Cuban flash holiday!

The offer for a short week of indulgence at Rancho Luna on the Playa Luna in Cienfuego Cuba was too good to be true! And so, we went for the very first time in our lives to an all inclusive resort! It is never to late to try new things, right????

What a week!

Our flight with Cubana  de Aviacion departed 2 hours late from Toronto ...so what, it gave us the opportunity to socialize at the airport! Our little group of like minded people had started to build...and by the time we arrive at the resort (1 am) we were in the mood to enjoy the Cuba! And because the bar was still open, all of us congregated and began our week of fun..until 4am!

It is so easy to get into the Caribbean mode once more: warm and humid air, flowery smell, good rum, and easy going friends..."vivir mi vida"(living my life)!!! as Marc Anthony sings! (still a salsa hit in Cuba...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMl_1Ak0JcI).

There was only one sailboat, a Hobby Cat, and Heiner became friend with the 2 instructors and got to sail almost every day...all  our friends were so keen to go for a Cat ride!!!

On the the second day, we took the hotel shuttle (free) to Cienfuegos, about 15 minutes away from our resort. We went with one friend, Desmond, and had a leisurely walk through town..it brought back memory from our first trip to Cuba (in 2001).  The buildings, the stores,the malecon, the ice cream machines, horse pulled buggies...

Cienfuegos has a charming architecture,

Coppelia is THE ice cream store in Cuba and like in Havanna, there are always long line ups to enjoy its ice creams...we did not have one there but somewhere else in town where we could pay in Cuban pesos, for a delicious guyaba flavoured soft ice cream cone!

Line ups also in the government owned stores to buy goods ...

or take the bus #1...full to the rim!

 There are still few cars in Cuba, and it may stay like that given the astronomical prizes of newer cars!

Benny More, a Cienfuego born musical wonder, has its statue in the ciudad...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYmsJgYsvN4

Here are Heiner and Desmond posing under a majestuous banyan tree...

 

 

 

And here are mojitos...we searched for them for quite a while...we could not get them at our resort because they did not have mint..."yerba Buena" (mint) seemed impossible to get until we went to this little hotel bar and we could finally enjoy them! Muy rico!!!!! Music by two older gentlemen made the mojitos even more enjoyable!  

We actually kept the mint (we happened to have a zip log bag with us!!!!) and brought it back to the resort...showed it to the barman and proudly ask for a mojito!!! which we got....The next day, our friends Fermando and Hilde went into town and brought back a nice bag of mint! People looked at us strangely thinking we had a bag of weeds (ganja)...but no, we just needed mojitos to be happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We also took the opportunity to walk on the road in direction of the lighthouse, coming back on the beach and admiring the mountains...Cuba has so lovely landscapes! The Escambray Mountains extend about 80 kilometers from east to west, and 80 kilometers from north to south. Their highest peak, Pico San Juna rises to 960 m (3,150 ft) above sea level.

 

And departure day arrived! We had to be up at 5am, having breakfast at 5h30: the staff was there, with scarves and tuques because it was quite a cool day (17C?)...and we arrived quite early at the Cienfuegos airport...and guess what! the coffee machine was out of order! Oh oh...we all needed more coffee to stay awake for the next hours...oh well, one of us, Brandy, quite resourceful woman, decided that a Cuba Libre would do the trick! And so, many of us followed her example! Our earliest rum drink EVER!!!!!

 

Brandy and Marleyne posing in front of the clock...just to show how early it was!!!

Nicki and Marleyne...following her example!!!!!!!!!!!! And Heiner who joined in...with the third Cuba Libre!!! Hasta luego Cuba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Our Cuba Group - we had fun!  A lot of fun!