Alma Mater - in Havana?

Imagine our surprise when we visited the University of Havana and saw an Alma Mater statue that bears a remarkable likeness to our favorite one in Champaign.  Just missing the two figures in the back and it decided to sit instead of stand.  But then it is a lot warmer in the Caribbean and sitting probably makes more sense.

Cuba - The Pearl of the South

Hotel Nacional in Havana

Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic started people-to-people travel to Cuba last year and after considering first a trip to Key West, we decided to try out Cuba instead.  The trip was appealing at least partly due to it being in the Caribbean during February when the cold and gloom of a Wisconsin winter is usually getting to us.  So two weeks ago we headed first to Miami before catching our flight to Havana.

We found that Cuba both met many of our expectations - crumbly apartments and houses, people struggling to make ends meet - and was nothing like we were expecting.  But then most travel is usually like that.  The Cuban people are very friendly, easy to talk with, and pretty honest and open about the struggles they and their country face.  We found them passionate about the arts, especially music and dance, but could use a little more passion around the sciences (of course, we might be a bit biased on that one).

Havana was fun to explore and we enjoyed our walks on the Malecon and through Central Havana.  Although we did worry a few times about having a balcony fall on us.  We learned a lot about Cuban history and Fidel's revolution.  It is always interesting to see how history is remembered from the other side.  We visited Ernest Hemingway's home outside of Havana and took in the museum to the revolution (with some choice comments on American efforts to keep it from happening).  We also got to enjoy a few rides in the 1950's classic cars that Cuba is famous for and you see all over the city ranging from rusting wrecks that you can't believe still run to impeccably maintained beauties that look like they just rolled off the assembly line.

Central Havana

After three days in Havana we headed to the south coast to board our ship for seven days of sailing around the southern part of the island.  During the cruise portion of the trip, we spent time in Trinidad, Cienfuegos, and the Isle of Youth taking in old sugar plantations, visiting schools, and seeing musical groups perform.  Each day was packed with activities in which we got to meet with the Cuban people and ask questions to help us understand their culture and lives better.  We also got the chance to do a little snorkeling.  One of the snorkel trips was in the Bay of Pigs after visiting the Bay of Pigs museum presenting the Cuban perspective on the ill fated invasion.

Two key highlights that are worth mentioning.  One morning as we were sailing we were joined by a pack of 30-40 dolphins frolicking in the bow wave of the boat.  It was spectacular to see them leaping out of the water, weaving around, and easily keeping up with our boat.  The second was Jo learning to salsa which I was recorded as a movie for posterity - unfortunately it is too big to upload to the blog.

We took over 600 pictures, so those here are just to peak your interest.  You'll have to visit us here in WI to see the full set.  We would recommend a visit to Cuba if you have the chance - it remains a bit of an enigma, but it is still set in the beautiful Caribbean with balmy temperatures during our winter and great sea breezes (at least along the coast).

Trinidad

Is it really February

Old man winter decided to take a few weeks off and let us have some absolutely beautiful weather to get everyone out of their winter blues.  We don't usually expect to have temperatures in the mid to high 50's in February.  The truly amazing part was that we managed to have warm temperatures with sunny skies.  Usually this time of year when we get warm temperatures it is usually due to cloud cover locking in any heat.  Regardless of why it was warm, we tried to take advantage of it by talking a couple of nice long walks and getting our bikes out for a ride out to the baseball stadium.

Jo was in Phoenix for part of the week finishing up the last of her regional meetings and didn't arrive home until early Saturday morning.  So after sleeping in a bit we finished our morning exercise routine and headed out to find a place for lunch that involved a reasonably long walk.  We ended up in Shorewood eating at a new restaurant that had our favorites - hamburgers with shakes.  The weather was perfect for eating outside and afterwards to help justify the milkshakes we took the long way home.  The rest of the day was spent catching up on some chores around the house.

Sunday morning we hauled the bikes out of the garage, reinflated the very flat tires, and took to the road/bike paths for a ride out past Miller Park.  While noticeably cooler near the lake, once we were inland a bit it was a perfect temperatures for a ride.  The only hard thing will be when it suddenly decides it is time to go back to more seasonable temperatures and snow starts coming down again.  The warm spell certainly makes you start thinking spring.

The picture at the top was our "reward" for riding our bikes.  No point in exercising if you aren't going to let yourself eat back all the calories you burn.  It is a smore's bake (milk chocolate chips on the bottom, marshmellows on top and heated until nicely brown - eat with graham crackers) - YUM.

Dancing the Night Away

We decided to take advantage of Jo actually being in town for the entire weekend and headed over to Madison to check up on our homestead there.  We hadn't been able to make it to Madison for almost six weeks and we were happy to see everything still standing, no water dripping, and our puzzle still waiting for a few more pieces to be inserted.  After dropping everything off we headed out for dinner at a local brew pub to enjoy a burger and fish fry (we shared).  My brandy old fashioned and Jo's cosmo hit the spot although we had seats near the door and we both felt cold for the rest of the night.  We did try to ward off the cold with a brisk walk down State Street on a search for a meaningful dessert which we found with a hot peanut butter/chocolate chip cookie from Insomnia Cookies.

We woke to a wonderfully warm day - at least for February in Wisconsin - and headed down State St. to get some breakfast and to buy some tickets to an evening show at the Overture Center (hence the title of this post).  Afterwards we worked on a little on our condo renovation plans before walking over to the Vilas Zoo to meet Kathy for lunch and a tour of the zoo.  The Madison Zoo is a great zoo for a town the size of Madison and with free admission certainly makes it a must see stop.  That and I remain amazed at the incredible diversity of animals on this planet.  We then spent the afternoon putting in a few more pieces of the afore mentioned puzzle before grabbing a porta salad at Paisans for dinner before the show.

So about the show, we thought we were going to see a play about a Russian folk tale that roughly follows the Cinderella story line - at least as far as two ugly stepsisters, a nice and lovely girl, a mean witch.  It was titled "Baba Yaga" which I presume is the name of the folk tale.  What we had failed to notice in our reading about the "play" is that is was actually the Russian folk tale as told through modern dance.  We did enjoy the show, but mostly because it gave us time to muse about the different paths people take in life and what really excites them.  For instance, modern dancers.  But it was a good show with a lot of talented dancers (at least I thought they were, but what do I know about talent in relation to modern dancing) and it left us talking about it for the rest of the evening - so it must have been worth our time.  But thank goodness for the narrator otherwise we wouldn't have had a clue what was going on.