Cayo Coco, Cuba 2007

We're back from Cuba. This was our first group trip, with my brother, Drew and Ang, and Stephan and Eric. We left on Friday, January 26th, 2 hours behind schdule, because we had to stand in line to get the plane de-iced. It was a suprisingly short flight (3 hours) to Cayo Coco. The warm temperature (25 degrees) hit us like a brick as we walked off the plane. What a difference from -15. Our bus got to the hotel at about 10:30 pm. We were greeted by a colourful drink with a piece of pineapple sticking out of it as we arrived to Playa Coco.
The lobby was huge and nicely decorated, with a large pond in the middle with palm trees surrounding it, that had turtles in it. We quickly checked in and settled into our rooms. The enthusiastic porter arrived with our luggage shortly after. Unfortunately we had missed the buffet dinner, but they had a 24/7 snack bar, and to the guys' delight a couple of 24/7 bars. We had a few drinks and were in bed by midnight. The next morning we got up at 9, and before breakfast, we decided to explore the resort in daylight. The main building housed the lobby, the buffet restaurant, and 3 a la carte restaurants. It also had a piano bar, a games room, a souvenir shop, computer booth, exchange booth, and a disco. The guest rooms were located in 9 large buildings, with 30 rooms each. We stayed in building #6 which had a nice pool with an ice cream booth right behind it. There were 2 more pools at the resort, one with a swim-up bar and also a large jacuzzi.
The ocean was a short 2 minute walk away. We had a tasty breakfast, omlette with green pepppers, onions, ham and cheese made right in front of us. I also got to enjoy the orange juice that was squeezed that morning. After breakfast, I emailed Mom, to let her know that we were OK. We booked a reservation to each one of the 3 a la carte restaurants. They were italian, seafood and japanese. We also booked a daytrip for Monday. It was an all day trip that included visiting 2 cities, Moron and Ciego De Avila, the capital of Cayo Coco. Our first stop was at a lake where we went for a boat ride. Our guide drove the small 6 person boat into a jungle-like area. There we discovered the many varieties of trees and plants that we wouldn't normally see anywhere else. Our boat slowly drifted forward, until we were so deep in the forest, that the trees closed in above our heads. I had never seen a place quite like it. It was a little scary, but fascinating at the same time. I video taped this part of the trip for Mom.
Our next stop was at an alligator farm. One of the keepers demonstrated how an alligator attacks its prey. He dangled a fish on a fishing line in front of one of the beasts, until it slowly approached it, waited for a second, then attacked it so fast that some people who blinked, actually missed it. I got it all on tape though. Later, we were offered to hold a 4-year-old alligator. Peter jumped on the opportunity. I wasn't so eager.
Next, we visited the city of Moron. There wasn't much to see in the city, but we did enjoy our horse buggy ride.
After that we were dropped off at a train station. Our ride, the steam train built in 1826 arrived soon with a lot of noise and steam. We took the train to a sugar cane factory where we learned about Cuba's main industry, that's second only to tourism. Next, we got to see the city of Ciego De Avila. Again, there wasn't much to see, however our ride around town was fantastic. They called them, citybikes. It's basically a person sitting on a bike pedalling, while you sit in the back and enjoy the views. I've only seen those things on TV, and I thought they only existed in China. It was hilarious.
Our last stop was at a cigar factory, where we found out how the famous cuban cigars are actually made. We left with a collection of cigars, as the workers kept slipping them to us. In exchange, we slipped them a few pesos back.
We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. We rather would have gone to bed, but we had a reservation at the italian restaurant, which ended up being just barely OK.
The next few days we stayed at the resort and worked on our tan, played cards and just relaxed.
Wednesday, we had a reservation at the japanese restaurant. We didn't know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. We had our own chef who worked his magic right in front of us on a large skillet that was built into the table. We sat around it and watched.
In order to give the meat some time to cook, the chef initiated a game. One by one we took his spot, he handed us a large fork, then he flipped up a piece of meat in the air, and we had to catch it with the fork. The point of the game was to see who could catch it, out of the least number or tries. It was so funny. I took a whack of pictures. We had a blast and the food was outstanding too.
The next evening, we ate at the seafood restaurant which we weren't fussy about.
Before we knew it, Friday came and it was time to come home. We had given away a lot of our clothes to the maid, so it was easy to pack up the littlebit we still had and the souvenirs. Our uneventful flight arrived to Toronto early at 12:30 am, but by the time we pickup up our luggage my parents were at the airport waiting for us. We had a quite drive home as most of us were asleep. The first chance we got, we went over to my parents' house and watched the video together. It was nice to re-live the fun, the sights, and the whole experience again. I can't wait to go back to Cuba!