Casdila and Trinidad, Cuba

Four guys hanging out on a bench

We had a great sail from Cayo Zaza de Fuera to Casdila.  We chose to go on the outside and then cut inside via the Canal de Drenton.  Aside from the occasional shoal or coral head, the cruising here has been great.  Most of the time, we have enough wind to push our big girl (usually been 15 – 18 knots, at least in the morning before it dies around noon) and very little seas.  We have also noticed that the channels and shoals are very well marked.

Our guide book had said to go to the fishing village of Casdila to clear in, and to expect the full range of officials, who could be bureaucratic,  to come out to your boat.  Well, we did as we read, but it was wrong!  Instead, we had to anchor across the bay by the Marina Cayo Blanco and cleared in at the marina.  The Guarda office is right at the marina and it is only one very nice guy there.  He came out to our boat to do his paperwork, did a quick check and that was it.  We asked him if it was possible to clear out the night before we wanted to leave and he said no problem. 

Best pork sandwiches in Cuba

We trucked to shore and decided to go exploring.  There really isn’t that much in Casdila except for a huge, 1960’s style, gaudy purple and orange all inclusive resort.  We went in to scoop it out, tried to order a few drinks but got denied because we didn’t have the special bracelet and they don’t except cash.  Meanwhile, Josh and Connor tried to play ping pong but got booted, as they too didn’t have the wrist bling bling.  However, on the way out, a very enterprising manager told us that he could make us a deal for the night.  For $10 CUC per person, we could have dinner and all the drinks we wanted.  Josh and Connor used their tough negotiating skills to work him down to $5 CUC for just drinks, as we had already eaten dinner.  The manager said okay and ran off to hunt down the elusive bracelets.  Well, Josh and Connor decided they didn’t need to spend $5 CUC, so they bailed back to the boats.  Kevin had decided to stay home in the first place, so it turned out to be girl’s night out!  

Great band at lunch

We started with some mojitos, which were the worst mojitos we had ever tasted!  We next went to Cuba Libre (rum and coke) and they were pretty bad too.  No wonder why all-inclusive resorts are so cheap – they use the worst liquor possible!  We finally figured out that if we ordered the pina coladas and asked to put some sprite in it, it was drinkable.  We had a great time people watching and every night the resort puts on a “show”.  It was more like a freak show!  There were singers who thought they were Liz Minnelli, a guy vocalist that was trying to be a one-man Back Street Boy group, and then there were the dancers.  The guys frolicked back and forth on the stage wearing green wrestling outfits, while the girls tried to keep up.  It was extremely entertaining, especially after a few cocktails!

The next day, we got up early to make it in to Trinidad by taxi.  Trinidad is one of the oldest

cities in the New World – it was first settled in 1514.  The city is a big tourist destination, so the streets are incredibly clean and the buildings all brightly painted.  We got dropped off in a beautiful plaza and just wandered around the small town.  Everywhere we went, there were locals selling all kinds of souvenirs.  We bargained with a lot of them as it is a great place to get stuff for family back home.  If you bring some used clothes that are in good condition or personal items like tooth brushes, tooth paste, razors, etc., you can trade with them as well.

After getting goodies for everyone, we set out to find a good lunch spot.  We found a nice restaurant with tables set up under a gigantic tree which provided ample shade from the hot afternoon sun.  We had cold beers and a good meal, which was made even better by a band of elder Cuban men belting out their traditional music.

 

We strolled around the streets for the rest of the afternoon and then caught a bus back to the boat.  Trinidad is a beautiful city that is not to be missed!

The Rest of the Cays in Jardines de la Reina (Cayo Guincho, Cayo Algodon Grande, Cayos Cuervo, Cayo Zaza de Fuera)

Cooking dinner on the fire

Over the next few days, we Cay hopped, as most were only a 15 – 25 mile sail.  We would leave in the morning to catch the breeze before it died and would try to anchor between noon and 2:00.  We would then jump in the skiff to check out the coral and hunt for dinner. 

We had read in another blog that Cayo Guincho had many lobster and the people had cooked their catch in a bonfire on the beach.  Well, I had pictures of a beautiful white sand beach, beautiful turquoise water with lobsters crawling all over the place.  This was not the case.  As with most of the cays in this area, the cays themselves are mostly mangroves and the water a little on the murky side.  They are still beautiful islands – just in their own right.  

