Cayo Coco 2018

Because you can never have too much of white sand beaches.

My visit came only a few months after Hurricane Irma devastated Cuba in the fall of 2017.

Parts of Cayo Coco were still seemingly in ruins, but what was most striking was the sheer resiliency of its people.

There were parts of the island that looked more like something out of a dystopian movie than a tropical oasis, with masses of downed palm trees and gutted resorts side by side other hotels that looked like nothing had ever happened to them. Yet time marches on and even in the week I was there, crews worked hard to get their piece of paradise back to its former glory.

It's hard not to fall in love with the island, though, when the sun is shining on you all day long and the ocean washing your cares away...