Back In One PieceAs we all know all good things must come to an end, hence here we are back home from Cuba :(. Like all vacations it went way too fast, but I guess that's kind of a good thing because that means we had an awesome time! It truly was great, I'd go back in a heartbeat. This was my first trip anywhere like that and it was everything I imagined it should be, from the crystal clear water to the soft white sand. I dont think I can come up with one thing that I disliked or was disappointed in about our trip. Well if I had to pick one thing I guess it would be the flight home. We ran into some "moderate" turbulance over the USA, apparently they had been having some storms down there. I'm not good with turbulance so I was freaking, but according to some people it wasn't really that bad, I guess I'm not a frequent flier though so I'm not used to it. Anyway, it was only off and on for about 30 minutes so I guess it really wasn't THAT bad..but still kinda scary especially when we still had about 4.5 hours until we were going to be landing, you better believe I was counting the minutes!
The weather was fantastic, between 27 and 30 C, mostly sunny, low humidity and always a perfect gentle breeze blowing off the ocean. The food was delicious, the buffet had everything you could possible want plus plenty of new things you might have never heard of before, it ws great to try new thihgs. And the seafood.....there are no words....wow it was great. We ate lobster every day, it was just wonderful. And the peel and eat shrmp....."sigh". Kim I think you would very much enjoy the seafood :). It's crazy how here we have to drench our seafood in garlic and butter to make it taste good, not there you dont' need to put a thing on it, it melts in your mouth. I ad other favorites, I ate so much cheese and bread and always ice cream for dessert, did I mention they made thier own ice cream? Okay, I'll stop talking about the food , he he. On to the rum, lol. I myself am not a big fan, until I had the rum down there, it was so smooth, I couldn't believe I could barely even taste it in my drink, considereing they pretty much mix their drinks half and half. Mojito's were my fave and Fernando at the pool bar made the best ones!! We made sure we brought plenty of rum home with us too ;).
The people were so nice!! I have heard plaenty of stories from people that have been to mexico and how the people there pester you to buy things from them and beg for money....not in Cuba. Everyone is so happy and so nice. They just seem so grateful to be working there and to have their jobs. I really didn't mind tipping at all, the service we got was incomparable to anything around here. They don't expect a tip down there but if you do give them something they are very grateful. Here they expect you to give a tip for crappy service. Even when we went off the resort the people were great, very helpful, not pushy or rude. The lfiestyle there is very laid back, no hurry no worries. They have so little compared to what we have and they seem so happy. It really makes you appreciate what you have at home. It was a lot of fun the mingle with the locals, it was easier to do this at the resort where they all spoke pretty good English and were also willing to teach us a bit of Spanish, it was great. It's funny even now that we're back we find ourselves almost saying "Gracias" to other people , lol.
We had a few adventures on our trip as well. One of them allowed me to check off one thing on my "Life's To Do List" and that was swimming with Dolphins!! It was amazing! They weren't wild dolphins (you can't swim with those ones) they wre tame dolphins in a natural habitat, not a giant swimming pool. You got to touch them, they pulled you around jumped over you and we even got to ski on top of them, it was crazy!! We also went on a catamaran cruise on day. That was so much fun, we left the resort at about 9 am and were back by about 4:30 pm. We crusied out to this little beautiful island where we tried our hand at snorkeling whcih proved to be a lot harder than it looks, lol. We stopped on the island had a nice seafood lunch hung out on the beach for a bit before we headed back. Oh and we also got fresh lobster tails on the catamaran :). We went into the town of Varadero a couple of times too, mainly to go to the local market to check out all the handy crafts and trinkets (of which there were plenty). It was neat to just walk down the main street and see the town itself, how they live, the old buildings, and of course the old cars.
Other than these couple of outings we mostly hung around our resort, lazed on the beach, swam in the ocean, hung out at the pool bar. Lots of eating and lots of drinking, lol. The best was the coconut stand, you could buy a coconut, get the top cut off for you, go to the bar and put whatever you wanted in it, then eat it when you were done! Sunset was always beautiful and midnight walks on the beach were always a nice romantic way to end a day. We met some really great friends down there that don't live too far from home so I truly hope we all keep in touch. For me this trip was a long time coming but it was well worth the wait. I'm glad I waited until I could afford it for one thing and I'm also glad I waited for the right person to go with :). We had a lot of fun and I'm sure thsi is only the first of many trips ahead of us!!
