Being the last day here I wanted to be up early and not miss out on anything. The first thing I noticed was the temperature change - it must have been about 13 degrees C. Not bad for January in northern Ontario, except we have been used to mid twenties to mid thirties. Shocking.

With my MEC vest on, I headed out and around the resort. With the cold front came strong winds from the north - waves were swelling and crashing on the reef. Lots of wave noise. I can see how it would be scary near the seaside in a real storm.

As I walked, I brought along a few items to be donated. I gave a pair of work gloves to one of the workers and he was very pleased to receive them. I walked out to the security guard by the beach with a few things. I gave him a nice dress shirt, a few hair clips for his daughter, a pen, and paper. But again, the big treat as evidenced by his eyes' reaction was the Crime Stoppers thermo mug that I gave him. Great for him and great for me to lessen my load. The item to be donated for the morning was a final pair of leather work gloves. A worker was cleaning up plants in and around the lobby and had his bucket nearby. As I walked by I lay the gloves over the rim of the bucket and went to sit and read. When the worker went back to his bucket he noticed the gloves, looked up and over to me and with a full smile, thanked me for the gloves. How he knew it was me, I have no idea.

At breakfast we looked for Maria again but one of the other servers said that she had not been there in three days and did not know why. We started to wonder if she had caught our cold - sadly, we may not see her before we leave.

After breakfast we talked with Adrian who gave us a bottle of Havana Club rum as well as a DVD with some DVD-authoring software. He also asked if we could get an arthroarthritis medicine for his mother which we'll try to find once we get back home. From the lobby store, we picked up some more rum and coffee liquor and then some coffee to give as a gift once we got home, then went back to our room to finish packing our bags.

Unlike the morning, the weather had cleared off and warmed up to about 23 degrees C and of course the Canadians were in the pool while the Cubans were shivering in their sweaters and coats. We said our good-byes to Adrian, Maylin,and Ailec, telling them we would be back but not sure when since we would go elsewhere because the kids would not be allowed to come here. In chatting with Adrian, it seems they could really use blank DVDs, hard drives (1 TB) and with respect to bicycle parts, tires, tubes and any other components, including helmets.

We had our last lunch, changed a bit of money for a few more gifts at the airport, and when we got back to our room, within a few minutes along came the bellboy to carry our two bike boxes, two suitcases and backpacks to the lobby. I'm not sure if it is the same here or not, but I tipped him CUC$1 per bag.

As always, I worried about whether or not there would be room on the bus for our big bike boxes. The main bellboy, Kiki, said that there would be no problem on the full-sized bus. Sure enough, fifteen minutes before our 2:00 pm departure the bus driver showed up. I showed him the bike boxes so he opened up what ended up being a completely empty bus luggage compartment, and was able to slide them in upright with room to spare. About a half dozen people were on the bus, then we picked up about another dozen or so next doo at the Tropico, then away we went down the highway to the Varadero airport with the bus at about 25 percent capacity.

At the airport we wheeled our gear into line on one of the carts with another two hundred people. But, the line moved quickly and at the counter there was no problem at all checking the two bikes and two bags. It was interesting that one of the officials behind the counter came over to ask me a question - oh oh! Actually, he asked if we would sell a helmet to him. I would have given it to him at no charge, but sadly, there were none to be given.

Bags gone, we paid the CUC $25 departure tax and passed through customs without a hitch. Our plane was showing as delayed on the monitors by one hour so we poked through the duty-free shops, buying a rum and a creme de cacao and two home-made photo albums for Camryn and Alexander. To wile away the time I read and finished 'The Shack'; Marie-Anne read and finished 'Book of Negroes'. The plane finally arrived and we took off around 90 minutes late. With a good tailwind we were into Toronto Pearson in less than three hours. What was shocking was that the temperature was minus 20 degrees C! From what we have been used to, about a fifty degree change!

Our bags showed up on the carousel very quickly so I slipped on some pants and a sweater while we waited for the bikes to show up. They showed up within a few minutes on the large baggage carousel. We loaded them onto a cart and headed to customs. The guy waved us through with the only question being whether or not there was any mud on the bikes, which there was not. Fantastic so far. Never a problem. Our hotel shuttle was at Terminal 3, post C22 within fifteen really cold and windy minutes. It was a large bus with nobody but us, so there was all kinds of room for the bikes right in the middle of the aisle.

Ten minutes later we were at the International Plaza Hotel, I had the van started and cleared of snow. I drove around to the front of the hotel where Marie-Anne was waiting inside to keep warm and with the bikes outside by the door. I quickly loaded in the bikes, bags and Marie-Anne and then we headed out and up along Highway 401, then 400 and northwards.

It's a good thing we had been to Cuba. When we stopped at the highway Tim Hortons along came a trucker to our van door while we sat waiting to leave. He was embarrassed he said, but was asking to borrow $8 for something to do with his truck that had broken down just up the highway. We just gave it to him, though why I didn't offer him a ride, I'm not sure. With that and the cost of the Tim's treats, we had spent in the range of $15-20, or a Cuban's monthly salary! Had we not had this eye-opened we may just have dismissed the trucker when he really needed help.

Very quickly as we drove along the temperature dropped down to a very wicked minus 37 C and then to minus 40 C. Overall a total drop of about 70 degrees C from what we had been experiencing in Cuba.