Realistically, I wasn’t going to be able to sleep in since I had gone to bed so early the night before, but I would have liked to have slept past 5 a.m.!  Usually the cars honking, people talking, yelling and laughing, and Yolanda’s radio don’t wake me up, but that morning they did and it made it difficult to get back to sleep.

Around 7:30 a.m., I finally rolled out of bed and was greeted by breakfast waiting on the table.  It started with a refreshing glass of mango juice.

Followed by an apple and a bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter.  I think we all know what that looks like at this point.

Once I finished eating, I headed back to my room where I intended to gather my things for a bath, but ended up falling asleep for an hour or so on my bed. Ooops!  Mom woke me up and I actually made it to the bathtub that time!  Success.

Mom, Pepe and I went chopping (shopping) for a few things including chicken, juice, yogurt and a few bottles of water. We saw this on the way to the store.  It’s not an uncommon sight in Cuba!

I took a number of photos in the store.  Enjoy these photos because I got in trouble for taking them!  I have no idea why.

Yum, corn sugar!

When we came to Cuba, I was really hoping to take advantage of the plethora of pizza, but obviously that wasn’t happening.  I told Pepe that something needed to be done, so we headed to the best pizza stall in La Vibora (Yolanda’s neighborhood).

After a few minutes, my cheese pizza was ready!

Looks good, right?

I tasted it and it tasted…off, but I attributed that to Cuba’s widespread off tasting cheese.  I let mom try a bite and she immediately scrunched up her face and said, “that cheese tastes like it hasn’t been refrigerated in a long time”.  Gross.  I scraped off the cheese and just ate the dough, but needless to say, that was my last peso pizza.

We made our way home, stopping to buy eggs:

Saw a man taking a shower with a coconut:

We stopped to buy bread:

And finally, we were home.  Yolanda feeds this dog once a day.  It’s funny how he comes every day at the same time for a bowl of food and then he leaves.  They have their relationship worked out perfectly.

Once we returned home, I hung out on the balcony for awhile and observed the life below, while mom taught Yolanda how to make bulgur wheat.  That bulgur, with pica dillo and salad turned into a late lunch for us.

After lunch, mom wanted to take a walk over to Pepe’s to take a few pictures of his house during daylight.  Pepe’s home is easily one of the nicest looking on the street.  I took a few photos on the walk there:

Some of the houses are crumbling…

And you’re able to see how grand the homes used to be…

And some of the homes have been restored…

Pepe’s house:

We took photos inside, and then headed outside to say “hi” to all of Pepe’s domino friends!  They all sit around on the street and play dominoes and have a good time together.

We hopped on la gua gua, but it wasn’t too packed.  Being able to breath was such an odd sensation!  We took the bus to mom’s old neighborhood. She wanted to see what became of her old school:

And where her house was.  It wasn’t a shack when she lived there with her family; there was an actual building.

We decided to walk back to Yolanda’s, stopping for “chocolate” ice cream on the way.  I don’t think any form of chocolate has ever seen that ice cream, but it was still good! (it was even better because it was less then 5 cents!)

Back at Yolanda’s, we hung around a bit more, eventually sitting down to dinner-chicken, rice, and split pea soup.

It was a relaxing day, but it was nice to be able to spend it with family and see some of the places that were a part of my mom’s childhood.  It’s strange to think what her life would be like if she and the rest of her family never left Cuba.