CUBA, one more time

 While we often said, Never again Cuba, this year's harsh winter made us bend the rule!

This time, we went to a ``fancy`` place on Cayo Coco. One very nice week at the Melià Cayo Coco.  With the exception of the restaurants à la carte, the food was quite good. We liked the resort, we liked the beach, and the people were, as usual, very kind and welcoming.  Should we ever go back to Cayo Coco, we would return to that place again. 

Thanks to a one hour delay departing Toronto with Air Canada, we arrived at destination quite late. But hotel check-in was smooth, we were driven in a golf cart to our room and then we went to the snack bar for beers and pizza.

This was the view from the bar at the lagoon.  A great place to watch a sunset while sipping a Bloody Mary.

Beach bar and grill restaurant. At noon, we enjoyed this area as there was always nice Cuban music and the setting was very relaxing.

The very spacious hotel lobby is where we enjoyed having special coffees. In the morning, around 11am, a group of musician also entertained the guests. In the evening, the first part of the entertainment happened there...If we wanted to be a bit away, we went back outside of the area to sip on a rum or a fancy martini. 

We enjoyed our large room with a view of palm trees. It was very quiet. Warm water for the shower was not always available, but that is part of the Cuban experience.

The beach was very long and we could walk for at least 1 to 2 hours passing different resorts that are spread along Cayo Coco. We could swim easily from our hotel as the water was not as shallow as in other places.

 

Being `winter`, we had 2 days of squalls and red flags and a bit of cooling off. Nothing compared to what we had left behind in Kingston.

There is really not much to do in Cayo Coco except to walk either along a very sunny road to the small La Gaviota Mall, or to the Marina, Delfinario (and from there back again along the beach)

Along the way we saw a Cuban cuckoo, one buggy with horses, and the famous Cuban cars parked at the Mall (fuel was in short supply).

Our return trip with Air Canada was problematic...the flights was delayed twice before being cancelled altogether and moved to the next day. Thankfully, we were kept well informed about the developments (in contrast to other experiences with Sunwing) and spent one more night at the resort!

We have been visiting Cuba for the last 25 years. We discovered the island in 2001 while we were sailing in the Caribbean.  

Entering the harbour of Marina Hemingway with a strong North wind is somewhat daunting.

While visiting tobacco plantations in the beautiful area of Pinar del Rio, we were hosted by the Star Tobacco grower, Alejandro Robaina!  

At anchor, we received daily visits from locals bargaining toothpaste, ropes, tools for langoustes! 

And from then on, our winters have been punctuated by winter visits in different parts of the island. Right now, the future of the island is uncertain.  

We have wonderful memories: But will we ever visit again? As of this writing, the last group of Canadian tourists have been brought back to Canada.  The tour operators stopped flying to Cuba - there is no more aviation fuel available to refill the planes for their return trip.