Varadero, Cuba

Friday, January 15, 2016

Sunrise

Clay's sea otters

We could not get anything but instant decaf coffee to make with the kettle in the rooms, so Mom & Judy decided to go to breakfast earlier. We met them shortly after they had gotten a first cup of coffee. We had planned for 7:30am and that was about when we started eating. I don’t think any of us actually slept in since we all saw the pink sunrise. We walked around after breakfast and Mom wanted to go photograph the beach but it was pouring rain when we got outside so we just looked from a covered area and went back inside to wait for our 9:45am departure.
 

Not otters!

Melia Varadero atrium

Melia Varadero pool

Melia Varadero

Our afternoon beach sitting spot at Melia Varadero

Our bus in front of Melia Varadero

We drove through some interesting countryside and through Coliseo where we saw a bridge to and from nowhere over train tracks. We skirted around Cardenas. It is famous as the home of the Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez who was brought to the USA by his mother without his father’s permission and eventually returned to Cuba by the US government by force and he became Fidel Castro’s poster boy. There were a crazy amount of horse drawn carriages and bicycles and hitchhikers on our route. They even had street signs with graphics to warn of slow moving horse drawn carts and carriages. I never did hear any rational explanation for the number of horse drawn vehicles around the Bay of Cardenas. The land between here and Havana has hardly any cultivation or crops. There is some right around here but between here and there where the land was hillier I did not see any cultivated land. I did see miles and miles of pumping stations for oil or natural gas or something all along the coast on both sides of the road. I would guess about 1 in 5 was actually pumping. Clay said it was because of the low price of oil. Grency told us Cuba gets most of their fuel from Venezuela and it is expensive. Maybe over $4/gallon. She said their domestic production is low quality with a high sulfur content and so used only for electricity production.

Our people-to-people visit today was at the home/studio/shop of a fabric tie-dye artist/fashion designer named Mariela. She had some beautiful and interesting fabrics inspired by Frieda Kahlo. She covered a square of fabric with leaves, beads, and other things and the image of Kahlo was already basted on it with heavy thread. She used a bunch of bottles of different colored dyes and a paint brush to decorate the fabric square. She finished by sprinkling dry rice over it as it was left to dry in the sun. It was interesting. She is preparing for a fashion show in NYC later this month that she was invited to. It will be her first visit to the USA.

Coliseo's bridge to and from nowhere

Another view of Coliseo's bridge

Cuba and old cars

Cuba and horse carts

Pottery kiln

We drove to lunch at Coincidencia Farm after that. We arrived about 11:45am again for an early lunch. We walked around the house and past the pottery kiln to a thatched roof shelter where our single huge table was set and a family-style lunch was waiting. It was good. Salad, stewed bok choy, some stewed white stringy stuff, Moors and Christians (what Cubans call the dish of mixed black beans and rice) and stewed pork with plaintain chips. For dessert they served small sweet bananas with a puree of papaya and honey.  They also served bottled water and mango juice and some extraordinary coffee after.

Debbie & Margie with weird fruit

Family style lunch

Clay's lunch

3 mother-daughter groups

An injured hawk oversaw our lunch

Potter at work on wheel

After lunch they took us on a tour and demo of their pottery/ceramics workshop followed by a crowded stop at their stop. There was a large group there already having lunch when we arrived and they toured first and the shop was pretty picked over by the time we could get in it. Oh well. Good for them.

A parade of old cars at a big cemetery

We got back to Melia Veradera by about 2pm. We came back to the rooms to use the restrooms and drop bags off. Then we all walked down the street to the small shopping mall next door. There was lots to buy and we were all spending off our CUCs. I think everyone has purchased everything they wanted and we still have more opportunities after security at the Jose Marti Airport tomorrow afternoon.

Finally activity of the day before the rain blew back in was sitting outside overlooking the beach for a restful little while. It was beautiful while it lasted. We availed ourselves of the all inclusive bars around the pool and enjoyed our final afternoon fully. We tried Trish's recommended favorite Cuban drink, a Cubata. This is like a Cuba Libre which is a rum and cola with lime. Cubata is made with 7 year old rum instead of younger and lighter stuff. It was powerful. When I saw how much rum he put in the cups, I asked the barkeep for an extra cola on the side.  Mom enjoyed some more of Cuba's fresh squeezed juices. Somehow, I don't think anyone got any photos of our beverages! I suspect cameras got left in the room when we returned from our bus outing.
 

Today was our last full day in Cuba. We had a bit of a rocky start on this trip, but all in all I think it has been a pretty good trip. Cuba is changing rapidly and hopefully for the better for all so I am glad that we came and came now.

Our tour group has dinner reservations at the steak house here at Melia Veradero tonight. Tomorrow we will leave mid-morning and go straight to Jose Marti Airport at Havana by noon or so to check in for our 4pm or so charted AA flight back to Miami. We will take the Crowne Plaza shuttle back to the car from MIA. We should be back at Mom’s house in Bonita Springs by 8pm or so. I am sure it will feel like another long travel day by the time we go to bed tomorrow but it will be good to get back. It feel even better when we get back to our own home. I am looking forward to being home for a while and we don’t have any future trips planned. But, stay tuned!

Dinner was a little disappointing. First, it is a small restaurant and they do not allow large groups to take over so we were seated at 2-4 tops and 3-6 tops so it wasn’t really a group dinner. That part was fine. We sat at our own 4-top quite happily. I didn’t like dinner and it wasn’t clear anyone else loved it. Three of us started with the stir-fry vegetables. They were served cold. I didn’t like that. Soup course was universally disliked. Clay and I had beef consommé with sherry. Clay’s was served steaming hot and mine was lukewarm. Go figure. It just tasted of salt and grease. Mom and Judy had cream of turkey with green vegetables. All they tasted was salt. The main courses were served under silver domes all lifted at once with a flourish. Really. Judy had chicken as a main course and she said it was fine. Clay had beef entrecote and it was nearly raw and mostly tough. Mom and I had beef tenderloin. Mom had hers with the menu listed mushroom sauce and medium. Hers was too tough to chew. I ordered mine butterflied and well-done and without sauce. I got peppercorn sauce on the side. Mine was not as tough as Mom’s and I gave her part of mine and we both had plenty since it was not that tasty and hard to cut. Everyone had pureed potatoes. I didn’t like them because they were cold, maybe warm, but not hot. Judy thought they were the best thing on the plate. Clay tasted his and his were cold too. It’s a mystery. Mom and Judy had lemon meringue pie and liked it. Clay had strawberry ice cream. I had cheesecake with strawberry sauce. There wasn’t really sauce, it was decorative. Everyone got a scoop of vanilla ice cream on their plates. I don’t know why. I didn’t like it. The cheesecake was served warm! WTH? We were the first table to leave the restaurant.

Tomorrow we’ll go to breakfast at 7:45am. Bags out at 9:45am. Bus leaves at 10:15am.  Grency said with a bathroom stop that it would be a 3 hour drive to the airport. Check-in begins at 12:40pm. The AA charter flight leaves at 3:40pm. It is scheduled to arrive at MIA at 4:45pm.