I was a little skeptical as we started our hunt.  Instead of one long coral reef there was just a few rocks and small coral heads scattered around sea fans and grass.  But, all is not as it appeared, as we looked closer under these rocks and found 6 small lobster and one giant one!  Oh yes, I forgot to mention the two big hog fish we speared as well – more than enough food to feed the six of us.  We decided that we would also have a bonfire on the small sandy area on the island, and sent Josh and Connor in first to start the fire to smoke out the no-see-ums that are on all the islands.  Dressed in long pants and a long sleeve shirt and armed with plenty of rum to keep the bugs away, or at least help numb the bites, we made our way to the site of the great feast.  What an awesome dinner it turned out to be!   Dena had made a huge bowl of potato salad, I had made a cucumber salad and we had also brought gobs of butter and garlic to melt on the fire.  We put the lobster tails in tinfoil, did the same with the fish and put them on the hot coals.  To say the lobster melt in your mouth doesn’t do it justice!  

Great trade!

The next day, we sailed to Cayo Algodon Grande.  The anchorage is easy to enter, we never saw less than 10 feet of water entering into the protected lagoon that you anchor in.  We chose to anchor basically at the mouth of the entrance to take advantage of the breeze blowing in, which kept the bugs at bay.  There were two fishing boats also anchored in there and shortly after we arrived, they rowed over to ask if we wanted some lobster.  We said sure, and brought out a small (mickey size) bottle of rum.  They in return handed us a bucket of lobster tails…FIVE huge lobster tails!  What a trade! 

The following day, we dignied around to the north side of the island and discovered a beautiful series of beaches, all half-moon shaped with the white sand and water that went from turquoise blue to emerald green  that I had been hoping for.  We let Niko romp on the beach for a while and she discovered that the islands were in fact, not uninhabited.  Away from the perfect beach, the mangroves were the homes to many, many iguanas and juantas which look like muskrats!  Niko rushed in after them, barking and yipping, and luckily, not catching them.  We went back to the boat to get the rest of the gang and our supplies (i.e. snacks, beverages and our trusty water floaties).  We dignied to a different place and had a great beach day!

We got up  early the next morning and sailed over to Cayo Cuervo.  The weather has been fairly settled, so we anchored in front of a reef and a little farther away from land so the bugs would stay away.  We jumped in the skiff and checked out the reef on the northwest side of the island.  The water was pretty clear and the coral much prettier than the other Cays.  We didn’t spear any lobster or fish, but we have so much in the freezer, we really weren’t looking very hard for it!

The next morning we got another early start and sailed to Cayo Zaza de Fuera.  This is another mangrove Cay and we really only stopped here to rest for the night before heading to Casdila in the morning.

Niko is excited for beach day!

The only other boats we saw were local fishing boats

Beach day!!

Joana and Sabbaticus at anchor

Cayo Blanco

Old cargo ship on the beach

We left Cabo Cruz at 6am thinking that we were going to sail 55 miles to Cayo Guincho.  We had 20-25 knots of wind right on our beam and had an awesome sail.  We were cruising at 7-7.5 knots with all sails up (remember, we are 37 tons so for us that is moving!).  There was a bit of wind chop, but as we got closer to some of the reefs, the seas dropped down to between 1-2 feet!  It was ideal conditions!

Local fishermen coming to say hello

As we were about to come up to one of the passes through some cays / reefs that was about 15 miles from our final destination, our friends on Sabbaticus called us up on the VHF and said they found Cayo Blanco - a great little cay with a white sand beach and wanted to stop and do a little snorkeling and break up the trip.  We thought it was a great idea, especially Niko who was dying to run around on a beach again.  Our electronic chart said there was only 4.5 feet in there but Kevin on Sabbaticus said he didn’t see anything less than 15 so we decided to go for it.  We anchored in the nook of the Cay in about 12 feet of water.  We cleaned up the boat from our sail, put the dingy in the water and took Niko to shore to romp around.  Then we got our snorkeling gear and spear together to hunt some lobster and fish.  The water was a little murky, most likely because there were a ton of mangroves on the cay.  There wasn’t really a reef line or big coral heads, but rather almost like little boulders with fans, sea grass and a bunch of smaller fish.  The snorkeling was not quite as pretty as Cabo Cruz nor did we find any lobster, but it is a nice place to stop non-the-less, if nothing else to break up one long trip into two shorter ones. 

