Letter from the Indies: Cruising in CUBA

3:43 AM Wed 8 Apr 2009 GMT

'Armoured speedboat with national flags' Ian & Andrea Treleaven

The Treleavens continue with their tales of sailing the Caribbean, and have just sailed from Turks & Caicos Islands to CUBA.

Our first 24 hours, and Ian feels like he has died and gone to heaven with wonderful music, mojitos and friendly Spanish speaking people. As for me, it is an enlightening experience, full of wonderful images to keep me wide-eyed.

Our sail to the eastern tip of Cuba from the Turks was fast and furious. Once in the lee of the island on the south side we sailed 100nms west to Santiago de

Old fort buildings - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

Cuba.

Half way along we were confronted by the might of the USA Military in the form of a patrol boat armed with machine guns and cannon pointing directly at us. We were passing Guantanamo Bay, the United States Naval Base, and we wished to take a closer look but we were immediately informed by VHF radio that we were close to USA Territory (thoughts go to Rudd and Obama currently meeting; aren't we on the same side?) and to identify ourselves. It actually took the operator six times to obtain all the information.

The ocean boundary is 3nms offshore and extends along the shore for over 8nms. The patrol boat flanked us between us and the shore for over an hour. It was a bit nerve racking watching the 20-year-old gunner with his finger on the trigger, hoping he wouldn't slip on a big wave and pull it by mistake.

Undeterred we sailed on to a very different port of entry. Santiago de Cuba. We were greeted by the historical Castillo de San Pedro Del Morro fort on the steep headland built by the Spanish in 1633 and our history lesson had begun.

Our Cruising Guide has not been revised for ten years and we were expecting a filthy harbour, rickety wharf, officials wanting gifts and if you are lucky some other cruisers for company. This was not the case.

From the moment we entered the fiord-looking harbour, it opened up and with that wow factor! The water is clean, a stunning back drop of mountains, locals at the beach, palm trees everywhere and the marina was full with ten cruising

Marina berths - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

yachts.

What you do also notice is the lack of paint and maintenance everywhere as if time has stood still for 50+ years, although the beauty of the place and the delightful friendly people make up for it.

Once we passed the pleasant officials (lost count of the number) including a Doctor - to make sure we have no diseases - and a sniffer dog, we joined a spontaneous 50th birthday party ashore with a pig-on-the-spit and a whole new set of friends.

Irish Nick on 'Val' is single handing his way around the world and wanted us to join him early the next morning to visit the farmers' market in the centre of the city ten

Cuban cigar - a universal love - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

kilometres away. The main square, Parque Cespedes, is just as we expected: Spanish architecture with some crumbling and some being restored, old colourful classic 1950's American cars and an old woman smoking a cigar.

The first problem to cope with was the confusing double currency. Convertible pesos for tourists, and for locals, national pesos, but to buy at the local markets we needed both. The farmers market is rustic and very very cheap. Farmers have only just recently been able to sell on the open market and although limited, it's seasonal and very fresh. Meat is pork, pork and pork which is going to test my creative skills but at least we will end up with healthy hearts.

Coffee is at the Casa Grand Hotel overlooking the square in 20's style with open veranda and art d?cor lights. Salsa music fills the air everywhere you go. Old men on benches strum guitars. Africans sing and dance to their own tune. Small caf?/bar theatres have day time free shows where locals do their own thing.

One such place is Casa de la Trova where we spend many hours listening and having lunch in the Spanish open air style courtyard. This is the home of Cuban music and many famous bands have

Trova Traditional Cubana - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

emerged from here including The Buenos Vista Social Club whose 70+ year old performers have toured the world. We had not realised it but Cuba is home to mojitos and we enjoyed many. Their idea of rum and coke is a bottle of each for $5.

This was great, and we needed to freshen up back at the yacht and be back in town for the evening session. Our ride back was in a sky blue 1948 Buick; so much fun as the petrol engine roars into life.

I could barely reach to see out the window as I sank into old sky blue leather. Romantic salsa music filled the car. I'm in the movie

Taxi back to the sixties - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

'Grease'. the colourful, cute driver who loves his car said he would back to pick us up.

Colourful ladies of the night, passionate salsa dancing, hustlers teaching the girls how it is done and long mojitos as the bands do their thing on stage; this night should never end. At 2am there were not a lot of cars around, so we took our life in our own hands and got a 1970's Russian Lada which was a beat up heap, coasting down hills to save fuel and on arrival lost its exhaust pipe.

Our next two days were spent at the marina just loving the weather and mucking about. We have no choice but to be

Armoured houseboat - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

moored here as rules state we are not allowed to anchor out and we cannot use the dinghy to explore. But we do however have power, water and Havana Club rum at only US$4.00 a bottle.

Now it was time to see the back streets and what they don't want the tourist to see!! Hiring a driver for the morning we checked out the cigar factory. As luck would have it was the MonteCristo Cigar factory, rated number two in the world behind another Cuban brand, Cohiba.

The factory has 250 employees all producing 100% hand made cigars (totalmente a mano) and they

Busking musician - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

turn out 20,000 a day. Unfortunately they would not let us take any photographs of these hard working locals that earn about US$15 a month.

The back streets show the other side - Dirt roads dug up trying to repair water pipes that have not been touched since before the revolution in 1959, bland Soviet Union built tenements which are free to all Cubans and people reverting to horse and cart due to lack of fuel.

What does come as a surprise is that most people are well dressed. It's just the infrastructure around that is in bad disrepair and one can't help thinking what will happen

50th Anniversary of the revolution - the only billboards - Ian & Andrea Treleaven

if this continues much longer.

The only advertising you see are large billboards with images of the founding revolutionaries including Fidel and Che promoting the 50th anniversary of the success on 1 January 1959. Cuba has been a communist country ever since and the signs of this ambitious and failed dream are everywhere.

Fidel Castro overthrew a corrupt capitalist government that had been sponsored by the USA since 1899. Before these times it had been controlled by Spain, since Columbus arrived in 1492 until the Spanish land owners rebelled against control by Spain in 1868. Another rebellion was led by Marti in 1895 which resulted in the US involvement.

On a happier note the Santiago de Cuba musical festival has just started and this will make our stay very special.

by Andrea and Ian Treleaven

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