Villa Nora in Punta Gorda

VILLA NORA/PUNTA GORDA

March 1^st … Nora, and her daughter Norita, speaks no English. They are the most loving people, we felt like family right away. Julie (the housekeeper) speaks a little English. She is very animated and funny.  She lives in Cruces which is 40 K one way. She travels by bus every day, and makes only $30 CUC per month!

We love that the store is only 1 1/2 blocks away and the Cadeca is right across the street and Juan Carlos, the guard, speaks English! The neighborhood is very much like the 50's suburbs in America. Large ranch house type homes with well cared for lawns and wide sidewalks.

March 2 ... Best sleep I've had since we arrived in Cuba -- very quiet at night! And no flies due to screened windows!

March 8 ... Out on a walk, we heard music. There was a live concert at the Culture Center from noon to 1pm. We stopped and watched. Great fun watching everyone dancing, like the Twist, but music was soooo loud! Turned out they were celebrating International Women's Day -- music coming from every direction all afternoon! I remembered this from last year and I find it great fun! Looking forward to it next year.

The door to our room.

   

March 9 … Went to Immigration to renew my visa, not as long a wait as I thought. We got there at 10:15am. One guy took a looong time to get processed. Next guy took 20 minutes, then my turn at 11:00am. There was a problem with my travel insurance because it was on a Canadian company and I have an American passport. I was going to have to go to some kind of agency to have verification. Then I told them Brian had the same insurance and his was ok. They called him to the back office, he showed our marriage certificate, told them I lived with him in Canada. He showed his insurance card -- they saw the card numbers matched and all was ok. Rest of process took 10 minutes, out by 11:30am. Whew!!

March 12 ... Brian has been walking around a couple times a day, stopping to visit anyone outside. The neighborhood is getting to know him -- the Cadeca guard, neighbors across the street where a Canadian lives from December through the first of April -- he brings 6 bags and even his own 28" TV!  Starting to feel like home here!

Also, we both love peanuts and there's peanuts everywhere -- salted or honey roasted! We didn’t find any last year.

March 16 ... Ariel and Baby's (our previous casa here) son Roy and his girlfriend Yami took us to Laguna Guanaroca to see the flamingos. $10 per person ( the kids waited for us because Yami is afraid of boats). It took less than an hour to walk 1K to the boats, take the ride to the flamingos, and back. There was a group of 5 from France that went with us.

The flamingos were very cool! We didn't know they could fly! They are very long when stretched out in flight -- about 6 feet, and the wing span almost the same. The pelicans were funny to watch diving. They'd klunk, head first, into the water then flip right side up real quick. It was comical.

We'd left at 10am and returned by 1:30pm. Roy charged us $20 but B gave him $25 since they waited while we were out on the boat. 

    

FUMIGATION:

Neighborhoods are routinely fumigated, for mosquitoes, one day a week for each neighborhood. Trucks drive down the street and the spray (fog) comes out the back -- you better get out of the way! Individual homes and stores are also treated weekly. The stores close down for an hour, doesn't matter what time of day it is. At the homes, you have to go outside for an hour. Nora, Brian and I sat on the front porch with a nice breeze blowing. We chatted and learned some more Spanish.

March 19 … We went to another concert at the Cultural center -- same band -- seemed to be for Seniors, everyone in our age group. They played all rock 'n' roll, mostly American, and those oldsters were getting it on! Brian and I danced (well he looked like he was having seizures) to 3 songs and it wore me out! La Bamba, Ghostbusters, and I Feel Good.

March 22 ... Obama here yesterday. People here say they don't need Americano life. They eat, free school, etc. Obama = blah, blah, blah.