{"id":5563,"date":"2016-04-04T17:17:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T17:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5563"},"modified":"2020-12-30T02:56:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T07:56:35","slug":"the-rules-in-cuba-they-are-a-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=5563","title":{"rendered":"The rules (in Cuba), they are a changing."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s now early April and we have been in Cuba for nearly a month and our visa was due to expire in a few days.\u00a0 Until recently, Americans were only allowed a single month in Cuban waters until they had to leave the country, clear in at another, and then return to Cuba to begin the process all over again.<\/p>\n

However, like everything else we thought we knew about Cuba, the rules seem to have changed, but in this case, in a good way.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s no reason to leave and come back.\u00a0 We can simply renew!\u00a0 Yahoo!!!\u00a0\u00a0 Brenda is particularly pleased about this change as it avoids the need to sail overnight to the Caiman Islands and back again.\u00a0 Saving two overnight sails is something that Brenda is always happy to give up andwe still have at least one overnight to do before we get to Havana do so avoiding two additional nights underway is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Graham Copson who is the owner of Copson Migration Partners, is an migration agent in adelaide<\/a> notes that it seems that here in Cuba, renewing a visa can either be very easy or very hard, depending on where you do it.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s true of just about everything in Cuba and we are finding that each port seems to march to its\u2019 own drummer.\u00a0\u00a0 As an example, our friend Lars, had to renew his visa while he was in Cienfuegos and it took him the better part of a day spent running between government offices down town and at the marina to get it done. \u00a0And, to make matters worse, he had to delay his planned departure from Cienfuegos by a day to get it all done.<\/p>\n

And, speaking of hard, now about these guys cutting the grass with machetes and sythes? It gives new meaning to the term “weed wacker”. \u00a0 No shortage of worker and workers to do it here in the \u201cworker\u2019s paradise\u201d.\u00a0\"4-4-16bHere in Cayo Largo, an island far from the coast and a major tourist spot, the process is much simpler and here at the marina it has proven to be very simple indeed.. \u00a0The official responsible handling such things actually came out to Pandora, took our $50CUC renew fee along with our passports and said that she\u2019d take care of everything.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And, as promised, she did and delivered our \u201cnew\u201d visas back to the boat this morning.\u00a0 How great (and simple) is that?<\/p>\n

We have seen, first hand, that Cuban officials just love \u201cprocess\u201d and as long as there are plenty of bureaucrats nearby to handle things, everyone wants a piece of the action and with that many folks involved, the \u201caction\u201d can get pretty intense. \u00a0I guess that makes sense as if they simplified things someone\u2019s job might be eliminated by \u201cUncle Fidel\u201d.\u00a0 I actually heard someone refer to him by that name yesterday.\u00a0 I guess if we have an \u201cUncle Sam\u201d, Cubans should have an \u201cUncle Fidel\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s only fair.<\/p>\n

We had heard that here in Cayo Largo things were simpler and happily they are.\u00a0 As this is an island and one that caters exclusively to \u201ctouristas\u201d, they do everything that they can to make it simple to be here.\u00a0 Interestingly,\u00a0 I have been told that no Cubans live here full time.\u00a0 They work here on the island for, I think, 21 days, while staying in government managed \u201cdorms\u201d and then head back home for a week before returning to the island again.<\/p>\n

We have experienced a lot of \u201chow about a tip\/present\u201d from just about everyone we came in contact with east of Cienfuegos but there an here the \u201crequests\u201d are much more subtle, thank goodness.\u00a0 We were prepared for this and stocked up with plenty of bars of soap and some t-shirt but it got a bit old as it happened nearly every day as we cleared in and out of any given port or anchorage.\u00a0 That got a bit old so it\u2019s been nice to have a respite from all that for a bit.\u00a0 I expect that we have not seen the last of this but for the moment\u2026<\/p>\n

Anyway, enough of that for now.\u00a0 How about some photos of our lovely visit to Trinidad?\u00a0 \u201cOf course Bob, forge ahead.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOk, ok, if you insist.<\/p>\n

We left Pandora in Cienfuegos for a day and headed the 1.5 hour ride to the historic city Trinidad a few days ago.\u00a0\u00a0 Trinidad is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for architecture and that a lot of work had been done to bring the buildings back in recent years.\u00a0 The plan was to catch a 8:30 bus in Cienfuegos so we hailed a cab and headed to the bus terminal. Oops, there wasn\u2019t an 8:30 bus, the first one wasn\u2019t until noon.\u00a0 Oops.\u00a0 Bad information.<\/p>\n

The minute we left the terminal, such as it was, we were immediately offered a ride in a taxi for about $35CUC, more than we wanted to spend.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a problem, we could do it for $20CUC if we shared with someone else.\u00a0 Our \u201chandler\u201d the person who finds patrons for the cabs parked around the corner, then rounded up some others to fill the cab and off we went.\u00a0 It was a nicely maintained vintage 1952 Ford.\"4-4-16bThe ride took us through some beautiful country with miles of sugarcane fields and mango trees.\u00a0 Along the way we also happened upon an amazing site, thousands of land crabs, pretty big at about 8-12\u201d wide, making their way across the road, some with limited make that VERY LIMTED success, in making the crossing, \u00a0Ie: crushed by passing cars.<\/p>\n

