Adios, Cuba!

Our last days at the resort were spent visiting our favourite places. So they might be missing a preposition here, but it's better than my Spanish!

Jim relaxing in the shade huts around the pool...I would get up at 6 am and scurry down to claim one, then try to go back to sleep. At first I didn't want to be bothered, but it certainly made the hot, humid days more enjoyable.

Buddy was still down at the beach offering rides. I think he makes a pretty good wage doing this. We never did get around to doing it.

Such a beautiful beach...

The walk from the beach back to the pool area...

A beautiful swan!

A fast moving gecko...

Goofy selfie!

Trudging up the hill from Grand Memories to the Sanctuary one more time...

The clouds looked so pretty...the pool also looked deserted. There were certainly far less people at the resorts in our second week.

I think we're almost done with selfies!

Beautiful sunsets...

Lots of purple Wandering Jew (or Creeping Jesus! 😉)

Love the colours...

Bye, kitty cat...hope someone else has treats for you!

Sunset on our last night...

It was a great stay...amazing people. We cannot say enough about how kind they are.

We had a super early wake-up call because a tornado had hit the Santa Clara airport a few days earlier, so we had to go out of another airport two hours farther away. We were on the bus at 3:30 am just as it started to pour.

The sunrise was lovely and it looked like it would be another beautiful day.

The Cayo Coco airport...there was a bit of confusion with the influx of passengers who were supposed to fly out of Santa Clara, but they handled it well.

The VIP lounge was totally worth the $30. Free drinks, food and wifi...and a quiet place to wait for the flight.

We had a great flight home and found the cats well looked after, as always. Pepper looks less than impressed to see us!

It was a joy to return to Cuba after so many years!

Pool Time in Cayo Santa Maria

Our time was winding down...would I return for two weeks? No. (Jim would have a different answer on this.) Would I return? Yes!

Each floor in each building at the Sanctuary has a butler. They make dinner reservations for you, arrange carts to pick you up, room service, or anything else you might need. They would normally be sitting in this area in the morning and would jump up to greet you the minute your door opened.

One of our butlers was a civil engineer, but could make more money as a butler. The Cubans are well educated, but find that the tourism field is the most profitable for them.

Whoa...at first I thought it was just messy and then I saw the heart.

And after many days of dividing our time between the beach and the pool area, we decided we like the pool area the best. Especially hanging out at the bar...they made a tasty lemon and vodka!

Getting ready for aquasize...

There was no way I'd be bending that low if it wasn't in the pool!

Our favourite bartender and server, Roelvis. We gave him some children's clothes for his son and baby. He came back the next day with a video of his son wearing one of the t-shirts and saying "thank you very much!" They are such wonderful people.

Some nasty clouds rolling in...

A two-coloured lizard...pretty!

Canadian flags everywhere...

Hola, Jim!

Creative!

A bottle tree?

Jim chatting with Roelvis one morning...look at that angry sky.

The coffee they served in the restaurant was not much to talk about, but you could get a great coffee at any of the bars. It would be served with a piece of sugar cane, yummy for chewing on.

Another day and more aquasize...

Selfie!

In our second week, we did notice that there were less people at the resort. The season is coming to an end.

Feeling pretty chill...

My Pepper cat did not approve of me taking a close up...he was getting ham today.

Puffy heart...

Many days it looked like it would rain...and then it would pass over. But when it rained, it was a cloudburst!

This dance was almost like a flash mob...you would hear the song and people (both workers and guests) would jump up and join in. I only realized when watching the video later that I think this showgirl is a newbie.

This is what would go on between the children's show at 8:30 pm and the entertainment at 9:30 pm. Some kind of awards...the acoustics were really bad. Sometimes you weren't sure if they were speaking English or Spanish.

The entertainment that night was the International Show...Irish dancers!

The can-can!

Brazil, perhaps?

They gave it their all...

And here is the song I would love to hear because people would jump up and join in. It was so joyous! (Normally you wouldn't have someone shouting out instructions.)

Still nice and warm at midnight...

Tomorrow, it's time to start packing up!