The alarm went off at 2 AM and we staggered about and got out the door by 2:49. It was a great hour to drive to LAX. We made it to Budget, returned our car, got to Terminal 5, checked in, and went through Security in just over 2 hours! We had a while to wait for our flight to take off and dozed, drank coffee, and read the LA Times. Finally at 7:30 we boarded our jetBlue Airbus and settled into our Mint (First/Business) seats. Any other airline would have charged the earth for the amazingly comfortable seats we got, but jetBlue, my new favorite airline, was very reasonable. By booking early Bob got us two pods that took up the entire width of the plane. We could lie down flat with puffy pillows and comforters while drinking mimosas and nibbling pain au chocolat! We hated to leave when we finally set down in Ft. Lauderdale!!
We joined a crowd of tourists who are spending the night in town before sailing on various cruises, and waited with them for an hour before our Best Western jitney finally arrived to take us to our modest hotel.
We walked into the shopping center next door in the lovely, warm evening air and found
Slackers Bar & Grill, Ft Lauderdale’s shine to the Green Bay Packers! Our friends, the Joneses would feel right at home! With TVs at every table and all over the walls , we were surrounded by March Madness. Great homemade potato chips and enormous good sandwiches!
Saturday, March 17 - Arriving in Cuba
We slept in until seven this morning. I snagged some decaf from the Hotel breakfast bar and we finished off the half turkey/tomato/avocado sandwich I had brought back from Slackers last night. We took the 9 AM jitney back to the Ft. Lauderdale airport and were let off at the jetBlue Cuba desk. There we eventually met all the members of our group, plus Jon Dunn our leader. We paid the $50 visa fee plus $25 for each suitcase and then Jon led us to Zona Fresca, a cute little restaurant that makes delicious food!
We landed at 3:30, went through immigration and customs with no problem, and. met our Cuban guide, Luis, and Arturo, our bus driver, and headed west in a brand new bus. I was hoping that we would have to drive through a bit of Havana, but somehow we totally avoided any city and drove through small farms and ranch land on a wide highway. We did pass a lot of great old American 50s and 60s cars, all in beautiful shape and of great colors - unlike the amazingly drab cars nowadays in the US!!
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| White-crowned Pidgeon |
After about 75 minutes we pulled off the highway towards our hotel in Soroa. We took a short walk past a bar/picnic area the was doing good business on a Saturday afternoon. We began logging in birds at a great rate including the fabulous Cuban Trogon, one of the birds I most wanted to see! Unlike most Trogons it wasn’t secretive, but sat out on a limb so we could admire it! A really lovely bird!
We saw many more, which we’ll see more of later...I was beginning to fade and fortunately we walked about an hour more and reached our hotel at last! It looked pretty full with weekend holidayers . A huge pool full of ninos and people sitting around drinking - looked very inviting! We, however, had 45 minutes to organize our gear and appear for dinner as it was seven already. Bob and I got Cuba Libres and dug into the extensive buffet of salads, soups, a chef grilling chicken, etc. with ice cream and pastries for dessert!
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| Cuban Trogon |
A lively trio was playing Cuban favorites, so we had to meet afterwards in the hotel lobby for the “List” where Jon reads off all the birds seen in the day and we mark them down on our lists. Then we were invited to take a “short” evening walk to look for owls and a large rodent that lives around here. Amazingly I wasn’t the only one exhausted and almost everyone staggered back to their rooms to rest...as we’re to have our bags outside our rooms by 6 AM!
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