Life in a Cuban Town

We hadn’t really planned to spend quite so long in Cienfuegos, however one of our guidebooks calls it the Goldilocks City and I think that is very true. For us it has just enough tourist action to have some nice restaurants and amenities, whilst also giving us exposure to real Cuban life and a great community around the marina.

 

Punta Gorda near the marina

We ended up spending 23 nights anchored off the Marina Marlin and it was a real challenge to leave, especially when good friends arrived and we had made so many new ones at the marina and around the City. We did both get a horrid cold after we spent the day in Trinidad with European tourists that put us out of action for a week, but mostly we had a fantastic time sightseeing, socialising with the other yachties, going out for fantastic music nights and getting a few jobs done here and there around the boat and helping some others along the way.

The anchorage at Cienfuegos with the Jagua hotel in view

Everyday we walked the Malecon to town we would pass the famous Coppelia Ice-cream parlour, finally one day the queue was less than 20 people so we ventured in. Coppelia is the government run ice-cream chain that was established back in 1966 and has held a monopoly on ice-cream for 50 years, however now private ice-cream parlours also exist. At Coppelia you stand in line and are allocated a table, often you share a table with strangers and chat while you wait to be served. A bowl or glass of ice-cream starts at 2.50 CUP (about 10 cents) for three scoops. The atmosphere is noisy and very social, most of the Cubans had several different bowls on the go – this place is cheap even for them. It’s a great mixture of people from all walks of life - kids in school uniforms, teenagers winding each other up and comparing pictures on their phones, scruffy looking street workers and government officials all seated together with bright coloured plastic bowls and often bags of groceries around their feet. We of course went back after our first to try the different flavours, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla!!

Street art picture of Cienfuegos on the Prado del Paseo

Ice- cream an Coppelia

On the Malecon we also got to know many of the bici-taxi drivers – one who called us ‘Marina Marina’ and another called Andrew ‘Captain Camino’ – they’d often stop for a chat and a laugh or just give us big waves. There was also Dario, a taxi consolidator we never used, but always had a big smile and time for a chat. However, one of our favourites was Gianni. He was a tout for one of the tourist restaurants and when he learned we lived on a sailing boat always had a hundred questions, first off it was the usual ‘Cuban questions’ what about when you want to see a doctor or about your friends (very different to the pirate and storm questions we usually get), but he wanted to know about everything from sleeping, routes, phosphorescence in the water at night, and food – he checked in with his girlfriend who said she didn’t fancy it as she can’t swim – I think he was quite inspired! It’s so nice when you have been so long in a town you stop being treated as a source of cash and find friends all over town. Even in the market they stopped trying to over inflate prices for us. I admire that they will try and charge in CUC what is a CUP price – ie 25 times more but we have been in Cuba long enough to know the costs and only occasionally get caught out.

We had planned to leave so arranged a final night out with John and Ada from the Rhapsody. It was also Ada’s birthday the next day so we went back to our favourite restaurant; Dona Nora and received a really warm welcome from Yarek, the owner. After dinner we headed to the Teatro Café Terry where the Salsa was just starting at 10.30pm and wow can the Cuban’s dance. We sat in the courtyard and watched the fantastic band and dancers, many of whom didn’t know each other, they just danced then parted – very transactional. Ada and I thought we’d brave a bit of a dance and had a lot of fun, even though we were no match for the locals.

Salsa night at the Teatro Cafe

We didn’t end up leaving, maybe something to do with a very late night, but instead decided to go and explore El Nicho. A national park area in the Sierra del Escambray mountains with waterfalls and swimming holes. We couldn’t imagine there would be much water as we have not had a drop of rain since we arrived in Cuba but it’s always good to get into the countryside. We drove out to the mountains via the bustling market town of Cumanayagua, which was where our driver Yuniel was from. On arriving in the mountains Yuniel took us to his ‘friends’ restaurant where we had a fantastic countrystyle buffet lunch – he joined us and ate huge portions and kept recommending more things for us to try on the rustic counter. After lunch we all enjoyed a Cuban Coffee – he went for a nap while we had to hike the falls! The area was absolutely stunning and going in the afternoon there were not many tour groups so we had the top pool all to ourselves for quite a while. It was really a magical spot and the falls were numerous and so pretty. Yes we were impressed and clean too.

