11 - Stranded in Cuba

Have you ever flown somewhere new, had all your transportation planned out, and then been stranded because things didn't work out as planned?

This is exactly what happened to my family when we flew to Cuba for a week long all-inclusive.

We boarded our flight from Toronto with no issue. It was an evening flight, but a short one, so we figured it would still be a relatively short day. Our flight fed us, we had on-board entertainment, and we landed in Holguin with no problems.

I actually really enjoyed the Holguin airport - you know how most airports have you walk through one of those tunnels that attach to the door and straight into the building? Well, not here. We walked straight down to the tarmac, meaning we got to experience the Cuban climate that much sooner (and as Canadians looking to escape winter, it was quite a nice change).

Anyways, from the tarmac, it was just like any airport. You follow the crowd through a maze of hallways until you reach admissions, and then you wait. You wait and wait and wait until finally, it's your turn to have your passport stamped, and be admitted into the country. Well, we waited. Without knowing it, we got into the fast track lane for families travelling with small children (though none of the other lines were moving much faster). It was probably a good two+ hours spent waiting. By the time we got to the other side, it was after midnight.

Once we found our luggage (and made our way through the maze of overly pushy taxi drivers getting in our faces about using them to get to our resort), we found ourselves in the bus terminal. We walked up and down the row of busses, looking for our bus. We probably checked three or four times before asking another bus driver if they had seen our bus. For all we knew, it hadn't arrived yet. They didn't know. So we asked another.

Turns out our bus left without us.

So no we're stranded at the airport, in a strange country, surrounded by pushy taxi drivers and other passengers complaining that their bus left without them too. And it's well after midnight, so everyone is tired, and cranky, and we still have a long drive ahead of us before we finally get to our resort.

Ugh.

In the end, one of the bus drivers came forth and admitted that a couple of the drivers had rearranged their schedules, so that rather than a bunch of passengers were forced to wait for the one or two families who weren't through customs yet, the busses would make stops at different resorts. So we all loaded onto one of the last busses remaining, and by the time we were checking into our resort in Guardalavaca, we had already stopped at four different resorts, and it was nearly 3 in the morning. Talk about a long day.

Needless to say, we all slept in the next day. But hey, it's a vacation - isn't relaxing the point? I'd definitely do it all again if it meant going back, because I absolutely loved Brisas Guardalavaca (the resort we stayed in).

Have you ever gone somewhere, and found yourself stranded? Let me know in the comments below!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

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