During our eleven day excursion, we visited seven different parts of the island, including the Bay of Pigs, which is known as Playa Geron by the Cubans, and had countless chances to interact with locals. We learned how to play Cuba's National Game -dominoes- according to their rules (quite different from ours); saw performances by modern dance and ballet companies; heard a wonderful a Cappella group; as well as visiting an exquisite pottery shop, and a number of art and sculpture studios. We even got to experience a night-time tour of the "Queen of Central Cuba" - Camaquey- in a caravan of old American cars (ours was a 1920 model T Ford. This was arranged by the group leaders as a celebration of our 49th wedding anniversary). Quite spectacular!
While this may seem like a lot to accomplish in eleven days, we never felt rushed, nor harried. We traveled with a great group of people (17 in total) from all over the U.S., all retired except one, and ranging in ages from 83 to 61. Everyone was considerate of each other, always showing up on time for our appointed sojourns. They were wonderful!
There was just so much we saw and did that it would take a book to describe it all. Suffice to say we had a terrific time. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Road Scholar did a wonderful job organizing and running this tour. While it was a bit more than our planned budget, we felt it was worth every penny!
Now, on to Spain.