Cuba (2)
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Sun 26 Apr 2009 17:34
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Hello Friends
"21:37.4N 81:56.2W"
We arrived in the amazing natural harbour
which is the Bahia de Cienfuegos (check your GoogleEarth images) and the Guarda
post at the entrance says it all...
 The arrivals procedure here in Cuba is now
much simpler than our Cruising Guide would have you believe - you just motor up
to the dock, the marina staff take your lines and in a few minutes, the
necessary officials visit to clear you in. Much more complex than anywhere else
but not too much of a burden and no need to radio ahead when you arrive in
territorial waters, as used to be the case.
Cienfuegos is a much more appealing town
than Santiago and appears more prosperous: maybe it's just had more central
government funding. There is a fine four lane highway from town to the Punta
Gorda tourist area where there is a large hotel, the marina and other
tourist facilities. Being Cuba, the highway is a somewhat extravagant piece of
infrastructure for the traffic it carries, such as the pony carts which are a
convenient way to get into town if you can't be bothered to walk in the
sun.
 I guess that if you're fed up with traffic
congestion in the first world then you'd like Cuba. Then again the pony carts
have their own special 'pollution' too - but the sack around the rear of the
pony is intended to deal with that. You just hope that there is a following wind
when you're riding in the cart! The pony carts themselves are clearly fashioned
from flattened out oil drums and reinforcing bars and anything else the builder
could lay his hands on.
Tourism is an important foreign currency
earner for Cuba and they take some trouble to look after you and make sure you
pay full price for anything you want. So it is apparently illegal for the
(cheap) pony carts to give rides to tourists, which is daft as this is just the
sort of local colour (if not odour) that tourists are looking for. This also
explains why the carts suddenly turn off on some side street and you wonder
where you're headed to. It just means that the driver has seen a cop up ahead
and is making a small detour to avoid the fine.
The alternative transport are the human
powered tricycles which we used a couple of times. We got a lift into town with
one guy who really worked at his job, especially on the slight incline as you
get into town. But he was so pleased to have the fare that he must have been
following us around town, as he appeared from nowhere after we'd finished
shopping and offered to take us back to the marina.
As you can see from the photo above,
there are plenty of remnants of the pre-revolutionary architecture and the irony
is that the tourist attractions - interesting
colonial architecture and 50's american cars etc - all pre-date the present
regime. An example is the Teatro Tomas Terry, pretty much the most famous
building in Cienfuegos, which was built by the sons of a Venezuelan
industrialist in the late 19th century. It's carefully restored to be a tourist
attraction, CUC 1 just to take a look, but you wonder at the relevance of the
spending to your average Cuban peasant.
  I don't know how well you'll see the inside
shot, but those seats are apparently carved from Cuban hardwoods. Emphasis on
'hard' by the look of it.
Another example of tourist priority is the
Coppelia ice cream emporium which is a Cienfuegos institution. This place is
hugely popular with the locals who queue up for their bowl of ice cream for just
1 local peso - think one penny/cent, whatever. But if a tourist wanders by
they are scooped (sic) up to jump the queue, but you pay about $3 for the same
ice cream. We didn't really like the idea of queue jumping (we're Brits !) so we
missed out as yet.
 The front door is centre of photo, but the
queue is kept back 50 metres on the left so as not to block the door for the
tourists. Just inside the door there is a large menu board advertising the
flavours available. Slightly wishful thinking as there is only ever one flavour
a day, usually banana (very good we are told).
The photo above shows the 4 lane highway
again and I didn't have to wait for a gap in the traffic to take the
photo... but for car nuts (are there any car nuts reading the Blue Sky blog?)
here are a couple of classics:
  We are now cruising the islands to the south
west of Cienfuegos, between Cay Largo and Isla Juventud and it's really very
quiet indeed, though we have seen a handful of other yachts. The winds have
resumed to what we guess is normal service: light and gently veering winds in
the afternoon and early evening, then very suddenly at about 2200 it picks up
real quick and blows strongly all night until late the following morning. At
least it means you can plan your sailing and not burn too much
diesel.
Our current anchorage is Cayo Rosario which
is apparently a nature reserve with many iguanas etc. We'll be exploring later
when the wind settles down. The bay here is reputed to be full of lobsters and
as most of the water is only just deep enough to float Blue Sky, it should be
easy to snorkel for our supper.
We're due back in Cienfuegos in early May to
meet up with our next Cabin Boy who will be the 21st in a long and distinguished
line. So another blog in mid May all being well.
Best Wishes
George & Michael
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