Cayo Coco Cuba 2018

Cayo Coco, Cuba - 2018

Friends and Family	Las Brisas, Huatulco	Lou's Brothers
Costa Rica	Cuba	Ted's best photos

Beaches and Friends

Beaches and Friends
Every year my Kiteboarding friends from Southern Alberta (and a few from Edmonton and Sylvan Lake areas) head to Coya Coco, Cuba for a week or two of Kite Surfing. I went with them in 2015, and 2016, but last year a hurricane wiped out the resort, so the trip was cancelled. This year I didn't have an excuse, and it turned out that Louise was able to join me, which made it really special. We had a group of about 20 this year, some there for one week, some for 10 days and a few for two weeks. Louise and I were fortunate enough to be able to go for two weeks.
kites everywhere	The majority of us stayed at the Iberostar Daiquiri resort. It was a beautiful old resort. They were still recovering somewhat from the hurricane, and it was not exactly five star, but it was very comfortable, and the staff were friendly and welcoming. We did have some adventures, like when Louise woke up to water dripping through the ceiling onto the bed - which resulted in us having to to change rooms in the middle of the night, but overall it was a wonderful holiday! It was a lot of fun getting to know the other people on the trip, and we made many new friends, as well as getting re-aquainted with old friends!
In addition to Kitesurfing, Reading and Relaxing, Louise and I, along with Mark and Tracy, took a catamaran across to an adjacent island and did some snorkeling. Louise and I also took a cab to Playa Pilar, supposedly one of the most spectacular beaches in the world. It was very nice, and to be fair it was a bit of a cool day, but I am not sure I would rank it higher than some of the beaches we have seen in Mexico or Brazil. You can see all my photos of our trip on my Flickr site Here.	Playa Pilar
The neighbouring resort pier
Cleaning up the beach!
Palapas on the water	Louise - hunting for shells
Ted - heading out kiting	Louise

Kitesurfing with Friends
The reason I was there was to Kitesurf. It is one of the best learning spots in the world. The wind was a bit lite this trip, so we only sailed about a third of the days, but it was still good. I haven't been kiting much over the last two year. First the trip last year was cancelled, then I had some equipment failures that set me back, then the Columbia River was flooding when we were there, so there were only expert launch sites open, and I have also been doing other things. I figured that this trip would allow me to get in a few days and decide whether I should get serious about the sport, or drop it.	Ted Kiting
Ted, Bernd and Mark	I had a lot of fun, and started to really feel like I was in control. I made a lot of progress, but am still no expert. I am not yet going to consider giving up windsurfing, but I think I will continue to try to kite when I can. It is certainly easier to travel with kite gear than with windsurf gear. My van is totally full of my windsurf gear when I go down the the Gorge, but I could take my kite gear in my Toyota Corolla! We will see......
Mark	Kirk and Jason - High Five on the Fly!
Brent	Kirk
Ted Kiting	Lester, Ted and Mark
Bernd launching his kite.

Snorkelling in Cuba
Louise and I always love snorkelling. When Mark and Tracy invited us to go along on a snorkeling adventure across to one of the little islands off the coast, we were happy to accept! We anchored over a reef in about six to ten-feet of water. We spent about an hour snorkelling the reef. The features on the sea bed were spectacular. There were not as many fish as we expected, but the plant life more than made up for it. We both really enjoyed the dive! Later in the week we did some snorkelling around the piers, but the water was murky and there wasn't nearly as much to see.	The boat ride across - a crowded Hobie
Louise with our boat	Hermit Crab


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