Each spring literally millions of these brightly colored purple and red crabs march from the woodland areas where they live the six or so miles to the ocean where the females lay their eggs.\u00a0 As these crabs can\u2019t live in water, the females go to the surf line and lay their eggs all the while trying not to be swept away. The eggs hatch soon after and the newly hatched crabs have to crawl out of the water while they are still fairly small to begin their \u201cland life\u201d.\u00a0 It sounds like a lot of effort, the whole ocean, crossing roads and woods thing, for a \u201cland crab\u201d to go through.\u00a0 However, we are in Cuba and it fits that it would be complicated.\u00a0 Right?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough journey and nothing, short of being crushed on the road, which happens to a lot of them, will stop the migration. We have heard that these crabs will even crawl over a house or any other obstruction that gets in their way to complete their journey.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite spectacle.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I wasn\u2019t able to get any photos.\u00a0 However, you can check out this link for more information.\u00a0\u00a0 I could almost imagine David Attenborough, the guy who narrates nature films, telling us all about this spectacle as our cab dodged among the thousands of crabs as best as he could.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the ride was quite a trip in itself.\u00a0 So,now Trinidad.<\/p>\n

The city has a real rural European feel.\u00a0 There is a lovely town center with beautiful buildings surrounding it.\"OLYMPUSOn the balcony of one of the buildings on the square there was a young girl posing for a photo shoot.\u00a0 She looked lovely in her ball gown.\u00a0\"OLYMPUSAs a contrast, how about this donkey and cigar smoking old guy? \u00a0I sure hope that nobody ever refers to me with that phrase. \u00a0\u201cYeah, that\u2019s Bob, you know, the old cigar smoking guy.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0So far, so good.\"4-4-16bThere were many craft stalls on the side streets.\u00a0\u00a0 Brenda purchased a lovely hand finished table cloth.\u00a0 Those who know here are aware of her \u201clinen problem\u201d.\u00a0 Good place for Brenda to visit to \u201cscratch her itch\u201dand scratch she did.\"4-4-16bFor me, we purchased a \u201cguayaberia\u201d, a traditional Cuban cotton wedding shirt.\u00a0 Sorry, no picture but you\u2019d recognize it if you saw one.<\/p>\n

We would have loved to bring flowers back to Pandora but alas, they wouldn\u2019t have lasted the day.\u00a0\"OLYMPUSAs always, cages with exotic birds most everywhere.\u00a0 It\u2019s not uncommon to see cages hung in windows along the street with little colorful finches.\"4-4-16bAs just about everyone is in Cuba, Trinidad is very focused on \u201ctouristas\u201d. However, there are plenty of Cubans going about their daily lives here and it was nice to see a group of students on an outing.\u00a0 \"\"In Cuba all students wear uniforms. It\u2019s a nice touch. \u00a0The color of the fabric tells you what grade level they are.\u00a0We were \u201cinvited\u201d to climb up to a rooftop to view the city.\u00a0 Only $1CUC each.\u00a0 Such a deal! \u00a0Such a view!!!How about a panorama?\u00a0 Click the photo to make it larger if you wish.\"4-4-16bThe highlight of the day was lunch on the balcony of this quaint restaurant.\u00a0 And, the food was good too.\"4-4-16bIt\u2019s been a few days since we left Cienfuegos to make our way here to Cayo Largo.\u00a0 As we left the harbor we saw this lovely fort.\u00a0 It was certainly a very different world way back when such a fort was needed to protect the city from invaders. \u00a0\u00a0I expect that those entering the harbor at that time probably weren\u2019t \u201ctouristas\u201d\"OLYMPUSWe stopped at an uninhabited cayo for two nights.\u00a0 It was a bit rolly with a wrap-around swell from the ocean.\u00a0 Brenda didn\u2019t like that, even a little bit. \u00a0Pretty rugged coastline with some nice reefs for snorkeling.<\/p>\n

In a few spots, there were holes in the limestone where the waves spurted up quite dramatically.\"OLYMPUS\"OLYMPUSWell, I guess that\u2019s about it for now as I sit here in Pandora\u2019s salon enjoying the cool AC.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s not that great as we can\u2019t run it very cold or we blow a fuse.\u00a0 The electrical power at marinas in Cuba is suspect at best but \u201csort of cool\u201d is better than hot. It\u2019s a nice change of pace and I am not complaining.<\/p>\n

Relentless heat aside, Cuba is a very unique place to visit and each area we come to has It\u2019s own personality.\u00a0 And while Cuba is still Cuba, it\u2019s definitely changing and we are glad to be here to see it first hand while it\u2019s still Cuba.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I\u2019ll close with a lovey sunset shot from the other day.\u00a0 Love those sunsets.\u00a0 But, then you knew that, didn\u2019t you?\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s now early April and we have been in Cuba for nearly a month and our visa was due to expire in a few days.\u00a0 Until recently, Americans were only allowed a single month in Cuban waters until they had to leave the country, clear in at another, and then return to Cuba to begin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11573,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions\/11573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}