Monday was filled with two major activities. First, we enjoyed a long boat ride with Emilio and his crew across the Bahia Cienfuegos to Cayo Carena, an island with two year long residences and a number of other summer homes. On the trip, Jennifer helped the group to understand the importance of personal flotation devices, and the ease with which they can be put on. Once we docked, we walked across the island in search of a beach for swimming. During that hike, we came across two gems- a beautiful iglesia Catolico and two of the island’s residents- a husband and wife who have lived on the island for 78 years. Needless to say, they welcomed us with open arms to their island home as we have come to know is the Cuban custom. Once we arrived at the beach, we had the opportunity to swim and enjoy each other’s company. The conversation was warm as was the weather.
After our visit to Cayo Carena, we reboarded our boats and went to visit the Castillo de Jagua which was built in 1745. The castillo was built to protect the bay from invaders and to police the waters for smuggling by pirates. By the early 19th century a group of 137 French settler arrived at the location of the castillo and settled- forming a fishing village which still remains today.
After exploring all of the amazing features of the castillo, including a cannon tower, dungeon, soldiers quarters and chapel, we made our way in the heat of the day to the “El Pescado”- a quaint seafood restaurant next to the castle. During lunch we sat in groups by our academic disciplines and discussed our experiences with Project Based learning- Everyone was very engaged in the conversation and it was refreshing to converse about a wide range of PBL strategies which will benefit all of our work as educators. The food was delicious and we all thoroughly appreciated the shade and the soft breeze of the water.
The trip back across the bahia went smooothly and we arrived back on land ready to debrief our day and excited about our trip to the Bay of Pigs and Havana tomorrow.
Jing Liu and Peter Brooks
