Part One: Cienfuegos and Trinidad
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| Passing through this canal entrance to Ciefuegos for the 16th time! |
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| Welcome on-board Songerie, Nico and Motte! |
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| Love Cuban engineering. |
Jaco and I met Nico in 1993, the same year that we met each other. (Making him one of our longest, greatest friends, and at the same time he was Jaco's opposition company back in Namibia) He and Motte arrived at long last after a unforeseen longer stay in Brazil!
From here on for 3 weeks, we shared endless smiles, laughter, mojitos, pina coladas, sunshine and a helluva lot of Havana Club, Anejo Especial rum.
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| Transport to load our shopping, including the huge bag at their feet = carbon...charcoal @ 2.5 U$/bag. |
With Tikaroa being available to look after the dogs and Songerie, we grabbed the opportunity to visit Trinidad by old car/taxi.
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| Nico, Jaco , the taxi driver and the gorgeous old car. (OK the men are not too bad looking as well) |
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| Now this is what I call a mojito. |
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| Sun-downers for tonight, Canchanchara, a cocktail born in Trinidad are made from rum-honey-lime-soda water served in a ceramic cup. |
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| Cuban cocktails, friendly staff, live salsa band and a pig on a spit.... Cuba. |
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| And this a Piña Colada. |
We stayed in a "casa particular " on the brink of the old city.
Nico and Motte's room reminded us of the purple silk interior of a casket! Never the less, it was clean and comfortable.
We strolled around town all day long, visiting sites, buying hats, souvenirs and unwinding now and again with a cocktails and live music.
After a light supper we joined the young crowd around town square, listening to various bands, quenching our thirst from street cafe's with mojitos and pina coladas.
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| Street cafe with salsa bands all around the clock. |
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| Views of Trinidad from the clock tower.. |
Back in Cienfuegos, we stocked up on beverages and what-ever fresh veggies were available. (Cienfuegos market hardly had anything, a shocking difference from last year. It was noticeable how most of the Cubans were struggling to make ends meet. Some say due to the past seasons hurricanes.)
At last we set sail for Cayo Largo.
Part two: Sail South coast of Cuba.
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| Avalos beach where we took long walks before Jaco and Nico saw tracks of a man size crocodile! |
We spend a couple of days at Cayo Largo, starting every terrific sunshine day by taking the dogs on a long walk on the Playa Serena beach and ending each afternoon with a perfect sunset after another long walk and swim.
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| Avalos. |
As soon as the weather permit, we set sail for Cayo Campos with stopovers at both Rosario anchorages, then Avalos reef and lighthouse anchorage.
When Jaco tried to anchor as close as possible to the beach at Avalos, we got stuck in shallow water. Jaco first dropped by dingy an anchor in deeper water. Next while Coco and Canela encouraged them on the bow, Nico and Jaco pulled in the anchor, while I steered at full speed. This exercise took about an hour before we got off the sand bank. (No point in hoisting a sail, as the wind was pushing us more on to the shallow. )
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| The shallow water exercise. |
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| Relieved, taking the anchor rum. |
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| Provisioning. Cubera and Mutton snappers. |
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| I've got my eye on you! |
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| Nico's catch of the day, pan fried for breakfast. |
We sailed through the reef passage on the South side when Nico caught a good size Barracuda. Thus entering Campos at the South side for a night at this rolly anchorage. Great friend JP on-board Ti-bag was ready to assist us, when we passed the shallow sand bar to the monkey anchorage at Campos. (Luckily we never saw less than a foot under our keel at high tide.)
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| Daily dolphin visits at Campos. |
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| Mesmerizing turquoise waters of Campos. |
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| The monkey sanctuary. |
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| Local fishing boat, Ti-bag and their side kick Lady Athena. The South entrance shows clearly in the background. |
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| Catch of the day, Nassau grouper and cubera snapper. |
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| 8 kg Cubera snapper. |
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| Day of Pina coladas and smoking fish. |
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| Where's the fish? |
We spend the next week at Cayo Campos.
We found a excellent sand bar on low tide for the dogs to run. This made Cayo Campos one of our favourite anchorages in Cuba.
The staff at the monkey island were very friendly, the dogs got their daily exercise, excellent fishing, beautiful snorkeling for novices (like Nico, Motte and myself) and all this in turquoise waters!
I loved the way Nico joined Jaco everyday to the hunting grounds. He snorkeled a little while, then wait patiently for Jaco to return to the dingy with today's meal on string.
This gave me and Motte time to get a bit of order inside Songerie, cleaning and time to prepare lunch and plan tonight's feast with yesterdays catch.
Every day topping the previous day. Jaco provided from the sea to the galley and out came an abundance of lobster -cocktails,- BBQ, -steamed; cracked conch, conch pasta and fish- BBQ, -smoked, -tempura, -paella , the list carry on and on.
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| When we exchanged a bottle of rum for ice and coconuts, the 4 of us celebrated as if it was someones birthday! |
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| The excellent sand bar at low tide. |
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| Shoe tree on the shore at Rosarrio east. |
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| Beach at Rosario east, another favourite anchorage. |
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| Ever wondered what happens to all the plastic you use? We find it at every windward shore of every uninhibited island we visit from Venezuela to Belize... the whole of the Caribbean, a lot of this plastic coming probably from across the Atlantic! |
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| Wondering what Jaco can be looking for? He lost the cap of one of our water cans, and is looking for replacement! |
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| Back at Playa Serena. |
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| Nico played every sunset with the 2 dogs on the coach roof, |
And so comes another great time to an end. It's been relaxing with no hiccups with 2 very easy going guests.
When Nico and Motte left to the airport, Coco refused to go back to the dingy, signally to us that we forgot our friends! After all the attention they got from Nico they were noticeable sad when all of the sudden Songerie is quiet again.
The 2 dogs absolutely love having visitors on-board Songerie. I think that they blame us for every time people leave the boat!
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| Coco kissing Nico, his newly adopted godfather. |
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| Hope to share a beautiful sunset with you two on-board Songerie very soon again. |
