Cuba libre
13 March 2012 | Cayo Largo
Fourteen days in Cienfuegos are a long time, unless you have a good crowd around you, most of the „Port Antonio-gang" arrived here almost at the same time. We had to wait for our go ahead from the boat insurance that we are allowed to go west of 90°. Some of the others went to Havanna with their bikes on the roof of the taxi, others flew or went by bus. Havanna seems to be the place, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. We went to Trinidad and thought it was a bit overated, very touristy with the usual traps, an afternoon is plenty. We are planning to go to Havanna by boat after we have spent the hurricane season in the Rio Dulce.
We are now in Cayos Logos, one of the Islands reserved for tourists only, lots of white sandy beaches, beautiful water, palm trees, reefs for snorkeling. Nice, but not the real Cuba, it could be anywhere in the Caribbean. Cubans come here only to work for 20 days on and one week off . There is no school, no hospital or village shop or farm garden anywhere, just Hotels, bars and restaurants and an international airport. All so different to the many islands we went to in the Jardines de la Reina. Or to Marea de Papillon, everyone tried to get us into their houses and sell some of their produce, at dusk the fishermen came swimming out to our boat with eggs and tomatoes and wanted to sell diesel, which they would have swam out to our boat at night, for at least a mile to our anchorage. We have seen a lot of very creative art and handcrafted things and of course the old cars, just amazing!
The marinas are in a very bad state of repair, the tap water smells and is salty, food supplies limited (no limes for your lobster or mojito ). Still, we love to come back to this country, our heart goes out to these wonderful people of Cuba.