Cuba Viva la revolucion!

Destination: Cuba

Cuba is opening up and adventurous cruisers are benefiting, explain Ian and Andrea Treleaven, who recently visited the land of the Buena Vista Social Club.

Havana, colourful ladies of the night, vintage cars, Buena Vista Social Club, mojitos and cigars, Cuba has a lot to offer the adventurous visiting yachtsman, explain Ian and Andrea Treleaven.

After our first 24 hours in Cuba, Ian feels like he has died and gone to heaven courtesy of wonderful music, mojitos and friendly Spanish-speaking people. As for me, it is an enlightening experience, full of wonderful wide-eyed images.

A touchy issue

Our sail to the eastern tip of Cuba from the Turks and Caicos Islands was fast and furious. Once in the lee of the island on the south side we sailed 100nms west to Santiago de Cuba. Half way along we are confronted by the might of the US Military in the form of a patrol boat armed with machine guns and canon pointing directly at us. We were passing Guantanamo Bay, the United States Naval Base.  We wanted to take a closer look, but we were immediately informed by VHF radio that we are close to USA Territory (hey, aren’t we on the same side?).  Apparently Guantanamo Bay is a bit of a touchy issue with the Yanks.   

The ocean boundary is three nautical miles offshore and extends along the shore for over 8 miles. The patrol boat stayed on our flank between us and the shore for over an hour.  It was a bit nerve racking watching the 20 year solider on the front deck, machine gun pointed directly at us, with his finger on the trigger.   I shudder to think what could have happened had he slipped or been hit by a wave.  The phrase ‘friendly fire’ comes to mind.  

Historico de Cuba

Undeterred we sail on to a very different port of entry… Santiago de Cuba. We are greeted by the historical Castillo de San Pedro Del Morro fort on the steep headland built by the Spanish in 1633 and a history lesson begins.

Our Cruising Guide published by Imray has not been revised for ten years and we were expecting a filthy harbour, rickety wharf, officials seeking bribes, and if you’re really luck a few other cruisers for company. What a difference a day makes, or in this case 10 years.  From the moment we entered the fiord-like harbour, it opens up with that wow factor! The water is clean; a stunning back drop of mountains, locals at the beach, palm trees everywhere and the marina is full with ten cruising yachts. What you also notice is the lack of paint and maintenance everywhere, like time has stood still for 50+ years, although the beauty of the place and the delightfully friendly people make up for it.

Once we passed the pleasant officials (we lost count of the number) including a Doctor to make sure we have no diseases, and a sniffer dog, we joined a spontaneous 50th birthday party ashore complete with a pig on the spit and a whole new set of friends. Irish Nick on “Val” is single handing his way around the world and wants us to join him early the next morning to visit the farmers market in the centre of the city ten kilometres away. The main square, Parque Cespedes is just as we expected; Spanish architecture, some crumbling and some restored, old colourful classic 1950’s American cars and an old woman smoking a cigar.

Is that in pesos or pesos?

The first problem we had to cope with was the confusion caused by having two currencies. There are convertible pesos that tourists (and locals) use to by imported items, and national pesos, which are used at markets to buy food and staples.  We needed both.  The farmers market is rustic and very, very cheap. Farmers have only just recently been able to sell on the open market and although limited, it’s seasonal and very fresh. Remember how Henry Ford said you can have any colour you want as long as it’s black.  In the markets you can have any meat you want as long as it’s pork.  The lack of diversity is a bit of a challenge for the cook, but at least we will end up with healthy hearts.

Music is the heart of Cuba

Coffee is at the Casa Grand Hotel overlooking the square in 20’s style with open veranda and art décor lights. Salsa music fills the air everywhere you go. Old men on benches strum guitars and Africans sing and dance to their own tune. Small café/bar theatres have day time free shows where locals do there own thing. One such place is Casa de la Trova where we spend many hours listening and having lunch in the Spanish open air style courtyard.  

This is the home of Cuban music and the Santiago de Cuba musical festival has just started and made our stay very special.  

Many famous bands have emerged from here including The Buenos Vista Social Club whose 70+ year old performers have toured the world. We had not realised it but Cuba is home to mojito’s and we enjoy many. Their idea of rum and coke is a bottle of each for $5. We make mojito’s by the jug; a liberal pore of white rum, raw sugar or sugar syrup, fresh limes or lemons quartered plus excess juice, fresh mint leaves all topped up with soda water and ice.

This is great, we need to freshen up back at the yacht and be back in town for the evening session. Our ride back is in a sky blue 1948 Buick; so much fun as the engine roars into life. I can barely see out the window as I sink into old sky blue leather. Romantic salsa music fills the car… I’m in the movie ‘Grease’… the colourful, cute driver who loves his car will be back to pick us up.