Cabo Cruz, Cuba

We had about 35 miles to sail to our next anchorage and were anxious to get an early start.  We had told the Guarda that we wanted to leave by 8am, and he said he would come out at 7am to give us our necessary paperwork.  He got there around 7:30 and apologized a few times and told us his gua-gua (taxi) was late.  All he did was sign a box on our cruising permit and hand it back to us – it took only 2 minutes.  We heaved up anchor and had a nice motor sail to Cabo Cruz.  The wind was directly behind us and a little too light for us to totally sail, but we only had the engine going just above idle so we didn’t use too much fuel.

As always, we had our fishing lines out and we were rewarded with a nice sized Mahi.  Yeah – fresh fish for dinner! 

We had been warned by a fellow cruiser with a 7 foot draft that Cabo Cruz was a little tricky to anchor in, but we found no real problems.  You anchor between a reef and mangroves – so you are staring out to nothing but ocean but the reef breaks all the swell and you get an awesome breeze!  The water is Bahamas blue with some grassy spots but mostly white sandy spots to anchor in. 

I had read in the cruising guide that the Guarda may or may not come out to see your paperwork, and in our case they did not.  Tomorrow we are planning on going into town to explore a bit and the guide states that you need to find the Guarda in town if you do that. 

We had a few fisherman come over wanting to trade lobster for rum.  They only had one giant lobster and two very small ones, and we told them we wanted a few medium sized ones.  They told us they would go get them tomorrow and bring them over to us once caught.  Gotta love it!

We had Sabbaticus over for a fish and Conch dinner with a movie – a great way to end another great day in Cuba!

We decided to stay two extra days in Cabo Cruz.  We tried to go to shore but the Guarda told as soon as we tied our lines to a “dock” that it was “no possible” and basically shooed us back to our boats – but he did it with a smile!  So much for our guide book stating we could go ashore…maybe it was just us!  That’s alright, we did some snorkeling and speared a lobster.  The reef was super colorful with lots of fish and great visibility.  If this snorkeling is so good, I can’t wait to get to the cays in the middle of nowhere!

Morea de Portillo, Cuba

Beautiful Kids

We had an uneventful motor sail from Santiago to Morea de Portillo.  We anchored in a very protected lagoon, with mangroves around part of us and a small town a short dingy ride away.  About 20 minutes after we got our anchor down, the Guarda came out to us in a small boat that was  rowed by a woman named Joshpene.  He just looked at our paperwork, asked us when we were leaving and took our cruising permit and told us he would bring it back with a despachio (a clearance) when we left.  The whole thing took less than 10 minutes. 

Niko meets a pig for the first time

We took a nap and then decided to dingy ashore to check it out.  The “dock” was a concrete slab with some rebar bent so you could tie your line to it.  There were about 10 people sitting in the shade under a tree and greeted us.  As soon as we got there, the kids took Niko (our dog) from us and played with her – running and throwing coconut shells into the water so she would go swimming.  One very quiet and nice woman with a young child invited us to take a walk and see her house.  We walked about 2 minutes down a dirt road to where she lived, sat inside and “talked” a little with my bad Spanish and hand gestures.  She gave us a few coconuts and I gave her a bar of soap.  We decided to keep walking around the little town.  Every house we passed had a pseudo fenced area that housed pigs, chickens and turkeys.  The fences didn’t really keep anything in and there were little pigs and chicks running in front of us, big pigs laying in the shade on the street – it was great!  A few houses down from the first girl we met, was Victor’s house.  Victor is an older gentlemen who spoke a little English.  He took us to his house and we sat down and chatted for a while.  He asked if we would trade a few t-shirts with his family for some things and we said we would – we would just have to go out to the boat to get them.  He got a big smile on his face and his nephew handed us a big bottle of freshly-pressed tomato juice.  Victor then took us to his sister’s house and we again sat down and chatted a bit and she gave us a huge bottle of natural honey (in a rum bottle!) 

