Leaving Santiago de Cuba

Marea de Portillo, our intended next destination, is about 60nm west of Santiago de Cuba, a good ten hours to twelve hours under reasonable conditions.  Given that we had to collect our despatcho from the Guarda Frontera at Santiago shortly before departure, and we wanted to arrive at Marea de Portillo in daylight, we decided that an overnight passage made the most sense. So, we spent most of Thursday 7 February completing chores and preparing BV for her first passage in over a week.

View from the anchorage at Punta Gorda Marina

Nasty brown spots on the deck – pollution from one of
 the nearby factories.  Scrubbing, even with a variety
 of cleaners had next to no effect but time and plenty
 of green water across the deck eventually did the trick

The anchorage at Santiago de Cuba is very rural and pretty.  But, sadly, the one downside of staying there for any length of time is that one of the industrial chimneys to the north pumps out smoke that produces brown marks on GRP decks.  One of our morning tasks was a last attempt at getting some of the ‘magic pink toilet cleaner’, mentioned in our cruising guide.  Apparently this removes the brown spots easily but, unfortunately, there was none available for us to buy, so we bought beer and rum instead [Ed: NOT for use on the decks!!].  Some friends of ours said that they had used dilute muratic acid to good effect, so Nicky spent a couple of hours with a deck brush.  The results were very encouraging…….right up until the decks dried and the spots reappeared!  Happily, 6 weeks and several very blustery passages (ie when the decks had a good sluicing with gallons of salt water) later, the spots had all but gone.  It’s best not to be too boat proud if you want to visit Santiago de Cuba but it’s a city well worth the stop despite the brown spots and, given time and salty passage-making, the spots will fade! 

Do the Cubans ‘do’ fish quotas? Probably not if these fishing boats are anything to go by!

Whilst we completed our chores and Charlotte started on her holiday suntan, we watched the usual comings and goings of vessels in the bay.  This was further enlivened by a number of small fishing boats being towed in, each so laden down with their catch that they looked as if any wave would sink them.

Nomadica (red) at anchor

We also received a visit from Morgan and Cheryl and their one year old son, Gael.  They had recently arrived in Santiago on their yacht, Nomadica, had seen our OCC burgee flying and had come over to say hello.  Unfortunately, they dinghied across just as we were about to leave, but we ascertained that we were both heading the same way and had similar plans, so we agreed that we would try to meet up further west.

Leaving Marina Punta Gorda behind us

To obtain our Guarda Frontera despatch, permitting BV to sail from Santiago de Cuba to Cienfuegos, we needed first to pay the marina bill.  Given that we’d spent the 8 nights at anchor, this was a lot heftier than one might imagine but comprised 55CUC to check BV into Cuba, 150CUC for two visas, 15CUC for adding a person to the ship’s company and the anchorage fee of 0.3CUC per foot per day.  Nicky fronted up the cash, popped next door to pick up the despatcho and we were all set to leave.  We only needed to roll up the dinghy on deck and unglue the anchor from the silty, smelly mud and we could be off.

Yes, the locals of Santiago really do fish from lorry tyre inner-tubes.  The ‘boats’ are propelled using what look to be table-tennis bats and the favoured fishing grounds appear to be the middle of the main shipping channel, particularly when the tide is sluicing strongly

As we passed Isla Granma we waved, smiled and hello’d to the large fishing fleet strung across the main channel, each man on his own truck tyre inner-tube ‘boat’ and with no mother-ship to keep an eye on them.  It looks incredibly precarious, even in good weather.

El Morro at the entrance to Santiago de Cuba’s harbour

With the fishing fleet behind us, we passed El Morro and entered the open sea again. 

This was Charlotte’s first sight of the castle and, though it wasn’t ours, we felt it was a grand sight and a fitting end to our wonderful time in Santiago.

