Cuba - the best distraction...

Pink to make the boys wink

So this was a trip that very nearly didn't happen. Not the happiest of reading to start with but I promise this post isn't all doom and gloom! I woke up to the most devastating news that my beautiful horse, Oaty, had unexpectedly died overnight. As you can imagine I was a total mess, crying constantly whilst trying to get ready. To top it off I'd managed to blast a load of shampoo into my eye

My gorgeous boy

the night before (which as funny as it sounds was pure agony at the time) and I'd woken up to my eye swollen and grose. I was so torn as to whether I was in any state to fly, particularly because it was a long 3 night trip & I was also unable to really see the extent of my eye through the tears. I kept going back and forth on what to do... my friends were all telling me not to go, but my mum thought I should as would be a good distraction (and to be blunt I needed the money now more than ever). With her dealing with the practicalities of the loss of my boy at home I decided to go. That was personally one of the toughest mornings I've had at work. I was trying so hard to keep my emotions in check but they just kept overflowing & I don't think my tongues ever been bit so much trying not to cry. I also had to get some medication for my eye as the pharmacist in the airport thought it was infected. My working position required me to board, which I had to ask to be taken off. Something made me think I might not be the best person to be the first face people saw when they got on! I had a couple of crew I knew so could tell them what was wrong and once the flight got going I was better, as could keep myself busy. When we landed I was emotionally exhausted and just wanted some time to myself, so didn't do anything... pretty much passed out as soon as we arrived.

Just love Cuba!

The first day was super chilled, spent lounging round the pool with drinks & a few of the others. Three of the group said they were going off to grab something for lunch but disappeared for hours. There was one girl left with me and we were fuming at being ditched... we just knew they'd ended up boozing and I was just pissed as I wanted to be doing the same! So we decided screw them, we will make our own plans for that night and they can do one (so petty hah!) So we went and got ready, got texts from them confirming exactly what we'd thought, they'd ended up on a little bar crawl without us! So we met downstairs, but ended up meeting up with everyone as they were all down there anyway. I got over it pretty quick as they wern't that smashed (sorry but there's nothing worse than when you have to play catch up - especially when you happily would of gone drinking in the first place!) Anyways, nearly all the crew and pilots ended up going out to a few bars in the labyrinth that is Havana, but ended up at my favourite tapas place, Lamparilla 365. I should get a cut in this place the amount of times I bring crew here! Had, as always, a delicious spread of tapas goodies, my faves being the croquettas, tacos & pulled pork. Although I think I've had nearly the whole menu now and love everything!

Cocktail time!

Santa Maria Beach

Beach bums!

Woke up early the next morning and felt a bit better, but read some sweet messages from home, in particular one from my dad about Oaty which got me blubbing again. Got my shit together, got myself downstairs and met some of the girls to head to the beach. From central Havana Santa Maria beach is about 30 mins away. You can get the bus for about 5 cuc, which we tried to do but it was full & we didn't fancy waiting. We haggled a taxi down to take us for the same amount each (between 4) so worked
out better anyway! The beach here is quite rugged so don't expect much! If you go about 3/4 of the way down (the end furthest away) you can find a bar & restaurant where they'll bring bits down to the beach (however you'll pay a bit less if you're not as lazy as us and walk up to order food/drinks) One of the girls bought a bunch of bananas off a bloke and its tragic the amount of fun we had with it for most of the morning (see photos!) We had a nice wander to the beaches end, (which reminded me a lot of some of the beaches in Goa) had a delicious pina colada straight out of the pineapple and a nice fresh piece of grilled fish and salad for lunch. I don't know about you, but when I'm somewhere hot, if I don't see the sea and feel the sand it doesn't feel like I've been away. I really am a beach girl, just love spending my time there instead of a pool. We had arranged for our taxi driver to come back and pick us up about 4, which normally is fine, however he obviously couldn't be arsed as never showed up! So we had to battle against everyone else to nab the only taxi that had turned up in ages.  The bad luck with taxi's continued for our dinner out that night too. We picked one up from outside the hotel & told him where we wanted to go, a restaurant called Vistamar but it soon became apparent he didn't know where he was going, when we were in the arse end of nowhere, cruising at about 2mph & especially when he asked some bloke walking past for directions! We got out and even though I hadn't been to this restaurant, for some reason I wasn't convinced we were in the right place. Went in, it was a lovely place but didn't seem as

Dinner time

described and the 2 pilots we were supposed to be meeting wern't there. After sitting down and just about to order a drink, thought might just double check where we were... turns out we were in the wrong restaurant! We then had to wait about 20 mins for a taxi, that turned out to be someones mate who clearly wasn't legit, as the police drove past and we wern't allowed to get in until they'd gone! Thankfully he took us to the right place, our pilots were there arguing with staff to keep the large table as we walked in ha! It really was a pretty setting though, with two floors and an infinity pool that backs onto the sea (however when we went the pool was empty lol!) but the sea was doing a pretty good job filling it up, as was so rough and kept spraying up into the air (quite mesmerising to watch). In spite of the hectic start I had a really good meal though consisting of some complimentary Croquettas (my faves yay!) then I had pumpkin soup and some more grilled fish with a tomato & olive sauce plus creamy mash. We all had plenty of cocktails whilst playing cards against humanity in between courses, so ended up a good night.

One of the idiot taxi drivers!

Already the trip was over. It was the perfect beautiful distraction for me and I'm glad I went. I was nervous about going home and having to deal with reality but as always Havana had warmed my heart a little. Next stop Vegas...