Chatting with the locals

On our way back to the boat, we passed Josephine’s house and she too invited us in (they all love to show off their houses) and asked if we wanted any tomatoes or fish.  I said sure and she gave us at least a dozen tomatoes and a whole fish.  I asked how much she wanted for it all and she said she didn’t want anything, but maybe if we had a shirt or some shoes that would be nice.  We told her we would bring her back something.

Typical "kitchen"

We boogied back to the boat and quickly went through our old clothes and put a few bags of old t-shirts, tank tops and shorts together and went back to town with Kevin and Deena.  We first stopped at Josphene’s and gave her a t-shirt and a pair of old sneakers.  Then we found Victor and he invited us back to his house.  We gave his family and the family next door (the young woman with the small child) a few t-shirts, tank tops and shorts as well.  They were so grateful.  They made us the best cup of coffee – we asked how they made it and what they do is boil water and sugar cane together, but some coffee in a cloth filter and pour the water/sugar mixture in  the filter and out comes the best tasting coffee.  We told them how good it was and Victor ran off on his bicycle to get us two packages of coffee!  We asked to see the backyard of their house, which is where they cook, and was amazed to see a literal small farm!  There were numerous pigs, chickens, egg laying hens and turkeys – all in pens but also wandering around.  They had a huge amount of land where they were growing onions, tomatoes, sugar cane, bananas, corn and sweet potatoes.  They kept shoving all of their freshly grown goods in our bags until we were overflowing with potatoes, onions and tomatoes. 

Victor getting us some veggies

We said our goodbyes to Victor’s family  and he and his friend Jr took us on a small tour of the town where we saw the local schools (primary and secondary) and the small store (looked more like a food vendor’s trailer at a fair with the pop-out window) that had just a few things in it.  Victor said there was a local peso store about 14 km away.  They took us to the local bakery where we got some sweet pastries for ourselves and their families.  They didn’t want to take them from us, but I told them it was a gift.  Jr took us to his mom’s house, where he gave her his share of the pastries.  She then gave us a bunch of onions, which we tried to say we didn’t need, but she insisted.  Unlike in Santiago, where people would just come up to us to ask for soap or clothes or money, these people just wanted to trade and were so generous that they gave much more than they received. 

The main drag

We walked back to where our boat was and Victor wanted us to stay another day so they could roast a pig for us and have a big dinner, but we told him we had to keep moving.  Junior, who had walked Niko all day and who really liked her, half joking asked if we could keep her!  We said unfortunately no, but Kevin gave him his old watch instead – Jr was psyched!

We all decided to drop off our loot and then dingy over across the bay to one of two resorts that were on the other side of the bay.  We tried to get a drink at the bar by the pool, but the resorts are all inclusive.  They pointed us to the front desk and we were told that for 10 CUC, we could have unlimited food and drink.  Awesome – we don’t have to cook!  So, we had dinner, which was a buffet and that night was Italian night, but they also had some of their local food.  Well, as we all know, stick to the local food as they definitely don’t know how to cook lasagna, but their grilled pork with green peppers and onions were awesome with tons of fresh fruit, veggies and a big salad bar to go with it.  Josh and Connor went back at least 4 times!   We all had ice cream and a variety of other desserts at the end and basically rolled out of there and back to the boat to get ready for our 7 am departure the following morning.

The bakery - note the pigs in the background!

Primary School

 

A Quick Note:

The "dock"

Everyone wants to trade – you can get all your veggies, fruits, fish and lobster here by trading.  So far, the things we have been asked for is bars of soap, shirts, shorts, shoes and rum.  If I would have been a little smarter, I would have gone to Good Will and stocked up on clothes.  The women and men both range from petite to big, so a variety of sizes is best.  They also need kid’s clothes.  $1.00 flip flops from Wal-Mart or a similar store wouldn’t be a bad idea either.  We didn’t bring enough soap, and are now cutting our bars into two, but nobody seems to mind.  We also have a few small bottles of rum (Mickey sizes) and are saving those to trade with the fisherman for lobster.

Santiago de Cuba...Day 3

We decided it was time to keep moving and our next anchorage was 75 miles away, so we decided to leave around 4pm and do a quick overnight. 

