Day 7 - Las Terrazas and Fusterland.

Best day for last!
We drove an hour west of Havana to Las Terrazas (The Terraces).  This is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve where land totally denuded by coffee farming was reforested into a beautiful nature reserve.  As brown and dry as the land was yesterday, this area is green and lush.  There is hiking, bird watching, even a zip line! We didn't go zip lining --good thing, given my reputation as a loco on the line!

There is a small village in the biosphere with an art community, woodwork and pottery workshops.  We visited the local school and met some grade schoolers.  Also visited the medical center which seemed pretty primitive.  It does seem they do some preventive medicine and vaccinations but need supplies and medicines.

We had coffee and tea in their Cafe Maria.  As usual, we were offered rum for our drinks--even though it was 9 am!  Later we had lunch at a local farmhouse--served family style.  Pork, chicken, beans and rice .  (No fish)

Lonely Planet lists the terraces as one of the top sites in Cuba.  I agree!

Our next stop was even more exciting!  It was the home of Jose Fuster:  Fusterlandia. He is an artist who turned his entire home and 50 homes in his neighborhood into one big ceramic work of art.  I'm totally unable to describe it so you'll have to google Fusterlandia.  And that won't nearly do it justice.

At 5:30, 4 vintage cars picked us up at the hotel to take us to dinner.  Gloria, Turner, G and I ordered a blue one.  It turned out to be a '56 Bel Aire Chevy.  Neat!  The other three were pink, yellow and red.  Convertibles all.  We raced down the Malecon with our driver Joa (sp?). He was very proud of his car.  We stopped off at the fort across the river for a spectacular view of the city and then on to a special end to the evening at the Paladar Casa Miglis where we had a private room complete with a stage for our own band and two dancers.  It was one of the best bands all week.  The dancers were great and worked up a sweat so I loaned the girl my little portable fan from Walmart.  We ended by everybody dancing with them (even me!).