Sunset at sea off Cuba’s south coast

The overnight passage to Marea de Portillo was generally uneventful other than that Charlotte spent Reg’s first watch on deck with him.  The weather was light, rather too light really, so the passage was more of a motor than a sail.  But the sea was generally calm with a long 2m southeasterly swell that didn’t greatly affect BV but did leave us wondering what the south-facing entrance to Marea de Portilla would be like.  In the end, the dawn arrival at our destination was also uneventful.  The main entrance to the bay is wide and gently shelving.  The buoyage is clear, albeit the main red buoys had been bleached white by years on station, and the anchorage itself is well hidden from the swell by mangroves.  So it was into very still but rather silty waters that our anchor splashed at 0700 on Friday 8 February.  Our first remote anchorage in Cuba.

Marea del Portillo, Cuba

Santiago de Cuba (Part 3)

What a great evening! 

The 1720 ferry from Punta Gorda got us to Santiago just before 1800 but by the time that we had walked up the hill the first bar that we had earmarked as worth a visit was well into the evening’s entertainment.  There was no beer left so we were forced to drink mojitos [Ed:  oh, what a hardship!] and it seemed that the locals were well into their stride as far as the dancing and the music went.  Everyone was enjoying themselves, with the majority up and dancing for some numbers and sitting and watching or joining in the singing for others. We had a lovely time listening to the excellent music and people watching but were slightly surprised when, come about 1930, the band shut up shop, the dancers said goodbye to each other and the bar started closing up.

We took the hint and moved further along El Hollandés until Nicky heard music coming from a side street.  Just off the main road was, what seemed to be a very small theatre or concert venue, with an amplified band bashing out some great tunes.  This was the first place where we realised how important the flute can be in Cuban music. The atmosphere here was much more that of a small concert.  The audience was generally seated (other than when people went to buy beers from the bar) and there was little dancing or audience participation, except for one or two numbers, but everyone seemed to be having a good time.  We certainly enjoyed the excellent band and the powerful female vocalist but after a couple of hours they were all played out for the evening so we headed back out to the main road.

Not much further down the road we came to a small bar with no music playing but looking inside we could see people with instruments.  We thought that we’d risk a look-see and a beer here and by the time we were seated with our drinks in front of us the band had finished their break and were up and running again.

This was exactly the type of music experience we had imagined we would had started planning our visit to Cuba. The venue was intimate, the band playing amongst us, sitting at customers’ tables, and we were almost a part of the band as we drummed on the table along with the rhythm of the music.

Front row seats - they don't get much closer than this!

It was a fabulous way to round off the evening [Ed:  round off? We were there for the best part of 3hours!] enjoying beer and rum to the accompaniment of some very talented musicians. But all good things must come to an end and at midnight the band pulled stumps and we also needed to be making our way home.

Our taxi for the trip back to BV

The Government taxi rank is just outside the cathedral, a short stone’s throw from the bar.  But we managed to find a more interesting ride back to BV and at a far more reasonable rate than the yellow cabs.  Again, we fluked a 1950s American car ride, the second in 2 days; the perfect way to end a great night out in Santiago de Cuba and Charlotte’s second night in Cuba.

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Santiago de Cuba (Part 2)

By the time that Charlotte arrived at Santiago de Cuba airport on Tuesday 5 February, we had been in Cuba for 5 full days.  We’d stocked up on fresh food, explored the city, visited El Morro castle at the entrance to Santiago harbour and spent a day doing chores on board.  Whilst there are always more jobs to do on board (and the blog was by no means up to date) we felt we were as ready as we could be for 3 weeks of holidaying with Charlotte.  We had intended to take the bus up to the airport but a taxi on its way back to Santiago came past and drove us there instead.  We discovered that there is no arrivals waiting area inside the terminal building and so joined the huddle of people outside the doors, spilling onto the roadway.  To judge from the number of meeters and greeters meeting and greeting each other, let alone their respective travellers, waiting for an aircraft arrival is quite a social event.  Charlotte eventually completed all the formalities and was released onto an unsuspecting Cuban public……and then we had to find a taxi back to the marina. George had briefed us that the cost should be no more than 8CUC one way and we had paid significantly less to get to the airport, albeit by day and because the driver was keen to get a fare, any fare, on his return to the city.  But after some hunting round, and giving the government taxi organiser a stiff refusal for his ‘last and best’ offer of 15CUC, a driver sidled up to us and offered us a lift for 8CUC.  Better still, when the taxi turned up near the car park, out of sight of the government taxi organiser it was a somewhat battered but old American car.  Welcome to Cuba, Charlotte!

