5.01 - The One in Cuba

This is my first post as a married man. Crazy isn't it? The wedding day went by so fast. I remember waking up, going to the golf course. The next thing I knew I was married and in the limo heading to the honeymoon suite. From what I recall, the day was great. Couldn't ask for better weather. It was nice and sunny...quite a change from previous weekends in the summer where it must have rained 9/10 times. I'll have to look back on the video to relive it all.

We headed out to the Sol Melia Cayo Santa Maria all-inclusive resort in Cuba for our Honeymoon on the Monday. When we got there it was dark, so the 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the resort was pretty uneventful. The tour guide on the bus was trying to point out the different things but we really couldn't see much. One thing I did notice is that most of the Cubans houses looked all the same.

Anyways, the resort was great. The food...not so much. We ate well, but it's just not the same as the Canadian cuisine that we are used to. They tried to emulate the food, but it just wasn't the same. The cheese just tasted weird and didn't sit too well with my stomach. But it's not like we went hungry. The a la carte restaurants were pretty good. There was an Italian and a Mediterranean one. With only about 13 items on the menu, I'm sure they have perfected their dishes.

We spent most of our time hanging out in the pool and getting tanned. The pools were so nice and since it was the low season, they weren't too crowded. I loved the swim up bar...so much fun. The beach was nice as well...although since there weren't any reefs around the resort, the water was pretty rough. But it's the ocean...we don't get to see such clear and blue water much up here in Canada.


The night entertainment was pretty good most of the time...the best show was on Tuesday night where they had the 'Cuban' Michael Jackson perform for us. Everyone loved that show. I've never seen anyone do the Moonwalk live as good as this guy. It was unreal.

On Saturday, hurricane Gustav hit Cuba, mainly Havana. Since we were on the other side of the island, all we got was rain. We didn't even know that Gustav hit Cuba until the next day when CNN was covering it 24/7. I think we were pretty lucky weather wise all week. I think it only really rained once or twice. We did see lightning in the distance but it never hit us.

The journey home was an adventure in itself. Check out was noon and the bus was supposed to come pick us up at 3pm. But of course the plane was delayed until 10.30pm. So we were all let back into our rooms. We came out to check on the flight again and it was delayed another 4 1/2 hours. At least they kept us at the resort so we could hang out in our rooms and go eat at the buffet. Finally at 11.30pm the bus showed up to take us to the airport. Naomi and I paid for the VIP lounge earlier in the week (20 CUC each) and it was worth it. We sat in a nice air conditioned room and had our own bartender who served us food and drinks as we watched some tv and waited for our flight. The best part was that when it was time to board the plane, we were escorted to the front of the line. I'm so glad we did that because we didn't have to sit with all the other people who had kids who were obviously over tired.

Around 6.00 am we finally saw the familiar Toronto skyline. After an 8 hour delay we were finally back in Canada. Overall the trip was loads of fun. The resort was great, (even better because ours was an adults only one) but after a week away, it's nice to be home.