Tropical Temptation

It has often been said in sport that recovery is equally important to the actual working hard part of training. So after a gruelling winter training camp in Canmore I boarded a plane to Cuba with my mom and grandma for some tropical r and r.

We arrived in Cuba at the smallest airport I have ever encountered; one terminal, one plane at a time. The sole purpose of this airport was to bring in and bring out tourists to Cuba. Getting off the plane I was greeted by sun and humidity. I welcomed the warmth after leaving the Calgary Airport temperatures of -20 C in my flip flops and shorts. The resort we were staying at, Sol Melia Las Dunas, was a 90 minute drive away from Santa Clara. In the 90s, it was decided to develop the Santa Maria keys off the northern coast of Cuba to build a strip of resorts. The road to the keys was finished in 2002 and the first resort opened soon after. The road is around 55km long and made of limestone that was dumped into the ocean and then paved over.

Waking up in the morning in Cuba was a thrill. We had 7 days to just relax, no worries. We went straight to the beach. The water was a clear, stunning turquoise and the white sandy beach seemed to go on forever. My first day consisted of soaking up as much sun as possible while lounging on the beach and floating in the water. The ocean was so salty that all I had to do to float was stick up my bum, no sculling required.

Sailboat on the still Atlantic Ocean

Receding wave on the beach.

For Christmas, I had gotten a new camera with water-proof case that I was just dying to try out. I donned a scuba mask and set out to capture some fishy moments.

Success!

All geared up

Here fishy, fishy.

There was live music in the main square every night and dancing. Cuban music has a special flare to it that just makes you want to get up and dance and shake what you’ve got. I can’t say I did a whole lot of shaking, but there was definitely some dancing to be had.

It was a good thing that we got some sun on our first two days because the rest of our trip was covered in clouds. The clear, calm turquoise water that we saw had transformed into waves crashing onto the beach. The wind had picked up and the temperature could be described as chilly. Our catamaran trip was cancelled time and time again as the waves got bigger and the wind stronger. We never felt the warmth of the sun again.

All bundled up on the beach.

On my second day in Cuba, I decided to go the “club 17” that was organized by the hotel as an activity for 17 year olds to do. As it turns out, I lucked out on a free Spanish lesson taught by the marvellous dance instructor, Teo. We spoke Spanish for maybe 15 minutes and then switched to other topics. He told me about his love for dance, which quickly became apparent to me as he tapped his foot to some beat or another in his head. He told me about his 7 year old son and the work he does at the hotel. For Teo teaching dance was “too easy,” I must agree because in the short time I met with him, I learned the meringue, the cha cha, and the salsa.

We did finally manage to get and excursion booked to get away from the resort. We got to go for a tour of the nearby Cuban villages and the capital of the Villa Clara province, Santa Clara. It was quite and eye-opening experience for my mom who had yet to travel outside North America. Cuba is still a socialist country run by the Castro one party government. There is no internet and the people are on rations. Walking into a store in downtown Santa Clara you see bare shelves with one or two items on them. We never saw a grocery store. In Cuba, it is illegal to kill a cow, if you do and you get caught, you receive 20 years in jail.

Bullet holes on the side of a hotel in downtown Santa Clara.

Cuban taxi.

Another interesting employee we met on our trip was Francisco who worked along the beach as just an all around handyman. He had by far one of the best senses of humour I have ever encountered. He called by mom “the Boss” every time he saw her. We had many laughs thanks to Francisco.

Francisco and Marissa.

The thing I will miss most about Cuba is the people. They were all so incredibly friendly and gracious. I would recommend to anyone think of travelling to Cuba to go to the Melia Las Dunas resort. The grounds were beautiful and the workers amazing.

One of the many amazing towel animals made by our maid.

Arriving back in Calgary was a rude reminder of the weather here. I had to brush the snow off the truck in my flip flops (poor planning on my part not to have any shoes.) Now I must study hard for diploma exams and prepare for our warm weather trip to Australia in February. Hopefully we get better weather there. I can’t wait for the sun again. Unfortunately I don’t think my Spanish will come in too handy in Oz.