Santiago de Cuba’s cathedral – Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

The next day, Wednesday 6 February, we braved the 0900 bus into the city with the plan of getting the 1300 ferry back. Again the bus was mobbed with people, despite it being twice the size of the one we had ridden in the previous day, but we made it to the city centre and we all managed to get off together. Mission Stage 1 complete satis. We strolled around the city, stopping first at the market in the hope of buying the pineapples we had been unable to buy the day before.  Success there too and Nicky topped up on guava and fruita da bomba (papaya) as well after hearing how much Charlotte likes both.

After a whistle-stop tour of one of the ‘supermarkets’ to give Charlotte a taste of them, we did a circuit of the cathedral from the outside and peered in through the door.  We hadn’t really planned on going in and we weren’t really dressed for it, so we didn’t want to risk offending any worshippers or clergy. It certainly looks very impressive and would be worthy of a proper visit.  Maybe one for next time!

There are some nice views down across Plaza de Céspedes from the terrace in front of the cathedral

Musicians in Plaza de Céspedes

We took Charlotte down into Plaza de Céspedes to see the boards showing the 1956 vs 2016 photos of the rebels who fought in the revolution and found a band playing traditional Cuban music. They were very entertaining and the music was excellent.  I think Cuba must be one of the only countries in the world where you will quite frequently find buskers play the double bass.

Public bar of the Hotel Casa Grande. We tried to buy ETECSA
 wifi cards here to avoid the queues at the ETECSA shop 
but they had run out.  Not an unusual occurrence we understand

We needed to buy ETECSA wifi cards so that we had an appropriate stock as we travelled along the south coast. In the hope of circumventing the enormous queues at the ETECSA office, we stopped in at the Hotel Casa Grande, right on the edge of Plaza de Céspedes.  But to no avail; they were sold out.  So Nicky braved the crush outside the ETECSA office for a good 15mins and then spent about 20mins inside buying 20x 1hr wifi cards for the princely sum of 20CUC.  Oh the joys and efficiencies of the communist/socialist system!!  [Ed: but at least there is wifi/internet access in Cuba now].

Most of the cars in Santiago de Cuba are still ‘yank tanks’, 1950’s American cars and trucks, and old (but more modern) Russian Lada and Moskvitchs.  However, there are a good number of truly modern cars on the street here, mostly government taxis, and new lorries with the manufacturing label ‘Sinotruck’.  Guess where they’ve come from!

We all enjoyed our wander around the city, gently breaking Charlotte into holiday mode.  It’s quite a busy place, with plenty of traffic and even on our third visit Nicky and I still got a kick out of watching all the 1950s ‘yank tanks’ driving around.

Cigar production in the corner of a cafe

We stopped for a coffee in a small, dark, local café and were almost immediately befriended by a woman who spoke some, but not much, English (though better than our Spanish).  She asked us if we danced, despaired of our saying we had 2 left feet each, directed us to a dance school and gave Nicky a short, on the spot, salsa tutorial.  At the back of the café 2 men were making Cuban cigars: one filling and rolling them and grandpappy pressing them.  It’s another world…..

Left: Nicky gets an unexpected salsa lesson.  Right: Grandad presses the newly rolled cigars

El Holandés , known to us as ‘Music Street’

Coffee drunk and salsa intro complete we headed back towards the ferry via El Holandés, which we later dubbed ‘Music Street, on a recce of places to listen to live music in the evening.  We found plenty of promising looking places and it seemed that they opened early and very closed late.  Clearly, an afternoon snooze back at BV to prepare for a frenetic evening of toe-tapping and mojito drinking was in order.

