Havana tour

Saturday, Feb. 14 - We were up early and went to breakfast downstairs. A surprisingly large number of people were there, or came in, for breakfast. Fresh fruit, crepes, eggs cooked to order, beans, rice, cereal - it was a sumptuous spread. We departed on our little bus for our tour of Havana and to visit the home of Orlando Garrido, Cuba's premier ornithologist. Dr. Garrido, who wrote the Birds of Cuba field guide, was delightful and charming, entertaining us with tales of some of his past field adventures, his tennis career (played in Wimbledon 4 times), and his birding adventures of late. He shared with us his collection of taxidermy specimens of some of Cuba's endemic birds. The photo is of me holding, yes, a stuffed Cuban tody! He was also gracious enough to autograph our copies of his book! It was an exceptionally interesting visit.

We continued our tour of Havana, doing a fair bit of walking. The city is so different from our experience that I sometimes wondered if what I was seeing was real or if I imagined it. After a much-delayed lunch, we headed back to the hotel where Ivan had a nap while I tried to work on this blog. Tomorrow we head to the Guanahacabibes peninsula, so there probably won't be any postings for awhile. (2/26 - little did I know how true that last statement would turn out to be!)