Ana and Raciel

We arrived back in Holguin two days too late for the Romeria de la Cruz festival, where everyone toils up the Loma de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross) at the edge of town for a mass to commemorate the day that Constantine the Great’s mother found the original cross from Christ’s crucifixion. Yes, really. But being late apparently didn’t matter because the festivities last a week. So once we’d bought our rum and coffee to take home and queued in a bank to change money so we could pay our airport exit tax (which we’d spent on rum and coffee) we scouted round for celebrations.
 
A bit of music, some street performers telling stories to children in a school uniform that included red ‘pioneer’ scarves, and a dark angel being ignored by almost everyone (Extra). That was about it. Ah well.
 
We waved goodbye to Ana and Raciel, whose welcome to Cuba two weeks ago convinced us we’d have a good time, and shared a taxi to the airport with Ana’s English teacher, who was also UK-bound. We found L from yesterday in a check-in queue and learnt from him that the Cuban government abolished the exit tax two days ago. What else to do but spend the money we needn’t have changed yesterday on more rum and coffee.
 
The End.


What a story! I do hope there’s a sequel.