Third day in Cuba

So I am actually writing this on our fifth day in Cuba because I've stayed out drinking the last two nights and didn't feel like posting.  So here is the third day best I remember :-)

We got up even earlier to leave for Cayo de Santa Maria, checking out of the Havana Libre on our way to the north east for a two night stay in an all inclusive resort.  Everyone was very excited.  This was also the day for the special children's program so we got to drop off our gifts.  We left Havana at 8 and the scenery quickly became rural with farm land and Cubans on bicycles or horse drawn wagons.  After 90 minutes or so we stopped at a roadside area for bathroom breaks and a bit of shopping.  There were roadside sellers of cigars and a little souvenir shop with wood carved items, music, and books on cuban history.  Many people made purchases.  There was also a small restaurant next door selling beer, soda, and food.  Since Jae and I missed breakfast again she very sweetly purchased black beans and rice for me with a ham sandwich.  The beans were yummy.  I fed the ham to a very skinny stray cat and we went to board the bus again.  Unfortunately the bus was broken and Jorge had spent our entire break working on it.  After 30 minutes it was decided to divide our bus participants among the free spots in our companion two buses.  We are the orange bus and there is a blue bus and a shorter red bus.  Marsha and Meghann joined the blue bus with their guide Israel.  Jae and I joined the red bus with guide Yaditza and I sat in the jump seat next to the driver. We set out again for our visit to the children's project.  

My view from the jump seat

More street view from the jump seat

Typical small town as we passed through

On the way Yaditza showed us her food ration booklet and discussed the food and medical plans in Cuba.  We learned that, until the fall of the USSR in the mid-nineties much of Cuban life was subsidized by the Soviet Union who provided food and fuel.  Most ordinary Cubans didn't realize this before the collapse.  After the USSR collapsed many Cubans went hungry as the government rations were not enough to feed citizens.  Yaditza told us that her family traded their bicycle for a pig to help feed the family.  Today, the USA helps with food by trading rice and chicken with Cuba.  Venezuela is also a large supporter for the country.  China requires payment for its support and so does not play a large role in Cuban societal support.

Food ration book

Yaditza also talked about the health care system in Cuba.  Every community has a family physician in the neighborhood that serves 250 families.  There are also 2 backup physicians to cover when the primary physician is unavailable.  The family physician has 2 nurse assistants and keeps office hours of M-F 8 AM to noon. After lunch the physician and nurses visit the elderly, pregnant women and women who have just had children.  The later must all be visited once a week.  Specialists are provided as secondary care to the neighborhood with tertiary care available in the form of highly specialized needs like epidemics, quarantines or research able diseases.  All care, including medication, is covered by the government of Cuba.

The children were waiting for us and the program was delightful  They performed a play about a little cock roach being courted by various creatures and surrounded by a group of bees. Each of the animals represented different aspects of Cuban peoples' personality.  It ended with her marriage to a mouse.  Afterward the children gave us hugs and we left the medicine and school supply gifts with their program administrators.

The children's project building.

The children dancing.

We departed the school still on our mismatched buses and headed for a buffet lunch at a nearby resort hotel.  By this time we were 90 minutes behind our original schedule.  The hotel was very interesting and the meal was buffet rice, fish, pasta, meatballs, salad, pudding, and jello.  Meanwhile Jorge had fixed the bus and made it to the restaurant before we left.  We shopped at some small table vendors setup in front of the hotel while Jorge ate, then returned to our original orange bus (yeah!).  While we ate we had a thunderstorm, the first rain we'd seen during our trip.

A door at the hotel where we ate lunch

Window to the restaurant

Some of our tour group talking after lunch

Next we stopped at the Che Guevara museum and memorial where Yovani led us on a tour of the museum.  He explained Che's early life, move to communism, time with the Castros, family life, and death.  The museum was small and had a few artifacts from Che's time with the revolution army.  It was primarily composed of large photos on the walls and diary pages.  No photos were allowed in the museum or mausoleum.  Yovani explained that only in the 80's was Che's body discovered, identified and returned to the people of Cuba.  His hands and head were detached but also found and kept with his remains.  The mausoleum is small, windowless with natural walls and feels cave like.  The men who were killed with Che are side by side with him and there are bronze reliefs of their faces on the walls in front of their remains, which are in niches.  There is an eternal flame at the end of the short walk, then you exit.  No talking is allowed.  Jae touched the relief of Che's face and the guard spoke to her "I know, you miss him like I do".  Clearly there is still much devotion for him among the Cuban people.

