When we knew that we were headed around the Cape of Africa, we petitioned to meet with Fidel Castro. Only one other group had been given this opportunity so we thought it would be worth a try. Fidel agreed and put on quite a series of events for us. The evening before we left we boarded what looked like 50 buses for the trip to the convention center in the suburbs of Havana. He talked for four and a half hours when we were invited to go have a late night snack. It turned out to be a lavish affair with eight twenty foot tables pilled with food and any kind of drink and as much as we wanted. He made the most of hosting us by sending out videos, press releases, and photos of the event. We were a bit concerned about what this would do to our reception in Miami but it turned out to be no problem at all.