Welcome to Paradise.
As someone who knows the ropes, has been to Cuba before, and who knows what to expect, the hardest part about getting to the resort was the flight delays. I do understand that Leslie fits into none of those boxes, and was therefore anxious about a lot of it. I was happy to help her through the whole process, and the only part where I could not be with her was at Cuban Immigracion. As usual, I flew through, and I waited for her on the other side. When I saw that they pulled her back I was concerned, but it turns out she needed to buy health insurance, as her American insurance will not cover her in Cuba. I don’t know if this was a scam or legit, but we got out, got our luggage, and I had my first cigar of the trip while we waited for the bus.
My diet could have gone better yesterday, but when you are travelling – I don’t mean on vacation, but actually in transit – it is nearly impossible. I had my usual meal replacement for breakfast, while preparing for Leslie a Montreal bagel with peanut butter. How delicious it would have been to have one! I did take a bite of hers, but that was it. We shared a Lebanese mixed shawarma plate for lunch… minus the rice, potato, and pita. Not bad.
At the airport is when things went south, but they had to. I had a bag of chips (an individual bag, not a usual Mitch-sized bag), and I’ve the next few hours we shared a bag of trail mix. On the airplane, I was getting hungry… and I knew enough that by the time we got to the resort (with a more than a three hour delay) it would be late, we would be tired, and we might just want to go to sleep. I bought a snack of hummus with bread sticks, which we shared… but which I ate most of.
One of the things about coming to a new resort (it has been here a while but I’ve never been here) is that I did not know what to expect with regard to food upon our very late arrival. By the time we were settled into our room and unpacked it was nearly 1:30am, and I wanted to track down some vittles. We found one of the bars (which was quite the happening spot) and filled our water bottles… we absolutely needed to have water in the room. While we could have tracked down the 24-hour snack bar, we were both exhausted, and we decided to forgo food for sleep. We came back to the room and called it.
Come to think of it, I didn’t cheat as badly as I thought I had… and definitely not as bad as I could have.
Leslie is a bit confused by the orbat of the day. Get dressed, do what we want to, when we want to, however we want to. Relax, have a coffee, have a cigar, and then continue. Resort living is a completely strange animal to anyone who has never done it! I woke up earlier than she did, and so I went out to get a coffee. As I write this, I am sitting on our patio with my coffee and my cigar, watching the palm trees. It is a perfect time of day to do that. In a few minutes we will track down breakfast, and then? Whatever we want to do.
…
We went for breakfast, which was lovely. It would have been lovelier if I was not on a diet, but whatever. The coffee in the buffet restaurant is not very good, so I will stick to the bars. We then walked around, checked out the beach, and are in for a wonderful, completely unplanned day. I have already had five people try to sell me fake cigars on the resort and on the beach. That number will triple before the day is out.
Have a great one!
Losing a part of me 
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