So, in the morning, we got a cab and went up to the Morro – a big fort on the hill that we had seen as we came into the harbor.   It was a very cool fort – well kept up and they had a nice museum inside.  We toured it for a good 2 hours then went back to the marina to start the clearing out process and show them my proof of insurance.  At first they still wanted me to pay, but after politely arguing with them and a few phone calls to their boss at immigration, they finally said I didn’t have to pay.  The rest of the clearing out process wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be– we just had to do some paperwork, pay our marina fees (it is 0.45 CUC per foot per day to dock at the marina and 0.25 per foot per day to anchor out) and pay for our cruising permit (15 CUC) which we received right before we left.  Then two officials came out to the boat to do a quick look around (took no more than 5 minutes) and we were good to go.  

Santiago Anchorage

One interesting thing I did note is that the marina fees and cab fares from the marina to Santiago are the same exact price that Nigel Calder quoted in his cruising guide from 1999…I don’t think they have much inflation in Cuba!

Santiago de Cuba...Day 2

We had met fellow cruisers who were anchored next to us, Guilloum and Janey, the previous day so we had them over for coffee in the late morning.  They had been in Cuba for two and a half months and so gave us a little insight into where they had been.  Around 3pm, we decided to head back into town.  Josh and Connor had left earlier, so it was just me, Maria, Kevin and Dena.  We tried to take the local bus, but the times are fairly widely spread apart as well as being inconsistent, and we were told by three gentlemen by the bus stop that it was most likely two hours before the next one came.  We were trying to get to the fruit and veggie market before it closed at 5pm, so we opted to take a cab.  Luck for us, there was a 1957 Chevy waiting.  We negotiated a fare of 8CUC, got in, and then there was a knock on the window… two of the gentlemen that had helped us wanted a ride in…sure, why not, so we squished over and off we went.

Choking down the really local brew

As soon as we got back into town, we bee-lined it for the market.  It is basically a concrete building with different “stalls” where the locals set up their goods.  The prices were all the same between everyone, so we looked around to find the best looking veggies.  They had a great variety of stuff there – carrots, green peppers, pineapples, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, herbs – and all in local pesos.  We loaded up our bags and went down to the waterfront in search of the best 5 peso street pizza.  We found it – it is made in Pizza-Hut like personal pan deep dishes, then put in a mobile brick oven!  So good!  

Beer Garden - Cuba Style

As we were walking back to the main square, we came across a very local watering hole…well, it was more like an alley with some tarps overhead (there was no roof) with tables and chairs underneath.  For 6 local pesos, we all had glasses of not-so-good local beer from a keg.  The glasses they served them in were actually the bottom of  Havana Club rum bottles with the top cut off – very cleaver.  

Cheap as the beer was, we could only stomach two and headed back to the music festival.  We hung out close to it at a bar and again, sampled the mojito.  The verdict?  The first place still was the best, but this was a close second.  We stayed there awhile and Josh and Connor came back with 4 locals they had met and we all sat down and chatted for a few hours as one or two spoke English.  We were treated to another serenade by one of the guys who had his guitar.  Boy oh boy can they belt out some songs – they all seem to have beautiful voices.  At the end of the night, we went to pay our tab and it seems as if a few extra beers was put on it.  Our new found friends tried to argue with the bartender for us, but to no avail – it seems it is a local practice to do this to gringos, so, my advice is not to run tabs but rather pay as you go.  A good lesson for us, and luckily, not an expensive one as the beers here cost 1 CUC.

Performance at the Music Festival

We were a little hungry by then and walked to a pretty little park in  a small square where there were street vendors around and got some fried chicken for 10 pesos.  Then we walked to a disco – Casa de Musica and peeked in to see if our friends from earlier were there – we couldn’t see them and there was a cover charge to get in. 

Making friends with the locals

 We were getting sleepy so we decided to head back to the marina.  We were longingly looking at a great old green car, not sure the make of it, and the driver came up to us and asked if we needed a ride – we negotiated 8 CUC and off we went back to the marina.

  

One note about Santiago – there are many people who will come up to you and ask for soap, clothes or money.  We did carry around some soap and gave away a few articles of clothes to those who we talked to for a little bit.  It started to get a little annoying, but we have heard that the “begging” is the worst in Santiago and not so prevalent in the other cities.  Just a heads up to expect it.  

