So the night before our flight left at 10:30pm. We were hoping to sleep on the plane, but that was not going to happen. We both kind of pulled an all nighter due to us being so excited.
It was so strange because it was a gorgeous evening when we arrived at the YVR airport, and we watched the sunset from the window of our boarding gate. Once we boarded and were on our way, not even 5 hours later (Because of the 3 hours ahead time change) we were seeing the Toronto sun rise in from our plane window. Toronto at 6am in the morning is amazing.
Jay and I were soooo damn happy to get off the plane in Toronto at Pearsons airport. There was this man sitting behind us since Vancouver who kept drinking, and drinking. The more he drank the louder and more obnoxious he got, and the kicking of the back of our seats was worse then turbulance. He stank!!! I mean this man needed a shower after this flight and a serious change of clothing. He had liquor stains all down his shirt as we were unboarding in Toronto. We were so happy to lose this man.
We had just over an hour to catch our next flight, but also a bit of time to head to Tim Hortons for a coffee and a bagel. When we finished eating, we headed to line up at our boarding gate to get on the flight to Varadero. This is when we heard some obnoxious laughter and saw a stained shirt. OH BOY! HERE WE GO!!! Mr. Drunk Man gets on our plane. Lets pray to God he isnt sitting with us. Even worse ends up at the same resort in a room next to us. Parish the thought.
Anyway our flight to Varadero was 3 hours long, and you knew you were closing in on Cuba because the closer you got, the more clothes you started to peel off. Everyone on board were also given green cards and medical forms to fill out, because we were not allowed to enter Cuba without them. These you want to hang onto safely as you need to have these to leave Cuba on the day you depart to go home.
When we finished filling our our forms and realized it was now 10:45am and we were descending into Varadero. Jaylene and I automatically pulled out our cameras as we noticed this glorious beauty of the beach shorelines and how GREEN everything was. The whole world of Cuba is green. We didnt know what to expect, but for some reason this was the last thing either of us had in mind.
When we landed we were still one of the few who already had their forms filled out and this advantage allowed us to get off the plane first..... WHOOOAP! HOLY F**K... THE HEAT!!! The moment we stepped foot out of the plane the heat literally slapped you right across the face and knocked you onto your butt. I am pretty sure some swear words came out of my mouth and then out of Jays as well. It was over 35 degrees probably closer to 40 on the tarmac. The humidity was so intense I have never felt anything like this in my entire life. It was such a sticky heat. Totally unreal.
We made our way into this tiny little airport. It looked more like an old and cold warehouse. It didnt have picture on the walls or anything. Actually 20 feet inside the airport your facing a wall of about 10 booths that sit all in a row stretching from one side of the room to the other. Beside each booth is a hallway with a door at the end. There is no way to get passed these booths. You stand behind a line in front of one of the booths, and a security guard calls you over one by one (NOT TOGETHER OR IN GROUPS) by yourself. You hand over your pass port, and your forms you just filled out on the plane (the Green Card and the medical forms). They stamp it and buzz open the door at the end of the hallway for you so you can go through yet another baggage check, then off to collect your luggage at the baggage claim.
The first thing Jay and I noticed when we went to hand over our forms to the security guards was how miserable and grumpy these guards are. They dont acknowledge you, they dont say hello. They just stamp your forms, literally shove them at you, while they give you HARUMPH and buzz you through the door. We found it best not to say anything. We just kept our mouths shut, didnt make conversation. We just said gracias and went on our way.
Finally we went and collected our luggage, and headed outside to face a parking lot that held like 20 tour buses. In front of these buses were people holding up signs saying "AIR CANADA, SUNQUEST, SIGNATURE". We walked over to the Air Canada sign as that is who we booked through. They asked us what resort we were staying at, and we told them. They then told us which bus to get on. So we went and found it, put our luggage in the bus compartment and went and took a seat. This bus was damn hot, no air conditioning, and we had to wait for everyone else to leave the plane, get through security and grab their luggage and find the bus before we could get on our way. We waited for a good half hour while we listened to some old Cuban music.
Finally once everyone was on the bus we were able to leave and head to our resort. I was literally just bouncing with excitement. Ive never been to the Caribbean before and I really wanted to just feel that warm blue water.