Colourful ladies of the night, passionate salsa dancing, hustlers teaching the girls how it is done and long mojito are de rigueur as the bands do their thing on stage; this night should never end. At 2pm there are not a lot of cars around, so we take our life in our own hands and get a 1970’s Russian Lada which is a beat up heap, coasting down hills to save fuel and on arrival looses its exhaust pipe.

Mojitos and cigars

Our next two days are spent at the marina (US$30 per day) just loving the weather and mucking about. We have no choice but to be moored here as rules state we are not allowed to anchor out and we cannot use the dinghy to explore. But we do however have power, water and Havana Club rum at only US$4.00 a bottle.  The minor hardships pale against good music and mojitos.

A Cohiba hand rolled

Now it is time to see the back streets and what they don’t want the tourist to see!! Hiring a driver for the morning we check out the cigar factory. As luck would have it’s the MonteCristo Cigar factory, rated number two in the world behind another Cuban brand, Cohiba. The factory has 250 employees all producing 100% hand made cigars (all by hand) and they turn out 20,000 a day. Unfortunately they would not let us take any photographs of these hard working locals that earn about US$15 a month. The brands got their names from the books that we read to the workers from the front of the room to relieve boredom with the Count of Monte Cristo and Romeo and Juliette being favourites.

A bit of paint would go a long way

Many of the buildings we saw were in disrepair.  The back streets show how hard Cuban’s have been doing it.  Dirt roads dug up trying to repair water pipes that have not been touched since before the revolution in 1959, bland Soviet Union built tenements which are free to all Cubans, and people reverting to horse and cart due to lack of fuel.  What does come as a surprise is that most people are well dressed. It’s just the in fore structure around that is in bad disrepair and what will happen if this continues much longer.

The only advertising you see are large billboards with images of the founding revolutionaries including Fidel and Che promoting the 50th anniversary of the success on 1 January 1959. Cuba has been a communist country ever since and the signs of this failed dream are everywhere. Fidel Castro overthrew a corrupt capitalist government that had been sponsored by the USA since 1899. Before these times it had been controlled by Spain, since Columbus arrived in 1492 until the Spanish land owners rebelled against control by Spain in 1868. Another rebellion was led by Marti in 1895 which resulted in the US involvement.

With the breakdown of the old Soviet Union and the subsequent loss of trade Cuba entered what Fidel called the ‘Special Period”. With no market for their sugar and hence no funds to purchase food and oil, the country entered a dark period. Back to horse and cart, food shortages and facing starvation they turned to urban farming. Two decades later they are self sufficient, no longer facing starvation and even able to sell excess produce on the open market.  

Provisions are cheap, and plentiful

Provisioning has been an interesting exercise. Eggs are allocated at 10 per person per month; we manage to acquire someone’s quota and also acquire more on the black market. We don’t feel guilty about this; they are all eager to get some tourist dollars (CUC). A taxi driver buys for us the bread as it is only available with a coupon but of course there is no choice with just one style of loaf available. Cakes we wouldn’t even consider buying; again just one style of sponge coated with mock cream. Fruit and vegetables are limited to what’s seasonal but no problem to buy and very cheap.

The two currencies are confusing and it’s creating a class difference not only for the tourist but also for the locals. Only those that have managed to acquire CUC’s may enter the Dollar shops (the national peso is used by locals). A lot of educated people have now turned to the tourist industry, as it is their way of getting the more valuable currency.

Communications in Cuba are not easy. Our mobile does not connect and for email access we have to visit hotels and produce a passport to gain access on old computers.  Our iridium phone on board worked so long as we were quick as we were always cut off, some say by the American Base.  

Fidel is ever present

We continued our sightseeing and particularly enjoyed visiting Moncada Barracks, the sight of Fidel Castro’s first failed attack against the ruling corrupt Batista government on the 26th July 1953. The bullet holes are still present on the outside of the building while inside the history of the up rising is shown in detail, including the atrocities inflected upon the revolutionaries. Castro was finally successful on the 1st January 1959.

The local cemetery, Santa Ifigenia, is full of history especially to the martyrs of all the many uprisings over the centuries. Every half hour there is a changing of the goose stepping-guards for the tomb of Josef Marti (1853-95), the most revered of all revolutionaries. The Bacardi Rum family are also here plus the original Buena Vista Social Club band member Comay Segundo.

We enjoyed our two week stay at the marina with very nice staff and more services than we expected. Cruisers come and go… some to Jamaica others to the Dominican Republic or heading west like us. Our only problem was acid rain leaving small yellow spots on the deck from a refinery nearby when the wind blew from the north.