Santiago de Cuba

Cuban transportation

A quick word about Cuba money before I start…there are two currencies in Cuba – the Local Peso “Peso” and the Tourist Convertible “CUC”.  $1 USD = about .90 CUC (almost 1 to 1 less a 10% surcharge).  There is no surcharge if converting Canadian or Euros.  So, once you convert your foreign money, you then take 5 or 10 CUC and convert it into Pesos.  1 CUC = 24ish Pesos.  Now, you can only spend Pesos at the local fruit and veggie market or on street food, which is why you don’t convert too much.  You have to use CUC at restaurants, bars, grocery stores, etc. 

Maria enjoying Cuban rum and cigar

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, we found the local bus by the marina, paid 1 Peso and hopped on.  Now, I used to live in NYC and took the buses in the city and I thought they were crowded – Holy Cow, they have nothing on Cuba.  There must have been 100 people on it!  We bounced and sped around corners – stopping every few minutes to pick up more people.  Everyone was very polite – men would give up their seats for older women or for women with small kids.  About a mile away from Santiago, the bus stops.  “Que pasa” or what I hoped was “What’s going on” in Spanish to a woman sitting in front of me who had kindly held onto my bag for me so I could hold on to the rail with two hands so I didn’t go flying.  “Roto” she said…broken.  Oh boy.  In my broken Spanish and her broken English, I figured out that we weren’t too far from where we needed to go and she suggested we walk.  Just as I yelled down the bus to the other troops that we were going to do that, a bunch of guys got off and started pushing the bus down a short hill.  The bus driver than popped the clutch and the bus started.  A great cheer rang throughout the bus! 

 

Making the best mojitos in Cuba

We got off at one of the squares where there is a huge cathedral at one end of the square and the town hall at the other.  A fellow came up to us who turned out to be one of the custom officials from the previous day and offered to show us the best place to change our money.  You can change it at a bank, but the line is super long, so they also have places called Cadeja which only deals with changing money.  After that, he introduced us to one of his friends and told him to show us a good place to eat for lunch.  So, we followed his friend to a house and showed us inside.  We walked through a woman’s living room, through a small courtyard where laundry was hanging out and into a small room with 3 small tables, a fan and a stereo.  This was the “restaurant”- really a room in a private house where they cook great meals for you.  We had a cerveca and looked at the menu.  Everything was 10-12 CUC – a little more expensive than I would have thought.  We said as much and they knocked the price down to 8 CUC.  We got chicken, rice, a salad and fried plantains.  Not too bad, but still not the deal I would have thought.  Well, we were right – as we later found out, there are much cheaper ways to eat in Cuba.  But, for our first meal, it was pretty good with an awesome atmosphere!  As we were waiting for our food, we took a 15 minute walk around and saw Fidel Castro’s old house and the outside of the revolutionary museum. 

Enjoying the mojitos

After lunch, we walked over to a place called La Casa de Tradionales where they supposedly make the best mojitos in Santiago.  I would have to agree with that statement.  The bartender lovingly made the mojitos – not like in the States where they mix everyone’s drink in a big shaker and then pours it into a glass.  Oh no, here they put out the glasses, then add a little cane sugar, then a little lime juice and takes a small spoon with a long handle and mixes it around.  Then adds a lot of mint, stirs again, then a ton of rum and some soda water and stirs it a final time.  We brought the drinks out to a little patio under a shaded area made from vines and oh my gosh, it tasted like heaven! 

We met up with Josh and Connor by this point.  Those two decided not to have the expensive lunch meal and instead went out in search of street food.  Boy oh boy did they find a deal.  Josh and Connor split 4 mini cheese pizzas, 2 chicken sandwiches, a large tub of ice cream and 2 sodas, all for around 70 Pesos, which is less than 3USD!  Now that’s a deal! 

We made our way back over to the square where the internet place was.  I had to shoot out a few quick emails and check on my health insurance stuff to make sure Cuba is indeed covered.  The internet was 6 CUC per hour and was PAINFULLY slow!  No posting pictures on the blog while in Cuba! 

While I was doing this, Maria, Kevin and Dena where in sitting on the benches in the park people watching and enjoying the cool shade.  We had brought candy for the kids and soap for the adults, as we had read many people come up to you asking for soap.  This is an understatement.  I could have given away 20 bars of soap the first day in Santiago.  Deanna took out some of her stash and almost got trampled over!  After I finished on the internet, I joined them and a street musician with a guitar and harmonica struck up a conversation with us and then treated us to two great songs. 

