More Varadero

More Varadero – April and May 2011

Prior to leaving Canada in 2009 we replaced the leaky front windows on Polar Pacer. Shortly afterwards they developed cracks around he bolts that held them in place but there was enough adhesive material sealing them in that they did not leak. Tom had another set fabricated and stashed them under the aft berth mattress to be installed at a later date. We had a bit of down time while in Varadero and took the opportunity to cross that job off the project list.

To our great dismay a mere ten days after the new glass was installed cracks developed at the bolt holes again and this time they did leak!  Liberal applications of silicone were required to keep us dry.

It seems like every major tourist destination has a Hop On – Hop Off tour bus and Varadero is no exception. For about the equivalent of five Canadian dollars you can spend a day travelling the 25 km length of the peninsula where the beach resorts of Varadero are situated, hopping on and off as you like.

One of our stops was at a very modern style shopping mall in the midst of the all-inclusive resort hotels. In addition to several high end apparel and gift shops is a well-stocked grocery store with frozen turkeys from Kentucky. My first question was how much demand there would be for frozen turkeys in an all-inclusive tourist area. My next question was “From Kentucky?”  

Some of these wooden carvings are three feet tall. They conveniently dismantle into suitcase size pieces and can be reassembled when you get home.  Ingenious.

We checked out the “other” marina in Varadero, operated by the Gaviotta Group, at the far end of the tourist strip. Its location did not appeal to us at all.

 

It is also undergoing major re-development and not really open for new transient  business.

May Day is a spring festival celebrated around the world and in many cases has become a venue for labor parades and political demonstrations. In Varadero it is marked by a parade down the main road in honour of the working class and the values of unity, productivity and efficiency.

Some of the placards had political messages too.

The parade ended in a downtown park where food and refreshment vendors were set up to cater to the crowds.  By now we were familiar with Cuba’s dual currency system and were in possession of enough national pesos to enjoy lunch with the locals.

Mini pizzas in the making. No choice of toppings. 

 

A mobile beer truck. Bring your own container. The gentleman with the picture of Fidel made a point of telling us that he prefers the older brother over Raul.

Public facilities are almost non-existent in Cuba as far as we could tell and we quickly learned to always travel with a supply of toilet paper in our pockets or back packs.

 We found this toilet not far from the beach in Varadero and it actually had a supply of telephone book pages.

Around 5 PM each evening cruisers are expected to gather on the dock at The Table of Too Much Knowledge for a beverage and to share the day’s adventures. Most evenings they are also treated to an air show above as the sky divers float down to their landing location on the beach or the air strip across the road.

This gathering also featured live entertainment.

Relevant Reading: Greetings from Cool Breezes by Jeananne Kathol Kirwin

When I try to picture a family of six, plus their golden retriever, Jasper, living full time on a boat just slightly bigger than Polar Pacer, I look around and appreciate my comfortable queen size bed, storage space for more pairs of shoes than I can wear and my Sailrite sewing machine.

This is a well written account of one Canadian prairie family’s year long adventure on board a cruising catamaran as they travelled from the US to Cuba then the Bahamas and back to the US. For anyone contemplating a similar experience it is an accurate portrayal of what to expect from living aboard with a crowd. Memories of beautiful sunsets, perfect sailing conditions and halcyon days are sometime obliterated by broken boat bits, seasickness and frayed emotions.

I read this book during our extended visit to Varadero, Cuba. Kirwin’s recounting of their stay at marina Darsena, where we were also docked, is not dissimilar from our experience. Not much has changed in 10 years. Debbie and Lobita are still greeting the cruisers who arrive and providing much appreciated guidance through Cuban officialdom and familiarization tours of Varadero and nearby Santa Marta.

….. and the palm lined alley still leads the way from Marina Darsena to the local village of Santa Marta.

Hello Havana

Hello Havana – April, 2011

When it came to doing road trips from Varadero, Debbie was happy to share her collection of local knowledge with the cruisers on the docks.  She has accumulated a variety of local maps, lists of casas particular where she or others have stayed as well as tips and tricks to make the trip more enjoyable.  A warning about the “Please buy milk for my baby.” scam was most helpful during our visit to Havana. She even made a phone call to Dagoberto, one of the casa hosts, to let him know that a party of four was headed his way and would be looking for rooms for the night.  