 

Lunch with Yuniel

Mirador lookout

clean sailors

On the way back, when near the market I casually asked Yuniel if they might have limes for sale here….. The Cubans always have a solution for everything you put their way. Yuniel stopped a few people in the street to enquire about the availability of limes – no luck, but no problem…. On the way out of town he pulled off the road pretending to go for a pee and ran into a field and filled his t-shirt with limes for me. Sadly they turned out to be oranges that were just very small but the thought was there and definitely genuine, just no good for Mojitos.

Escambray Mountains

Saturday night is a big night in Cienfuegos, we went out for dinner at another of our favourite spots – Casa Prado and tonight had dinner on their roof terrace with live music, including a fabulous flute player. Then we walked the Malecon with every other person in the City. It was a fantastic atmosphere; music, laughter, games and the odd bottle of rum being shared. We really enjoyed watching the innocent fun as the teens use this promenade alongside the bay as their social club, all amazingly well dressed with mostly brand new designer trainers, no trouble just laughter and music. Back near to the marina we paid 2CUC to go into the ArtX venue where there was a live show, complete with cabaret dancers. Later the stage was handed over to the locals for dancing to music videos on the big screens, it was fun despite the arena kind of looking like a prison.

Prado at night with horse n carts

the city at night is lovely

Social club on the Malecon

Cuban entertainment

Sunday is of course a family day and Punta Gorda is the place to go. Right at the end of the Malecon, past the lovely mansion houses and hotels there’s a tree shaded park on the water. There’s small food stalls cooking up all sorts of snacks, a bar area and then huge groups sitting around picnic style while the kids swim off the rocky beach. Many people who live in this town live in apartment blocks so I guess getting out and enjoying all these lovely open spaces is what they do and it creates a sociable atmosphere in all the public places; as Cuba becomes more free I really hope this doesn’t change.

Punta Gorda - Family Fun Sunday

Punta Gorda

It wasn’t all fun fun fun though, our fresh water pump decided to pack up again – and much to our delight our favourite Oyster representative is back in his job and was able to get us some support so we could shower. We also spent hours at the hotel Jagua trying to research insurance as our insurance is up for renewal and the company we are covered by can no longer cover Australian yachts – it all sounds a bit dodgy to me as there is a duopoly in Australia for the cover we need and it’s ridiculously expensive. It’s really hard trying to do stuff like this living in Cuba!!

With Crystal Blues, Tara and Rhapsody at Marlin Bar

Our favourite band Esceive at the Club Nautico - we could hear them play from the boat most nights

We heard that Neil and Ley on Crystal Blues were coming in so we stayed a few more days to catch up with them. We have been in touch all through the Bahamas and Cuba but have always been a few weeks ahead. So we had a great time catching up with them, and on our last night Neil orchestrated a music ‘jam’ at the Marlin bar, then we went out for a fabulous meal and we ended the night back at the Teatro Café for one of the best music nights I can remember.

 

Neil's music jam

Our favourite bar man and a local kid join in the singing

With Ada

Back at Dona Nora - our third visit and always a warm welcome

The music started at 11.30pm and was still going when we left at 3am. ‘Rolo Rivera’ was the main act with his band plus he included what seamed like all his friends that came and joined in with the odd song, tweak to the sound system or a bit of backing vocals. It turned into a huge party that everyone was involved in. ‘Annalie Lopez Cabellero’ was sitting in front of us and when she came on stage and sang with the most incredible voice the audience was stunned. We shared the night with a brother and sister who were out together that we met in the queue – he tried to teach me salsa – I was terrible but had a lot of fun trying to dance with a real Cubano dancer. She was a Psychiatrist and really interesting to talk to, she also introduced me to Rolo as I’m now his biggest fan!

Benny More statuue

Rolo and his band

Annalie

With Rolo

What a perfect end to our amazing time in Cienfuegos – we left at 6.30am next morning to sail West. Our eyes were slightly bloodshot from 3 hours in bed but the wind blew the cobwebs away and when we saw the clear blue water again we were excited for the next leg of our journey.

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