Chivirico, Cuba, Day 3

This kind of travel is new for Nancy and me.  Staying over an hour away from the closest airport.  In a resort with only 32 rooms. Two hundred and ninety eight steps down to and back up again from the beach - but what a nice secluded beach.  Rooms were clean and basic.  Food was plentiful but not full of variety.  But proximity and availability to Cuban life - top of the charts.

Today we were invited to a Cuban art gallery open house.  A few local painters had their art displayed for sale.  Also in the small gallery, they hosted a band and a dance demonstration.  OK all of the above were great but this was the afternoon it rained.  What happens with rain? Humidity.  Mix that with 25+ tourists in a little room with sweaty dancers and we were all sweaty.  The show was fun and the art surreal.

One of the locals that we met was German, pronounced "her maan".  German practices a religion known as Santa Ria.  Our group was invited back to his house so that his "Padrino" could perform cleansing ceremonies on us. Once the rain stopped we walked over to German's house, about 15 minutes away.  Again, into a hot, humid small room we packed ourselves. Have I mentioned how spoilt we are here in Canada?  After a couple of tourists had their readings done this evening, the Padrino(s) came into the room with thick branches of soaking wet tree branches.  The leaves smelt great.  Each of us had the opportunity to be cleansed.  OK, here the cynic in me comes out - how can a big overweight man and woman, soaked in sweat and he smoking a cigar perform a cleansing?  Well, several people commented how good they felt after the ceremony.

A short walk, in the dark, back to the base of the hill where the hotel was. Remember those 298 steps?  You still need to climb that elevation even if you're travelling by road, only then it's many more steps.