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

El Morro Fort Santiago de Cuba

On Sunday 3 February we decided to visit El Morro, the fort that dominates the entrance to Santiago de Cuba’s harbour.  We hadn’t anticipated that getting a taxi would be difficult but we had no joy, even with the help of the doorman of the hotel next to the marina.  He tried several options but apparently all of his usual taxi contacts were busy or enjoying a Sunday off.  The solution was motorbikes!  A couple of lads from the village were roped into giving us a lift up to the fort, wait for us to walk around it and then to run us back again.

El Morro with surrounding glacis and moat and remodelled drawbridge

El Morro is clearly in the cruise ship circuit of attractions because there were several large coaches at the car park where our taxi-motorbikes dropped us off.  We ran the gauntlet of souvenir stalls, declined the furtive offers of ‘the best cigars in Cuba’ and wandered up to the fort.  It isn’t nearly as impressive from the land side as it is from the sea.  Built between 1540 and 1550 it was needed to protect the important natural harbour, used for the valuable sugar and tobacco trades, from the attentions of buccaneers, pirates and French Corsairs.

The land approaches were defended across a wide dry moat and the thick walls bristled with cannon of various sizes to ensure that any unwelcome ships trying to enter the narrow entrance to the harbour would quickly see the error of their ways.  Santiago de Cuba was not the only part of Cuba subject to attack and El Morro was built as part of a 16^thcentury bolstering of defences across Cuba in response to repeated raids.

Top left: Looking inland over the harbour.  Top right: El Morro lighthouse. Bottom: Santiago de Cuba International Airport (indicated by the red arrow)

Looking inland over the harbour. The marina is visible
in the centre of both photos

The ramparts give an excellent vantage point.  From here we could see the El Morro lighthouse and the small Coastguard station we had talked to on our way into the port.  We could also see the Santiago de Cuba International Airport, into which Charlotte would shortly be flying.  It couldn’t be more conveniently close to where we had anchored BV at Punta Gorda.

We also had great views down over the first part of the harbour.  The main port area and city is out of sight around the corner but we could clearly see the marina and the approaches where we had sailed BV.

The fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has been very carefully excavated and restored.  Despite this and all the coaches in the car park, as you can see from the photos, it was not busy and for most of the time we seemed to have the place largely to ourselves.

The roller ramp used to move the heavy cannon
 balls up to the ramparts

Stepped down the hillside, each of the fort’s terraces has commanding views of the harbour approaches and adjacent coastlines.  The angles of the fortifications gave overlapping arcs of fire for the cannon and inside one of the rooms a mock-up of a clever roller ramp had been built to show how the heavy cannon balls were moved up to the firing positions to keep the cannon supplied with ammunition.

Also inside the rooms were various displays.  One showed the history of the pirates from which the fort was protecting Santiago de Cuba. Infamous Caribbean pirates such as Henry Morgan, Piet Heyn and Francis Nau, and even Sir Francis Drake, all threatened the lucrative trading port.  Piet Heyn was particularly successful leading a Dutch fleet right into Havana harbour and plundering the Spanish ships anchored there.

Back outside, looking down from the upper batteries of cannon, it was absolutely clear that this fort was all about protecting the approaches to the port.  We wanted to go down to see the lower terraces but there was no-one on them and no obvious route down.  However, remembering some advice we had been given, we asked one of the staff members if we could explore those parts of the fort.  A young guide was duly tasked with opening up the doorways to various passages so the we could walk right down to the lowest terraces just above sea level. Apparently it’s normal for large areas of Cuban museums and tourist attractions to be closed up to save on staff to watch over them.  However, for the most part they will be opened up if you ask.

