Saturday

We worked a half day today. I had a bit of a crummy day, but it's
gotten better.

When we got back from work around noon, the internet access I've
gotten used to didn't work.

I went back to my room and my key wouldn't work. I knew what was going
on - I had paid until today (in stupid Cuba you pay hotels in advance)
and so the system shows me checking out of my room today. Hence no
key.

When I go to the front desk, it's the same song and dance that they do
about EVERY LITTLE THING. "Oh, you didn't tell us you were staying.
Now the room has new guests scheduled for tomorrow. You'll have to
move". Arg! This is the second time already. They want to put me in a
room far away. I argue. We finally settle on one. I say that when I
get to my new room I hope to find a nice bottle waiting for me. "Why?"
Well, to make up for the inconvenience to me of moving for the second
time. "Well, you didn't tell us you were staying. We're not mind
readers." Tell me what other 5 star hotel ANYWHERE in the world would
say something like that?? So after 20 minutes (at least!) that gets
sorted out and I go back to my room to pack.

This is the room that has bugs in it, that the girls came to spray and
the bugs wouldn't die. Great.

So I pack and move to my new room. it's fine, but all this uses about
an hour and a half of the first beautiful day I've had, and I'm also
hungry.

Then the laundry is broken I discover. The service just leaves your
dirty clothes bag in your room with a note. Ok, no problem. I'm not
desperate yet, and there is underwear for sale. So I go to the store, check out the boxers (they were in
a locked cabinet that I had to wait for, of course) and get ready to pay. Oops,
the credit card machine is broken. Oops, I don't have enough cash. Put
everything back. Does nothing work in what is supposedly the best part
of this country?

Then there was a hair in my glass at my late lunch. No apologies, they
just get me a new glass.

Then I go to the beach and I ask the guy about snorkeling. I was told
there were some rocks way to the left and I walked that way the other
night, but for like 4km and didn't see much. He says to go to the
lobby and ask about a bus to get there. I was apparently already in
the right place.

So I go to the lobby and right away I'm approached with a "you can't
be in the lobby with no shirt". Piss off. I'm just going to ask a
question and go back to the beach. Aside: everyone here is used to
following the rules because that's the way you do things here. As soon
as you show contempt for the rules, many are not sure how to react so
they leave you alone temporarily. I ask at the desk and they call and
basically they don't know what I'm talking about. Someone else
approaches and he says to rent a bike to go to the rocky area of the
beach.

So then that 'process' begins, renting (free) a bike "why don't you
have your bracelet?" I took it off 2 weeks ago. He gives me a bike
that would be small on a 10 year old, and I ask "what about that one?"
The bikes are locked on a single long chain, and the bike I pointed at
required removing four bikes. I get a long suffering look. "What about
this one?" he says pointing to the second bike in the line instead.
Fine, I'll take it. It's the most shattastic bike I've ever ridden,
but it gets me there. On the way I jump over a 1m wide open sewer. I
shit you not.

From there my day got better. Saw a lion fish in the wild, as well as
a school of needlefish.

And now internet is working, and I have ice cream, and things are looking up.