Water May Walk- Devendra Banhart

So this past weekend, a bunch of us wanted to get out of Habana. Some girls took a bus to the caves in Matanzas that we didn't go to when we were there, and some of us rented a car! It was quite good.
Danny, Tara, Meg, Steph and I were planning on renting a car to go to Soroa to see some sweet waterfalls, maybe some caves if we had the time. Apparently Cuba is big on the cuevas. Michelle was going to be alone all day because everyone had plans, so we told her that if we could rent a car that would fit six people, she could come. Well, we couldn't rent a car for six people. We had a very normal sized sedan. But Michelle came anyway, and the back seat was so unconfortable. Luckily, I had over a pound of Twizzlers for roadtrip food!

The ride was only supposed to be an hour. Danny started out driving, but after driving around Habana for almost three hours, he was getting a little cranky. We had finally found the autopista, but didn't really know how far away we were. I could barely feel my left leg, so I volunteered to drive. The highway was empty which was nice. The car drove wonderfully and we were having so much fun until we were there! Well, almost. We didn't know exactly where the waterfalls were, but we were close. But we followed a sign that said tourist center up a hill. It was so beautiful. On the way up the hill, we met a cow and her cow friends.

I stopped to take a picture of our new friend.

The guy told us that we still had to go a little further on the autopista. We turn around, pass the cows again, and finally make it to the waterfalls. We were starving, so we ate lunch at a little cafe (decent mojitos), and then started the trek to the waterfalls.

This day was also the first day of showing off my new haircut that I hate. Foto de Meg.

They made us pay in CUC, which I was mad about (I tried my method of yelling a lot, but no luck). It was only three CUC though, so it was fun. We get all the way down into the valley (quite the walk down all of these uneven silly steps of crumbling concrete) and then we see the waterfall. Like a lot of things in Cuba, it left a bit to be desired. I was expecting these gushing falls (for 4 USD, I should get my money's worth), but it was just one little waterfall. But after some investigation, we learned that from last year's hurricanes, a bunch of it got wiped out. So sad.
But we still got to go swimming in the pools of the waterfall, climb up the rocks, stand under it, and generally be little kids. It was fun.

Arco Iris! Foto de Michelle.

After the falls, we decided to go to the mineral baths. It was gettting late and the caves were far away and we had to be home for dinner! So the mineral baths were really close (as in next door) so we walk in to this sketchy little building that reaked of sulfur. The mineral bath were free and kinda cold and kinda weird (it was like a small swimming pool, but was fed by these natural springs). The guy running the whole operation spoke English, but it was hard to understand (Meg described his accent as "One of those male hairdressers who tries to fake an Italian accent to seem edgy"). Anyway, were in the baths for a while, and then we get out and Tara was going to go first for a massage. We're standing outside in the sun, when she comes out and is whispering that the guy is creepy and we should skip the massage. Apparently, this guy kind of touched his forehead to Tara's forehead and left it there for a while. It was just all very odd. And very Cuban.
After that we drove home to a lovely dinner of pizza and bok choy. Yum.