Santeria in Havana--NO NEED TO BE AFRAID!

Hello and thank you to all of you who responded my Santeria questions about 7 weeks ago.

I had an AMAZING and yes, AUTHENTIC, Santeria experience in Havana a couple of weeks ago. Actually I had two experiences, but the first was very touristy and commerical, in Vedado on the street, something Hamel, it is not had to find this street, it is very busy on Sundays, and is very commercially, artistically painted.

The real Santeria expereince happened purely by chance. I was on the first beach just East of Havana, next to an old military training facility (I can provide the actual name of the place if needed) drinking beer and swimming...I saw the Santeria ceremony from a distance, they were way down at the end of the beach, but I didn't want to be rude and approach them....later, it started raining and everyone on the beach, including the ceremony moved under a covered area....I took a few pictures, and then was asked very politely not to take any more...I put the camera away and just watched for awhile, a Cuban friend of mine told I could make a small offereing 1 or 2 pesos if I wanted to into the bowl at the front, so I did...a priest explained to me that it is good luck to put the holy water on my forehead and to kiss the drums that are being played, so I did...he then offered me some rum, encouraged me to dance....and the whole time, NO ONE asked me for money, rum...nothing at all! They politley explained to me what was going on, when I got stuck, my Cuban friend translated for me...then, as the ceremony got to its latter stages, the priest politely asked us to leave....

Long story short, it was an AWESOME expereince...and no, almost no one was wearing all white, but they all wore beads, bracelets and necklaces of various colours.

If anyone is interested in learning more, let me know!

Thanks again to all of you who provided advice on this topic.