First thing I thing I noticed getting off the plane in Cuba was the dryness of the air. It was almost an asphyxiating feeling, combined with the heat it was definitely a feeling I had never known before. Once we arrived at our hotel I felt a sense of relief as the ocean breeze cooled me down. It was a beautiful place, filled with art and culture I had only seen on television. I took a long time to find my villa as the hotel was a lot bigger than I had imagined. After settling in, I took a long walk on the beach, I could not believe me eyes. The ocean was so immense. The taste of salt water in the air and the sand blowing in my face was a clear reminder I was far away from home. I ended up at one of the restaurants the hotel had to offer. The smell is what attracted me to it, it smelt like my Latina guardians’ cooking from when I was a child. However the taste did not do it justice. The chicken was dry and tasteless, even after adding a ton of salt and pepper to try and salvage it. The pasta was atrocious; overcooked and chewy. The sauce was bland; no amount of spices could make it better. I found I was forcing myself to eat the rest of meal, simply to keep from fainting under the hot Cuban sun.  I then decided to have a drink at the bar near the beach. The music was loud, overwhelming- definitely not a place to have a conversation but rather a place to be ‘taken away’ in. Everyone was in a good mood, ready to let loose. The later it got, the more people showed up and the more the room started to smell like a cave filled with all mixes of alcohol. After a few hours of dancing I ended up back at the beach, I decided to go for a late night swim, the water felt hotter than it had in the daytime, the salt-water felt like lotion to my sunburnt body, and the noise of the collision between the shore and the waves of water gave me complete tranquility.. As I went to bed that night, I thought to myself, despite some bad food that I had encountered, I could not wait to see what the next 6 days had to offer. Although not all senses were satisfied at once, the excitement to explore more was a craving only a new day can offer.