Early start today, 7am pick up by taxi and 4hr drive to Playa Larga (Bays of Pigs) Accommodation was $20 a night and taxi was $70. Playa Larga is a small classic Cuban country town with horse and cart transport and a very chilled out lifestyle. It's famous because it's where American CIA trained Cuban exiles backed by the US government tried to enter Cuba to overthrow Fidel in 1961 but failed.

After checking in we packed the beach bag, grabbed the beach umbrella and headed to the beach. It was only about a 10min walk from the house. When we got there it was full of locals and we were the only gringos there that's for sure. The last week or so this town had been hit with really bad weather, so the water looked dirty and there was loads of seaweed washed up on the beach. We walked past the crowds and found a nice spot and set up under a palm tree for a few hours but not even going swimming. After we walked back had a siesta then chilled on our balcony watching the usual afternoon thunderstorm roll in.

Woke up to the best breakfast out of all the casas we visited. Mini pikelets and fruit, it was a good change from eggs. We were up early today as we were booked to do some more diving. We got picked up and taken to the dive shop for equipment fitting which was so old and classic just like everything else in Cuba. We then piled into this really old truck and drove to the 1st dive which was an open sea dive. It was ok but not much to see.

We were then really looking forward to the next dive in a cenote. We were driving down this tiny path in this massive truck finding this cenote. It was fresh and salt water and to reach the water we had to jump from about 2m with all our gear on. We then went down and swam through kinda like a canyon which was really awesome to see all the stalactites 30m underwater. We came up and then had to climb out of the water with again all of our gear on which I found harder than it was as per usual. We got attacked by mosquitoes when we got out so it was gear off and get back to the road.

We had a quick lunch break and then everyone in the truck was going to do another dive but we had had enough for the day and we were also diving the next day. While they were diving we jumped in the cenote and snorkeled, Junior also jumped from the very top which was about 4m high while I watched under the water. After the day we cruised back to the casa later than we thought and they nearly had dinner on the table for us. We enjoyed a beautiful lobster which was well needed after such a big day.
 
Juniors Birthday
We had another beautiful breakfast at the casa before getting picked up at 8.30am by the owner of the dive shop. Today was different, there was only the dive ship owner, an Austrian photographer and wife, biologist, driver, horse and cart driver and us. We drove with the dive shop owner for about 1 hour to this home in the middle of nowhere. From here we had to walk for about half hour till we reached the horse and cart then we loaded up the horse and cart and walked another 15mins through the bush. We unloaded the cart and carried the rest of the way down. We had to walk through the cave which was full of bats with all the gear down to the water’s edge, about 250m. The photographers went in first to get the best shots and then we went in with the owner, the water was crystal clear. We went about 32m down through all these caves then back into this open area where we studied the stalactites and stalagmites. It was just amazing to get the chance to do this dive. The owner only goes to this dive spot about 3 times a year with photographers so we were very lucky. One of our best dives.

That night back at the casa we had another beautiful seafood dinner then the casa mum bought an amazing birthday cake for Junior, it was so nice of them. They were our favorite casa. Earlier that night the mum was looking through our photos and saw one of Junior lying in a hammock, she was like I would love to have a hammock but they are really expensive in Cuba, we had been traveling with a couple of them so after dinner we gave her a hammock and she was so so happy. After all this we then headed to the roof top for Juniors birthday cigar and rum. Why not when in Cuba and it's Juniors 30th. We really enjoyed sitting up there watching the ocean and the afternoon storm rolling in again. Although I think it's save to say I won't be taking up Cigar smoking anytime soon. Yuck!