I can see why cruising boats can get ‘stuck here’ for a while. The city has a lot to do.
Yesterday the humans, after giving me a long needed hair cut, left me to siesta while they headed off into the historical centre of town. They could have easily caught a bicycle taxi for about 1 CUC into the centre, but it is a pleasant enough half hour walk, along the waterfront and then the old covered promenade, to get into the centre of town. Pedestrianised streets radiate East-West and South of the historical centre of town. You know you are getting close when souvenir vender’s start showing up in the centre of the street.
As Cuba gets very few imports the souvenirs tend to be of higher quality and hand made. Wood carvings of antique cars, domino sets and humidors are just a few of the things on offer for ‘fairly’ reasonable costs. A large assortment of the traditional woven short brimmed Cuba hats and also more rustic sombreros that you see the locals wearing. There are also some incredible artists in Cienfuegos. Small and large art galleries are scattered through out the city, with the largest concentration near the centre. The incredible diversity of technique and subject matter is extremely refreshing and exciting. The prices are also incredibly cheap for a wonderful piece of unique and individual art.
The historical centre of the city is a grand architectural statement circling a large shady park. The impressive theatre building is showing the National Ballet, The Cathedral is being restored beautifully and the other Administrative buildings surrounding the square are undercut with coffee and rum bars, cigar shops and more art galleries. There is also a lovely little garden court yard where the humans found some free local music.
A majority of the ‘sort of’ department stores are on the pedestrianised street that runs East out of the square back to the promenade that leads back to the Marina. The road that runs parallel, but just north of this street, has some notable businesses. This is where you will find the 5 peso pizza shops (usually a window out onto the street). Just look for locals queuing. The peso grocery shops where you can buy basics. Eggs (1.1 peso each), flour and rice. We are so used to seeing everything refrigerated and it is funny seeing stacks of eggs just sitting on the floor behind the counters. You do need to bring your own bags and containers. There is also a bakery here. The smell of fresh yeast will bring you to the doorway, if not the traffic it attracts. Every half hour or so a batch comes out of the oven. Locals seem to know the times and start queuing right on time. At 3 pesos a loaf ($0.12) it is not worth baking your own bread on board. Bicycle vendors hang out at the bakery hoping to buy up and excess from each batch. They then tour the local neighborhoods hoping to off load their loaves for a small mark up.
The humans have not yet found the 1 peso ice cream place yet. They heard there was one in town. Although the city is set up on a grid system, when you are new, it is still easy to get a little lost, but they are getting there.
‘It is not that big’.
Today, they ate those words!
Today, after giving me a lovely run on the beach, the humans headed off to get one of their Visa’s extended. The dock master at the Marina had been nice enough to give them directions to Immigration and the Bank where they were to purchase the 25 CUC of Government stamps. They were told in Santiago de Cuba, that they may be able to extend 2 months to match the Canadian 3 month Visa dates. They thought they were all prepared, of course they were all wrong. It turned into a day long adventure and the humans learned just how big Cienfuegos is as they cross crossed it serval times. I think they are going to need a few days off of walking after this, as both have blistered feet. I have asked one of them to do a ‘guest’ blog entry on just how you renew your Visa in Cienfuegos for any cruisers that follow behind us.
When it became clear that getting a Visa renewed was going to take most of the day, the humans split up to ‘divide and conquer’. One continued on the Visa renewal adventure while the other went off in search of the elusive cheese and butter. Vegetable markets are closed on Mondays in Cuba because the farmers do not work Sundays. A lovely lady at the tourist office explained to the one of the humans that dairy products are very limited in availability. Any excess would be sold in only one chain of shops with three locations in the city, including one only a few blocks from the Marina. She did warn them there is a butter shortage right now, so it may not be available to purchase any. No margarine here. All three shops were out. All said maybe tomorrow, maybe not?
And then, after all that running around town, they found some. Guess where? At the shop in the Marina! My human was not stupid and bought the last chunk they had for 2 CUC. The cheese here is young and salty, but still so lovely after over a month without any. I can see between the three of us it is not going to last long, especially with all this cheap fresh baked bread, so I will have to get the humans out there again to find more. And they still have not yet found any butter.
I know that life would be a lot easier for us all if only the humans had made an effort to learn Spanish before they came here. Silly humans!
It does not mean they are not enjoying themselves and having a little fun….even if it is coming with a few blistered at the moment.