Geoff and Pip Lavis from Sydney, join us for the 350 nautical mile sail west along the south coast of Cuba to Cienfuegos, passing the very high Sierra Maestra Mountains and on through the many cays of the Archipielago de los Jardines de la Reina (Royal Gardens).

There’s not a lot of wind under the protection of the mountain range for our departure but it’s a perfect day for fishing, whales and dolphins. The mountain is 1200 metres high and the sea below is 7000 metres deep; a record height in the world for such a short distance. Many barracuda are thrown back but we keep the four tuna, hooking two at a time on separate lines.

Pilon is a night stop and next day onto Cabo Cruz the southernmost point of Cuba, anchoring behind a breaking reef with lighthouse at the most southern part of Cuba. This is superb swimming bay with a beautiful sunset while fisherman row out to get lobster. We have never felt more secure.

Trouble in paradise, not really

Next morning, as we reach for our beach towels, we find them missing. Also gone are Ian’s old but treasured Sperry sandals.  For the first time in our seven years of cruising we have that horrible feeling of someone being on board while we slept. We don’t report it as what is taken is only petty theft and there were more valuable things around like our fishing rod, but it still leaves us with an uneasy feeling. We felt safer in Cuba than anywhere else in the Caribbean, so we’re putting this down to an isolated experience.

Sailing, beautiful sailing

Even with no change to this glorious no sailing weather, the boys hoist the spinnaker but it’s mostly motoring. We don’t really mind, as it’s really very relaxing. The Royal Gardens are a chain of hundreds of small-uninhabited cays with white sand and covered in mangroves. The only people out here are the fisherman and us. For the next nine days we day hop to different cays, entering shallow bays surrounded by coral and see only three other yachts.

What we have really come for is the culinary delight of the sea and it doesn’t disappoint us. A fishing station is approached by Geoff and Ian in the dinghy inside a mangrove inlet. Old rusty ferro cement fishing boats (some floating and others washed ashore), lobster cages piled high and men working out here for days on end. At first they don’t have anything but as Ian pulls out a bottle of rum, suddenly seven big lobsters appear, and Ian finds three cans of coke for ten smiling men.

BBQ lobster served with garlic butter for dinner and wondering if we will get any more. Our next anchorage, Cayo Anclitas, is the perfect horseshoe bay with one other yacht. It doesn’t get anymore natural than this ashore; live conch shell line the waters edge and strange trail marks leave the water and disappear into the bushes. Analysing that they look like bike tracks or maybe the roll of an anchor chain, we ignore and explore. Bugs send us back to the yacht after a stroll in the evening heat and picking up shells.

Not long after we get back to the yacht we have a visit by fishermen and we request ten lobster for two bottles of rum (at only USD4.12 a bottle). With smiling faces they set off to find them.  In the meantime the other cruising boat comes over and asks if we saw the crocodiles on the beach….. instantly there are four very stunned, very still people with mouths open on the deck of Cape Finisterre.

Is it possible to overdose on Lobster?

After half an hour the fisherman returned with 23 lobsters! Lobster omelette for breakfast, lobster salad with Thousand Island dressing for lunch and lobster green curry for dinner. In fact out of eight consecutive meals seven included lobster. We have now gone from healthy hearts to high cholesterol.

We sail onto where the prawn fishing fleet are based in Cayo Cuervo. Once again the big ships are approached and the heads are shaking no until the rum comes out. Ian is asked onboard and points to the prawns. Six kilos of prawns later, we have five meals of crustaceans and finally, a very welcome pork chop. Rum has been our best friend to date.

Every cay and anchorage we visited has been superb and all recommended by Jesus the local skipper of the charter catamaran ( Platten de Cuba) we met in Santiago. On arriving at Cayos Machos de Fuera we find a cay that’s a natural habitat for endangered mammals. Ashore a caretaker takes us on an amazing circumnavigation of the island, in and out of mangroves, sighting birds, iguanas and  jutia (tree rats the size of cats) all living with no fear of humans. Fortunately there are no crocodiles. A lot of animals became endangered, especially the tree rat, as they were eaten by Cubans when food was scarce during Castro’s special period of austerity after the full of the Soviet Union in 1991.

After nine days of near isolation at sea, we look forward to returning to civilisation. With a 55nm sail on to the classic city of Cienfuegos we awake to a 20 knot North easterly for a perfect sail along the mountainous coast.  Entering another narrow entrance we sail across the big enclosed bay to the marina. Very interesting architecture awaits us.

Cienfuegos… a time warp

My lasting memory of Cienfuegos is the contrast of beautiful buildings to people still living in a time warp. Arriving in Marina Jagua on Punta Gorda, we are met by stately old buildings that were once the waterfront ‘weekenders’ of the rich pre revolution era. A Frenchman from Louisiana founded the city in 1819 and he encouraged others to join him from Bordeaux, which means the architecture has a wonderful French flavour. The centre is only ten minutes away and our transport is horse and cart. “Clip clop, clip clop” we canter down the wide tree lined Main Avenue passing classic cars and more heritage housing.

