When the cab signalled its arrival we walked out and couldn't see it at first but then noticed it parked a few houses over. We climbed in and did the preliminaries (qual es la tariffa hasta Santa Maria del Mar?) when another cab pulled ahead of us and the driver got out and started arguing with our driver. I had a feeling they were arguing about us and I said to Jessee "you think we got in the wrong cab?" (we hadn't noticed the other cab until now). Our driver finally got tired of arguing and drove away -- then he says to us "he said you calledfor a pick up at 10:30", like he thought the other driver was lying. We said "Si" we did order one and I immediatly knew I had been right -- we had gotten in the wrong cab and this dude had unfairly stolen the other driver's fare.

Very few people here, most of them Cuban. Beautiful turquoise water, white sparkling sand (looks like shells ground up by eons of waves, cloudless sky...

We ploped ourselves down on some lawn chairs in the shade of a palapa roof...

...and put my leg up on the support post all day...

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Bought my first ever coconut from the dude maintaining that portion of the beach and he must have poured at least 5 oz of run into it before it started to overflow -- then he tells Jesse to drink some of it so he can put more rum in!

The bano stopped working around mid-day until more water could be delivered (water supplies are limited in many areas of the country now and it's quite common to see what used to be a fully functioning washroom like this with no pipes draining from the sink anymore).

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A crab scurried over sideways and buried itself in the sand next to one of the posts and spent the rest of the day there.

A cuban family on their wedding aniversary asked us where we were from and when we said Canada he looked at us differently and said "it's very cold there right now? Cero degrees?" We replied that that's why were were in Cuba instead and thal just a few weeks ago it was minus 20/30. He stared at us uncomprehendingly -- zero was freezing as far as he was concerned and he couldn't fathom negative degrees.

We got a ride back in a beautiful white 70's mercedes (the only one Mercades I saw in Cuba) with the seatbelts ripped out and reggaeton blaring from the radio ...

written by  mihee on March 28, 2011 from La Habana, Cuba
from the travel blog: Viva la Cuba Libre!
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