Cooba
Sarah Grace goes to sea
Chris Yerbury and Sophy White
Thu 1 Mar 2007 03:18
Cooba: 28th February, 2007
Mercoles.
We are safely berthed in a
good marina, with free showers and free water and no water,(or showers).
Also free power and no power. This is Cuba. Great folk living on
their wits, working a double currency system. The monthly wage here is
about ten pounds. The streets are filled with skeletal horses trotting up
and down pulling public buses. Folk seem very fit and well, with
free medical care, a low fat food ration system, and no petrol, so lots of
walking and cycling. The literacy rate here is above that of the UK, as is
the life expectancy. It is very very different from the rest of the
Caribbean, a weird combination of being much more sophisticated, but much
more basic.
Life has looked up since we
discovered a vegetable market. We ate all of our fresh food before we
arrived as we understood that it would otherwise be confiscated. We
were in error: I had left a few sacrificial bags of onions and cabbages around
to satisfy the customs, none of which were taken. All of our lovely
Venezuelan cheeses survived. The sniffer dog was called Brrando, and
he was charming, as were the eight officials, arriving in waves of around two or
three, who rummaged around the boat. The final official was mystified by a
gameboy DS, as it was obviously not a phone or a calculator, and was
taught by Ottilie to play zookeeper, and was entranced by the touch
screen. We had heard horror stories about checking into Cuba, which were
unfounded, as it in fact took very little time with all the officials coming to
us, instead of trecking around some distant town getting stamps on documents,
(Curacao)... They even filled all the forms themselves, (we are now
Ukranian, having put UK as place of origin..)
We are catching up on
schoolwork, which has suffered with our punishing sailing itinerary of late, and
are planning a trip to Havana, which is a five hour bus ride away.
I am extremely glad of all
the stores we have salted away around the Sarah Grace, and there is really very
little to buy here, unless you try the expensive tourist currency shops.
Now is the time to crack open the saffron, olives, and little luxuries that we
have been saving.