The Longest Day

Woke up & started packing things up. Met Luke & Tara on their way back from breakfast, they were going to pack, & we were going to eat! After breakfast we decided to check out of our rooms so we could get a jump on the rest of the crowd. Dropped off our bags by the front desk, & waited for Pablo the bellhop to put them in the locked room. Then Tara & I went to talk to Jorge at the towel stand to see if he had been able to find some Peso coins for me. In Cuba there are 2 currencies, the Tourist Pesos, & the Cuban Pesos. I had some of the Tourist Pesos, but I was trying to acquire a few of the Cuban Peso coins.

Jorge let me down! He totally forgot to look. Oh well, we stood & chatted to him for quite a while, & he managed to find a 1 Peso coin for me. He also showed us a ₱100 bill, & told us a lot of the history of Cuba revolutions, & who was pictured on the bills. He went to ask some other employees if they had any coins. Jorge gave me a ₱5 & ₱1 bill he had managed to find, & told me maybe I could get someone to trade with me.

We chatted a bit more & told him of my mistake telling Rollie about our candle, which Jorge thought was quite funny. I gave him a pack of Skittles for his troubles, & went in search of more cappuccinos.

At one point Ivan ran up to me with 2 more Peso coins for me, & a hug. I thanked him for finding them for me. We all 4 rotated between reading in the lobby, & wandering around the resort. The weather wasn't great again, so at least we weren't missing out on a good beach day, but it was not the most exciting day we have had here.

Tara & I asked at the front desk about some of the seeds we had founds on the trees.  She had found an odd shaped green seed & had even bit into it a bit, but we couldn't figure out what it was.  We were told it was an almond that wasn't ripe yet.  So I asked about the red seeds on the palm trees if they were the kind of seeds that were fed to pigs.  Immediately the desk clerk told us, "Don't eat them!"  I assured him, "I didn't eat them.  I only  tasted one a little bit, but it didn't taste very good, & I don't recommend it.".  He said, "Either you are ok, or you are a zombie!"

I ran into Pablo at one point & asked him about Peso coins, but all he had was a ₱20 bill. I offered to trade him for the ₱5 bill I had since I had 2, & he said that wasn't really a fair trade. He let me keep the ₱20 & the ₱5, & I gave him 2 decks of playing cards. He was pretty happy about that.

As it got later in the day closer to our departure time I decided it was time to get changed, so I asked Pablo if I could get my bag from the locked room. He let me in & I asked him about the 'hospitality room' to get changed in. He said, "Ask at the front desk... wait, do you need a shower, or just to change?" I said I was just going to change, so he offered to leave me locked in the room while he went to check on another room. So I quickly changed, & waited in the locked room. Chad thought that was a little strange, but it sure was convenient!

I had one last drink from my favourite bartender, & tipped him the few coins I had left telling him, "Lo siento, no tengo mas." He started singing, "No Tengo mas, no tengo mas!"

We got on the bus around 4:30, rode the hour to the airport, & waited to check in. At security I put my bag & phone onto the tray, & the man told me to take my watch off, so I did, then he said, "Look at me." I looked, & he said, "You have beautiful eyes!" I think that was a misuse of his authority, but I appreciated it!

We sat for 2 hours at the airport, but we did finally manage to find some nice shirts for the kids! Talked to a few of the vendor ladies, & traded the ₱5 bill for a ₱3 peso coin, two ₱1 coins, & a 20 cent. Another lady gave me a 20 cent, & a 5 cent. In the end I had ₱45.45 in Cuban Peso (which is only worth about $2US)!

We decided that on the plane the girls would sit together & the boys could sit together. I went to my seat to discover it was wet, so the stewardess told us to shift into the 2 seats next to us, since the flight wasn't full. Two older couples came to sit, & apparently we were in one of their seats, so we explained that the seat was wet & we had been told to move over. "That's not our problem!" one of them declared. We replied that we were happy to go wherever the stewardess wanted us.

One of the couples decided to move into the exit row, but the stewardess told them they had to sit in their assigned seats, & gave the exit row to Tara & I instead! The 2 of us chatted for awhile, then Tara went off to another row to sleep. The boys each had a whole row to themselves as well so we had lots of room to relax on the flight.