it can be....i wish i had my camera rolling but some of the topics might be sensitive and i didnt want to put anyone in trouble.

Maria made us a fabulous dinner of fries, fried sweet potatoes, rice and beans or Comida Creollo (their version of waakye)

Later on we went to this hole in the wall on Obispa street. It was pretty dead at first but the band there brought some life to the place with their Cuban style music. It was pretty intoxicating.Vancouver seemed miles away as we sipped on our daquiris and watched this wild girl swaying her hips expertly and dancing all night to the music. The girl later came to our table and hugged and kissed Vero several times on her forhead, saying she reminded her of a relative ...I heard the word 'belinda??' several times - meaning 'beautiful' I think - They are very passionate, these cubanitas.