Friday, January 15, 2016
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| Sunrise |
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| 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.
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| Not otters! |
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| Melia Varadero atrium |
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| Melia Varadero pool |
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| Melia Varadero |
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| Our afternoon beach sitting spot at Melia Varadero |
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| 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.
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| Coliseo's bridge to and from nowhere |
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| Another view of Coliseo's bridge |
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| Cuba and old cars |
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| Cuba and horse carts |
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| 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.
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| Debbie & Margie with weird fruit |
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| Family style lunch |
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| Clay's lunch |
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| 3 mother-daughter groups |
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| An injured hawk oversaw our lunch |
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| 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.
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| 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.
