Cienfuegos, and the long trip home

On Friday the 15th, we said goodbye to our hosts, and headed for the Benny Moré School of Art.  This was mostly for middle school students, who had been selected from their elementary schools as having talent.  Many of the students were boarding students.  We heard several pieces performed by individuals and groups.


At the Benny Moré school of Art, they say that the children have no time for misbehaving.  ;-)  Their schedule is very demanding, with a full time academic program plus their work in music, dance, and art.

Unfortunately, Richard's stomach, which had been unhappy for the last day, started rejecting food.   I learned that the bathrooms in the school were flushed with a bucket.  For a showcase school that often has foreign visitors, the building was in surprisingly poor condition.   But many buildings in Cuba are in poor condition....

The group then visited the Terry Theatre on the plaza.  Richard was sick enough that he just sat with Sandi.  He finally took the antibiotic offered by one of our fellow participants, and started to be able to keep fluids down.   The group went to Finca del Mar restaurant; Richard and Sandi sat separately, and Richard ate a bit of Sandi's rice and beans.  We stopped by the yacht club, and then headed for the airport.

The check in and security process were typical.  We sat and watched the arrival time for the jet come and go.   We were scheduled to leave about seven PM.   Finally they posted a new arrival time of 2 AM!  

At that point, someone took leadership of the situation, speaking in Spanish and English, joking that the plane was in South Korea on it's way to San Francisco.  He started leading us in songs, such as Guantanamera and La Bamba.   We found out later that he was a Jesuit priest.   Around 2 AM, the lights went out.  Later the lights came on, and someone from the airport explained in Spanish that the plane was not coming "due to visibility problems" (read: no runway lights).   We all spent the night in the airport lounge.   We had no WIFI and no cell phone, so no way to cancel flights, etc.  The next morning, our charter flight finally arrived, 15 hours later.

By the time that we reached Miami on the morning of the 16th,  everyone had missed their flights.   Richard was so tired from being sick that he accepted a wheelchair ride for the two mile walk to customs.   Sandi negotiated new flight arrangements, which required us spending an extra night in Miami.  

Finally, on the morning of the 17th, we flew to Atlanta and then to Denver.  We took the bus to Boulder, and walked home.  We were glad to be home.