FINALLY! (by Beenie Girl)

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Ok so I picked a date to leave, then I couldn’t leave on that date, my passport wasn't ready. So I picked another date ... my mom's visa was not ready in time. I picked a third date ... no room in the hotel I was supposed to stay at. Hmmmm, Ok. A fourth date . . . Hurricane Paloma strikes on the very day I am supposed to leave? A HURRICANE? Ok this is a damn joke now. Or is this a sign? I wonder if I really should really be going on this posting?

Strong breeze stop blowing over Cuba, so I got a flight for the following weekend. Mom and I of course left too many things to pack on the last day. Added to the fact that she brought a whole heap of pastels and roti skins and other goodies to pack in our hand luggage, but we made it all fit by the grace of God and of course by sitting on the bags! Check-in was quite eventful, but we will skip past that to protect the innocent ... fast forward to the plane ride. This was my first time flying COPA Airlines and it was not too bad at first, not enough leg room, but being six feet tall there is never enough leg room anyway. The flight passed through Panama, so about half way through the first leg of our flight they served a light snack.

We stopped off in Panama briefly and then started towards Havana. About 20 minutes or so into the flight I started feeling really weird. Irritable. My face face was a little itchy. I realised I was having an allergic reaction to something I ate on the first leg of the flight. Steuuuupps. See, this is why I couldn't get posted to New Delhi, cause delhi belly would have laid me out in a few hours.

Of course being the greedy girl I am, that didn't stop me from eatin a lil bit on the 2nd leg of the flight after all I was already gettin sick, right? So I ate, took some meds and put my head back. (Needless to say next day my face was quite swollen, nothing a lil drugs couldnt fix though!)

FINALLY I had landed in Cuba! things went quite smoothly, I must admit, except at customs when I was tryin to explain in spanish to the officer what a benne ball was, and what a pastel was, and why I had so much roti skins in my hand luggage. I was then told there are certain restrictions about food brought into Cuba, but maybe it was the time of night, them people in Customs was lookin to go home, so the woman just waved us by after a while.

I noticed two things when driving from the airport - one was the lack of street lights, they seem to be very few, and two- although it was almost one in the morning there were people limin by the corner, I saw a woman walkin by herself, and I mean walking, not half running like I would have to be doin if I walk in Port of Spain after dark. I mean, at that time of night with the almost pitch black roadway I was like: this woman crazy! But my colleague explained that Cuba generally was quite safe, no matter what hour of the night.

We were sooo beat when we got to the hotel, we literally just fell into bed...the view from my room next morning was beautiful ... It actually made me smile (a kind of half smile thanks to my swollen face). For a moment, I set aside the emotional strain of the weeks that had just passed and just enjoyed the sound of the sea.