I think my wife and I agree that the one thing we wish we’d done was to learn more Spanish before landing in Cuba. I think the experience would have been far more rich (and made the country a great deal easier to navigate!) had we done that.
Never did I wish this more than when I met this woman while walking the side streets of Varadero. She spotted me first, and I can only imagine that she asked me what I was photographing as I walked by. As I yelled up to her balcony that I spoke a very small amount of Spanish, she beckoned me to come closer, and descended the stairs to meet me half way.
She then said something that included the word, “Canada” in it, to which I replied, “Si”. I then motioned to my camera and asked “Permiso?”, to which she eagerly agreed. I took her photo for the second time and offered her a peso…
…And then she kissed my hand.
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