Day 26 – 29 : Cayo Santa Maria

I had spent the last 3 days at Cayo Santa Maria, an island located about 1.5hrs north of Santa Clara, and connected to the mainland by a bridge of about 42km in length. 

I stayed at the Hotel Valentin Perla Blanca, a 5-star Adults only Hotel Resort located on the far eastern part of this island.  I am officially a high class backpacker!

Had some troubles with my credit card when I checked in, as both my Visa and Mastercard didn’t work, and AMEX was certainly not going to work in Cuba. 

Luckily I had replaced my DBS ATM card with a Debit card before I left for my trip – thought I would give that a try, and thankfully it worked!  Otherwise I would had problems with currency on a remote island. 

Once the payment went through, I was tagged with a yellow “bracelet”, so that staff would know I am a guest at the resort.

The hotel property is huge!  There are 2 different wings, though one of the wings was closed for maintenance, to prepare for the peak season in the next couple months. 

I was assigned a room on the highest level of one of the resort blocks.  As I walked in to the room, I was elated to find myself in a huge room with a king size bed and a view of the swimming pool, as well as the sea in the distance.  Awesome!

A housekeeping staff is assigned to take care of each floor, and makes up the room each day.  After returning from an afternoon by the beach, on the day before I left, I bumped into the same housekeeping boy, which I had seen the last couple of days, in the corridor, whom gave me a big smile. 

As I walked into my room, I found a pair of “love birds” made out from towels… such a sweet gesture and effort.  Towels were always placed on the shelf next to the shower on the earlier days.

There are 2 swimming pools on the property, each with Bali sunbeds in the pool and a handy pool bar.  The hotel was all-inclusive, so I could have all the drinks I wanted, as well as any food at the buffet restaurant, or the 24 hour café near the pool. 

I had soooooo many pina coladas, mojitos, wine and even hot chocolate with rum (the waitress laugh each time I ask for rum in my hot chocolate)!  Heavenly!

There were also 2 fine-end dining restaurants on the hotel property, which is also part of the all-inclusive arrangements, though one needs to make a reservations before hand, and these 2 restaurants only open for dinner.  Each night the menu changes depending on the dinner themed for the night – French, Italian, Spanish, Cuban or Seafood.

It’s a pity the cooks didn’t really do a fantastic job with the finer produce they had, as I had to return a salmon as well as a piece of steak on 2 separate nights for being overcooked, dry and too tough to eat. 

There was an additional charge for having lobsters at CUC20, which I didn’t opt for, but one of the diners who opted for it on one of the nights I was at the restaurant, said that the lobster was also overcooked and rubbery and had to return it as well. 

The most important part of being at the resort, was for the beach, and it was fabulous!

Clear water, white soft sand. The sea looked menacing due to the waves, but when you enter the water, the waves aren’t that treacherous.  Partially because one could easily head out into the sea for about 50m or more, and you could still be walking on sand bed. 

The property was the furthest hotel on the island, and around a bend on the island, so there was a huge spread out area of beach that one could easily find a private space to oneself. 

I had great weather on most days I was here, and managed to get a good tan by the time I left.

3 days was a good amount of time to spend here.  I had met people who stayed here for 2 weeks – I can never be able to do that, since there isn’t too much things that one can see or do on the island. 

I will definitely miss this place.  Would never have found this place, which was all part of an unplanned decision making, if it hadn’t been for the flight challenges. 

Cayo Santa Maria, definitely a recommendation, and much better than Varadero!