Hopping to Cienfuegos

After we headed out of Cayo Largo after a wonderful six days there, it was back to the sea for a little bit to follow the Cuban coast and arrive in Cienfuegos. The first night we anchored right outside of the marina and the beach near the reef. It seemed like a nice spot to anchor during the day time but the winds shifted a little bit and we actually moved in the middle of the night because we were swaying quite a bit. We were able to do an awesome snorkeling session and swimming session right off of the boat. There were some barracudas, conch, lots of fish, and corals right near us. The color of the water was incredibly beautiful. The next day we sailed to a little tiny island where we were rather protected from the waves and the weather. It was kind of a strange experience but there was an Italian boat that came up and anchored really close to us, put their dinghy down in the water and then never came over to say hello. Apparently in the sailing community this is not very common and for them to come up close for what seemed to be no reason was strange. We went for a little night snorkel, not too far from the boat because it was close to sunset, and sunset means it's close to mosquito happy hour where you get eaten alive. So most of the time we would try to be inside and avoiding the skeeters as much as possible. However, during our swim we did do a little bit of fishing finally! We got to fish for lobster. They were pretty easy to spot with their long long antennae sticking out of the rocks. We saw quite a few and had to decide which ones looked the best. I practiced a few times with the spear but had pretty bad aim and am not as good at free diving (swimming really deep without any gear) as Patric was. He could swim down, set up, shoot, and keep the spear with one breath. The first one he got was spot on but the lobster wasn't attached to the spear. After a lobster feels they are in danger they actually come out of their hiding place because they believe that it is no longer a safe place, and possibly they are in a little bit of shock. So the lobster crawled right out into the open ocean floor and we got him again, chopped off his head with the knife, and then found one more. They were absolutely huge and we only ate the tails because I just cannot imagine a pan on the boat that would fit the tails in them to cook!  We made some pasta to go with them and seared them with butter and garlic and they were absolutely incredible. Freshest lobster I've ever eaten!
 The next day before we set out to finish our sail we explored the tiny uninhabited island. We found some interesting things.. Mainly a huge turtle shell, tons of glass bottles of alcohol, lots of trash, broken flip flops, a sting ray, lots of little crabs, and some jelly fish.

We just had one more day sail in front of us to reach Cienfuegos. During the trip... somewhere along the way, I had been getting these bug bites.. I thought they were mosquito bites. They would start as an itchy spot, if i scratched them, my skin would open. The next day there would be a huge mountain of pus, and then the area around it would become all hard... and welp I'll spare you all the other details. but these were breaking out all over my body, including one on my face and actually the bottom of my left leg had quite a few in one area that my whole leg and foot swelled up. I could barely put on my shoes anymore because of the swelling... Sadly we had no Ibuprofen on the  boat to reduce the swelling but I did still take some pain relief and it felt better, but did nothing for them as far as healing. When we got to Cienfuegos I knew it was time to see a doctor.. even though I knew that medicine in Cuba was super expensive, something had to be done. The nurses at the international clinic were very nice but said that they could not write me a receipt for my insurance. And pretty much just gave me simple things that in other countries would have cost nearly nothing but cost me 60 dollars. They gave me some iodine and instructions on cleaning my wounds twice a day, an anti- inflammatory, antihistamine, anti allergen liquid, penicillin, and sent me on my way. They told me to stay out of the sun, not to drink, and to put my legs up for the swelling.. Staying out of the sun is a little bit of a challenge when you live on a boat, but did my best to cover up.. or as good as you can when you are in Cuba. Sadly this was a huge chunk of change that I had to give up but my boo boos did start getting better and I spent some time really trying to get an idea for budget and how many days I could survive with the money that I had not being on the boat in Cuba.

Sailing into the bay of Cienfuegos was a really cool sight. We saw so many Cubans out and about enjoying the water on a Saturday, lots of music, dancing, relaxing, and of course drinking Cubanos. There was a little castle we saw on the hill, some people on tiny row boats, and people out and walking around, and of course some classic cars on the road. It was a Saturday evening when we arrived and decided to find some food off of the boat and have a little walk around. The marina staff again was very very friendly and gave us a nice map of the city. We wandered along the bay and the main street mostly finding convenience stores with pizza, french fries, and Cuban sandwiches. We kept walking and saw all sorts of  people coming to hang out on the malecon and drinking getting ready to go out. We found a little food cart with pork sandwiches, but pulled literally from the roasted pig. They were really good, but tiny, but only cost .40 cents each.

We did a lot of walking around in Cienfuegos. It is a city that was first inhabited by the French so their roads were really large and tons of sidewalks, beautiful buildings, with friendly people. Unfortunately there was no room at the dock, so we had to anchor so anytime I wanted to do something I had to get a ride on the dinghy, so never got to go out, but heard the lovely sounds of the nightlife from the boat at night. It looked like as though it was going to rain every night but somehow it would just pass by us or be around us. So the sunsets were incredible to watch. Every morning when I woke up before Nicole and Patric I would hang outside in the cockpit and watch this team of rowers practice. The coach had a little boat with an engine and the rowers would fly back and forth just behind our boat. There were also fisherman who would pass us on little Styrofoam rafts, paddling really hard for each stroke and it seemed as though it took them forever to get anywhere.

