Cuba

after a 27 hour delay at the Calgary Airport (thank-you CANJET) and to date no communication from the tour operator, D & I finally arrived in Varadero half starved & cramped but exhilarated. Unfortunately everything was closed by the time we arrived except for the pool bar which had ham & cheese sandwiches with cabbage (??? don't understand this one...) and Havana Especials. (rum, pineapple juice & marachino liquor).



First day, played in the surf (love my Olympus 770 - waterproof), went dancing got sun and booked tours for the rest of the week.

Day 2: went on a catamaran to Cayo Blanco... now i must say that this is THE beach of every fantasy. sand like powder and the color of cream, still turquoise waters, and absolute perfection, except the snorkeling kinda sucks! Had a lobster lunch on the beach and napped before heading back. Swam with the dolphins (which feel like really big silky foamies) for the first time which was totally rad. Got back, dressed for dinner and went dancing - which us girls 'started up'. pretty neet! Spent the next hour wandering the surf and just trying to absorb every second to brand it on my memory.



Went to bed exhausted, but was up at 6:30 (4:30 am our time) to grab breakfast before getting together with our tour group for 4 x 4-ing through the hillsides of Varadero: now this is a trip I highly recommend taking if you're in the area. we had nearly 40 in our group, so it was a bit on the larger side however was fun just the same. After back-roading for about an hour-and-a-half, we pulled off and went snorkeling in the ocean. MUCH better than at Cayo Blanco, however fell against the waves and my inner-upper thigh connected with fire-coral which burns (ironicly) like fire and left a very strange coral imprint in red (haha - ironicly again like fire...). Other than that, some really amazing snorkeling and has inspired me to get dive certified for my next trip. After snorkeling, got ripped off on a mojito and continued driving for about half an hour, until we stopped to pick up (what was supposed to be speed-boats) our Ferry boat which took us up river to the ranch for lunch. Before this, we were 'treated' to naked traditional dancers... Hmmm painted boobies... Interesting but ahem... strange??? The women wern't impressed, but the men, Loved the show! Haha :D

Caught some amazing rays, chose not to jump off the top of the boat but watched others do so, and finally arrived at the ranch where we had lunch. D & I split a BBQ lobster (so amazing...) went riding on horses (where my baithing suit nearly lost my girls *blush* and got made fun of by the horse guy), rode a bull named blackie and had a tree rat plunked on my head which was totally NOT cool! I don't freak out like, ever, but nearly started crying. All of this while I'm holding a small crocodile in my arms whos jaws are taped together with (yup - get this...) MASKING TAPE! so, freaking out i'm thinking isn't too bad.



So after this adventure, we get back in our jeeps and drive another half hour to a fresh water cave and went cave swimming - fresh water which was so beautiful. It's amazing how different it feels to swim in the ocean vs fresh water. Personally outside of the salt drying on your skin, I totally prefer the ocean. We started heading back after swim to drop off the jeeps and took the bus back to the resort where we had a few drinks, went for dinner and crashed into bed.



Day 3: up even earlier today to grab some breakfast before catching our tour bus to Havana. Our tour guide Raphael was really good... had a lot of history about Cuba, but found it a bit propaganda heavy... kind of a damper for me... Not so much into communism...



Anyhoo... so you can't use bank cards in Cuba so off to find a bank to sneek some money off my visa and get some money to use while there. Spent the morning wandering old Havana which is so beautifully battle-scarred but so proud. Went for lunch, wandered the markets and wandered aimlessly until we got our hotel room (one of 10 which 79 of us shared) showered, napped and wow, what a view!



The rest of the tour went to the Tropicana show while D & I decided to wander around Havana some more and found ourselves at the Hotel National where Hollywoods bygone era of glamerous starlets played. Pretty amazing to be there. Soft jazz mixed with the smell of the surf and rum is completely intoxicating, never mind the tantalizing effects of mojitos! As we're wandering the grounds a really cute couple got engaged (suckers...) actually, it was pretty cute, but as the night lingered on, we found a couple of comfy chairs where we just listened, and I wrote a bit. It was nice.

We had made arrangements to meet up with our bus by the hotel after they finished at the Tropicana show at 11:30, so being freaked out about being left in Havana to take a $200+ cab ride back to Varadero we arrived at 11:15.

Havana is a pretty safe city, but you have to take into consideration that we're a couple of girls who've been 'going strong' for a week now, exhausted, been up since 4:30 am, hot, walking all afternoon and don't speak spanish. So, there we are on a corner - in the center of Havana. and no bus. and the parties are starting. We were able to distinguish a few things people were insuating which was actually pretty funny given the circumstances, but the damn bus didn't show up until 12:30!!! SO NOT IMPRESSED! Girl on the bus sitting behind me threw up and reeked up the bus, and we got pulled over by the police. Again... an adventure.

Crashed into bed, and up at 11. Rented scooters (i've never rode one before... it's a HOOT!), and drove around Varadero for 4 hours, and saw horses that looked healthy by the Don Quxotie tower (sp??) and fanagled a deal out of the guy - the horses were more expensive than the scooters!!! Haha.. Almost got taken out by my horse... and didn't think of the logistics of scoters, horses and a 7 (which turned into 9.5 hour) flight the next day... I'm still brused!!! But... it was worth it!

We spent our last morning wandering the beach, swimming and just relaxing. Our flight home got diverted to Winnipeg b/c the Boeing 737-800 series couldn't handle the headwinds to make it all the way to Calgary. Yup - CAN'TJET didn't tell us until we were taxi-ing to the active run-way so none of us had any way of contacting anyone to let them know...

We arrived back in Calgary at 2 am sun-kissed and home sick for Cuba. Planning on going back for trip # 4 in April!

M.