But, whilst the fort was built to protect against a 16^thcentury threat, this area of Cuba has seen military action much more recently.  On 3 July 1898, the Battle of Santiago was fought here, the largest naval engagement in the Spanish-American-Cuban war and a defining moment in the conflict. Paintings in one of the fort’s rooms show the American ships destroying the Spanish Caribbean Squadron and maps show where the wrecks now lie.

The view back up to El Morro from the marina at Punta Gorda

We spent much longer walking around the castle than I think our motorcycle riders had expected.  As we made our way back across the drawbridge over the dry moat we bumped into one of them who had come to look for us, much relieved that he hadn’t lost us.  Back at the carpark, both riders were clearly more than ready to transport us back to Punta Gorda and to get on with enjoying the rest of their Sunday afternoon and spending the proceeds from their impromptu motorbike taxi service.

BV at anchor in the harbour

Impromptu it might have been but it had worked very well for us.  We had enjoyed an excellent afternoon out and without the motorbike taxi service we wouldn’t have had time to visit El Morro before Charlotte arrived.

El Morro Fort, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Santiago de Cuba (Part 1)

Ferry dock middle foreground by the red truck

We had arrived in Santiago de Cuba on Thursday 31 January and Charlotte was due to join us on Tuesday 5 February, so we had a few days to explore the city, recce for the mammoth food shop we needed to do before Charlotte arrived and do some of the long list of jobs on the boat.  With Charlotte arriving in the evening of 5 February, we essentially had 5 full days to do everything.  It sounds like a long time but the days passed in a flash.

Task number 1 was to recce Santiago city for food shopping, tourist sites, bars, music, everything really. The easiest way into the city is via the ferry that runs from the quay close to the marina in Ensenada Gaspar. The quay is used by lots of ferries each day en routeto or from Cayo Granma in the centre of the harbour.  Only 3 ferries run to Santiago, departing at 0620, 1220 and 1720 and returning from the city at 0700, 1300 and 1800.  Not wishing to be up at dawn, we caught the 1220 sailing, planning on returning at 1800. For the princely sum of 1CUC per person each way we had nearly door to door service and a great view on the way in (a taxi is about 10CUC each way).  At this point we had no Cuban currency but Nicky approached some German sailors who were at the marina bar and swapped a €5 note for a 5CUC note. In terms of exchange rates, they did slightly better out of this deal than us but at least we could now get into town!

The ferry dropped us close to the cruise ship dock and from here we strolled up the hill to the centre of the city.

Top: buildings in various states of (dis)repair line an atypically empty street.  When we visited
Santiago was busy with pedestrians and traffic and a surprising number of horse-drawn carts.
Bottom: Fidel Castro’s principles of citizenship painted on a wall overlooking the market building.
We had previously seen a sign with all the principles written on it in the Guarda Frontera
office at the marina

Santiago de Cuba is not a wealthy town and there’s plenty of industrial activity around the harbour [Ed:  and BV suffered from the smoke-stack outpourings from one of the factories in the form of brown spots all over her deck].  As we walked up the road from the harbourfront, we noted that whilst many of the buildings were in use, few of them outside the main city centre had seen any form of exterior maintenance over the past several years and many were just shells.  However, there were plenty of people around and the roads were busy with cars and lorries.  Most of the vehicles were of 1950 American vintage or marginally more modern Russian Ladas and Moskvitchs but we also saw a good number of truly modern cars, primarily government taxis.  There were also plenty of scooters, some motorbikes and bici-taxis and a surprising number of horse-drawn carts.

