My name is Emma Burton. I am a sophomore at the college, and I participated in the Havana, Cuba study abroad program. I chose this program because I know that it is difficult for people to the U.S. to travel to Cuba, and I saw it as a rare opportunity to be able to live and study in Havana. My goals were to improve my Spanish, make local friends, and learn how to dance a little bit of salsa. Before I went to Cuba, I watched lots of Cuban films to familiarize myself with the dialect and to learn a little bit about Cuban art and history.

One of my favorite days in Cuba was our excursion to Las Terrazas. Las Terrazas is a nature reserve comprised of 5,000 hectares of forest. The land there was previously deforested, and Las Terrazas is now considered a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Las Terrazas has a population of about 1,000 people, and there’s also lots for tourists to do there. For example, I went horseback riding, and other people in our group went out on the lake in rowboats. I had fun, but my horse was very disobedient and kept walking me into the forest and up hills.

We also visited a local artist who uses natural dyes and methods to make his own paper. I bought a card and envelope with the image of a lily. He also sold hanging wooden hummingbirds that would be disassembled for people to pack them up and bring them home. The town of Las Terrazas was lush with trees and baby chicks and their mothers pecked for food on the side of the road. The houses were all identical, white bungalows with terra-cotta roofs. We ate lunch next to a river and spent some time wading and looking for fish. After spending two weeks in the bustling city of Havana, it was wonderful to see the natural beauty of Cuba as well.