Alright, so I admit it: It took me 30+ years to finally get on a plane and do the all-inclusive beach vacation. It wasn’t my idea. It was an incredibly generous gift given by a friend’s mom who saw I needed a vacay. After declining a few times, I finally broke down and said yes.

I’ll confess: I was afraid of planes… and the sun. I’m one of those weirdos who seeks shade no matter what time of year it is – Even though I’m perfectly capable of forming a tan (as evident by childhood photos). I was that girl who went to Florida as a teen and wore jeans and a t-shirt to the beach. I’ve flown on a plane before, yes, but it was 14 years ago: To California for six weeks. Which I loved dearly, in my trademark jeans and t-shirt attire. Since then, I retreated far into my comfortable, NYC loving little shell. Until this past April, that is.

After successfully landing in sunny Varadero, Cuba (let’s just skip the part about my nervous jittery self on the plane), and effortlessly finding the bus to the resort and settling in, it took me all of 24 hours to morph into a sun-soaking, technology avoiding, lazy beach dweller. We took advantage of the ever-flowing cervezas and queso sandwiches, and lazed into nothingness for days. We met a man and his kids on the first day. He was on day 4 and wasn’t sure what day it was. I couldn’t understand how he could not know that, until I reached day 4. Hell, we were even confused at one point if we were on day 5 or 6 of our 7 day stay. It’s funny how doing nothing in a relaxed environment can seem perfectly natural, yet if I were to try that here, I’d be bored senseless and feel each day crawling at a snail’s pace.

Really. I became a level of lazy that I have never been. So lazy, that this generic photo of beach chairs is pretty much all I could muster the energy/desire to take:

veradero cuba

It was a very enjoyable week and I realized how tightly wound I actually was as it took 7 days of nothingness to finally get me to feel fully and completely relaxed for possibly the first time in my life.

Would I go back? Ehh.. The jury is still out on that one. It was a right-trip, right-time, right-company excursion that can’t be recreated. Perhaps in the future if the price and circumstances are right. Right now, I have glaciers on the brain.