We continued to wander around the streets and stopped in another bar just to make sure the first really did have the best mojitos.  We found a second place with a beautiful dark wood bar that made you think you were in a bar from the 1950’s.  We sampled their mojitos as well and they were good, but not as good as the first place.  We had a second one just to make sure though! 

We hit the streets again and strolled around for a couple of hours, sampled some 5 peso street pizza which was really good and then followed our ears to a place that had a band playing traditional Cuban music.  It turns out we found the site of a 3 day music festival!  Every hour, a different band would play and people were dancing the salsa inside, outside, wherever they could!  We joined in the outside party and danced in the streets with whoever came by and took our hand.  Man can they move their hips!

After a while we decided to call it a night and found a cab and for 10 CUC the six of us jammed in the back of a Russian built car and headed back to the marina.

Santiago de Cuba - Clearing In

We (ourselves and our friends Kevin, Dena and their son Connor on s/v Sabbaticals) left Luperon  at 5:00 am after having a difficult time with the Dominican officials.  They didn’t want to give us our despacio the night before and said we had to leave by 8pm the previous night or wait until the comendicia came to work in the morning –supposedly at 5am which would mean we would not leave until at least 7am.  We tried to explain to them that we needed to leave no later than 5am to get into Cuba during reasonable daylight hours and to give us a cushion if the wind wasn’t favorable.  Finally they gave us our despacio with their understanding we were going to leave late that night and our understanding we were going to leave even later that night, i.e. early morning but before they got to work! 

Hauling butt to Cuba

As it turned out, we didn’t need to worry as we have 18-23 knots of wind on the stern quarter and 5-7 foot following seas.  We averaged around 6.5 knots and sometimes hit 8.5 as we surfed down some of the bigger waves.  That’s pretty fast for our 37 ton girl!  We passed through the Canal de Torture in Haiti at night, which is a 4 mile wide passage between mainland Haiti and the Island of Torture.  We kept a keen lookout for  any potential fishing boats that got a little close for comfort, but I think we were freaking ourselves out more than anything.

We passed Guantanamo around 11pm and gave it a wide berth.  The chart showed a restricted area about 3 miles around it but we decided to go out 4-5 miles.  The wind died around 11pm so we had to kick on the motor, but we had to keep her at around 4 knots so that we would get into Santiago during daylight hours. 

Finally after 50 hours we were approaching Santiago.  We called “Morro Santiago” and the Santiago Marina came back to us.  We gave them our boat name, nationality, number of persons on board and nationality of persons on board.  They then gave us permission to enter the harbor and instructed us to anchor just off the marina.  They told us the officials would be out to see us around 8:30 -9 am.  Well, about noon they started showing up! 

Beautiful sunset at sea

First came the “bug man” and the doctor.  We offered them cold soda which they both accepted.   The bug man was a jolly little fellow with a wide grin and very animated.  He looked around for bugs, mosquitos and any standing fresh water.  The doctor was great – she was dressed in a stylin’ and sexy purple dress with a white lab coat over it!   She just asked if we were sick and asked to see our medical kit.  This only took about 25 minutes – it would have been shorter but with my horrible Spanish and their broken English, a lot of it was hand gestures and lots of smiles and laughter.

The next to come was the agriculture lady and the vet for our animals.  As soon as they got on board, the woman gave us two big kisses on the cheek and welcomed us to Santiago.   We shared a cerveza with the vet and juice for the agriculture lady.  We did many cheers and toasts to our arrival in Cuba!  The woman just asked to see our fruits and vegetables and told us to keep them on board.  She also asked to see our frozen meat, rice and pasta to check for bugs. The vet just wanted to see the animals - not to inspect them, but just to verify they were on board and checked their rabies and other vaccination paperwork.  For the vet, we had to pay $21 USD or 15 euros.  He gave us a receipt and told us we would not have to pay the other vets further down when they come on board to inspect us at other ports of entry. 