It took us a good 25 minutes or more to get to our resort (Us being the first drop off), but it was a wonderful drive. We saw old cars from the 60's and 70's everywhere, people driving in horse drawn carriages, and we even saw wild cows and bulls running down the road. The trees and the plants were so foreign to us and the colors of everything in Cuba were just rich and ultra vibrant.
When we arrived at our resort, we walked into the lobby of our hotel and BAM! The smell! OMG the smell. I understand Cuba is a 3rd world country, but woah. It was like Old dirt, and musty mens cologne mixed with chlorine. I didnt say anything, but I looked at Jaylene and she had the same look on her face. We checked in, but were told that our room wasnt ready. This kinda irritated us. We were hot, our clothes were sticking to us, and we were tired, hungry and just wanted to get to our room. They gave us our wrist band, and then told us to check back around 2:00pm. Oh great, its only like 11:30.
We were then told to store our luggage in the luggage room, and that was a nightmare. There was only one guy with a key, and his job was to take people to their room with their luggage once their room was ready. Well this resort has over 600 rooms including bungalos which you need to take trams to. So we had to wait for over 20 minutes for him to show.
During this time though while we sat in the main lobby waiting, there was a young black Cuban door man about 30 years old who kept looking at us. Specially Jaylene. He came over to talk with us and told us his name which we kept for getting. We nick named him Oreo over time because we got to know this guy during the course of our stay, and lets just say all he wanted was to put the cream in the cookie.
Finally once luggage guy came back, we stowed our things but our carry on's and personal belongings, we decided to go check out the resort and the beach. There was only one path way that lead to the beach and once you saw the ocean your mouth literally dropped. It was such an intense blue, and the water was so clear and so warm that it actually felt like bath water. Best part about the ocean was that there were no rocks anywhere. The sand in the ocean was so super soft.
After kicking around on the beach for awhile and checking out the pool, we went to one of the bars inside the main building off the lobby to grab a drink while we waited for the main buffet to open. By this point we were starving. We didnt eat dinner the night before and that bagel only held us over for a tiny while. So we drank our lovely pina coladas and then went to the buffet for lunch.
Lets just say that the buffet could be left to be desired. It was a huge room, and when you walked in on your right there was a big salad bar, then it lead into a make your own pizza, then soups, then a big fish bar. In the middle of the room where 3 islands. One had bread, the other fruit and desserts, and the last had items like pasta, meats, rices, beans, veggies etc.
Although you really had to read the tag to realize what everything was. Nothing looked appealing, nor did it smell great. I mean we read reviews on Trip Advisor, but nothing could prepare us for this. We were like "Oh look its mashed potatoes" but then it was like OH NO its ground chicken... MMM! There was also the fact that there were flies on EVERYTHING!!! and im talking about EVERYTHING in that room. People during our stay were talking about maggots in some of the salads. Basically if you want to eat, grab from the bottom of the pile, or make sure you eat something had had a lid on it.
Jay and I each lost a good 10lbs during our stay in Cuba that week... LITERALLY!
After our attempt at lunch we went back to the desk to see if our room was ready. It was only 1:30 but the room was ready. Man did we luck out. Our room was in the main building on the ground floor. It was large, and very clean. The bathroom had granite counter tops and nice tiled floors. We had a private patio with a table and 2 chairs and then the patio opened up into this HUGE back yard that had fruit trees and other tropical plants. No other guest could get to our yard. Only employees could. So we felt that our towels and bathing suits would be safe if we left them out every night to dry, and they were. Our room was also situated half way between the main lobby/buffet, and the pool and beach. We couldnt have asked for better.
Once in our room, we quickly changed into our swim suits, grabbed our towels and cameras and headed back to the beach. We scored 2 lounger chairs, and brought them right into the ocean so we could lay there as the surf came and washed up on us softly. We both ended up falling asleep for several hours.
Once we were rested up, we stayed on the beach for awhile, went swimming, and had an over all night day until the evening when we were starting to feel hungry again.
We went back to our room to shower and change, and head back to the buffet for another attempt at the food guessing game.
After dinner we headed back to the beach to catch the sun set and take some pictures before we went back to the room for some more well needed rest. We have all day tomorrow to chill and explore a bit more.
|
