May 5th: anchor up 8:30 heading NW from Montego Bay Jamaica
May 6th: calm day N on transom at dusk all soaped up..ZINGGGG one line goes
& of course the 2nd line hooks one .Crap I grab one N slides back onto deck
grabs the other pole ok cool BUT auto pilot goes again.. Boat is turning in
circles & our sat phone rings!! After slip/sliding around we end up w/ 2
good size tuna, auto pilots gets back on track after ½ hr or so & we talk w/
friend Mike.
May 7th: way cool sun rising over Q as we enter long deep bay awesome
welcome sign! Bienvenidos “Q” Socialista. Tons of sm. Fishing boats w/o
motors. Dock in marina all officials come asap. Ok 10 people one sniffing
dog! 1 Dr. who sealed up our chicken! Few men going through stuff & only
thing of interest to them was my crayons, which I quickly gave them. Here is
the deal.. Cant lv your boat w/o a visa, cant get a visa unless you have
CUC(convertible unit of currency)cant get CUC unless you go to a bank. SO? a
“travel agent” just happened to be on the dock took $ from Umiak(boat we
traveled w) & went to get us CUC’s. Helpful huh.
Day 1 Cienfuegos: walking out of gate we are stopped bags need to be checked
before we lv & ea. time we return. No problem. Struck by how empty streets
are no traffic jams that’s for sure. On walk to center we see bike carts,
horse carts, old motorbikes w/sidecars & cars from the 30's,40's&50's Its
like back in time,weird...Off to bank so R&B(umiak) can get CUC’s Ok got the
CUC’s now to the cadeca (money exchange place)CUC are only for tourist,
locals can NOT have or spend them & no one I mean NO ONE will take a U.S.
dollar. So we wanted local peso’s for buying veggies in markets.$1.20
Us=1CUC & 1CUC=24 peso’s get it? PISST..how much you want? “What?” how
much
you want give same rate & you don’t wait line” a kid outside of cadeca
says.. Ok we give him some CUC’s & get pesos. Ha our 1st underground
encounter. Walking in town guy told N he looked Qbano.. He was thrilled.
Time to get serious where is the bar? Find a cool outside café & order what
else MOJITOS!!s(sugar, rum, club soda & mint yum).Talked w/ local who was
working & flirting w/R calling him beautiful blonde(all in Spanish) we
called her 1 tooth & it turned out she was the bathroom attendant..
OFF to the CAPITOL:May 10th rented a car not a problem cuz we are
Suiza(Swiss!) Umiak Is anyway. Driving down autopista (highway) even
stranger than town. Here we have ox drawn carts ,people on bikes, horses & a
few of the old cars. There are few billboard in Q & if there is one it is
political. We saw a good one Bush with a Hitler moustache & hair ! We make
it to the capitol (H) as we get into town lots of cops on side of rd. tell
us to stop. OK again in Spanish we tell them we are Suiza (swiss) & find out
R was driving too close to car in front, which was almost stopped. Cool boss
cop comes we try to get explanation of why this guy wants to give us a
ticket. “Qual pais” (what country) Suiza!! Ok he says no problem go on & be
careful.. Whew! This place is beautiful, most streets are walking Or very
narrow, building are old & beautiful. Found a nice place to stay, had lunch
& were privately serenaded by a local band, which of course has a cd & yep
we bought it. Dinner in a sm home(they call these paladares) not great but
interesting.3 sm tables in the front room.
Next adventure: R wanted charts & Geocuba is the place to get them. It’s a
military place w/ official charts. We got into the one in CF (again we are
Suiza) but they told us charts are now in H(capitol)So here we go, found the
place after many many stops including picking up a girl who swore she knew
where it was. wrong! R gives his Passport & we go in, N said he was nervous
& we tried not to give ourselves away w/ our American accent. In & out we go
yea!
El Morro fort at the harbor. Here is where the H harbor control is So
naturally Neil & Robert chat up the guards, this worked next thing we know
Beate & I see N&R in the tower! Checking through the telescope to see whats
happening on Key West & monitoring the suspicious vessels entering H harbor.
Boys were thrilled once again we have infiltrated!! Walked the famous
Malecon, ( another great billboard, Bush was a vampire!) & went to the
Floridita, Hemmingways hangout for more mojitos!
Transportation:ok on the highway we see tons of people holding out bills.
Dump trucks fill up w/ them but the rule is there has to be a rope around
the people. There are 5/6 different color plates on the cars. One color
means you HAVE to pick people up & there are “yellow men” guys dressed in
all yellow who control this standing on the hwy. Plus you are in deep
trouble if you don’t stop, so we have heard. This was kind of fun cuz people
would have there hand out see our plate color meaning TOURIST & quickly drop
it. Locals are not allowed in a car w/ tourist. Major fine or jail.
