It was a long bus ride from Playa Maria la Gorda to our next destination of Soroa.  I had a nice nap.  We stopped for a great lunch – our tour guides bought our lunch from a local pizza stand.  They were able to pay in the local currency (rather than the convertible pesos we usually have to use) and it only cost about 40 Aussie cents!

On the road with Charlotte and Joe

Soroa resort and orchid farm

We were very happy when we arrived at our destination and saw the big resort we would be staying. We were supposed to stay at an eco-resort on our Cuba tour, but they were full so this was meant to be our reward. They wouldn’t let us check in until four though, so we went to a nearby orchid farm and had a guided tour of the orchids and other trees there from all over the world. It was pretty cool.

Orchid

When we went back to check in, we had a bad surprise. The hotel had decided that we were staying at a separate house about five minutes drive away instead of actually in the resort. None of us were that happy after seeing the pool and other facilities.  We reluctantly got back in the bus.

We were even more disappointed when we saw the house. I was sharing a three bedroom one with Charlotte, Cath, Chris and the Swedish couple.  It wasn’t good. Water only seemed to be flowing in one of the bathrooms, and it just wasn’t that clean or well looked after. It came with its own armed security guard which just made us more nervous!  This was not a good replacement for the booked eco-resort

The other three were in a better house with a pool (we actually had one of those too but it was empty), but it was still nothing on the resort.

Soroa party time

Out with some Mojitos!

We went back to the resort only to find out that the big pool there was shutting in twenty minutes! So I hopped straight in. It was cold, but huge, and I enjoyed my twenty minutes. It was then time for more mojitos… Mmmm mojitos.

Dinner was a big buffet. We then drunk more and listened to some cool, live Cuban music. Lenin (our Ecuadorian tour guide) even sang a couple of sings with them which got us all excited.  It was a great night.

Waterfall

The next day, we walked to a nearby waterfall. It was a nice little walk there and a good place to relax for an hour. I was too lazy to get in (plus it was freezing) but had fun chatting to Cath and watching the others.

Hanging out at the waterfall

We then went back to our houses and hung out for an hour. I was a bit disappointed by this as we had been told we would be visiting another cigar factory and a rum factory and I think this was the time we should have been doing this. I think the tour guide was too hungover to want to take us.

Practical Information
Orchid Farm Soroa 3 pesos to enter plus 1 peso for a film camera and 2 for a camcorder