smithtribesailing: Santiago de Cuba

Sky in Cuba!

The town of Santiago de Cuba is about a 20 min ride in a old American car from our anchorage. Bursting with life and activity we were soon introduced to the operators who sell Cigars and Cuban Rum, of course Chris enjoyed bargaining with them.

Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion in the Parque Cespedes, Santiago

The streets of Santiago are a kaleidoscope of walking, talking,
hustling, flirting, musical, chess playing characters.

Like the rest of Cuban architecture, the once grand old buildings are all in a state of decay.

The people are beyond friendly and eager to talk about anything outside of Cuba, as well as their life in Cuba in undertones of hushed anger and sadness. A tug on an imaginary beard indicating Fidel and 2 fingers tapped lightly on their left shoulder indicating his Guardia are nearby and time to end the conversation. Believe it or not their are informers around and jail time for those who dare oppose in any way.

The Cuban people take great risks in trying to earn an extra buck here and there, selling anything from eggs, fruit and veg to cigars and rum on the black market. Most of Cuba runs on their Black Market as they cannot survive on the meager 10 dollars they receive a month
(the price of a sub standard pair of shoes here). When trying to "sell" anything, they actually prefer to trade, they are in desperate need of shoes, clothes, toiletries and anything electronic. The injustice of it all is rather frustrating… never the less, Cuba has a colorful feel of its own and change will come if not in this generation, maybe the next.

Local public transport

Another Grand old car.

The day after we arrived, our friends on their boat, Amphitreete (Craig, Jytte, Storm, Cruise and Wilder aboard), along with another boat, Calabra (Jono, Morne, Tullem, Zane and Kimble aboard), sailed into the Bay. We have been looking forward to meeting up with them for a couple of months now as they sailed up from the Caribbean. A joyous reunion, especially for the children. Between our three boats we now have nine youngsters aboard! Ages ranging from 8 to 19.

Storm, Skyla, Wilder, Cruise, Layla and Rourke aboard Amphitreete

T R I B E anchored off Punta Gorda Santiago Marina

Jytte, Jonno, Morne, Sascha, Chris and Craig on our way into Santiago

After exploring Santiago de Cuba we all (T R I B E, Calabra and Amphitreete) sailed on to Chivirico, Marea del Portillo, Cabo Cruz and on up into the Garden of the Queens, one of the Archipelago's on Cuba's South Coast.

Morro Castle at the entrance to Santiago

Morro Castle, nearly 400 years old.

Sadly Santiago leaves one with an unwelcome chore. The above (T R I B E 's decks)
is the result of a nearby refinery which spews forth sulphur fallout. We were not happy chappies, to remove this required a lot of elbow grease, thanks Chris ;) After trying to remove it with acid and numerous other toxic liquids, we got some CUBAN degreaser (go figure) and it looks like new.