Cayo Levisa - BEST BEACH!

Feeling like I needed a beach after all that hiking and trekking, I decided to opt for a day chilling on the tiny island of Cayo Levisa.

After a 2 hour bus trip and boat across, I was treated to one of the best beaches I've been on in years.

Pristine white sand, felt like talcum powder beneath your feet, add to that the most perfect aqua-marine water and palm-fringed beaches with a gentle soothing breeze and you could nary come closer to perfection than this day.

I spent the day lounging and sipping on coconuts filled with rum, then eating the coconut. Rinse and repeat. Bliss



Not much more on this day, so I'll take a moment to write some info about how tourists are catered for in Cuba...

Cubanacan - Cuba's only travel agency (I think Havanatur also serve the same purpose, but they both belong to the government they're essentially the same company) - is actually quite a competent setup and cater to every tourist's needs very well. While I went off on my trip to Cayo Levisa, the girl ring up Playa Maria la Gorda hotel about 8 times during the day (free of charge) trying to investigate if any rooms were free for myself and Markus later in the week.

Cuba's tourism industry is only 10 years old but the money is so important here that tourists are catered for very well, and casa particulars are regularly inspected to ensure quality for guests.
Violence toward tourists is practically non-existant. As the Oz guy I met on the Habana trip mentioned: if a Cuban hits you, they could go to jail... if you do it to them they aren't allowed to fight back.

I actually saw evidence of this the previous night when this obnoxious drunken Brit tried to start a fight with some locals.. and he deserved a good thrashing, but they tried to calm the situation (despite many of them being armed with machetes!)