The Cuban Adventures Part 3: Cienfuegos

After rural Cuba and the isolated islands of the South East coast, the bustling city of Cienfuegos felt like the big smoke! As we anchored just off of the marina we were a little excited to see a couple of other cruising yachts and even a small fleet of charter boats! We were not alone!

We anchored just off the Cienfuegos Marina right next to a half sunk pirate ship!

To Jaiya’s delight, there were many horse-drawn taxi carts in Cienfuegos…

Below: the Cuban kids in their Optimists- old wooden or plastic boats with patched up sails- but they were having a ball all the same

Below: dwellings on the water.

Below: the ornate architecture of the Cuban boom-time is still there, but many buildings are in a state of disrepair…

Below: we found a roof-top terrace bar with the best live music ever!

Some of the buildings are still absolutely spectacular….this is the building with the roof-top terrace bar…

We hired a driver for a day of land-based excitement. We loved the old cars in Cuba, however, a poignant comment from one of the locals did make us stop and think about the realities of owning a 60+ year old car in Cuba. He said “the only people who love old cars, always drive new ones” and went on to explain how hard it was to get hold of oil and spare parts and to pay for petrol. I guess these limitations are the reason that most of the cars we met in Cuba were lovingly maintained and many had original interiors and motors. 

This old girl (a 1951 Plymouth) had a 4 cylinder Mitsubishi motor in her and we were sure we would have to get out and push her up some of the hills inland from Cienfuegos. Still, I wouldn’t have traded this cruiser in for a modern-car taxi even if I could!

I am a little wary of dolphin shows but we were impressed with the one we found east of Cienfuegos. Although the dolphins were, of course, in an enclosure, it was in the ocean, it was spacious and it also led into wide mangrove channels that curved inland as far as the eye could see (not quite freedom but lots of space to swim). The show was good and the female performer told us that she had been training and performing with these dolphins since she was 9 yrs old. You could tell. We decided to pay the extra and swim with the dolphins after the show…

Below: this trick was pretty cool….we were instructed to float on our bellies like sea stars, with straight legs. The dolphins came up behind us, a beak on each foot and voila! we were raised high into the air and then dropped back into the water with a splash.

Next we cruised more hills in the Plymouth headed for some lush rainforest complete with waterfalls and pools…

As we readied to head West from Ceinfuegos, we were foiled in our attempt at fresh food provisioning when we discovered that the markets were closed on that particular day…so we spent an afternoon chasing down the few street-carts that could occasionally be found on street corners. Pineapples and bananas were on the menu!

 

This entry was posted in The Sail.