A better second week

Other than a downpour Sunday afternoon, our second week was much nicer than our first. The weather stayed warm (verging on hot) and the jellyfish generally stayed away. We snorkeled every day (except Wednesday) and it ranged from good to great. No further sighting of the lionfish but lots of great coral and fish. Thursday morning was so clear and calm we got a good look at some worms and even a nudibranch. Unfortunately, Sandy got hit by a jellyfish on her way in from our last snorkel session on Saturday morning. She’ll have an uncomfortable plane ride tonight.
We took a taxi into Matanzas on Wednesday and spent some time roaming around the city. Like Havana, there’s a lot of crumbling infrastructure but the city is basically clean (old and dusty but not garbage-strewn, at least in the main areas). We browsed through the local market and that was a lot more interesting than the touristy market in Havana. Then it was off to the stadium and a taste of Cuban baseball. The best part of the experience was watching and listening to the local fans argue baseball. Sure wish we could understand what they were saying. Their enthusiasm and passion overrode language barriers, however.
Thursday night we headed into Havana for the show at the Tropicana–spectacular. We had great seats, the dancing was fabulous and the costumes were magnificent. Laurie got some great videos with his camera. The circus acts which were interspersed to give the dancers time to change costumes were terrific. All-in-all a great (if late) night. We gifted our driver, Jorge, with the bottle of rum we hadn’t consumed.
The only drawback to the week was an influx of new guests and, suddenly, the resort seemed over-crowded with long lines for meal times. Surprisingly, this sense of over-crowding did not extend to the spacious grounds, the beach or the pool.