Renato Bazan - May 21st

Day two of our time in Varadero had a heavy emphasis on relaxation. There was much excitement yesterday and that was channeled into swimming, drinking and the occasional late-night conversation. For the most part we all woke up around nine and checkout was at eleven. That gave everyone a decent amount of time to say their goodbyes to the resort. The group’s focus today was about relaxing by enjoying the beach and the resort pool (which had a fun inflatable obstacle course). I personally got caught up in a new book East of Eden and decided to read that on the beach. There was always a cool breeze and the background noise the ocean made my afternoon incredibly enjoyable.

A discussion topic during breakfast was that the food at the resort was nowhere near the level of the food at our casas. The food was buffet style and the staff had to focus more on the quantity compared to our casas' quality. Since our checkout was at noon and we were all getting hungry the idea of coming back to our casas for some homemade meals became increasingly appealing. Unfortunately, due to some miscommunication, our bus from Varadero back to Vedado did not make it on time. Through a couple of calls the group was informed that the bus would arrive at around five-o-clock and we had to wait in the lobby of the hotel for a couple of hours. That would have been a bigger problem but luckily we happened to keep our wristbands and could get drinks from the bar and eat from the dining court. With so much extra time on our hands a few of us decided to play board games to pass the time. I played Chess with RJ and Stanley and after that RJ introduced us to a new game Aboretum which was a game based around resource management. We ended our gaming session with what might be the quickest game that I have come to absolutely love, Hanabi. Hanabi was a card game played with a team of four whose objective is to get the highest score possible. The twist is that none of the players can look at their own cards but show them to all the other players. The game combines luck and strategy with intuition and can lead to very stressful and exciting moments. Once our game of Hanabi was done, the bus arrived shortly after and we said goodbye to Varadero and were on our way back to Vedado.

 Cat and Emanda were doing some reading beach side and gave me the inspiration to read alongside them. I’m very grateful to them because if they had not looked so relaxed I never would have started reading East of Eden the first book I have found interesting in a long time.

Henry, like the never ending ball of energy that he is, decided that he wanted to do more than read like a nerd and decided to do something more hands on. Here he is talking with some of the resort’s staff about doing some kayaking.

Arboretum, a game where each player builds a garden and then is awarded points based off the quality. Do not be surprised if your cards do not look as amazing as these do because these were handcrafted by RJ whose notorious for his love of card games.