Final thoughts

Can’t say much about Nolitours’ schedule for our final day. Room check-out is at 12, lunch is served at 1, the bus leaves for the airport at 4:30 and the flight is scheduled for 8:15. (Actually departed at 9:30) Spent a lot of the day sitting around watching our luggage. Did get to work on my picture files in the resort lobby and at the airport terminal. Got a new visa card at the airport so I could leave (and didn’t have to pay the $16 fee we’d been warned about). Doreen had a hard time (not) figuring out how to spend that extra money as we didn’t want to take home any Cuban pesos.
When is an all-inclusive not an all-inclusive? We’ve only done this all-inclusive thing a couple of times. In the past, we’ve usually left our wallets in the safe and left tips for various staff people at the end. That’s not the way it works here. You need to carry a pocketful of pesos all the time. People seem to tip at every meal and with every drink at the bar. You begin to feel you need to tip the maid every day and even when you exchange towels at the pool. The staff are terrific and the ‘tip’ vibe doesn’t seem to be coming from them. It’s just the way everybody seems to do it and you find yourself falling into the routine. It’s very strange.
Almost had a problem with Customs at the Toronto airport. Doreen had used the extra money to pick up another bottle of liqueur and that put us over the limit. Seems the 1.5 liters we were counting on only refers to wine. Liqueurs count as liquor and the limit is 1.14 liters. One agent pointed this out to us but the final check point didn’t bother charging us any extra duty.
How come our bags are never the first off the plane? Somebody has to be first but it’s never been us. By the time we picked up luggage, checked through Customs, picked up the car and drove home, it was almost 2:30. Need to eat something before we can get to sleep. No snow on the ground but it sure is colder than Cuba. Oh, well.