Plaza Céspedes with (right) a bank (orange) and the Hotel Casa Grande (white) and (left) the cathedral.  In contrast to lower down in the city this plaza and some of the area further north has been smartly renovated

Our first port of call was the Cadeca (currency exchange office).  Cuba has 2 currencies, both closed, – the CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso), which was introduced for use by tourists, and the CUP (Moneda Nacional), local currency.  There are 25 CUPs to each CUC.  Now, most shops have prices in both CUC and CUP but in the markets items are priced in CUP; using the CUC here would be madness – we bought a papaya for 7CUP (0.28 CUC) and a pound of tomatoes was priced at 5CUP (0.20CUC). Apparently, the government is trying to move the whole country to the CUC but given the prices of food in the markets, and what we saw of rural Cuba later on, quite how (or whether) that could possibly work we can’t see.  Right now, the big problem is that Cubans working in and around tourists have easy access to CUC being tipped and paid for their services in that currency. However, the average monthly wage is, apparently, the equivalent of about €30 which doesn’t go far should you want to buy, say, UHT milk (price approx. 1.50CUC per litre).  It could be argued that having the 2 currencies is helping to turn Cuba back into a country of haves and have-nots, which is usually the unintended consequence of such a monetary policy, but presumably the same sort of thing would be happening even if there were just the one currency and, quite likely, the local food markets would suffer more from food price inflation. Either way, Cuba’s transition from Fidel Castro’s communist country to a more modern era of (semi-?) capitalism is going to bring difficulties to many.

Heeding the warnings in our guide book about possible problems with credit cards (though it seems that the issues relate primarily to US issued cards), and also noting that currency exchanges from the US dollar to CUC incur an additional 10% punitive charge, we arrived with some Euros.  Nicky exchanged those into CUC and then converted some of these to CUP.  In hindsight, we should have checked out the prices in the market before heading to the Cadeca.  We exchanged far too much into the local currency and had to work hard to spend it, frequently using it to buy goods priced in CUC and CUP in ‘supermarkets’.

Plaza Dolores

We took a stroll around the town, passing the Plaza Dolores where our sailing guide recommended we stop in the afternoon to listen to music.  In the morning there were no musicians and few other people either.  In the afternoon it was busier but and there were plenty of people sitting with instruments but not much music being played.

Taverna Dolores

By this stage it was well gone our lunchtime, so we stopped at Taverna Dolores to eat.  It was very busy with locals which buoyed our hopes and the surroundings were most attractive.  However, the food, when it came, was very average (I think our sailing guide would say ‘typically Cuban’) – roasted or fried chicken, fried plantain, rice with beans and a small tomato salad, plus a beer each (Cristal, rather good lager).  Total cost about 20CUC – tourist prices, there is a cruise ship dock here.

We spent the rest of the day doing a recce for food shopping.  There are lots of ‘supermarkets’ in town.  They each seem to sell slightly different stock, though there is something of an overlap in stock between the different shops.  We found the shelves full and the aisles often stacked high with more boxes of stock but on closer inspection one entire row of shelves might be filled with just one brand of, say, tomato puree. But the basics were all easy to find. Tinned tomato products, pasta, rice, fruit juices and fruit drinks (though the range was variable).  We didn’t find UHT milk at all in Santiago, the nearest we got was evaporated milk, and some friends of ours visited 6 shops in Cienfuegos before finding washing up liquid, but we did find capers and pichos (very good, small Spanish breadsticks for eating with dips) and, of course, rum.  But rule number 2 about shopping in Cuba is: if you see it and need it, buy it.  If the locals want it, they buy in bulk because they don’t know when the next shipment is due and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

As the afternoon drew to a close we headed down the hill towards the ferry dock, finding a government ice-cream shop, Coppelia, on the way.  The ice-cream was average, the flavour a version of chocolate or a version of chocolate, but the price – 2CUP (about 6p) for 2 scoops – was incredible. I can see the strap-line now: ‘Communism – ice-cream for all’.

The Revolutionary Fighters’ Museum (or some such similar name)

This area of Cuba is where the 1956 revolution had its heart.  Indeed, in Plaza Delores we had seen a large display celebrating the 60^thanniversary of the revolution, feature pictures of the revolutionary fighters then and in 2016.  Santiago also houses a museum dedicated to the revolutionary fighters and we searched it out as we wended our way down the hill (and back up again a bit, though some particularly rough-looking parts of town). Unfortunately, by the time we found it, the place had closed for the day and we never made it back there.  Another one for next time.

