Wednesday March 6th - Sleep, vanity and cuban cigars

I think i should give up on losing any weight here. My sleep pattern is out of wack...the food here is not the most healthy. I guess my vain self would like to look svelte in my bikini on the beach...but its not going to happen. Not in a week anyhow. My only consolation here is that the local women are not the slimmest people in the world and they are not shy at all when it comes to dressing.

We went back to Varadero again. We knew the system a little better now, so we caught a bus quite easily. The beach was paradise. I can't imagine doing this every day for a week....mercifully we are not. But lots of people do the whole touristy thing: Staying at an all inclusive hotel..waking up, having breakfast,swimming in the pool, afternoon siesta, lunch, swimming at the beach, dinner, listening to pretty much the same band playing every night..and then retiring to bed to do the same thing all over again...for a whole week! or two...

We passed through Jorge's on our way back to collect a box of cigars that he wanted us to bring back to a friend in B.C. Barry was a bit weary about taking them, because he didn't want to risk taking something he didn't pack, in the unlikely chance that he was smuggling contraband/drugs that way. As a precaution, we went through the box to make sure it was OK....not that we'd know the difference between tobacco for cigars and some Cuban drug. But it looked OK to us...so hopefully it is OK. i certainly don't need anymore 'wahala' on top of my appointment with immigration on our return.

Tomorrow we leave early for Habana, with a tour through Matanzas city center on our way to the bus stop.

It's amazing how much money we've gone through in just 4 days. It was a bit worrying when we added it up, because we are living pretty frugally...but Cuba ain't cheap and Habana is going to be more expensive...so we have to get creative somehow with our spending habits with our remaining time here.