I am writing to you from my waterfront hotel in the historic city of Cienfuegos in Cuba. It is our group’s last night here in Cuba, and we have a couple hours of free time before our farewell dinner. (*sniff*) Today we went to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Trinidad, and saw a few unique things on the way like the migration of thousands of crabs trying to cross the road! Trinidad has a very specific color palette of historic hues which are mandated for use on the well-preserved 18th Century architecture, which is a combination of Caribbean, Cuban, and European influences. On the way back from Trinidad on the bus this afternoon, we were playing Jungle Book (Bare Necessities), Frank Sinatra and Salsa music, and we laughed so hard we had tears running down our cheeks…a fantastic week with an awesome group.
With limited internet access and being the mother hen to our group, I have not had time to post many photos yet, but I’ll get to that next week…before I leave for Quilt Market! We had such a great group – the quilters brought their husbands, daughters and best friends so we had a wide perspective on our tour. Tomorrow early morning we fly back to Miami, then I am renting a car and driving up to Sarasota to visit my old roommate from Hong Kong. (She was the head patternmaker for Oscar de La Renta when I first met her.) I’ll be back in the office Weds and then flying to Salt Lake Thursday – and I will be happy when I am back home for Sophie’s graduation from 8th grade the following week!
I am going to do ONE more tour to Cuba before the hordes of tourists hit. I can already see that there are more tourists here than when I went last September. If you want to see Cuba before the masses of tourists, I strongly recommend you check out our Cuban Arts Tour.
Also the Polar Bear Tour still has a couple spots left, and it will definitely sell out! If you are more of a wildlife lover this is a great opportunity to see the iconic bears, while traveling with a like-minded group. We have lots of hot chocolate on the big white Tundra Rover!
We have some surprises coming soon with new fabrics, classes, creative retreats and other fun stuff, so keep an eye out for our newsletters. Our 2000 sq ft classroom in Boulder Colorado will be ready for booking soon and we can’t wait to start meeting our friends and customers in person!
Calendar:
May 8-15 – Luana’s CUBA ARTS TOUR #1 – Sold Out
May 1-31 – The Golden Hour – SAQA Call for Entries
May 20-22 – Quilt Market
July 20-29 – Seville & Granada
Sept 18-25 – Cuba Arts Tour #2 – details here!
Nov 15-20 – Luana’s POLAR BEAR Tour – almost full!
