Sunday December 14, 2014 to Thursday December 18, 2014

An average day at a resort hotel in Cuba: shower, eat, read, eat, read and relax by the pool, swim a little, eat, drink and watch the show and sleep.

Sunday morning there was an extra show put on by a troupe from Santiago de Cuba. They were really, really good most of the music was Michael Jackson’s and they called themselves the Jackson Company (no copyright rules in cuba!). The amazing thing was that most of the troupe were under 18.

Monday December 15, 2014

We had a little wander around the resort this morning.

Tuesday December 16, 2014

The hotel still does not have internet cards, I took a taxi to Chivrico to update the blog. I shared the taxi with other tourists from this hotel who wanted to visit the “sister” hotel – Los Galleonos. It is a smaller hotel for adults only, it sits atop a hill overlooking the ocean. It used to be the hospital in Chivrico. There was only one computer at the telepunto office. I felt bad using it for an hour but, Cubans are used to waiting for everything.

Wednesday December 17, 2014

Today is Janet Burrel’s birthday (80^th). I worked with Janet in England and she was one of the best bosses I have ever worked with. She was strict, generous, kind, funny and very caring. She encouraged me to follow my dreams and travel when I first left England in 1983. I hope you had a great surprise birthday party Janet, I wish I could have been there.

Thursday December 18, 2014

Our last day of our week off the bike. I think we are both ready to get back on the bikes and finish this leg of the Grand Adventure. The weather this week has been sunny in the mornings and overcast most afternoons. Great weather for a week relaxing.It has been lovely to be able to relax and read. The hotel has lots of English books in the “library”so I read five books, just “holiday” reads, but it was still nice to read. Ralf got through two books and started the third. I have one confession about the library – the books that are left were English, French and German and were all over the place. I had to organize it – I only sorted them in languages (all the German together etc.)

We have been able to catch up on the news, as the television has a Canadian channel. We heard about the exchange of prisoners between Cuba and the US and renewed relationships between the two countries.

It was nice to have different food choices. Now we know where all the chicken breasts go to. While we have been on the road in Cuba, we haven’t had any chicken breast – only legs. The resorts get the breasts, I am serious. We also had a choice of vegetables and fruit. Most mornings we had cereal, which is very expensive in the stores here and yogurt. That made a nice change too.

This resort is primarily Canadian tourists some have been coming back every year for 15 years. It is a nice resort, but not worth visiting twice a year for 15 years.