Searching for souvenirs. We are finished in half an hour. Some bracelets, maraca's, wooden little cars... Done. Walking over the plaza de Armas we see, a nice oldtimer-show.

While we are packing our luggage, we hear some streettheater Music on the street, we go and stand on our balcony to enjoy the show.

A bit later we see them again on the plaza de Armas when we are on our way to the Bacardi Museum. When we arrive, we find out it isn't a museum. It started raining, so we decide to have a drink in the bar. The very friendly & cheerful bar tender tells us that the building was build by the Bacardi family, but it has always been offices.

We tell him his english is remarkable good! He tells us he used to be a professor (astromy, natural science, mathematics) and when he got his degree, he had the highest score – Fidel Castro signed his degree. He tells it very calmly, but you can hear in his voice how proud he is. - But in the 90's economy went down. He only had 2cuc (=2US dollars) a month! 'nobody can live of 2 cuc a month' – So he had to search for a different job, and so he became a bartender, now he shakes coctails for tourists.

Its a cheerfull man, but still- All these stories, it makes me feel 'weak', i know i already wrote it down... There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a bar tender, a taxi driver or a selling newspapers, i'm sure they even enjoy it. Its just that because they hàve to do that, they can't do thàt thing anymore where they have put their passion, their heart & soul in. Thàt is what creates the battle inside my own whole way of being – not having the choice , not being able to do what you want to do in your heart.

So i think, and i hope, the man who sells newspapers, in his heart, he will always be a creator of perfumes and the bartender will always be a professor and a scientist.

In the mean time its raining réally hard, we run from shelter to shelter and reach the old theater building. Cause before we leave Cuba we would like to see the inside of the big theather.

A man from the security is our guide for 2 cuc.p.p. He shows us al around and we can go and see every little corner. We can go behind the scenes, side-scenes and on stage. Its great that we can go and see everywhere. Intresting, they still use the very old decors and all the technical stuff is still done like it was more then 50 years ago. The old wooden stage floor is in a bad state, its raining inside and just like the rest of the building it needs to be restaured.
Its a beautiful theather, but it smells 'old' and 'damp'. The guide tells us that the theater will be closed in august for restauration. We don't think it can be done in one month.

When we leave the building its raining sooo very hard – a cloud burst!

The man let us back in the building until it will stop raining. We go and sit down. After a while the man comes and sit with us a bit. He ask what we think of his country. We answer how we liked nature and the Music, and that we met nice people, but that some Cuban man are pushy and that everything cost an extra cuc. We ask him if he works here a long time already, if he likes his job. He works here a few years already as a security man. And he does the guiding for some extra money. Yesterday his wife said 'i nééd schampoo to wash my hair' – so he said 'okay okay, i will try to guide some people around tomorrow'. Gwen still has a peace of soap in her bag, we give him an extra peso and Gwen gives him the soap, we smile "its for your wife" – He smiles "Grazias Grazias, have a good day!!".

Its still raining a bit.

We have our last meal in Habana in 'La Médina' – Yes, we know, agàin, but we feel like having a last good meal before we go on the iberia flight back home again.
Its still raining - another cloud-burst while we are eating.

In the taxi to the airport – it stopped raining, but the streets are still flooded.
An old tape is playing... We hear music from Gun's & Roses, a bit later 'What a feeling' and the last thing we hear is 'like a bridge over troubled water...' from Simon & Garfunkel... Ah well, it could have been just as well them ugly spanish 'modern' crapballads, it wouldn't make a difference i just always feel a bit sad when i leave a country. Its just, i don't really know what to do and where to go with all them impressions i have experienced the last few weeks.

And for me personally, it has never been 'enough' – there is always something more that i would have liked to do or see. -We didnt do West-Cuba yet, and it would have been nice to dive in Maria de la gorda, etc. And i just never had or have the feeling that there is anything or anyone at home that can't wait that little bit longer for my return.

But we were here and it was good. I'm glad we came and i'm pleased i did it with Greet & Gwen, two of my very dear friends – totally different then me, but they always sense how i feel. We were here "tres chica blanca" – and i wouldn't have wanted to come here with anyone else but them.

Cuba is a fascinating Island, the people, nature, the system... Its a country that you can't understand in a few weeks of time, but i tried. To be able to enjoy it, you just have to accept it. Sometimes we weren't able to do that, but most of the times we did enjoy it fully.

Its not like Australia that i would like to live here... but i do like this country and i hope that however the system might change here in the future, it will be in the benefit of the Cuban people. They are a beautiful and proud people.

In the airport, no problems with checking in.
We drink something, read & write a bit and then we just fly home. Home, where we can eat our good belgian chocolat again as much as we want, but pay a lot of money for mango's not half as sweet as they are here and also home, where we will be "just 3 girls" again instead of "3 white girls".