Spring Break started March 17th, 2023 and many people had a relaxing time. We came back from break on March 27th, and it was exciting for most students because they get to see their friends and favorite teachers.  However, Mr. Chandler and Ms. Lange decided to go to Cuba for their Spring Break!

They chose to go to Cuba because it’s not a place everyone gets the chance to go to; when they got the opportunity to travel there they took it. They went to many different places in Cuba such as Havana, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, and the Bay of Pigs. Chandler says his favorite place was Havana. He said the food was, “… a little disappointing. It tasted very bland.” Ms. Lange said, “It was a cool experience but I think I had this more romantic view of what it would be like.  Like a time warp – when in reality, it was very dilapidated.  You can tell that back in its glory day, Cuba was gorgeous, but now everything is falling apart.”

They did a bunch of really cool things like visit the Havana Tobacco Factory. Ms. Lange says, “It was started in 1835, and all of the packing, rolling, and wrapping is done by hand. Each person is required to make 80 cigars a day and when they are done they can leave the factory. Then we went to a baseball field. There were trainers and coaches from their National League to play ball with us. We all got up to bat and then they took the bats and we had to play the bases and outfields. They were good sports about it and gave us slow balls to try to hit and let us run the bases while they took their time in throwing to get us out!! It was fun.”

“When we got to Trinidad we had Salsa lessons. The lessons were outside and it was hot and humid. The rhythm is 1,2 3 and pause. The teachers were very patient with us and had a few laughs when we couldn’t remember the simple steps that he was trying to teach us. Of course, they grew up with the rhythm and dance steps so it just came naturally to them!!

Another interesting thing was visiting a coffee plantation.  One family manages a farm of 5 acres. “At the coffee farm, we saw coffee trees in various stages of growth. It is very hard work to pick the beans by hand on the steep slippery slopes. They are paid 300 pesos or $2.50 for 13 kilos or about 28.5 pounds of coffee. That is about $.09 per pound. Everything is done by hand. They sell the coffee beans to the government and they are paid for 80% of their crop. The amount paid is based on the quality of the coffee beans. They can keep 20% of their crop and sell it to tour groups like ours or at the local market to local people.”

Chandler says something interesting that he did in Cuba was getting to see all the Spanish colonial architecture. He said, “It was all so beautiful, but due to Communism and everything that’s happened, everything is falling apart.” Overall he had a pretty decent time over spring break.

What is something fun you did over spring break? We hope all our Sahuaro Cougars had a fantastic spring break!