We flew out of Montreal for two good reasons, one it was a lot closer to Ottawa and two the flight was during the day. I am not a big fan of night flights. I have nothing but praise and congrats to Sunwing. They did a bang up job. We paid the extra 50 bucks each to get a set in row 6 , which had more leg room for me. I brought my bag of medical stuff from NJT and realized that I had forgot my papers at home.
So that cost me 60 bucks for the extra weight. I was rushed right through customs in Cuba. They had drug dogs running amongst the tourists smelling the bags. So outside of the little airport there is a hotel person with a box of envelopes waiting for you with your registration info and bracelet. Onto the bus we go and after an hour and a half of rickety roads through the mountains (very scenic!) we arrived at Marea del Portillo Hotel. Most of the day was spent travelling. We went to check out our cabano and it was not what we had expected. 3 single beds and nothing working. My wife was very dissapointed and wanted to go home. Much to our disappointment we thought you had regular , superior , vip and cabano. And cabano was one step below a vip. Very disappointing because we had paid for what we thought was the best. the attitude was too bad so sad. So the next day, we managed to get ourselves transferred to cabano 40 on the ocean side. Big difference, although it was smelling of mold. (We thought maybe it was something in the sewage pipes) We were second from the end where a lagoon was. We tried to sleep with the bathroom window open but ended up picking up little green tree fogs in the bathroom and spiders. The area, is rugged and beautiful, the people are magnificient and desperately poor. It is mostly a farming province with the two hotels as being the major source of foreign income. I saw a lot of people with no shoes , dressed in rags, grinning and smiling and waving at us when we passed by. One of the singers put dibs on my sandals. He spent the next two weeks reminding me of our agreement. I thought that was a bit much. We bought the three village bus tour, which was pretty good. We recvd a lot of information and checked out the three local villages nearby. Two of them were Marea and Pilon. The highlight of our first week was the tripto the capital city of Bayamo, Loong day. Three hours there, (with frequent pit stops) and whirlwind tour of the city, (cigar factory, museum, bar and stores) and then three hours back to the hotel. So that was a long day. We found out we had full use of the falaron hotel up the hill. The first week at Marea, a lot of the guests were averaging 65 and up.Lots of walkers and house coats in the cafeteria in the morning.
I felt very young there
We had brought some extra shopping money and there was practically nothing to buy. I was disappointed. The only handicrafts you could buy were from the black marketers who hung out in the woods on the end of the beach at each side. The store up the hill at the Falaron was much larger and had a few things you could buy. Cigarettes, cigars and booze and teeshirts. The Falaron , is a newer hotel with lots of stairs and people with a pulse, but much further away from the beach. Marea is very quiet and very popular with the seniors,on the beach and older. So its a toss up. The food was fine for Cuban food I actually like the homemade ice cream for dessert. (coconut, yummy) We started to check out the night shows at the Falaron out of boredom and found them to be a lot more active. I also found out there was a disco at 11pm . I couldn't stay awake that late, because I was too bored So I missed out on it. The first week just flew bye with our friends from Toronto area leaving on Thursday evening. Next morning the hotel was full of new Toronto area tourists. Then again it changed over for the Montreal flight on Sunday morning. We had bought a bus ticket for church in Niquero at 11am, which never showed up. I asked what happened and was told that the bus was cancelled.So we shared a cab with 2 other people and took a 45 minute cab ride to Niquero, The cab driver (Roy) waited for us and took us back when we were done. Total cost 64 pesos. Every time we took a cab somewhere we ended up picking up a local to bring with us as transportation between the various villages was extremely difficult and a daily chore for the locals. When we got back to the hotel we heard about a mountain tour that one of the bus drivers would give us for 15 pesos each, instead of 49 pesos, with a minimum of 4 people. We met up with a couple from the Toronto area and booked it for the following week. That turned out to be the highlight of week 2. Three hours of driving through the mountains, along the savage sea coast, and through the villages.We dropped off some supplies at what they called an elementary school. Visited a farm and drank homegrown cuban coffee. Amazing time. Our tour guide showed us the damage caused by the various hurricanes and explained how it is a constant battle for villagers to keep up with the repairs. He told us that the Cuban government was considering building another hotel in this region, Back at our cabana in the hotel we started receiving unwanted visitors. It rained one time for one day and that was enough to bring out the mosquitoes. We found a buggy eyed white tree frog on the wall in the bathroom. Numerous small , fast moving black spiders. One day a spider that was at least 3.5 inches in diameter (the mother?) came through the air conditioner. I almost tripped over the biggest black cockroach I had ever seen in my life. And finally a Cuban Boa Constrictor ran for cover when I walked by it on the sidewalk leading to our cabano. We were ready to go home after this. I noticed an unusual large presence of police everywhere and I was wondering what was going on. We paid 20 pesos each for the vip treatment at the airport and we turned out to be the only ones who did that. First in line for boarding pass and first on the plane. With our own private air conditioned lounge. I liked it. :) After a good flight home, I heard the news that Fidel Castro had resigned and realized that was probably the reason. So would we go back? Not for 14 days for sure. Not during the raining season for sure. And not anything less than a vip. The people were magnificent and heart warming. The nature was astounding . The hotel needs work. And we are glad to be home in frozen Canada again with no gigantic spiders on the walls . If you want to see my pics I started loading them under a folder called john in the gallery
Topic: John and Ann's report on Marea del Portillo (Manzanillo Cuba) (Read 10204 times)