After a solid night’s rest, we took our time waking up and heading up to the terrace for a repeat of yesterday’s breakfast. Unfortunately, there was no reptile telenovela thanks to the laundry drying and swaying in the breeze. Fortunately, breakfast was on-point, as today was a day we (especially Jess) were looking forward to: SCUBA!
The best part of Cuba breakfast – 100% pure, fresh squeezed mango juice!
There was a little confusion on timing, but eventually our guide, Pedro, and his son, Jose Maria, picked us up and we were off to Gaujimico for diving.
Just waiting for the guides meant… you guessed it! More rocking chairs!
Once we arrived we suited up, after asking us our sizes for wetsuits. Jess asked for a small, but after a pause, was told “You.. are not so small” and gets handed a medium. The result: every dive ended with Jess hauling a kangaroo pouch of salt water onto the boat!
But back to the diving! We did two dives at 34.5 and 27.9 meters for 40 and 43 minutes respectively, and it was awesome. We saw several lionfish, jelly fish, long legged shrimps and got completely enveloped by huge schools of silvery fish. Grant saw a giant barracuda emerge from the deep then dart away, and the best news of all: no one got seasick!
Back on shore, it started raining, then pouring, so we did not really get a chance to enjoy the pool at the vacation resort by the dock. Instead, we headed back to town and realized it’s 3pm and we’ve yet to eat lunch! For convenience, we head to the restaurant that is literally next door to our casa and order a lobster dish to split. We wait patiently, and then more patiently… and end up waiting about an hour but in the middle of that received not one but two plates “on the house”. We don’t know exactly why, but our favorite explanation was that they had run out of lobster so were scrambling to find or catch one for us!
Then it was nap time, as scuba takes quite a bit of enegy. That plus the food coma were the perfect combo for naptime. Then, after some more terrace relaxation, we had dinner on the rooftop, prepared by our host, Jesus, himself. We had a delicious dinner of fish, pork, rice, beans, plantains, and of course, more amazing mango for dessert.
These are just the sides – the fish and pork hadn’t even arrived yet, and it’s already too much!
The amazing fruit salad dessert – so fresh and so sweet!
Not only that, but Jesus also checks on us and gave us personalized gifts with his and his wife’s name on them: a wooden folding fan for Jess, and a wooden domino set for Grant. After dinner Jess promptly passed out, while Grant hung out with Cesar and talked more about life in Cuba and got a slew of pointers / recommendations for Havana. Then, of course, sleep!
– G & J