Che statute at the top of the memorial 

Afterward Yovani let us retrieve our cameras from the bus and we walked around the outside memorial taking pictures.  It it enormous and topped by a huge statue of Che looking fierce in his warrior fatigues, guns, and beret.  Now 3:30, we boarded the bus for our 2 hour ride to the resort, which included a 30 mile long causeway since the resort is on an island.  We also travelled across a toll road which cost 5 cuban pesos.  As we approached the resort we passed some new, and large houses and a small airport.  There was clearly some wealth in the area.

Part of the 30 mile causeway

Little rainbow

The resort was older than expected but lovely.  Very airy, with multiple bars and a small gift shop.  As with all Cubans we'd met everyone was very nice and warm in their greeting. We were met with fresh guava and orange juice and a slice of fresh coconut.  As with the previous hotel, we were given a packet with our rooms keys and had to sign an enclosed document which was returned to our greeter.  Once the luggage was unloaded we headed to our rooms.  Since the resort is comprised of 8 room villas, a map was enclosed and we had to traverse winding pathways to find our new home.  M&M were in room 2401 while Jae and I got 6304 - opposite sides of the resort.  Jae and I passed 2 gorgeous pools on the way and only got lost once.  The rooms were a great disappointment.  The furnishings were really dated, the handle fell off the balcony door when we tried to open it, and there was a 1" gap between the bottom of the front door and the outside.  At least we were on the bottom floor and only had to go up 5 steps to get to our door.  M&M got the top floor and had to go up 2 outdoor flights.  Also bugs in the bathroom - large and small ants plus some other identifiable things.  The safe was broken, and the TV was about 13" with static on most channels.

Our resort is a biosphere & run w/solar power

8 room villas

We'd already removed the bedspreads

Our room's bathroom.  The picture is much nicer than the reality

This was UofL v UK football game day so we watched some of the 3rd quarter before venturing out to tour the rest of the resort.

The game on the hotel TV

We quickly realized all the villas looked the same so no point in asking for a new room.  After a short walk down a well maintained wooden bridge we found the attraction for this hotel.  A stunning, white sand, aqua water beach.  Incredible, amazing, fantastic, there are not enough adjectives!  We quickly returned to our room, put on our bathing suits and went straight back to the beach.  The water turned out to be perfect. 100 yards down from us was a bar where we got frozen lemonade cocktails with rum and then grabbed two umbrella covered chairs for our stuff and immediately got in the water.  About 45 minutes later M&M came by and we hung out until about 8 when the sun was setting and we decided to find the dinner buffet.

Our incredible beach

Jae and I spent about an hour in the water from 6-7 PM

More beach.  If Cuba opens up, this will be pricey real estate

Jae and I arrived first, grabbed a table, and had a chicken and potato soup appetizer recommended by a couple of our fellow travellers.  We were also given 'burnt rum' at the door which turned out to be flaming run and coffee beans in a small, terracotta flower pot cup that said Cuba 2003.  M&M finally joined us after getting lost walking the very dark and confusing pathways between the villas and the front of the resort.

The dinner buffet was pretty much what you would get in a Mexico all inclusive, anti pasta area, pasta area, vegetable bar, raw meats you can select and get cooked to order, a roasted meat section with a carver, soup with breads, salad fixings, and a dessert area.  They also had a chef making bananas foster to order.  I ate soup, baked chicken and bread.  Jae & Meghann tried a variety of things.  Marsha tried the pasta.  Meghann and Jae also had the bananas foster which was a hit.  Everyone was super nice and we had great service.

Bananas foster

Right outside the restaurant, although we rarely saw anyone smoking anything but cigars.

The hotel bar.  Most of the people in this photo are visiting Europeans

From dinner we all four went to a little bar near the lobby and spent a couple hours drinking and met Maidley, our server.  Marsha and I had lime daiquiris while Meghann and Jae drank something with milk, chocolate and rum.  Pretty tipsy, we headed back to our rooms hoping we could find them.  Thus I did not post!