When I got lost in Cuba

Happy happy and blessed Saturday!, my plans for this weekend are to relax at home and recharge my batteries, maybe chatting later with my friends and getting some fresh air while walking around the urbanization.

But at this moment I'm hooked on the weekend proposals and I'll tell you about the time I got lost in Cuba.

About twelve years ago I made my first trip to Cuba as a speaker at an education conference. We attended a small group from each state of the country, being there we were organized 3 per room, we made friends those of us from Falcón together with a colleague from Delta Amacuro and one from Cojedes.

Our coordinator had been there before, so she felt more secure and confident and we trusted her.

One day they left us the morning free and we had to go to La Barca Restaurant to have lunch with the whole delegation. My coordinator said;

Let's not wait for transportation but go on our own and walk around for a while, I know how to get there.

We arranged and went for a guagua (bus).

When we are half way there my coordinator starts to look to the sides and tells us to get off, she doesn't recognize the places we pass by. We stayed at a stop and asked if we were close to our destination and they said yes, just walk north.

So well perfect we are in the right direction, he was just overcome with doubt and we got off.

We walked in the direction indicated and observing the architecture of each building we came across.

A long time passed and we realized that we could not see any restaurant called La Barca.

We decided to ask again and indeed they affirmed that it was there and that we were close by.

My God I learned that for them everything is close, they are very used to walk, and a block for them is like 5 for us.*

I don't know how many times they told us to go on, that our destination was very close.

We walked and walked, we asked more than once the direction, and they told us the same thing, if it is right there. And the most important thing is that we always believed them haha.

We took breaks because our feet hurt and we kept going. My friend from Delta Amacuro damaged her shoe and on the way we had to look for a shoemaker to be able to continue. Here we laughed a lot, because there was no point in getting upset. We were lost, but together.

We still took pictures along the way, in the midst of our tiredness and worry of not knowing where we were, we encouraged each other. We joked with our coordinator that another day we would not pay attention to her to leave, that it was better to wait for our transportation.

For a moment we thought we would not get there, that they were giving us false addresses on purpose.

We wondered who to call for help that would not involve a scolding for going out alone and not waiting for transportation. It is a delicate issue, because as hosts they gave us lodging, food, transportation and recreation for the days that the delegation was in their country.

They are punctual and organized, and this would bring our attention from both countries, but on the other hand, the coordinator was with us, to her the scolding would be stronger.

Our hope was to continue and trust what we were told, we had no other choice. We walked for more than two hours, without telling them lies. When at last, in the distance, we saw that big white sign with blue letters with the name of the place where we were supposed to be.

I assure you that it was like seeing the glory, we finally arrived, and we thought hopefully it was the right place.

My companions hurried the pace and left me a little behind, they wanted to be sure that our adventure was finally over.

Well, it was the place, everyone was already there, we had to sit at different tables, and our partner Alfredo did not think twice and immediately took a very tasty Cristal beer and showed it to me as soon as I arrived, he was the first to enter.

We kept teasing each other about our adventure and all the walking we did. Instead of taking another "guagua" haha.