Cayo Guillermo es mucho mejor de Varadero

I was planning to end my trip by visiting a couple beaches & doing some diving. Now I was pretty intent on trying to see the funeral in Santiago, a city only 2hrs from Holguin, where my flight leaves for the US on the afternoon of Mon Dec 5. I considered lingering in SC for a bit longer bc I was in the right place (along w Havana & Santiago). Sure enough, 3 large construction vehicles w lifts began doing odds & ends repairs & paint refreshes Sat evening on the grand buildings surrounding Parque Vidal, long after normal govt worker hours, clearly preparing for the caravan that will pass through – but based on my estimates, it wouldn’t reach Santa Clara until Wed eve or Thurs morn, so I decided to head out to Cayo Guillermo as planned.
Some of my fave albums ever got me through a frustrating 3-hr bus ride that included a 45-min late start for no apparent reason & an hour long stop for a late lunch 20 mins from my destination of Ciego de Avila. The punk goddess/poet Patti Smith’s Horses’ put a smile on my face as it does every time w the very first lyrics – quite possibly one of the best starts to an album ever. It’s certainly not for everyone bc she’s so weird in a really great kinda way… I liken her to the female version of Lou Reed, another one of my obsessions. Then I moved to another all time great, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, which is definitely for everyone. I finished in the Latin realm w Manu Chao’s Clandestino which made me happily recall one of the first Lollapalooza’s since being permanently based in my Chicago (so prob 10 yrs ago), where he played opposite the home town Kanye West to close the fest on Sunday night. All but about 5k went to see Kanye while my sis, a friend & I spread out & danced like crazy people to Manu Chao, along w everyone else in the crowd who very obviously really appreciated his music. One of the best, craziest, high energy, fun shows I’ve ever seen. Screw Kanye (still).
My trip was not over at Ciego de Avila. I found & negotiated w a taxi driver to take me the 2-hr drive to Cayo Guillermo, supposedly a lovely somewhat-difficult-to-get-to little island w pristine beaches, great diving, exciting kite surfing (which I’ve always wanted to try) & good deep sea fishing. It just so happens to be the island & beach (Playa Pilar) that Hemingway called his favorite back in the day when there wasn’t a man-made causeway connecting it, via Cayo Coco, to the mainland. A total coincidence that I went through the trouble to end up here.
I checked out the kite surfing early on. The bulk of them are further SE from the hotel closer to a point on the island – where SE & E winds collide. As I walked down the beach, I could feel the winds pickup. Then I just sat there for hours watching. I talked to a couple guys about lessons & questioned the learning curve due to the strong winds. “Oh but the winds are good… helps you get up. Makes it easier.” And then I watched for an hour as a relatively physically fit man repeatedly tried & failed to mount his board in the water while keeping control of his kite. Poor guy was trying his best to heed the advice of his instructor, who was following him in the water, as his kite took the newbie 100 yds down the beach, clearly failing. It reminded me of the time Karen, Gina & I checked out Pirlanta beach in Cesme, Turkey off the coast from Izmir known for being one of the top kite surfing beaches in the world & witnessed a woman, clearly in the early stages of her lesson so still on the beach, dragged 50 yards down the beach by her kite while eating mouthfuls of sand. That beach was far windier than this. But this was still a bit intimidating. So I sat & watched for awhile. After an hour, I stopped watching the newbies as I decided that I should first perhaps give surfing a whirl before I throw a kite into the mix (surf camp in Peru sounds pretty fabulous right!?!). I then turned my focus to the experienced guys & was especially floored by a guy who had no footholds on his board (what!) so when he gets air (& he was getting the highest air), he isn’t grabbing his board to show-off, he’s doing it so he has something to land on. He was more kite skateboarding & I’ve never seen anything like it before. Impressed.
IMHO, although I do consider myself somewhat of an expert when it comes to grading beaches, this is superior to Varadero. However… in order to visit now, there are only 4 hotels to choose from. All of them are all-inclusive resorts. I’m quite certain Ernie would roll over in his grave. I’ve never done an all-inclusive before. It’s a real nice place – a fancy Spanish owned resort. I don’t think I wanted to like it. I was a doubter when it came to the food & drinks assuming the former would be terrible & the latter would be watered down. But it was pretty darn good. I did get to know a bartender Wildmer quite well who was heavy on the pour. Muchas gracias, Wildmer. BTW… there are drinks (clearly)! Apparently the Spanish hotel owner doesn’t dare cross his Canadian & European guests, who as far as I’m concerned barely recognized Fidel died or there was anything happening outside of their all-inclusive little world, by withholding booze. So it flowed. A bit too freely for some. But still no music.