The Viazul bus line offers service to Havana from Veradero several times a day. The trip to the central  bus terminal takes just over 3 hours. If you get off at Habana Vieja (Old Havana) the trip is about half an hour shorter.

The ticketing system is pretty basic (a rubber stamp on a piece of adding machine paper with the date and time hand  written on it) but the buses are air conditioned and quite comfortable.

The highway from Varadero to Havana follows the northeastern coast line. Other than a few fishing boats and some small freighters in the Port of Matanzas, there was very little marine traffic in sight.

DIY pina coladas at a roadside refreshment stop. The bartender fills glasses with mix. Several bottles of Havana Club rum circulate among the customers so they can mix “to taste”. We are still about an hour from Habana Vieja (Old Havana), enough time for a nap if you need it.

We disembarked in Old Havana and made our way on foot to the address we had for Dagoberto  in Centro Habana, just on the edge of Habana Vieja. We arrived to learn that his rooms had been rented to some prior arrivals but not to worry, he knew someone close by with rooms available. Rooms are first come, first served because too many people never show up and they can’t afford to pass up customers. That’s just the way it is.

We stayed at Casa Marie Elena and our travelling companions stayed across the street at another casa. Marie Elena does not speak very much English which gave us a forced opportunity to practice speaking a few words of Spanish.

 Comfortable is not a word often used in association with Cuban beds. This one was passable. The air conditioner worked well and being located in the center of a block of connected buildings, the room was very quiet. The room had two windows. One opened into a shaft that was open to the sky above, the other one held the air conditioner. After putting many miles on our flip flops exploring Old Havana we slept  quite well.

The location of our casa was perfect for exploring Old Havana.  We were just s few blocks from the Capitol Building on the edge of the busy tourist district with more to see than we could manage in our first three day visit. We could only hope to skim the surface.

We “ooohed” and were awed by the abundance of architectural styles. Yes, much of it is crumbling but it was heartening to see just how much restoration is in progress.  If only I could remember a little more of that first year art history class that I took many years ago at the University of Saskatchewan.

We marveled at the survival of National Geographic magazines from the 1940’s on sale in the booksellers square,

…. drank mojitos at Dos Hermanos, an upscale version of one of Ernest Hemingway’s haunts,

 …. witnessed a little propaganda (Translation: “Every Cuban must know how to shoot and shoot well.”),

…. happened on a wedding spilling out onto a busy sidewalk,

…. were impressed by the local eco friendly laundry facilities,

 …. and were invited to the top floor of a semi-abandoned building for an impromptu personal performance by these local afro-Cuban musicians.

That was day one.

We started day 2 with a visit to the Museo de la Revolucion which is housed in the former Presidential Palace of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

 The building has been beautifully maintained and contains many artifacts purported to be from the revolution. Many of the displays have English descriptions so we were able to understand the gist of the message that was being communicated.

After a few hours in the air conditioned museum we were redy to stroll the streets once more. Live entertainment was everywhere…..

A troupe of colourful stilt walkers posed for pictures on the streets.

A crowd gathered around participants from the celtic festival.

 This travelling quartet entertained us more than once  The gentleman on the left is a veteran of the war in Angola and was in charge of collecting tips. Note the mustard and ketchup improvised shakers.

 An open air stage  was the venue for night time modern theatre.

We saw many signs in store windows advising that they would be closed for most of the next day in order to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of socialism in Cuba at a rally in the Plaza de la Revolucion.  When we asked Marie Elena about the event she confirmed that Raul would be in attendance but we would need to arrive by 6 AM if we wanted to see him. A million people were expected to be in attendance.  We weren’t about to set our alarms but decided to set out after breakfast in the general direction of the festivities and see what happened.

 Several streets were decorated for the occasion. Nothing goes to waste in Cuba.

A bici taxi (pedi-cab) took us towards the site of the big celebration. As we approached we could see that crowds of people were already moving in the opposite direction from us. The streets were lined with hundreds of buses waiting for them. We spent a couple of hours just watching the well behaved  crowds.

 Che was well represented on the many posters carried by the celebrants.

Dagoberto arranged for this taxi to take us back to Varadero.