Baracoa day 2

I'm sitting by the pool at our beautiful hotel in Baracoa. It's called El Castillo, or The Castle, because it is built on the remains of a castle that was built on one of the hills overlooking the city. Baracoa is the first location that Columbus arrived at in Cuba.

There are some beautiful mountains that you can see from up here, and a gorgeous view of the bay and the ocean. Some of us were saying that you can almost picture Columbus pulling up in the bay. It's fun to think that I'm in the same spot, hanging out, five hundred years later.

Today we went to a gorgeous beach and spent the whole day (I'm talking 10-5) at the beach. Such a luxury. The water is beautiful shade of blue, and clear enough that you can see your toes in the sand. Just the right temperature--cool enough to be refreshing but not too cold.

I've never really spent much time in the ocean. Just a handful of times. Maine (you don't really stay in the water for more than 10 minutes), the Outer Banks (the jellyfish sting you), California (nothing to really complain about). So I'm eating this ocean up. Or drinking it up. And let me tell you, it's salty. So salty, in fact, that even I am able to float in it. I've never been a good floater, and here I just kick back and breathe easy.

Despite two healthy applications of SPF god-knows-what, I'm doing pretty well on meeting my tanning objectives. Laying out was never something I enjoyed as a kid. I guess I'm making up for lost time.