Cuba Diaries 1: The Good Part

Ok so this blog post is being written right now because I am tired of individually answering how Cuba was.

I'd planned to spend 1 week in Varadero, Cuba, which is a narrow stretch on land with water on both sides. So it's awesome beaches everywhere. The colour of the water varies from light greenish blue to light blue to navy blue, and many combinations in between. It depends on exact location along the beach and time of day as well I think. Check out the pictures on Facebook, I uploaded lots of them. The weather was mostly calm, except for a couple of days in between where it got very stormy and windy and they chased you out of the water if you went in, which we of course did.

Varadero is mostly a tourist spot, with few locals. It is known mainly for its beaches, though they have a few other attractions like natural caves, Dolphin Show, Jet Skiing, scuba diving, adventure tours, etc. People tend to return to this place many times, understandably, as it offers a unique peace and quiet. Through the all-inclusive packages, you do nothing but get on a small plane for a 4 hour flight. Then there is a bus which takes you from airport to the resort you're staying in, where they place a tag around your hand to show you're on an all-inclusive tour, which you can't remove unless you break it off.

The local markets are very interesting. They are full of wood and leather and sea-shell goods. And of course you can bargain here. The most interesting bargaining I heard was a British girl telling the shopkeeper it was her birthday and then laughing when we asked if it actually ever worked. Apparently their taxi driver told them to try it.

And I love Spanish music. We used to have live music during buffet dinners. And even in the room, we could hear music coming from across the canal. Apparently, some carnival was going on.

Then the Dolphin show was awesome, with the dolphins being able to literally walk backwards on their tail, while completely out of water. And the trainer being carried on their backs and then standing on the mouth of one. Then on to jet skiing, which was really awesome. I just chose to sit and let seb do the driving, since he was obviously better at it. And I would definitely have collided into something had I driven :D

So effectively, the beach part of the holiday was fun. But then I made the stupid mistake of not getting a Transit Visa for Canada. Ok so it seems really really idiotic, but at the time, it did not seem that bad. Which shall be explained in the next post.