Cuba, Santiago de Cuba – We made it!

We are sooooooo loving Cuba!
I was so worried I would be disappointed with Cuba after hearing other cruisers ‘moan’ about being ripped off and hassled when they visited Cuba’s north coast. They are soooo missing the best of Cuba.
So glad we fought 3 long hard days to get around to Cuba’s south coast, because both the cities and the people are the most beautiful.
I will try and organize my pictures and get my humans to a hotel in the city to post them on the internet, but Cuba is turning out all I dreamed of, especially for those on a budget. And I am surprised how many people speak some English, even in the park playing chess!
We were warned that when we arrived we would spend hours being visited by Cuban officials, but it was a charming pleasure to have them as guest on our boat. We picked up the doctor first. A charming fellow who had even done an intern in BC, Canada. He took the humans temperatures and asked if they had any immunization cards. They are so disorganized; of course they had no idea where they might be. Do not worry the doctor said As long as you have them. Then he entertained us with tales of his overseas adventures and his family. Then he asked to see how we had stored our food to insure we had no contamination. He of course sneakily asked if he could have a can of tuna, Did we have any extra soap? Oh and is that can of beer extra to your needs?’ We had some USB memory sticks (purchased dirt cheap on the Ebay as intended gifts, so we gave him one as well. He was a very ‘happy chappy’ with his little gifts as he left. Next we picked up the Immigration fellow. He was very nervous on our boat. We offered him a glass of coke and he was very grateful. He gave me an unlimited Visa, the Canadian female a 3 month Visa and my British human a 1 month Visa, with the option of a 2 month extension, when it is up, if he could prove he was married to the Canadian. He could not give him the extension until the first month was almost up….the rules. We gave him a USB memory stick and a beer too and he said he would give the beer to his wife because it was official the international day of the women. He told us that customs would come tomorrow, with a drugs dog, to inspect the boat. Well they still have not shown up. We were worried that we had to wait for them, but I guess our gifts smoothed the way, because the immigration officer said they will call him first to ensure we are here before they come, so he insisted we go and explore and he would tell us when they are coming at ‘our convenience’. All these warnings that they would take all our fresh fruit and vegetables, frozen meats and dairy products were bullocks!
George, one of the Marina staff, sat the humans down in his air conditioned office for half an hour and explained the rules, how to identify and use the two types of currency here and the best attractions. He was great! The rules were simple. (1) No Cubans allowed on the boat. (2) You must land your dingy at the Marina only and nowhere else. All these rules seem to be to ensure you do not smuggle any Cubans away. You can walk or travel anywhere you want freely. They also ask that you give them 24 hours notice to check out. An official comes and checks that you are not smuggling any Cubans aboard.
George then told them the best places to visit in the town. Where the markets where, the hotels, the best music, and the parks. He had a friend locally who would take the humans anywhere around town, wait, and then drive them back for 20 CUC (equal to 1:1 US$). He also told them the Marina had paid all the expenses of Visas, cruising permit and etc and that we had only to settle up the bill 5 minutes before leaving. There was an additional 0.25 CUC/foot/day charged on top for anchoring just off their pier. And we are literally spitting distance from the pier when the winds clock round. George then gave us the ‘low down’ on the difference between the tourist currency (CUC) and local currency (pesos). Because the local population is so very very poor there are two different currencies. One CUC = 25 pesos. Local shops, markets and vender’s all deal in both, but often find it hard to find change for the big notes of the CUC. You want a piece of pizza for 2 pesos? You give the vender one CUC and he has to find 23 pesos change. This is very hard for the small vender. So you need to carry a little bit of pesos for these people to make their lives easier. Especially if you want to buy local food and not eat in expensive hotels.
George’s local driver took the humans first to the ‘Cash vendors’ who changes your Euros, Canadian etc to CUC’s and Pesos. Local vender’s give you the same rate as banks, but only deal with currency exchanges, so have no line ups. Then Noel drove them the 10 Km over very rough roads into town. The only salvation is that there is very little traffic. The few vehicles they did see where classics, low CC motor bikes or horse drawn carts.
The town of Santiago de Cuba is sprawling with most of the historic buildings and the Cathedral in the centre. Noel dropped them off in the central square and then parked off a side street to meet back up 3 hours later for a stop at the fruit and veg market before driving them back. The humans headed to the fifth floor of the main hotel in the town centre where George had promised them the best view and Moijtos. He was right. The hotel was expensive at 3 CUCs a drink, but you only needed one to walk funny. The view was over the entire city, the harbour port and the surrounding mountains. The terrace bar was shaded with a wonderful breeze compared to the hustle of the streets below.
Next stop was a peek at the famous ‘live classic music venue’ of Torro House. There was a small group playing but they were told that in the evenings dancing filled the streets outside. They would have to try and get back one evening. Next they headed off into the lanes that criss-crossed the city. They found grocery stores with security monitoring their 2CUC bottles of pickles and veg, but no fresh milk, cheese or eggs. They found music stores selling local CDs and parks filled with people playing games. The young grouped around ancient dominoes boards, while the old taught these looking to improve their strategy skills chess. They all invited the humans to join in, as this was a place to socialize and pass the afternoon under the shade of the trees.
But unfortunately they had only a few hours to ‘get a feel of the town’ before they were to meet their driver to go to the market to stock on fresh veg and fruit. They bought some local pizza (2 pesos), 5 music CDs (4 CUCs each), some Havana Rum, the local carbonated lemon-lime juice and some olives before they met back up with their driver at the Cathedral. Unfortunately no one remembered that the market was close on Mondays. Not a disaster. Noel started hunting the side streets for small vendors. They found some onions, peppers, plantain and papaya. 35 pesos for the lot and it all smelt so good. None of the refrigerated rubbish we had seen since we hit we left the Eastern Caribbean. Now all of this is just our first day in Cuba. We have so much more to explore!
Really loving the place, the friendly people, the music and finally some great culture.

Internet is going to be very difficult. Thankfully we have a SSB radio and great friends. My Uncle Steve and Aunt Helen are going to forward you the blog from their home in England. You may remember they are the ones that kept you all informed during our Atlantic Passage. You can also see them when they visited us in Spain, Canary Islands, Grenada and Florida. We can not send pictures over this system, but I will add them if and when I can. So every time you read a blog for the next couple of months, give a little thanks to them for their added help. end:

The Marina is located near the entrance of the harbour, while the town is set much further back. The Marina: is very basic and most visitors prefer to anchor and use the Marina as their access point to come ashore. The BEST place to anchor is up the river mouth, to the right in this image, and in front of the Marina. Those vessels that anchor in the main channel may find they get yellow particles settling on their decks from the near by factories.

Please see link below for photos, charts and details added once we were able to get internet.

Review of Southern Cuba Part 1- including the pictures you missed