Miss Universe Says Guantanamo Bay Is 'Fun,' 'Calm,' and 'Relaxing'

Well, the gig is up. Thanks a lot, reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza.See, in the cover story on my trip to Guantanamo Bay a couple of months ago, I did my best to convey my impressions of the infamous prison camp as an unforgiving, desolate way station where detainees were...

By Tim Elfrink

March 31, 2009

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Well, the gig is up. Thanks a lot, reigning Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza.

See, in the cover story on my trip to Guantanamo Bay a couple of months ago, I did my best to convey my impressions of the infamous prison camp as an unforgiving, desolate way station where detainees were routinely tortured and justice is hard to come by.

Now the beautiful Venezuelan has ruined everything by revealing the truth: Gitmo is freaking awesome.

Mendoza visited the prison camps and U.S. Naval base on a USO-organized tour earlier this week with the current Miss USA, and she just loved it soooo much she had to blog her little heart out: "It was a loooot of fun!" she wrote. "We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they

shower, how the[y] recreate themselves with movies, classes of art,

books. It was very interesting."

Mendoza found Gitmo's beach to be "unbelievable," and -- like so many Yemenis before her -- she "didn't want to leave -- it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful."

Great. Now the South Beach crowd is going to know where the real fun is

at.

Meanwhile, more than 245 detainees are still waiting for President

Obama to decide what to do with them as he tries to keep his pledge to close the camps within the next year.

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Tim Elfrink is a former investigative reporter and managing editor for Miami New Times. He has won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Contact: Tim Elfrink

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Twitter: @timelfrinkmia