Arrival at Presbyterian Camp (CANIP)

Our lodging for the first few days was at CANIP, the national Presbyterian camp of Cuba.  The camp is used for youth camps in the summer and the director was working to scale up its usage as a conference center at other times of the year.  When we arrived, we got a full tour and then got to settle into our rooms.  I did not fully appreciate it at the time, but the camp had been significantly restored over the past year.  The new director and his wife put a ton of work into refurbishing and improving the facilities. She later showed me the 'before' and 'after' photos and it was quite remarkable.  

The kitchen and dining room. 

Backside of the kitchens.  It is a Living Waters for the World site with its own water filtration system.  The water is used on site and also for other churches in the area. 

One of the dormitories that was freshly painted. 

Every building has metal blinds on the windows and many do not even have glass.  

They let in a good breeze when they are open and there were mostly good breezes throughout the day and into the evening. 

All of the bed frames were even freshly painted.  They had been rusted out previously. 

The beds also had fans if the breeze died down in the middle of the night.  About 300 kids come to the camp in the summer.  This was one of the dormitory rooms. 

This was their large indoor meeting space (small kitchen in back).  The room had several air conditioners that worked so well we needed to turn them off for a while.

There were various outdoor meeting spaces too, including this nice hammock porch.

Sheltered outdoor meeting space.

We were told to bring a swimsuit in case we wanted to swim, but the pool had been drained for the season. 

The camp has a number of solar powered outdoor lights.  The country has had increasing blackouts with their old electrical grid and these were more reliable. 

This large courtyard was used for socializing and occasional folklorico dancing.

Our lodging at CANIP.  There were 8 rooms with 4 beds each and individual bathrooms.  The showers were solar heated, which we didn't realize until the third day.  I took a shower at the end of the first day and it was wonderful and hot.  The next morning I hopped in for a quick rinse and it was not!  Lesson: shower at the end of a sunny day!

"El Hotel"

The front entry of our 'hotel'.  There was a decorative Christmas tree in the center with dangling balls hanging from strings on the ceiling.  Very festive. 

This was our room.  We had a small air conditioner, but it didn't work very well.  We mostly didn't need it with the windows open. 

Our room and bathroom.  The construction of nearly every building/room is tile, concrete and metal.  Very durable and functional.

We had two animal friends who visited our room.  On the second morning, Darcy went in to use the bathroom and let out a yip.  A small frog jumped from the toilet, where she was about to sit, to the sink.  He eventually went down the overflow drain in the sink and disappeared.  He was a cutie. 

We we opened our windows the first day, a little gecko came in to say hi.  

We didn't see him again after he disappeared behind the curtains. 

We had a pretty view from our window, to a lovely sitting area under the tree and down the hill.

Packing crate tables with solar lanterns and sitting pillows made this a nice space day and night. 

There were tire swings and a fire pit.  We got to enjoy a bonfire on the last night as we shared meaningful moments from the previous days. 

There was a playground with slide, teeter totters, merry go round and swings.  

All in a style that we have not seen in the US for a long time. 

Darcy and I enjoyed swinging for a while one afternoon.

The director's wife had worked in the resort industry and was trained in hospitality.  She had an amazing touch with taking basic items and making them into something a little special.  One of these specials were all the bottle wind chimes hung in trees around the camp. 

One of the special moments of the trip was waking up one morning to the soft rain falling and the bottle wind chimes blowing outside our window with an occasional bird call. 

The hand pump is no longer in use, but the camp decided to leave it in place as a reminder of what had once been used in this place and the improvements that have come.  The car is a 1987 Lada (Soviet made) and the primary source of transportation for the camp director (and pastor) who moves between churches in two different towns and the camp on a regular basis.  Its construction reminded me of a metal Tonka truck. This was our ride to airport on the last day.