I followed in the footsteps of other club members and went to Cuba for a couple of weeks. It's fantastic. Old and new culture, mostly old, make it a fascinating place. There are lots of American cars from the fifties. Some of them are huge and in great condition. Stayed in Havana and took in a show at the "famous" Tropicana. The show was incredibly colourful. The men were given a cigar as we went in and the ladies a flower. Everybody was given a glass of champagne and each table of four was given a glass of pink rum and a large bottle of cola. Excellent stuff it is too. Havana is amazing. I won't tell you too much in case you go. Swam with dolphins in a big marina. They take for a ride and push you along by your feet. If you go, don't miss the experience. I did four dives. Two in the Caribbean at the Bay of Pigs, (ham not telling porkies), and two on the Atlantic side. I loved them. Coral reefs, lots of fish and a big spotted moray were the highlights. Very relaxing dives they were too. Before the first dive my buddy was telling everybody that he goes on dive holidays to Cuba 4 or 6 times a year, had done thousands of dives, had dived for 40 years in fifty different countries, and insisted on telling us all how to set up our cylinders. On the first dive he had terrible bouyancy problems but later told me he always used the same equipment and weights. He tried to pull a big moray out of its little cave by the tail. Apparently he wanted to hold it up for us all to see. It shot out the other end at speed but stopped amongst the rest of us with its mouth wide open and teeth showing. It looked really angry and it was a scary moment, but we just moved off and it left us to it. On the second dive he came up behind me on the line to the 5 metre stop and banged his head quite hardly on my cylinder. He said he didn't see me. I think he saw stars though. The moral of the story is: don't tell everybody what a great diver you are until it's all over. I hired all the kit there instead of hauling all my own stuff around as I usually do. It was just 5 pesos, about £2.50-£3 extra, for two dives, than if I'd used all my own stuff. The equipment was excellent.
I understand that other club members have been to Sharm, Portugal and Florida in the last two or three weeks. How did it go?
