Cuba

Ok so I have been super lazy with the blogging! I apologise but I just had a muck around with it and its being a little bitch!!! FYI I effing hate blogging but will prevail as will apparently look back and be happy I did!!! So Ill just write about what happened then add photos and as I'm not a technologically savvy person and it hates me and wont do the two together this will have to do!!

So Cuba....was AMAZING!!! We ended up catching a bus from Ottawa to Montreal at 2.30am in the morn to save money on accom (something which I am slowly becoming very accustomed to doing). We arrived in Montreal around 5 and then caught another bus to the airport and boarded our flight at 9! It took 3.5hrs to reach Cuba but was a great flight! As we went as a part of a vacation package the flight had heaps of food, movies, mini wet towels...the works!! We flew down the East Coast of America so could see New York, the island of Manhattan and loads of other scenery from the plane which was beautiful!!

Once we arrived at the humble Holguin airport the flight separated and we got on our separate buses depending on which resort you were staying at! It took an hour to make it to our resort! The ride was brilliant tho as I never realised how poor Cuba actually was! The houses were very small and worn down, two or 3 rooms at the most! And just had shutters as windows, the people got around mainly by horse and cart, bikes, very old buses crammed of ppl or if lucky a car which are all from the 1950's! Often we saw groups of people under trees taking breaks from the hot sun. I really enjoyed seeing some of the culture and learning about there culture altho because I had flown from Montreal all the info from our bus guide was in French so Jackie had to go back to her high school days and do her best at translating for me! She did a fabulous job tho!!

Once we arrived we checked in and went to our lovely room! The resort was reasonably big not too big and busy which I liked! It was the low season as it was hurricane season and Hurricane Earl and Danielle were circling the Carribean but we were fine....ended up hitting the east Coast of Canada instead haha!! That evening we just napped and went for a swim in the pool and our first buffet dinner! Many people had told us that the food was the worst (but beaches the best) in Cuba out of all the places to go in the Carribean but it was fine and loads to choose from! As for the beaches....magnificent!!!! White as sand and clear clear clear blue warm water....absolutely divine!!

The next day we had a intro to the hotel at noon....we were the only two people in our English speaking group! Many Cubans need to speak at least English, Spanish and French to work at the resort! On our second day we started to meet some of the other guests at the resort! In the afternoons we often played water volleyball and water polo which was a great way to meet people! We met some guys from England who were there for one of there weddings! They came with a group of 9. We made pretty good friends with these guys and had a peak at the wedding which was beautiful! We also met a couple, Paula was from Poland and Jac was from South Africa and they live in Dublin. Also met 2 couples from the Netherlands. Pretty much every morning we go to the buffet for breaky then we would go to the beach where we would do some kayaking, catamaran or tanning reading a book then head to lunch either at the buffet or one of the restaurants....then spend the entire afternoon in the pool for hours chatting and at the swim up bar ofcourse...bliss!!! We did one day excursion on the Wednesday which was fabulous. We went out on the jeep safari tour so went for a big drive through the farmlands and some of the small villages. We went jetskiing, horseback riding, had lunch where Christopher Columbus first discovered Cuba, learned how to make proper Cuban coffee, drank from and ate coconuts and learned alot about the Cuban culture which was fasinating. Our tour guide was fabulous he was very honest about the pro's and con's of Cuba. He told us they have a great education and healthcare system which is free! But they wage is poor, about 10 convertable paso (which we used and tipped with) a month which converted to about 320 normal paso!! Hence, tipping 1 convertable paso for lunch, drinks etc really helps them out and they are very grateful. We always tried to tip for most stuff....every few drinks, left goodies and paso's for our housekeeper, always gave 1 or 3 tips for each meal etc. He also told us more about the embargo with America (Americans aren't allowed to Cuba, some go via Canada or mexico tho not suppose too cos Cuba is a communist country and its the US's way of punishing Cuba). This contributes to why Cuba is very poor and has things like very old cars etc as they have to import everything from Mexico and other Southern countries instead and it is very expensive. Cubans are not allowed to leave Cuba unless they marry a foreigner or for work eg doctors often leave on work visas! Doctors and other professions earn the same or only a little more than other job of any class in Cuba so big incentive to leave. However...a equal work rate for all is good for the ppl in crappier jobs I guess. So it can be a hard life but they are very happy and have done well all by themselves, it adds to the appeal! Overall an excellent and insightful day:-) Back on the resort, every evening there is entertainment. This is generally singing and dancing, some of which was brilliant. Its nice to sit around and watch after a big meal and with a few drinks. We got two a la carte dinners in the week, one was Cuban and the other was Italian and these were 5 courses of delish! Then after all the entertainment, drinks and food you can always head down to the disco on the beach...which we did on several occasions. Dancing up a storm and sweating like crazy as it was still in the high 20's even at 2.30 in the morn so usually ended up going for a midnight dip in the beach before bed!! Ahh...good times. And if you didn't know already i had a little Cuban romance which always adds to the fun;-) The worst part was having to leave the hot sunny days, the lovely friends from all over the world, the all you can eat and never ending drinks, lazing in the pool for hours even after having turned into a prune and of course the cute English boy! Back to reality it is tho....but Cuba I will certainly be back!!!!