Cuban Adventures – 5 days, 7 nights in Cuba Part Four: Cavorting Catamarans

What rocks more than being in a tropical place like Cuba with five days and five nights to frolic and have fun while it’s -40 wind-chills and blizzards back home?



Riding a catamaran in rough seas.

Waiting for the bus to the catamaran

Lucky for us it wasn’t rough seas on the day we took the catamaran tour. It also started out as a pretty good day – we didn’t have to medicate the seven year old for the fever she had from the first night of our vacation. We made our one and only outing late in the vacation, with only one more day of fun in the sun to follow it.


















A nice peaceful day, riding the waves and heading out until the land we left behind disappeared into the waves. Still not quite feeling herself, seven year old Sidney just kind of took it all in. Meanwhile, Robyn took advantage of exploring a new bathroom – repeatedly. I swear this kid has a thing for bathrooms. It doesn’t matter where you go, or how recently she went, she always has to go.

We watched the catamarans ahead of us disappear into the distance, and watched the catamarans behind catch up, feeling almost a camaraderie with these fellow cataramaners, all of us travelling the sea towards the same goal.



Robyn was tickled at her new “friends”, sea gulls that loyally followed the boat during our voyage.

We had a stop at a reef for snorkeling, catamarans arriving and weighing anchor around the reef like pioneers circling the wagons for the night.







While the snorkelers geared up, our guide instructed them in the finer points of snorkeling.

“Reef here,” the guide said, gesturing to the shallow waters of the reef in the middle of the circled catamarans.



“You swim here. Fishies here.” He indicated the reef.



“Sharks out there,” the guide added, his arm sweeping to include all of the waters beyond the circled boats. “Ok.”



And off the snorkelers went to fill the little reef in the middle of what was apparently shark infested waters.



I suspected the shark warning wasn’t all joke when I noticed one of the guides on the next boat looking a little concerned while he tried to get the attention of one swimmer who went past the edge of the reef.

After the swimming with the fishies, we were loaded up and whisked off to a tropical island for an outdoor barbeque lunch with the biggest chicken legs I’ve ever seen. After lunch, of course, there was time for frolicking in the water, making giant anthills in the beach sand (which was very different and much more pliable than the sand at the resort beach), and the kids collecting enough seashells to fill an ocean liner.



Loading back into the boat, we all had a chance to ooh and aah over the shadow of a large stingray gliding around beneath the surface of the water by the dock – only feet from where some of the kids had been playing in the water.



We were on our way to the main event of the day – the dolphins!

Is that tourist getting mugged or hugged?

And then it was long ride back …