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| walk to the beach |
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| 24-hour bar |
It's been years since we took a real vacation. I've never been on a plane, or even outside of Canada, let alone both at once so this was exciting for me.
I couldn't sleep the night before because I kept checking our luggage to make sure we had everything.
Our vacation was at one of those 7-day all-inclusive resorts in Cuba where the flight, hotel and your meals and drinks were included. Initially my husband was a little worried I'd go back my old habit of having one too many but much to his surprise and mine I happily limited my alcoholic intake to no more than 6 pina~coladas for the entire week!
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| late at night at the front lobby |
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| huts where lounge chairs normally are |
The all-day all-you-can-eat buffets were great, despite the many warnings that the food was going to be bland and that we should bring our own condiments!
I'm not sure what other resorts are like yet in Cuba, but the food in Cayo Coco ("flamingo island") was pretty amazing. Sure they had some hit-and-misses on some days like their "Asian-station" for variety but hey, at least they tried. At least it was all safe, which isn't the case at all resorts.
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| windy afternoon by the pool |
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| bubble play |
Their strawberry and mango yogurt smoothies, bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese and fruit trays, the make-your-own-burrito stations, pizza and lasagna trays and of course the ice cream were all consistently good!
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| A la carte menu |
Also included in our package was the 'a la carte' menus at the 3 different gourmet restaurants on the resort. This was especially nice since we normally would never go to a 5-course restaurant. Like everywhere else, the wine and beer is all included (again, I opted out).
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| Cayo beach |
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| giant chess game |
One thing I
did agree to was to leave our cell phones at home. We didn't want to bring any techy gadgets with the exception of my aging camera.
This I thought was going to be a somewhat of a challenge for me since I am one of those people who wake up looking at my phone to check out the latest on Twitter, Instagram and the occasional Facebook postings. For starters, I bought a cheap watch to help us keep track of time (which I am still wearing) and after a few days by the ocean, it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me in a long time.
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| kayaks, hobie cats |
The weather in Cuba during the week we were there was a little unseasonably cool and very windy, with the exception of two very beautiful days, so we couldn't get out on to the kayaks because they worried for the winds. There was still plenty of exploring to do on the island.
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| wading pelican |
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| royal terns |
The ocean would be the best thing for me spending long hours a day walking along the 3km sandy beach, listening to the soothing crashes of the waves, feeling the salt-water splash on my face, seeing
different kinds of birds like the pelican that taking a nose dive into
the water at full speed to gulp that fish that no one else
sees, the royal terns gossiping (which resemble little old men
with swooping bald spots) and the northern mocking birds, which would carry
on little conversations with my husband on some mornings repeating the same whistling patterns back to him.
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| views from the extinct restaurant |
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| Island of Aa |
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| extinct restaurant |
Our resort was next to an abandoned restaurant, which I wanted to check out on my
own for a little while. It sat on a mesa of 'aa' rock, (a Hawaiian word derived from the sound made by someone walking over it in bare feet... even
through my thickly rubber-soled sandals I was terrified the spikes would
puncture through.)
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| Strange sort of jungle gym? |
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| Our view from our place towards the main hotel |
The highlights of the vacation were centered around all things natural
despite the many activities the resort had planned for their guests.
They really go out of their way to entertain their guests with days filled with different activities like
bubble play where the swimming pool is doused with bubbles, daily
yoga and kickboxing classes, Spanish classes, dance lessons, and off the resort excursions
to the Moron (pronounced Mo-RONE) where you can check out the sugar plantations and meet the
locals, as well as day trips to an off-resort town where you can share the
same water tank as the dolphins while the poor things are trained to kiss you
and do other tricks. We opted out.
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| locals |
No... for me, my memories will always be the first time I set eyes on a
palm tree swaying in the breeze off the ocean at night, the moon which shines directly above you because you are so close to the
equator, the brilliant and rare queen conch shells (which we left
because there was still life inside), whelks, sea urchins and brain corals (which I so wanted to take back, but were too heavy to bring so I
left where found for someone else to enjoy) and little sand
crabs that come out of hiding when the tide was out (this is also caused
by the moon) and the little sandpipers as they scurry out to the ocean
sand bed to pick at some grub just before the waves come back in to
scoot them along.
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| Mercedes taxi |
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| Chevy Belair |
Cuba is a small island country filled with big-hearted people, who are poor but
live with dignity. They are hard-working and unspoiled by modern
technology so they're very creative and talented. 'Hidden Cuba' which is a
book you should pick up, is a real look at life of the Cuban people who
live far away from the life on the resorts. Their average income is
about $3,000/yr. Cuba is a socialist country just like China, but they
treat their people a little better giving them a good education and
health care, and no constant surveillance. Despite that, most of them live on the poverty line and
barely get enough to eat every day. I was saddened by the fact that
the food on the resort was so abundant for the tourists while the native Cubans didn't have access to it. Maybe that's why I didn't want to over-indulge?
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| Our gardener |
My final thoughts about being there, was that it was the first time in my life (since I was a kid) that I had no worries. I didn't worry about my kids, my job, my parents, my self-consciousness. I was completely and utterly at peace with myself and the world around me. It was amazing. My husband wasn't affected as deeply as I was as I think for him he had traveled so much as a child to many countries and much of what he experienced he had something to compare it to I imagine, but not me.
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Gardener weaved this pretty bird for me |
I was an unspoiled child as my family had next to nothing except each other, so in a strange way this made me feel sorry for the Cuban people (who were not lucky enough to work on the resort.) I want to come back again but will try and take more time to to explore the rest of the country.
We recently stopped for a visit and a lunch into Aurora, Ontario which is a small suburb north of Richmond Hill. You can eventually reach it if you continue north on Yonge Street outside of King City.
After a nice lunch, we took advantage of the mild temperatures to check out a nearby conservation area. Sheppard Bush Conversation Area has a few trail loops covering about 3 km of land that take a little over an hour to complete. I had my running shoes on, so ended up doing a little cross country skiing instead of walking as the treads were wearing down. It was above freezing and a great day to get around without mitts and a hat for a change.
The trails are hard-packed with gravel and limestone for the most part during milder temperatures (April - October) so there's no reason not to use them even in winter if you stick to the course. It's good to note that once the park reopens, this trail connects to the Nokiidaa trail to go as far as Holland Landing, or the Oak Ridges Trail to reach Palgrave or Rice lake. 
There's some spectacular sized sport fields (11 soccer fields in total) which you can gain access to through the parking lot entrance off Industrial Parkways South.
