Return to Cuba

Return to Cuba – March 5 and 6 , 2012

As the sky started to lighten in the east the Cuban coastline and the distant mountains became visible. The shoreline was scattered with the bright lights from the resorts making it difficult to identify the lighthouse at the entrance to Bahia de Vita. As we got closer the steady, if not bright, pulse of the light was discernible. All four boats that had left from Hog Cay arrived together with a fifth approaching from the east.

 Fishermen just outside the Bahia de Vita entrance. Note the Styrofoam hull.

 A campismo at the entrance to Bahia de Vita. These are reasonably priced, rudimentary vacation accommodations where Cubans are given priority over foreign tourists.

 Sail Away, Mascaret and LaRose des Vents V were just a few minutes behind us.

We did not make contact with the guarda frontera until we had taken down the sails and were preparing to make our entrance into the channel. In fact, we called them before they called us.There was no little boat to guide us down the channel as there had been the previous year. Alexi was probably not at work yet. We were on our own. Using the NV charts on a lap top computer as the detail on the chart plotter from the Navionics chart are not very good for the area, we passed through the well-marked channel and had the anchor set by 7:30 AM next to Suncast who had arrived the day before but not yet checked in.

We had our morning coffee and tidied up the boat in preparation for the officials to come aboard. Just after 8:00 AM the shuttle brought Dr. Rolando out. Prior to leaving Hog Cay we were able to use our kindle e-book reader to access the internet via the cell phone tower at Duncantown and send an email to let him know that we were on our way and would arrive in the morning. We each filled out a basic questionnaire about our health plus one for the boat and were given our Libre Platica meaning we could go to the dock and continue with the check in procedure.

Libre Platica

Dr Rolando was excited to see us. We spent more time visiting than doing official business before Tom delivered him to the next boat.

The marina staff had to shuffle boats around in order to make room for the six boats that were arriving that morning. The staff on duty were not as efficient as Alexi’s who was on a day off. With the help of the cruisers space was made to fit everyone in.

At the dock the rest of the officials paid their visits. One man, whose title I didn’t know, collected our passports and returned with visitors visas. Next we were visited by immigration and customs, two gentlemen that I recognized from last year. They asked for a count of GPS, VHF, computers, SSB radios and SAT phones. We gave them each a copy of our boat registration. I had to set up my computer and printer to make the copies while they waited as I had forgotten that the registration had been renewed and the copies I had on hand were outdated.

Aduana

The drug dog was a pretty, all black cocker spaniel. She was very methodical and thorough as she sniffed her way around the cockpit and interior of the boat. She was followed by her human colleagues who examined the more easily accessible under bed storage spaces and lockers. They were satisfied that we were not bringing any contraband items or persons into the country.

The veterinarian did not need to come on board as we had no live animals on board. The representative from the department of agriculture said he would see us the next morning.

The flamboyant Tina was no longer working in the marina office. She had been transferred to a position on the big tourist catamarans (a.k.a. booze cruises) but was at the marina that day for some computer training. She was happy to see us and said that she would rather be at the marina full time. No doubt she will earn more tips on the catamarans, especially with her personality, but will have to work harder.

We arranged for a taxi to take us in to Guardalavaca so we could go to the bank and get some Cuban currency. We wanted convertible pesos and national pesos. We tried to do both banking transactions at the cadeca in the Camelon resort but they do not do credit card transactions. We had to go to the bank first to get the convertible pesos then back to the cadeca to change some of them into national pesos. The taxi driver was quite willing to shuttle us back and forth without asking for anything above his standard fee of $15 CUC as well as waiting for us as we had lunch on the beach and spent some time in Guardalavaca before heading back to the marina.

The next morning the agriculture inspector and his trainee wanted to see our fresh fruits and vegetables. They made a few notes but did not take issue with anything we had on board. We have heard from other cruisers checking in at Varadero that they had had their supplies of frozen meat sealed and uncooked eggs confiscated.

M de Agricultura

 They gave us this document that we needed to keep for presentation at our next port.

We signed a marina contract for 15 days with the option to do an extension if we decided to stay longer. The daily rate of .65 CUC per foot included water and electricity. The other fees we had to pay were $20 CUC for the customs inspection, a $10 CUC stamp fee for temporary importation of the boat, $5 CUC for the veterinarian/agriculture inspection and $15 CUC each for the tourist visas.

We joined Sail Away when they made their bank run to Guardalavaca. They had the misfortune of having a credit card declined and only saved it from being destroyed by being fluent enough in Spanish to convince them to hold it until a call could be made to the bank to have the problem sorted out. Making an international telephone call from Cuba can be an expensive challenge. First you need to locate an international phone. Then you need to purchase an international phone card from an etecsa outlet. The charge for the call is $1.40 per minute. A $5 card will not last very long, especially if you need to call an institution that uses an automated system to direct your call or you get put on hold. After several attempts it was determined that the card could not be reactivated and the bank either would not or could not send a replacement card to Cuba. We never travel with only one credit card.

 I tried to collect the ingredients to make my own mojitos and was getting directions for a supply of fresh mint from the cashier in one of the little tiendas when his friend, a horse and buggy driver, offered to take us to the residential side of Guardalavaca where he thought we could get some from a local garden.

 A typical ponchera where the locals get their tire repairs, no mint garden in sight.

Our transportation waiting patiently while we took the driver for a drink,

.... bought loaves of crusty bread for 8 national pesos or about 32 cents,

... and fresh vegetables from the back of this truck.

We never did find any mint.

Back in the tourist market I purchased a music CD by the well-known Cuban musician, Pablo Milanes. I was assured that it would be a good choice if you like “feelin” music. According to my guide book “feelin” is a recognized category of Cuban music. My other purchase was an original print on banana leaf paper done by one Orlando Carralero Glez, an instructor at the art college in Holguin. It was refreshing to find a piece that has not been mass produced and the subject matter is not a classic American automobile. The artist assured me that it would not be necessary to have an official government stamp to take his artwork out of the country.

Marina Vita