To Blau and Back
FTLComm - Varadero, Cuba - Wednesday, January 26, 2011
For several years our family has been encouraging my wife and I to go for a holiday somewhere south where it is warm in the winter time. I have resisted the idea but this year I gave in and my eldest son, his wife and daughter took us along on their week long vacation to Cuba. This is a big deal for me because aside from some modest travel here in Canada and a couple of quick trips into the United States I have not ventured into the world where we all needed passports. All that of course has changed as we need passports to visit the United States and quite soon it would not surprise me to see us needed travel documents right here within Canada.
My son and his wife are seasoned travellers having travelled more than once to Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. My daughter-in-law, Cassandra, really did a really amazing job of organising the details of the trip right down to the smallest detail, even making sure that Judy and I packed the right things needed for a visit to Cuba. I am really grateful to Cassandra for the hard work and clever planning because she put together a really special experience for us all. But as with even the best laid plans things can get a bit difficult. I got sick the night we were to leave from some poorly prepared food at a Winnipeg restaurant and the problem dogged me right up until the very last day when I fell well for the first time. Here is where Cassandra's planning really paid off. Even though I was feeling pretty poorly most of the time, I really and truly enjoyed myself and I know I will need a good length of time to absorb the things I learned in a week in Cuba.
What made it possible to enjoy oneself while feeling pretty sick was the foresight of staying at a really outstanding facility. We went to the North coast of Cuba just ninety or so miles from Miami with the azure blue north Atlantic blissfully swishing up onto the nearly white beach. Varadero has a fully modern airport and the Blau hotel is situated on a peninsula angled out from the Cuban coast. A perfect setting for this time of the year and the temperatures and conditions were perfect. We did not have to endure sweltering humid heat and the hotel was astonishing.
The Blau is a four star establishment, the finest place I have ever stayed and the nature of our stay was an all inclusive accommodation so when I was able to eat the food was outstanding and the service, entertainment and surroundings exceeded my wildest dreams. Cassandra had picked a winner for us so that my poor health was a mere minor inconvenience.
The day we arrived was the only day with a dull sky (image below the airplane) and from then on it was idyllic.
As I wade through the images and video clips, I would like to share them with you. I was unable to go with everyone into Havana but I made the all day catamaran cruise and enjoyed visiting the town of Varadero. I will try to share with you some of the things that really caught my attention and in all ways a short visit like this really tells you far more about your home then about where you are visiting. That's the reason I began this story with a picture of the roadside South of Tisdale on the day we drove over to Winnipeg. Similarly, I have ended this introductory story with an image of Winnipeg as we came in to land there last Thursday afternoon with the temperature at -27ºC with some of our fellow passengers still wearing shorts.
The picture at the top of the page, the cloudy wind swept beach scene and the front of the Blau Hotel were all taken by Judy Shire.