We met a lovely Brazilian/ Portugese couple who had been sailing nearly a year now. Patric and Nicole were really excited to meet them because they hardly ever meet cruisers that are young. They had been in Cienfuegos a little bit and had some tips. We met for some beers a few nights later with them and heard much more about their adventures. They had sailed all the way from Portugal crossing the Atlantic and said it really wasn't as bad as people think. The conditions were good and you just kinda go with the wind. There is a lot of traffic crossing as well, but the big tankers are looking out for you. Joe said he would even set alarms for 15 minutes and sleep inside of the boat during their night watches. They had fold up bikes and tents so are able to do a lot of exploring inland and also do wind surfing. One of the days when it got really windy in the bay, we saw them out windsurfing.. and I'm so inspired to learn now. Looks like so much fun after you get the hang of it. They were so much fun and I was so thrilled when they found me on facebook after I had posted a picture of Patric. Their posts are in Portugese but you can take a look at some of their awesome pictures here:

There was another boat anchored right next to us that Patric and Nicole had met in Guatemala, a solo guy from Wisconsin. He told us a story about running into another styrofoam ish boat just off the coast of Cuba trying to get to Mexico. He said there were about 16 people on it, all very young. A mix of guys and girls. They asked if he could tow them, but sadly he had to decline because if he was caught by the Cuban coast guard doing that, he would be in serious trouble. He did however give them some food, 15 gallons of water, and a bottle of rum. He said they were really appreciative of that, but said he thought it was impossible for them to make it to Mexico based on how the current was going, and how their boat was. After crossing from Honduras... I cannot imagine making a passage in a little tiny boat like that. That is absolutely terrifying but just one example of what Cubans will do to get out.

Another story was from Oscar, who said that it has happened multiple times but girls will put on a diaper or something, put themselves in a box with some air holes, and mail themselves to the US. I'm not sure about the validity of this but according to Cubans, once an Cuban arrives on American soil they are safe and granted refugee rights. So they can be provided a home, and a visa, no questions asked. Oscar said many people do this via Mexico on a speed boat, and pay thousands of dollars. They usually have  a friend who is already in America that they must get to loan them the money until they can get to American and pay back the loan to their friends. This sounds all too common and explains the reason for the strict rules about Cubans not being allowed to enter any boats.

Our first trip into town to get some groceries was quite unsuccessful for the task at hand, however we made an adventure of it. All of the grocery stores and markets were closed because it was late on a Sunday afternoon. We did have a blast walking around and seeing all the Cubans enjoying Sunday Funday/ Sunday Rum day.. well, later I learned that every day was Rum Day! It's not called a Cubano for no reason, but they are drinking Rum & Cokes all over the place. And I should clarify... there is no coca cola, but they have "Tu Kola" which means your Cola and is produced in Havana. Rum is cheaper than buying lots of beers so it seemed to be the usual drink of choice. Like most other countries in the world outside the USA, you can drink in public. So you see people enjoying their drinks in parks, in front of the bay, or really wherever they wanted.

We returned another day into town to try and get to the market that the Portugese couple told us about where you could find fruit and veggies for a steal. Patric also wanted to buy an internet card. In Cienfuegos there was no wifi anywhere. So you buy an internet card from the telecommunication company and then you can use a computer at most of the hotels or resorts. The internet card cost about 5 dollars and is used for an hour on dialup... slow as 1996 internet.. Okay was there internet in 96? maybe more like 99. Then we also found the produce markets finally! I had a huge little celebration dance walking in. I was so tired of pineapple, cucumber, and so excited for a variety.  I completed the pineapple challenge myself. Nicole and Patric didn't eat any of the pineapples that Oscar gave us, so it was up to me not to let them go to waste! Pineapple is also good for swelling reduction so I think it aided my healing process a little bit! I think I ate 8 pineapples in 11 days or so. Patric thought they had a blender and I was super stoked to make some pineapple juice.. however the hand blender was broken... but it added a nice new twist to add some milk, honey, and brown sugar to mix up my normal pineapple slices. I also put a little bit on some pizza that Patric made one night.

Prices in the market were insane. They had huge delicious mangoes for 1 CUP which is equivalent to .04 cents! I think two huge bags of fruits, veggies, two bottles of "wine" came out to be about 4 dollars.  That afternoon we also finally discovered one of the restaurants that Natali and Joe told us about, 1 dollar for a huge plate. I got breaded and fried fish, and comes with the normal, "salad" or four pieces of lettuce, a piece of tomato one cucumber slice, huge plate of rice, and beans. It was really good. Nicole chose the lasagna, and it was very interesting and literally just microwaved. Kinda reminded of the pizza, probably because of the cheese and the sauce. As a general rule when I travel, I try as hard as possible to avoid ordering food from other countries. Like hamburgers in Thailand, pizza in Korea, Lasagna in Cuba, tacos in Cambodia.. It's never quite what you are expecting. It's always best to eat as the locals do, and usually cheaper too!

After doing a big analysis with the money that I had and understanding a little bit more about how much things would cost off the boat.. I finally figured out I could survive about two weeks with the money I had. So I made a plan to finally leave my sweet Southern Mist sailboat home after more than a month being on.

The cost of the sailboat journey, which was all split three ways ended up being around 500 dollars. So that was quite cheap for a month and all the adventures we had together. That included the fuel, food, diving, everything! It was actually pretty sad to leave Patric and Nicole and my little comfort bubble of living on the boat but all good things sometimes have to come to an end. However, I was excited to be back on land again and have the freedom to do whatever I wanted, when I wanted.