I had to change my plans drastically in Cuba due to
1. Hurricane Matthew
2. Change in flight times in Baracoa
This meant I would not had made it in time for my international connection from Havana to Mexico city and there was no certainty on what were the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in the eastern part of the island, due to limited information flow and lack of internet connectivity.
I had spent the last 5 days thinking what to do with the balance of my stay in Cuba.
There was a consideration of ending my trip in Santiago de Cuba and catching a flight back to Havana, but then locals had shared concern about flights departing on schedule or even at all! And everyone had indicated the road leading from Ciego de Avila to Santiago de Cuba is really bad, thus making the same route twice isn’t ideal.
Under the above situation, I know I can only rely on road network. I have to make my way by road back to Havana before Saturday, and had to consider what my other options are for the next 6 days in Cuba.
Option 1 : To still go to Camaguey or just to Ciego de Avila? Thought a few times about it, but the attraction of those 2 cities aren’t too great, unless I am indeed going to Santiago de Cuba.
Option 2 : To stay an extra few days in Trinidad and then make my way to Santa Clara where I will stay for a couple nights? The bed at the present Casa wasn’t too comfortable to want to stay additional nights, as I could feel the springs through the mattress, and changing another casa may not had made too much difference. I would had considered staying on Playa Ancon, except there weren’t any casa, only hotels.
Option 3 : Ruling out other potential city sightseeing in Option 1, are there any other nice beaches which I could stop enroute before heading to Havana?
Came across Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo located north of Ciego de Avila, which were said to be very pretty, but there were not any public transport access I could easily take. While browsing through Viazul bus routes for options, I realised they do have a couple Cayo destinations, one being Cayo Santa Maria, which is about 5 hours by bus and goes through Santa Clara… with accessible public transport, now it’s starting to look like a plan!
Next, finding a place to stay… there are no Casas on Cayo, so only option is hotel. Got online this morning to check Agoda for hotels in Cayo Santa Maria, but nothing showed up, and Booking.com detected my location and prevented bookings being made from Cuba.
While doing other random internet searches, I came across a listing for one of the hotels on the island (Hotel Playa Santa Maria) that cost about $65/night – not too bad, as it was all inclusive, and that would be very close to what I am currently paying now for a room at a casa with all 3 meals included without alcohol beverages.
Unfortunately, I had issues getting the hotel booked as reservations needs to be at least a week out.
Thus I decided to check with Cubatur, a local tour agency, to find out if they can book hotels at Cayo Santa Maria, and they recommended Hotel Valentin Perla Blanca, an adults only hotel which opened in 2014, and was one of the cheapest available at $94/night. That sounded a little higher than what I was hoping to pay and was somehow feeling that I could still get a better deal.
So I decided to go online again and check directly on the hotel site for options (All these done while on a very limited time restricted internet access and browsing via phone! Loving my Samsung S7! 
What do you know, direct booking was available on the hotel site for $68/night for garden view rooms, $72/night for pool view rooms or $78/night for ocean view rooms. I also felt more assured that the booking is with the hotel directly rather than via an agent, especially since it was for the next day.
Originally thinking of just staying 2 nights, I ended up booking a 3 nights stay to best enjoy the beach, hotel and facilities and paid a little more for a pool view room (with hopes that I might possibly get a higher chance of an upgrade to an ocean view 
It cost a little more than what I had budgeted for, but I figured since I had my Baracoa air ticket fully refunded, and with the all-inclusive policy at the hotel, I might actually save since I don’t have to worry about paying for any meals or drinks while in the hotel.
Next, to book my bus ticket to Cayo Santa Maria. By the time I got to the bus station, the sales office was already closed for the day. I will just have to get to the bus terminal earlier and hope that I can get a seat!
I am soooooo looking forward to Cayo Santa Maria – it’s said that in Cuba, the Cayos offer the best beaches and have high expectations.
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