January 10 – January 29 2025; 17528 nm and 2141 days after departure from La Rochelle

So, here we were in beautiful Cienfuegos. There was so much to do that the weeks passed by way too fast. Well, that fact was actually pretty good as it made the waiting for our heat exchanger muuuuch easier. Especially for my dear impatient husband Norberto. He can be veery impatient😉.
It was nice to be reunited with the tribe even though they disappeared for a few days to La Habana soon after we arrived. Like almost anywhere else in Cuba we were welcomed extremely friendly by the marina staff. The customs officer surprisingly also wanted to see us. Unusual as we were of course already internationally checked in in Santiago de Cuba. It turned out that guy just needed some entertainment and audience. He made us listening to his unusual love to his mother in law. Bringing her and (fortunately) as well his wife flowers every day. It was a hilarious situation but what were we supposed to respond? We didn’t know, but hey he was a fun person. And anyway after a while we could escape and headed out to town to find something to eat.

For the next morning the Australians had organised a Tuk-Tuk ride to get to the market which took place every Saturday. That was a proper farmers market filled with many products and even more people trying to get the best and cheapest groceries. We were wondering why people sometimes were queuing for veggies while others had the same products but only a few people were buying. After a while we figured the reason was the significant price difference. Most of the veggies were sold more or less everywhere for the same price. When people were lining up e.g. for tomatoes the price was less than half. So no wonder the people wanted to buy those. For us every thing was very cheap. We were fortunate to be able to buy what we wanted. We tried some kind of sausage and bought some pork which was for most Cubans much too expensive. Btw it was extremely tasty and probably the best pork we’ve ever had. At one booth at the very beginning of our market experience we bought some carrots and beet root. With my difficulties in understanding the Cuban accent I gave the guy 1100 (about 3,5 dollars) pesos as I calculated it had to be a bit more than 1000 pesos. But then the guy started to talk and talk and talk. He was very excited and seemed concerned. I really did my best trying to understand but the only thing we managed to get was, that he tried to explain something regarding the bills. At first we thought it was not enough but then we figured he wanted to tell us that we should be careful with the money. I think, he thought I mixed up 1000 pesos bill with a 100 pesos bill (he did not think about the fact that I had just mixed up the numbers) and wanted to make sure that we didn’t mix that up as it was a lot of money. I couldn’t believe that he was so nice and concerned about us. I mean, he could have just taken the money and we probably wouldn’t have even realised that we had spend way too much. Well, in the end we only had to pay 150 pesos (less than 50 Dollar cent) or so. No wonder he was irritated when I gave him so much money. I definitely needed to get the Spanish numbers right and my ears used to Cuban accent!!! Oh, and I only wrote that to show how nice the Cuban people are. One of the reasons why the Cubans really jumped into our hearts.

Sven from Kwilena, whose sister was visiting, invited us to join them for a day trip to Trinidad. It was located on the south shore of Cuba, about 85 kilometres east of Cienfuegos. With the Caribbean Sea and the mountains of the Sierra del Escambrey as its backdrop Trinidad was blessed with lush nature and a great location. Yet it is best known for its well-preserved colonial architecture. Arriving in Trinidad, it felt a bit as if clocks had stopped ticking 150 years ago. The city had preserved its sumptuous colonial homes, its cobblestone streets and its colourful buildings. Since 1988 the city was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and lives since then mainly from tourism. That was something we felt immediately. Many tourists were visiting with us the pretty village and locals were busy trying to sell taxi rides, horse buggy rides, local handicrafts and more. Coming from almost tourist free Cienfuegos we needed to adapt. Therefore our first goal was to find a nice place to have a coffee and eventually some breakfast. We strolled through the historic colourful city and found a really nice place not too touristic one block north of Plaza Major. A nice coffee and a reasonable breakfast made us ready to explore the city. As we had jumped into that day trip rather unprepared we took a local tour-guide. This nice young lady told us a lot about the history of Trinidad and showed us various sights and museums. For me the most special visit was to see the unique works of craftsman Jose Miguel Cadalso. He drew on the history of his native city to create unique wooden fans, inspired by religious art as well as by remnants of slavery. The fans were huge and amazing and we were lucky to visit his home which was like a little museum of his collection of wooden and iron things.

Somehow we have met many non sailing people in Cienfuegos. Right from the beginning we met a few Canadians who lived for the winter time in Cienfuegos. And thanks to our need for coolant for the big engine we got in contact via social media to a nice Swedish couple. They as well live half a year in Cienfuegos and go back to Sweden to their sailing boat for summertime. They were not only able to find the difficult to get coolant for us but also introduced us to many musicians and other locals. That was like jumping into local city life or a short cut to local events. However it was great for us!. Every Tuesday and Friday we went to a bar named Piña Colada to listen to rock music played by the cuban band “Bouquet”. It was a gathering of locals combined with Canadians and a few other non-locals like e.g. us. Only after a week it felt like we had been living in Cienfuegos already for years. When strolling through town or just along the Malacon, we kept running into people we knew. That felt kind a cool and somehow special!! Still there was so much to explore but knowing that we had to wait anyhow for our spare part we could take it slow. Oh regarding the spare part… my dear El Capitano was already getting a little impatient. We were prepared to wait 3 to 4 weeks for the package once it had left Germany. BUT we did not expect that our usually highly recommended SVB company would take more than 3 weeks to finally send the package!! That was indeed a bummer and we were not very amused! Well I guess that’s life and of course we couldn’t do anything about it. So we pushed that away and rather enjoyed the last days with
our Australian tribe. They were getting ready to sail to Panama as they wanted to head back home to Australia this year. Our last tribe-day started with a beer at the marina bar before walking to Piña Colada bar for the live music. When they stopped playing we went for dinner at a little rooftop restaurant named “El Oasi”. It was a great evening especially because Adrian was joining us. He was still suffering from his evil shingles but it looked as if slowly, very slowly he finally got better. Then it was once again time to say goodbye. Always sad but the good thing was that we will be able to see them when we will enter Australia sometime in the future.

Cienfuegos was not just a cool town it was also well located to reach Havana by land. As Havana, located on the north west side of Cuba was not on our path to sail to Mexico we decided to visit the famous city by land. Meanwhile knowing how things including local transport were working in Cuba, we had organised a taxi colectivo to take us to La Habana. That actually is a real cool system. A taxi picks you up from wherever you like in Cienfuegos and takes you to your accommodation in Havana. You share the taxi with max 4 people plus driver. There was also the possibility to take a bus but that strangely enough would have cost the same (20$US/pax) plus getting to and from the bus station, plus 2 hours . That was of course an easy no-brainer. The colectivo was the transportation we preferred. Just for the curious reader. A taxi just for us would have cost between 80 and 120 $ depending on our negotiating skills. Once we had found Damian the guy who was actually organising the rides, it was easy to get to other towns as well. Of course usually the hosts would help to get you a ride but then it could happen you had to pay a tourist addition. Excited about Havana we booked four nights in the big city and another two nights in Viñales. That valley, located near the western end of Cuba was known for its amazing landscape and its laid back vibe. Wednesday the 29th of February pretty early in the morning we jumped in our colectivo and headed to the big and famous city of La Habana.