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My sister and I have a pact. Once a year to visit a new place somewhere far away. I live in Dublin Ireland, she lives in London UK. One day back in 2018 I got a message from her asking if I have seen Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights movie. I haven’t, so instead scenes from a Netflix documentary about Cuba flashed in my mind. I replied - “Wanna go to Cuba?” Six months later, cab is waiting to take me to the airport and I am taking elevator selfie in my Mickey mouse t-shirt and pink luggage to send it to Vivian, Cuban lady who will be picking us up at the airport in Havana and at whose 'casa particular' my sister and I will be staying. It’s the end of October and close to midnight, but as we step outside the terminal building, tropical heat hits my face with a hint of smell of a summer rain just passed. I can hear it dripping from the leaves of lush trees to my right and corners of poorly lit buildings to my left. Ahead lies a parking lot paved with concrete tiles that are all cracked and broken up with relatively tall grass growing between the cracks. This car park resembles a retro car lover meeting point before their Sunday drive to one of those classic car shows so popular in the UK and Ireland. Vivian leads to her car. It's the first Lada and I can’t help but smile as I remember dad having one of those when I was a kid. What comes next seems bizarre to me as Vivian opens it with a push of a button on her key and once inside she plugs her smartphone to the cable sticking out of the car's old radio. Once she turns the key some recent pop song starts blaring out the speakers. I can’t stop smiling. This car even smells like my dad's did and I suddenly feel somewhat nostalgic. Our plan is a few days exploring Havana then organising transport to get to Cayo Guillermo. Usually, I travel to destinations where I can practice kiteboarding. It’s been my sport for the last five years. Water is my element and nothing comes close to the feeling of freedom I get when the wind is in my back and my board is slicing the water. Unfortunately, my sister doesn’t share the same love. So she asked that maybe this once we go to a non kiteboarding destination. But then she showed me pictures of the hotel she booked in Cayo Guillermo and my promise went out the window. There was a kite school and rental next door to the hotel. She found that funny too. After all, she picked it. We got there on a windless afternoon and the kiteboarding school was closed only two local guys were hanging around. Between my broken Spanish and their broken English I understood that the school belongs to a German guy and I should try again tomorrow. Next windy day I was there buzzing with excitement to try out this spot. I met the German guy, paid a small fortune for a couple of hours of rental, was handed crappy used and abused gear and off I went. I couldn’t even argue much about it, I didn’t speak a word of German and he was no better in English. When you are a woman in this sport you often get treated like you don’t know a thing and until you prove yourself you are hardly ever taken seriously. But I didn’t care, I just wanted to get into the water and do my thing. When the sun started to set I came back to shore and the German guy was waiting for me with a cup of coffee. He helped me land, smiled and said that I was very good and would I like to come teach next summer in Rhodes, Greece. I never thought about teaching kiteboarding before. Next day when I got to the kite school a brand new kiteboarding gear was waiting for me. This summer will be my second season teaching kiteboarding in Rhodes.