02-23-2008
|
#17 (permalink) |
|
añejo
 Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: The Gem State
Posts: 16,176
|
Great start Riss.
I would love to go to Cuba before it changes...well that is if it does. I think that you are lucky that because of your nationality, you are able to enter and leave Cuba without any hassles. I have friends who have gone to Cuba on scholar's visas but later, when they have gone on trips to Latin America or Mexico, customs agents have harrassed them because of the stamps on their passports.  It would be worth it for me to go. I have always thought of booking a trip out of Cancun...I am looking forward to reading the rest of your report and seeing your pictures. |
|
|
|
02-23-2008
|
#18 (permalink) |
|
Canada Dry
 Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,645
|
Another nice thing about this hotel is even though it is 944 rooms, you could always find a palapa and loungers by the pool or shade under a sea grape tree and free loungers at the beach, any time of the day. I read on TA that is the case evern at xmas and Easter when it's busiest.
 Lobby and grounds pictures.... Every day there was different artists and craftspeople setting up tables by the two gift shops and rum/cigar store by the pool. There also was a daily market of sorts with local artists on our beach, and a bigger one in Guardalavaca as well. Frankly, I don’t shop much on vacation anyway. We did buy a lovely water painting of a girl knocking on a church door in Havana from this lady at the hotel one day:  Besides that we bought a bottle of Havana Club barrel aged 15 year old rum and a couple of cigars...and a bottle of Spanish gin for 2.50 CUC (about $3 Canadian- not sure how good that will be). I did see some lovely wood and ox horn carvings too, but we resisted the urge to buy the ubiquitous Che Guevara tee shirt or the green shoulder bags and hats with the Soviet red star.  |
|
|
|
|
02-23-2008
|
#19 (permalink) |
|
añejo
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Posts: 2,094
|
OMG..... I can't tell you how much I have been looking forward to indulging in this trip report!!!! I told you the food would be great didn't I.....
<<sigh>> I love Cuba. Fantastic start Maggie..... more... more.... more.... 
|
|
|
|
|
02-23-2008
|
#20 (permalink) |
|
Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,645
|
 Tee Zetheya Raquelle Sol- well, come on up to visit me and you and I will go next winter, fly from here!  They actually don't stamp anyone's passport, regardless of nationality. BUT, I asked specifically that he stamp mine (upon leaving the country when I passed through C &I again.) I might get harassed going through US Customs...but I don't care.  In fact....I welcome it!
|
|
|
|
|
02-23-2008
|
#21 (permalink) | |
|
añejo
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Posts: 2,094
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
02-23-2008
|
#24 (permalink) |
|
Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,645
|
Now I will really post the pics of the grounds and lobby....
 Trains were the 'theme' of Playa Pesquero. The area has many sugar plantations and trains like this one at the hotel entrance were used for tranporting the cane.  There was some cool plants I had never seen before...this clump of something, grass or something, was sure big.   The lobby was very large....there was the bar on one corner (Don with his white eyes, here)..  (It's empty because it was about ten AM I think.) There was a coffee bar next to the bar bar. It looks old and rusted out but up close you see it is just a faux finish. (This pic is dark, sorry.  ) You could get regular coffee or decaf, cappucinos, lattes, or Spanish, Irish, Bailey's-and-coffee type coffees (my favourite), I think there was around 30 different ones. With foamy milk/cream on top. Very yummy coffee too.  The wandering salsa band, they were really very good!  The lobby had roofed parts with comfy couches interspersed with pond areas without roofs, with koi in them, nekkid statues and trees with spanish moss and fountains. Like so.  So hard to get decent pics with all the light changing all the time in there! One of 3 massage palapas by pool...  The Asian a la carte restaurant... more spanish moss and cool dragons!  The people...where to start...Cecilia was my favourite server at the buffet. I miss her cheery greeting every morning and attempts to correct my Spanish (okay- Mexican and Cuban spanish are WAY different!! ). okay...I am going to Pier 1 for a bit...back later on...coming up- the beach.
|
|
|
|
|
02-23-2008
|
#25 (permalink) | |
|
Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,645
|
Quote:
Yeah, it really was the most beautiful pool. and no, Jack- that is most definitely not me! I am not quite so, er, well endowed as she. But better than this! (but isn't her hat cute! ) By the way, I was the uncouth one taking the pictures, not my hubby.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