This place is so very different to Santiago de Cuba we wonder if we are still in Cuba. But there are reminders; shops are depleted of goods and people queue for bread and quota of eggs. Finding the run down 50’s style ice cream parlour, we observe the locals queued down the street but tourists take priority and don’t have to wait. I guess we are paying more. Don’t expect 50 flavours…only three on offer with one scoop of each in a big bowl with a very old spoon made from light aluminium that’s been battered and bent.

Once again our trip to the market for fresh produce is frustrating but Pip and Geoff enjoy the banter. Pip spies an old women discreetly holding one egg and is called over to see hidden under the shelf a bag full. The ever-present flies are all over the meat and Pip reassures Geoff that they are only houseflies. The leg of pork is purchased, Ian is ripped off, but the smell of stuffed roast pork out on the next island makes it all worthwhile.

Cienfuegos was hit badly by Hurricane Dennis in 2005 but UNESCO came to the rescue with funds to help with the restoration and maintain the integrity of this world heritage site. Although a beautiful city we still found Santiago de Cuba to be more of a living city with all the music, history, and hustle and bustle.

From here we sail out to the next group of islands, Archipielago de los Canarreos and Pip and Geoff’s final destination, Cayo Largo. As we leave, we pass the never finished Soviet nuclear power station; thank goodness as they positioned it right on the waters edge. With the wind astern of us, the gennaker is set for the 45nm sail to Cayo Guano del Este. Between our destination and us, is a naval exclusion zone set by Castro after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles and sponsored by the USA in 1960. We take our chances and cross safely through the zone. The dilapidated Naval Patrol boats would have difficulty keeping up with us.

Arriving at the deserted island for the night we anchor under an amazing rocket ship looking lighthouse. The night is memorable; with little protection the wind picks up and waves toss us about, testing our anchor. As long as I can see that lighthouse out of my starboard porthole I get some sleep but we all have a bad night. Geoff reports that at about 2am the lighthouse lost its generator power for a period. All a bit scary, we leave early to Cayo Largo, the famous resort island of Cuba.  

Remember the song ‘Kokomo’ by the Beach Boys. They refer to Cayo Largo up there with other beautiful spots in the Caribbean. As we enter inside the reef, the renowned beach of Playa Sirena looks fabulous. We anchor off and enjoy the rest of the day in this area of many shades of blues on an expanse of white sand.

Ashore we arrange a tour of the ‘famous’ resorts and although interesting they are run down but all packed with tourists, mainly French Canadians or from the many Spanish countries. Our tour is short and we can’t wait to get back on board and head out into the fabulous waters of the bay to enjoy the best mojito’s and get sand under our feet. The resorts are an all inclusive fair and the system cannot handle casual guests at the bar, hence we all ended up with free drinks.

We had a special time cruising through all the Cuban islands drinking too much rum and saturating ourselves with fresh seafood.

Every port we have called at we have been checked, searched and asked for more paperwork. As this is our last port of call and although all the officials have been very courteous, it’s a bit of an intrusion especially when the smelly sniffer dog is brought onboard as we check out; we assume to see if any locals are hidden on board.

Would we do it again?

We have loved Cuba for all its nuisances and would highly recommend all cruisers and others to visit, especially before it opens up. Our hope for the future, which is also the desire of all the locals we spoke to, that the rush to capitalism is controlled and follows a European model rather than the excesses of the USA.

Cubans are looking for change in the near future. They believed in the revolution and equality for all, which didn’t exist before, they made the most of it and lived happily with what they had, but progress has passed them by. Living standards would have to be the worst for the majority but they are all are given free accommodation, food, education, health and a guaranteed low wage. But this is now not enough. Nothing is wasted and even our empty plastic bottles where treasure to the first person as we left the dock.

Cubans are very welcoming and we soon became part of the underground black market for fuel, produce and wine. We were never very comfortable with this especially when I had to hide in guard century boxes and toilets to obtain fresh food and Ian had to collect fuel, rum and wine  in the dinghy covered in a tarpaulin. Hustlers in the main cities (normally well educated people trying to earn the CUC currency) wear you down. They are desperate for our money but we can’t help everyone. When finally Americans can travel and sail to these shores it will greatly change things and not necessarily for the better.

But before this happens please try and see for yourselves this magnificent paradise still lingering in the 1960’s with all the wonderful things it has to offer; heritage, people, music, rum, cigars and the pristine waters abounding in sea life.

Viva la revolution, viva la future.