Hoguin and info

Hi all!

We are back from our visit to Holguin and getting ready to move East in the next couple of days. Holguin was a lot of fun. Very different to anywhere else we have been. Physically, whilst many of the buildings are in a state of disprepair, they are significantly grander than anything in the Eastern Caribbean - its also much much cleaner. As you might expect, everything is colourful and there is always the beat of salsa or suchlike instead of the ubiquitous reggae found further South. Apart from the music, the city is strangely quiet as there is very little traffic, most transport being horse and cart or bici-taxi. Although this ins't through choice, it gives a much cleaner, calmer atmosphere than other large cities. The other side to this is that almost everyone walks everywhere - the streets and surrounding roads are full of people about their business.
There are lots of differences to any western city, but one of the things that really stood out to us was the general demeanor of the people, most appear at least superficially happy, despite the poverty which is quite tangible. They are fashionably dressed, healthy looking and fun to talk to. They have a particular fondness for ice cream, which despite the poverty, is eaten by the gallon. This is only surpassed by an insane love of huge, garishly decorated cakes, which once bought, are carried on pieces of cardboard around the streets on foot, on bikes, indeed in any way possible, back to the house. It is truly impossible to look in any direction without seeing at least two or three of these cakes which look similar to giant birthday cakes from the 70s, complete with as much orange and blue swirly icing as you can get. I asked several people if these were for a special occasion and always received the same answer - "no, no no, we Cubans always buy cakes, we LOVE them!!" It was as if there was a giant party going on in town but the destination was secret.

For those of you planning a trip by yacht, a little more info - Some other boats have arrived and had different 'authorities' handling their entry. One has had his GPS/Sat phone sealed, although the officer responsible said that he would return at any time if the skipper needed to use it. This is the only boat that has had this, although he was at pains to say that the entire process, again, was very pleasant and not at all stressful. It really depends who you get on the day - somewhat like another country we know! Obviously, all of these items are unsealed between ports.
Oh, and another thing, get your mosquito netting up to scratch. If there is no wind in the evening, there can be a lot of no see ums. You may anchor out (currently) for no charge and (currently) use all marina facilities, but as the whole area is mangrove, I'm not sure how much protection this will give you. For the sake of 20 bucks a night, it maybe easier to leave the boat in the marina, both for protection and security.

More soon

P XX

We are planing on heading East in the next few days, so we will keep you across our progress.