Una pequena historia d’un barco en Cuba

Buen dia,

Frank asked me to add a small message to his log. In short: everything is muy bien with Frank and his boat. After a day in the office it seems ages ago that I left el barco at Puerta Esperanza, last Friday. The last 2 weeks we have been sailing along the northern coast from Varadero to this little Cuban fishermens village. On our way we made some stops in Havana (huge lively city – wearing our shoes off but still missed the music), Baya Honda (only us and the boat in a mangrove bay) and Cayo Levisa (pittoresque key island with palms, mangrove and mosquitos). I enjoyed the sailing very much, laying on the deck, looking at the passing Cuban coast and waves, while Arie was doing all the work and Frank was reading a book – I returned home with 5 kilos of books. The pictures you see in the travel guide are real: the water is incredibly blue, the beaches are white and dotted with palm trees! Also the other images of Cuba seem to be true (in a way): old houses, relaxed people, cars from the fifties, horse carts, Dutch second-hand buses (still going to Almere Haven after so many years in Cuba). We also participated in the Cuban way of living: lots of paperwork when entering and leaving a harbour, searching for bread and vegetables and a screwdriver (the supply in the shops is not really overwhelming), waiting in line at the bakery, hanging in the bus, eating arroz con frijoles, sitting in a sidewalk cafe and drinking cold Cristal. But ofcourse in 2 weeks you see only a tiny little bit, so I think I should come back one day for eating more icecream, finding the music y otra cosas. One minus: I really missed the pelicans and the dolfijnen, lots of them along the intracoastal waterway and here I only saw a few.
Frank is now on his way around Cuba, going westward. His final destination in Cuba is Santiago de Cuba. On his way he will stop in Batabona for a cycling trip to Havana, collecting a new passport. I guess he has add some more historia to this log himself by that time (as ofcourse there is much more to tell about his trip).

Maria