So, after talking about it and planning it for some time, our big jump over to Cuba is finally happening. We’re leaving Friday morning and should have a week at sea in order to arrive in Santiago de Cuba. It’s our first big journey as just the two of us so we’ve put a lot of work into the passage planning.
Now, just to warn all friends and family, we’ll be on the South coast of Cuba, which is very untouristy, for the whole of April. There are few facilities and we will certainly have problems with communication. Access to the internet is severely proscribed for Cubans and foreigners may only use it at a few big tourist hotels.
This means that it is more than likely that you will not hear from us until May and mustn’t worry if this is the case. James, his brother Dave, and both our mothers have birthdays in April, so if we can find any way of getting messages through to you we will try. But, if we can, it’s a bonus as it should be assumed that we’ll be incommunicado for the next month.
The rough itinerary is to start in Santiago, hopping along the south eastern coast to Cabo Cruz, then striking out to the islands of the Jardines de la Reina, picking our way through these, then back to the mainland to visit Trinidad and Cienfuegos, then out again to the Archipiélago de los Cannareos, stopping at Cayo Largo and Cayo del Rosario, before landing on the Isla de la Juventud. From here, if we have time, we’re going to do our first ever non-boat excursion and have a few days visiting la Habana (Havana). We’ll leave from the Isla de la Juventud and travel straight to Cancún, Mexico which will be another few days at sea and should see us back in communication so we can make you all groan with delicious Cuba photos.
Oh, and just to let you know, we can’t visit the Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) by sea as there is a huge ‘Prohibited Navigation Zone’ around there, which forces us into some fairly long passages in order to skirt round it. But, we’ve got more than enough to cram into a short space of time and a lot of ground to cover.
Wish us luck and good winds and hasta pronto.
