I woke up this morning after a bad night, to find out that I have a cold. My nose is running and my throat hurts.

Pedro said it was because the weather is changing and you can feel it´s getting windier, more cloudy and slightly less warm (I´m guessing still a nice 25 degrees though)

Pedro asked what we liked most about Cuba. I think most people will answer pretty much the same: the sun, the beach, the lovely people, the old buildings and the vintage cars. Considering the circumstances, Cuba manages very well to cater for tourists. How it takes care of it´s own people is a different story though. I´m now sitting in the garden of the Hotel Nacional, where the only Cubans allowed in are the staff.

I was telling Pedro which other countries I was visiting, and with regret, but no envy, he said it was impossible for him to travel abroad, and even very expensive to travel within Cuba. Yet he knows so much more about the world, having seen so many documentaries on TV (I blundered horribly when I couldn´t even remember why we celebrate 21 July in Belgium).

A few days ago, Frank (one of the Francisco´s) said that maybe, one day, things would be different. I wonder how many people are actually waiting and secretly hoping for Fide to die. But speaking to people in general, they still prefer this to being controlled by the US, which is of course very understandable. But the price the people pay here for Fidel (and Bush) to make their respective points is very high.

At salsa Angél was trying to get me to do that difficult turn again but I think he gave up in the end. He does look slightly bored (I guess five hours of salsa per day sort of takes out the fun of it) but at least he doesn´t yawn like with many others later in the afternoon as I am at twelve... He even makes the effort to smile occasionally when I look at him triumphantly after completing a difficult turn. He was singing along to the music, horribly off key. It´s funny that someone with such rhythm and grace would suck so magnificently at keeping a tune...

Dinner was lovely, chicken soup (WITH chicken), chicken with garlic and onion in something tomato-y and avocado and rice. By the way, the avocado´s here are HUGE, they don´t even compare to the measly things they sell at Sainsbury´s. Gaby and Michael, the German couple, were back from Trinidad and gave me some addresses to stay.

Gaby was saying their camera was stolen on the beach. A fisherman had angled it away with his fishing rod while Gaby was asleep and Michael was swimming. They also got scammed when they arrived at the airport with some moneychanging scheme, they got useless Cuban pesos which are no longer valid.