We're a little more rested, a little more tanned.
I have sand in the bottom of my suitcase and souvenirs covering our coffee table in the living room.
CUBA was a really great country to visit and Air Transat treated us well.
We flew out direct from Regina to Santa Clara Abel Airport on Sunday morning at 9 a.m.(February 12) and landed at 3:10 p.m.  Getting through the Cuban customs involved our passport, a visa card which we filled out on our flight, and the question: have you been to Brazil in the last five months?
The right answer to that question was 'no'!  Not sure why.
And then the heat of the caribbean island hit us like a wall and felt so good!
I found a stand selling beverages-of course, Cerveza or beer is the number one seller, and found ice cold water for us to take on the shuttle bus.  Then we boarded an older, Japanese tour bus, making sure our luggage was being put in and away we went on the hour and a half drive to Cayo Santa Maria.
Our resort was on the "keys" or "cayo" and so we had to drive on a causeway built specifically for tourism to be developed on this island.  The tour guide described scenes along the way, pointing out tobacco, sugar cane and banana plantations. We saw tiny, concrete homes, some small farms with thin cows and little goats.  Most places along the highway and in the villages were tidy and well-kept.  Laundry hung out to dry at many homes.  We passed through three communities that would have been interesting to explore and tour but we sped on through to our destination.
The causeway was 48 km long with 45 bridges along it.  There are no alligators in Cuba.  Good to know.
The thing Walter most wanted to see were the old cars from the 1950's and he was not disappointed.  Besides bicyclists and folks on carts drawn by ponies, we encountered several Chevy's and a few Russian cars, mostly Lada's.  Such a unique sight!
Our shuttle dropped off guests at a couple of resorts before we reached Melia Las Dunas, our home for the next 7 days.  The hot sun was already descending as we arrived in late afternoon (about 5:30 p,m,).  Check in was painless and a porter packed us and our luggage into a golf cart (with 3 rows of seats) and delivered us to our block - 67 - he opened our door and a lovely, cool room emerged before us.  The suite looked like the pictures I had discovered online when I "googled" the resort.  Yellow walls, dark wooden furniture and tiled bathroom.  We tipped the porter with the Cuban Pesos we had exchanged at the airport.
We quickly shed our long pants and replaced them with shorts.  And off we went to explore the resort and especially find the "International Buffet" for supper.

More Cuban experiences in the next few blogs...