Cuba - Day 16- January 18th

This morning we went to the bank to exchange some money - which, in the absence of a line up, we were able to accomplish in record time. A check at the internet cafe revealed, as we suspected, that there are still no cards - where these cards come from and who decides when they will come remains a complete mystery. But we can speculate that, as with most things in Cuba,  communications are controlled by the state, so someone in some ministry somewhere is responsible.  But why they limit availability of cards, remains unclear.

Today we are planning to take the "ferry" used by local people to travel across the Bay - our destination is the Castillo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de Jagua which was built in the 1740's at the entrance to the extremely well protected Bahia de Cienfuegos (Cienfuegos Bay). The purpose of the Castillo - it is said, was to keep out pirates and the British. Badly needed renovations begun in 2010 are ongoing and, like most renovations in Cuba, they are well behind schedule.

The visit to the Castillo itself was of interest but it turned out that the most memorable part of this adventure was the "ferry" on which we crossed the bay. The term "ferry" to describe this craft is a bit of a euphemism - at least for me the term ferry conjures up something quite different from what we found when we arrived at the "departure dock", which itself was less than one might expect based on that descriptor. But this is Cuba and we are learning to expect the unexpected. When we arrived about 25 minutes before the scheduled 1 pm departure, there was already a fairly large gathering of folks waiting to board.

(NOTE: Unfortunately, I did not get photos at the departure area so these photos of the boat are at our destination, after most people have left the boat! The folks remaining on board are headed for the its last destination.)

Fortunately for us, we thought, boarding began just as we were getting in line, so we would likely get a seat and departure would be on time. However, by the time we got to the boat, an ancient rusted and questionably seaworthy craft, all seats seemed to be taken and it looked like the standing space on both the front and rear deck were also full. We managed to jump aboard and squeeze into some space on the rear deck, pretty well shoulder to shoulder with our fellow passengers.

It seemed, at that point, like the boat was essentially full but people kept coming down the dock and joining us on the already crowded rear deck as well as climbing on at the front. When we were convinced there was absolutely no space left, people kept coming, some with luggage or boxes of stuff including one fellow with what looked a bit like 3 empty plastic window frames and a young man beside us had a box of plants. Bags were tossed onto the roof of the covered part of the actual passenger area, and people just kept coming and, amazingly, disappearing onto the boat somewhere. Visions of the Vietnamese boat people came to mind as we stood on our own square foot of space on the rear deck watching yet more people arriving, some standing on the edge outside the railing.

I couldn't see clearly into the covered area where there were actual seats but from what I could see people were quite jammed in there as well. It was now close to 1pm and the boat was chock full so maybe they would leave a bit early? Not so, it seemed no one would be left behind as s few more stragglers strolled down the dock and came aboard somewhere. We estimated that there must be well over 200 people on this small craft likely designed to take 80 to 100 at most. Finally, a horn sounded, the motor growled into action and we eased our way from the dock, moving slowly forward hopefully in the right direction.

About 100 yards from the dock, the motor died and we sat there, wondering what was going on. No announcement of any kind so we just stood there waiting and wondering. Finally, after several minutes of silence the motor came to life and we moved slowly on our way. A couple of people on our very tightly packed rear deck decided that they would sit on the floor, so there was a fair bit of jostling around in order to make room for them to sit. We were finally moving at quite a good rate. It turns out that there were a couple of stops along the way for folks to disembark at tiny docks, so we were a bit lighter for the last part of the trip.

I know, too many photos of the boat, but I want everyone to fully appreciate this craft and our experience on board!

The Castillo is quite small and the renovations they have completed appear to be well done. There was quite a large and deep moat around the fortress so the entry was across a draw bridge. The photos, I hope, tell most of the story about the Castillo structure and position with regard to the bay entrance.

On our way out of the Castillo Bob successfully raised the draw bridge, the completion of which I failed to capture in a photo.

While in the castle we met a couple from Québec with whom we had a brief conversation. It was a nice change for Bob to be speaking French rather than struggling with Spanish.

The photos below show the areas to the south  which allow entry from the ocean to the Cienfuegos harbour and port. This passage is clearly visible and, presumably, defensible from the Castilo's strategic position.

The ferry trip back was much less crowded and, having survived the trip over, we were more relaxed on the return. There were several others with us on the back deck including a young couple and a relatively old but well maintained bike. The man's attention was completely focussed on the bike - he lovingly polished every centimeter including rims and each spoke -  as far as we could tell, not a word was exchanged between him and his companion.

When we arrived back in downtown Cienfuegos we went directly to a place where we could enjoy a beer and some ice cream before going to our Casa for a rest before dinner.