My freshly-pedicured toes are ensconced in my practical Nikes. I’m at Gate C51 waiting to board a flight for Toronto and then, two days later, Cuba.

I have only taken a cursory look at the Cuba press trip itinerary for the week, enough to know that the section marked ‘time-at-leisure’ will be about 15 minutes a day. Ah yes, the glamour of the travel writing life.

I just love those on-line ads that show someone hanging out with a laptop on a beach…

Because, yup, that’s realistic.  Maybe she sits on the beach during her 15-minutes of  ‘time-at-leisure’ each day?

And yet, I hear you say, there you go again Colleen.

Well yes. You’d be right to point that out. I am, indeed, once again, heading out on a twirly smoke-and-mirrors show, leaving people I love at home, so that I can spend some of my precious days on this planet with total strangers.

Why, oh why, would anyone do this?

Probably because, in spite of the heartstopping schedule of these things, I invariably meet some great people,  experience things I would never otherwise find on my own, all while in a new-to-me destination. And I do love the new and the unknown. Did someone say shiny?

The bonus on this junket is that Kevin will fly down to join me after the press trip is over. We’ll have a full week for true time-at-leisure and I’ll have a good lay of the land. Maybe by then Fidel will be ready to ask us for lunch. You never know…life is full of the possible, yes?

Not bad when you really look at it. Not bad at all.