The country--San Vicente & Vinales few venders on side of rd. w/ pollo a la
autopista!& Jutia on a board. Translation roasted chicken on sticks & a lg
rat type rodent cut in half dried & nailed to a board . I guess you need to
be hungry. Stopped again by police who only looked in asked qual pais, just
said Suiza. & off we went. Stopped to see Sorao falls, it was a trickle but
hey you got a free drink w/ the price of admission. Toured through the
Cuevas de Indo(cave) walked 200 meters & hopped on flat boat to tour deeper
inside. Rancho San Vicente ,cabin in the woods w/lots of humming
birds(called zoom zooms here)& chickens running around.
“horseback riding” in Vinales. All 4 horses in really bad shape. N had
Mariposa(butterfly) R had Melinda, Mean Melinda we called her. She was
clearly the leader & when ever you tried to pass she would push you or bite!
N was heard constantly yelling vamos mariposa to no avail! The horses B& I
had were pitiful lets just say I wish my ass was that skinny! We slowly made
our way to the Cuevas de Rio. Cool cave needed flashlight & pool at end w
VERY COLD water. I was told no bats but still don’t believe it. Back to CF
all is well when autopista ends yea as in dead end! Hum.. Back up & go wrong
way on ramp..ok now what hey what do you know we get stopped again.. Same as
before where going ,what country .. Suiza!(swiss) good news he told us how
to get back to Cienfuegos!
Trinidad:next day drove to tourist town Trinidad. Nothing there but did buy
fruits & veggies from ladies on rd. Bought some cashews also. Ate the fruit
but decided not to chance the roasting of nuts ,as they poisonous. Like
always N enjoyed bargaining w/the ladies
Islands Cayo Guano de Este( bird shit island of the east REALLY): cool old
light house w/ 2 L.H. keepers they had a huge shark fin (from a 200
pounder)drying out which they said was from a shark in that bay. Well N & R
went to snorkel I preferred to kayak since it was 4pm great feeding time for
sharks..
Cayo Largo :nice little marina 4 officials & Barry, sniffing dog. Easy &
nice guys. Walked off dock to “restaurant” Nope cant eat here its only for
workers! Hum says restaurant..ok here is the deal. ALL people on all the
islands work 20 days then go home for 10 doesn’t matter if they are laborers
or officials! Cayo Rosario: 2 mackerel & 1 barracuda on way. nice beach with
cliffs & tons of Iguana. Fishing boat comes along side asks if we have
anything to TRADE for fish or lobster.. Cool sure we ask for lobster since
we haven’t found our own yet. He brings 5 HUGE lobsters ! Some were 5
pounders! It cost us 4 beers plus N gave them a few fish hooks.. IM liking
this place! Wind changing time to move.
Cayo Cantiles: monkey sanctuary. Lots of monkeys they ring a bell so the
ones in the interior of the island will know its time to eat. Tons of
Iguanas here too. 4 guys same 20 days & 10 off. Showed us a Jutia(big rat
like rodent) they caught N asked how they cook it. So we offered to bring
stuff back for dinner if they cooked the jutia.. Fun eve. We brought
stuff(beer wine rice,cookies & cake) but they set the table for 4. It took
me telling them 3 times to go get plates that this is for all of us to eat
together we did not expect them to cook FOR us. The Jutia wasn’t to bad! The
guys even made coffee for us.
During the day N& I did our own lobster hunting. Just snorkeling around
looking under coral heads for big antenna , I “try” to get then to come out
by poking under or behind the coral N does the grabbing. Wish I had video
way to funny, those suckers are FAST! & it is hard to understand what we are
yelling to ea other w/ snorkels in our mouth. We did pick up 4 huge guys YUM
not tired of lobster yet. Next day Picked up a few more lobster & N speared
a few more fish one lg grouper so we are set for bit. Back to Cayo Largo
time is running out here. Nice storm to port we could see 3 water spouts
cool when they are faraway. Took taxi to end of island where the 3 resorts
are. Cayo Sol, beautiful grounds ,pool ,spa,& nice beach bar. This was an
all inclusive so we just went up ordered mojitos & walked away before any
questions were asked ha! Round 2 send in the women. No problem but the cutie
bartender was becoming chatty “where are you from, how long will you be here
& over there is my office so you can come see me! ok time to book before he
figures out we aren’t staying here Ha fun!!
June 6 on our way to Grand Cayman:checking out, new sniffer dog named
Reina(Queen) she was having a field day scratching at one of my lockers..
Whew.. It was only stinky shoes! We had a few left over local pesos (about 2
bucks) tried to give them to customs guys but NO.. They said no way just
throw them we CAN NOT take anything ..
SAILING away Grand Cayman,Ambergris(Belize) to hide out for Hurricane season
in Guatemala’s Rio Dulce......
Our Q adventure SHUSSH!!!