14ymedio, Havana, 6 January 2022 — A small room, poor quality food and the payment of 150 dollars per day, were the isolation conditions for Covid-19 that the Canadian tourists Laurianne Gagné, Audray-Ann Lapointe and Guylaine faced in the Playa Paraíso hotel, in Cayo Coco Pellerin.
“It looks like an abandoned place. There were spiders all over my bed,” Audray-Ann Lapointe told the Canadian media La Presse. “There was only one bottle of water a day and we had to fight for it.”
14ymedio’s attempts to speak to a hotel manager were unsuccessful as the telephone operator forwarded the four calls made to a recorded waiting message without anyone else responding.
Lapointe, who traveled to the island through the Sunwing Travel Group agency and arrived at the Memories Caribe Beach Resort hotel on December 21, stressed that they let him know that they had no registered cases of covid-19 in Cuba. They “lied to us” because there were outbreaks in all the spas. He acknowledged that it was his decision to make the trip, but insisted on the need to publicize this situation. “If I can get someone to cancel or postpone a trip, that’s fine.”
In the publication, Guylaine Pellerin, another of the tourists, said that her stay at the hotel was “like a nightmare” and that there was “garbage everywhere,” leading her to compare the place to a “small jail,” since nor do they have internet. The 21-year-old displayed the Voyage à Rabais agency’s lack of honesty: “We had no warning” about the risks of coronavirus infections.”
Regarding the food at the isolation hotel, Laurianne Gagné said that one of the lunches they gave her was “a hamburger with pink meat.” The meat was “never cooked,” Audray-Ann Lapointe said.
Added to this was the lack of tests. The tourists made it known that during their isolation, a test was carried out every five days. And that one of the nurses even asked permission to use the bathroom, which does not have soap or toilet paper. “At the end of my isolation, I was charged for a medical consultation that I never had,” said Audray-Ann Lapointe.
Laurianne, Guylaine and Audray-Ann returned to Canada on January 3. His complaint is similar to those made by several Russian tourists. On that occasion Tatyana Konkova, who came to the Island on vacation, shared her experience in an isolation center. On her Instagram account, she denounced the transfer to “a bunker” after 12 passengers on her flight tested positive for coronavirus upon arrival at the Jardines del Rey airport, in Cayo Coco (Ciego de Ávila).
“We are sitting like hostages,” said another of the tourists in a video posted by Konkova. “There is no tap in the shower and it squirts when you try to turn it on, there is no internet in the rooms, tourists are denied food.”
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