The next to come was the customs guys, or Aduana.  First on the boat were two huge black labs that were scared to death!  Evidently, the other dog was a cocker spainel but he didn’t really do his job well so he was fired.  They had brought these two dogs from the airport and obviously hadn’t trained them on a boat!  The dogs did okay though – one was looking for guns and ammunition and the other for drugs.  We had to pull out our flare guns for them to smell and the dogs went through the rest of the boat pretty thoroughly. 

The Morro at the entrance of Santiago

After the dogs had done their job, 4 other customs officials searched through our boat.  Now, searched should be in quotation marks, as they just looked around and asked us to open arbitrary things such as a box full of junk, a sea chest full of tools, another sea chest full of clothes and a drawer full of odds and ends.  I had read other blogs that said this part of the search took 2-3 hours but ours only took 20-30 minutes.  Maybe it is because we have so much crap on this boat they had no idea where to start!

Next they asked us for all of our portable GPS and VHFs.  They took pictures of them and then placed them in a plastic grocery shopping bag that we gave them and taped it shut.  They did the same with our flares.

They then ask me if I had any morphine on board, which we don’t, but we do have some other pain medicine.  I gave it to them and they tried to figure  out what the ingredients were.  I told them I didn’t know, but that the effects were similar to morphine.  They apologetically told me they would have to seal it in a bag as well until we left Santiago. 

They told us to keep all the sealed bags and we would have to show them to the officials when we left.

After all this was completed, we went to the customs’ office in the marina to do the rest of the paperwork.  Boy oh boy, do they love paperwork.  They do not have copiers but rather use old carbon sheets (you know the ones – they go in between two pieces of paper to make copies).  We were told sometimes they don’t have the carbon sheets and have to copy over all the information. The Bug  man and doctor had already taken our passports to give to immigration to start the paper work nightmare,   I’m glad they did, as the immigration officer had gone through all of our passports and written down by year, beginning in 2008, of every country we had gone to.  They did not stamp our passports, even Maria’s who has a Canada passport, but just stamped the Cuban Visa paper that they put inside the passport.  Next we went to Customs who just asked us the usual questions. 

Then they asked us if we had Health Insurance.  They assumed Maria did because she is Canadian, but they told me and Josh that even if we had insurance from the States, they do not consider it insurance because we are Americans in Cuba and it would not be honored here.  Therefore, they wanted $2.50 per day from each of us to pay for Cuba Health Insurance.  I have an international travel plan and have to talk to them today further about this cost – will let you know how it turns out.

We had to pay 10 CUC (Cuba currency) for the boat and 15 CUC per person to enter Cuba.  We also will have to pay 15 CUC for a cruising permit to sail in Cuba, but they will issue that to us when we leave Santiago.  Since me and Josh are American citizens, we cannot spend any money in Cuba.  That means, lucky Maria, being the sole Canadian, has to pay for us for everything.  I’m going to love Cuba!

Finally after 4 hours, we were cleared into Cuba!

A few notes and recommendations for anyone planning on visiting:

On our computer, we put together a spread sheet that had three columns - the first had the info title in English (such as Boat Name), the second had the info title in Spanish (Nombre del barco) and the third had our boat's info (Joana 1).  We did this for all the usual information they ask (Name, Flag, Registration number, etc.).  On the same piece of paper, we included the crew list with passport information.  We printed out 6 copies and handed it to each group that came on board and was very helpful.

We heard about some bribes in Cuba and we didn't really experience it.  The closest we came was someone on board asked if we had a spare can of meat for their child and we gave them an old can of corned beef.  We also gave away some old fishing line and a lure.

We were asked if we had any memory sticks for the computers.  We didn’t, but if we had known, we would have bought them some place cheap and brought them to trade or sell.  Evidently, the government offices only have one or two computers for everyone to use, so they have to put their information on these USB memory sticks when going from computer to computer. 

The Cuban officials are some of the nicest and most respectful that we have come across.  Everyone welcomed us to Cuba with big smiles, hugs and kisses on the cheek. 

Nigel Calder’s cruising guide to Cuba is very good and pretty much spot on.  His depths are conservative and we got into places with our 7 foot draft where his charts, at mean low water, said we couldn’t.   Some of the places where he says we could go to shore, we were not allowed.  But this only happened to us twice, at Cabo Cruz and Los Arroyos.  We had the latest guide book, which is from 1999, so obviously some things have changed, but not much!  Even the prices he gives are still pretty accurate.