Various people we have spoken to and books we
have read have said that buying fresh produce
 in Cuba is really difficult.  In some places that
may well be the case but find a population centre,
especially a city, and you will always find fruit and veg
 markets.  This is just some of the stash that we bought
before Charlotte arrived – but Nicky bought with an eye
on not getting more before reaching Cienfuegos
in a couple of weeks’ time

So, if rule number 2 for shopping in Cuba is to buy what you need/want when you see it, THE best tip for shopping in Cuba became clear a couple of days later when we went shopping for Charlotte’s visit with one of the other cruisers in the anchorage.  John had said that he needed help locating fresh produce and offered to show us where to jump off if we took the bus into town.  At a much more convenient time for the markets than the ferry schedule, the 0900 bus from outside the Hotel Punta Gorda is definitely intended for locals.  The price into town is, technically, about 0.7CUP (approx 0.3CUC or about 2p) but we weren’t looking for the change from the 2CUP we passed the driver!  The 3 of us and about 12 locals got on the bus at the hotel.  By the time we got to town and John was shouting at us to get off from his position at the back of the bus (where he had had to move to make room), the crush of passengers made the Tokyo Metro in rush hour look positively empty.  We managed to squeeze off before the bus spirited us onwards and headed down the hill to the market.  John had no CUP so we subbed him and were repaid in CUC (excellent, some of the mountain of CUPs spent!).

We hit the market first, guessing that there would be more produce available earlier in the day.  Nicky whistled around like a whirlwind with John following, somewhat shell-shocked, in her wake, occasionally asking the pack-horse (me) what something was.  Disappointingly, there were no pineapples (we should have bought some on our first visit, see Shopping Rule 2) but there were oranges so Nicky bought lots.  They were excellent and, interestingly, they were pretty much the only oranges we saw in Cuba.  We bought some excellent papaya (or fruita da bomba as it is called in Spanish-speaking countries), guava, mountains of long-lasting veg like cabbage, carrots and peppers and plenty of other things that wouldn’t last so well.  We were surprised, and pleased, to find lettuce but the onions were small and damp and still had their leaves attached.  We bought some but the onions from St Martin lasted far better.  Potatoes and eggs are difficult to get hold of in Cuba but in every market we visited someone would sidle up, a bit furtively, almost as if he were about to offer to sell you something on the black market, and whisper ‘patatas?’, ‘huevos?’.  Show an interest and he would rush off and bring in the goods or he would whisk you off to a back room to show you the stock and complete the transaction.  So much fun!

But that TOP TIP for shopping in Cuba? Bring your own boxes or plastic bags to take meat home and egg boxes for eggs.  Bringing shopping bags for the fruit and veg is pretty obvious but you need them and the stallholders will just tip your produce into your bags once they have weighed it.  Egg boxes, again, are pretty standard requirements for shopping in markets as eggs frequently come on trays of 30.  But bringing bags/boxes for your meat?  We hadn’t even thought of that……right up until the machete (and pork bone shards) had stopped flying and the ‘butcher’ turned to us with outstretched hands clasping our 2kg ish of fresh, warm and wobbling pig!  Now what to do?  Happily, Nicky had the purses and valuables in a plastic bag in the bottom of the rucksack which could rapidly be pressed into action for a more urgent cause. [Ed:  we vowed not to forget to take boxes for meat when we shopped again but, inevitably, we did forget when we were in Cienfuegos.  However, there we discovered that the markets usually have a lady standing outside selling plastic bags, so all is not lost, though on that day in Santiago, John had to sacrifice one of his multi-use shopping bags to his purchase of lamb.].

After a quick tour of a few of the ‘supermarkets’, the shopping trip ended with another visit to the government ice-cream shop (another first for John) and a ferry trip back to Ensenada Gaspar and BV, where we managed, somehow, to stow all our goodies in preparation for Charlotte’s imminent arrival.

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba