Soon ready to go to sea

Arild and David are now back in Holguin, not far from Puerto Vita, where "Bonanza" hopefully has been taken good care of. We don´t doubt it. Hans Olav and Sandra are still in Havana, Sandra leaving for Austria on Sunday. Hans Olav will come back to the boat the same day. Sandra has been with us since December, and it has been a great pleasure. She has become a part of the crew.



The time some of us spent in Viñales was great, we saw and learnt how tobacco is grown in one of the best tobacco areas in the world. The valley is a UNESCO heritage site, and the landscape is very special, lush and green, and with small mountains spread around in the valley.



Departure from Cuba is closing in. Before we can leave, we have to repair our stowe and track a problem we have in the electrical system. But, soon, probably on Monday, we will set sail for Bermuda. We will try to keep this page updated with satelitt messages as before.

The bad thing is that we will not experience 1th of May here in Cuba. Preperations are made all over the country now, and it would for sure been an memorable day!

Still in Havana

We have been in Havana in almost a week now, and we like it. We have explored the old city of Havana, museums, fortress and cuban life in general. The city is great, but has been even greater. Old beautiful buildings are likely to fall down and maintanance seems to be an unknown word. The state owns the buildings, and it does not have money to repair anything.



The cuban people are very nice, but have for sure realized that tourists have alot of money, when you walk the streets, you are seldom left alone, everybody wants to do you favours, sell you cigars, invite you to dinner og ask you for money. Not strange actually, normal salary here on Cuba is only about 15 dollars a month. People don´t have much, but seem very happy even tough. People speak mostly spanish, so we have to practice our spanish skills, that are not much to write home about. Cubans are now learning english at school, but not many years ago, they learnt russian instead!

If anybody should wonder, nobody use american dollars here anymore. It is prohibited and now tourists have to use pesos convertible. The value is about the same as dollar, and with pesos convertible you can get almost everything, but only almost. You can even buy Coca Cola in the "dollar-stores". Cubans usually earn "moneda national", which are also called pesos, but you have to pay about 25 of those to get one pesos convertible. With this money you cannot buy much, but street food is often in moneda national, and then you can get a meal for almost nothing.



The norwegian boat "Agape" is here, we haven´t seen them since Tobago Keys, and it was very nice to meet them again. They have been sailing another route than us, via Venezuela and Colombia. They have the boat in the Marina Hemmingway here in Havana. They had visit from their son and a friend, and together with some other norwegians they had met here, one night we were not less than 12 norwegians for dinner!

We haven´t seen Fidel yet, but even then we feel he is everywhere. In the newspapers, on posters, in the museums, in the souvernir shops and in the book stores. He has a great impact on the people and the country, but he is now 79 years old, and he cannot live forever, so the coming years will be excitening for the cuban people. What is happening after Fidel?

Hans Olav, Sandra and Arild will leave for Vinales tomorrow, but David will stay in Havana. After some days there, we will meet again in Havana, and then go back to the boat. We plan to leave Cuba on Sunday the 30th or Monday the 1st, that is in about one week. The next stop is Bermuda and then the Azores in the beginning of June. We plan to be back in Norway the 15th of July, if anybody wonder about that. But not yet, before that, alot more to see.

Havana

We came to Havana yesterday, and we haven´t seen much yet. Today we will go to the Museo de Revolusion, one of the main museums here in Havana. We live in a nice casa particulare with a nice host. We will sure enjoy our stay here.

We should take a bus from Trinidad to here, but it broke down and we got a taxi for the same price. After a few kilometres, the taxi got trouble with the clutch and could hardly shift gear. Almost in Havana, we had to change to a new taxi. But we got here, and on the way we passed Plaza de Revolusion, where Fidel Castro has his office. Though, we did not see him!

Arrived Cuba

We arrived Puerto Vita in Cuba monday, and shorty after David's parents arrived. However, they had to wait a couple of hours before we could go ashore, first the doctor, agricultural department, customs and port captain had to visit us and we for sure had to do the immigration. We also got our ship searched by a drug dog and a couple of officers went through everything, even our dirty underwear. But they were all very polite and nice, so we got a very good first impression of the country. The marina lady, Tina, welcomed us heartly with flowers and a lot of useful information.

After one night in the boat, we have left for a couple of weeks of backpacking. We first travelled to Holguin, and from there took the nightbus to Trinidad, a city with many tourists, but not without a reason. The streets are stone paved and the buildings colonial style. We live in a kind of guesthouse called "casa particular", private homes with rooms and breakfast, very nice.

We still travel with David's parents, that brought us mail and gifts from home. We will spend a couple of days here before going to Havana.

Leaving for Cuba tomorrow morning

Everything is almost ready now, we have been shopping food for at least a month. We do not expect to find much in Cuba, and in Bermuda it is really expensive, so this is the last stocking before the atlantic crossing.

Tatjana, our german crew, have bought a flight ticket from Cuba, and will go with us there. We plan to use about three days to Puerto Vita, Cuba, and the weather forecast look good. Not too much wind, but at least a pleasant sailing.

Selling "Bonanza"

We have decided to sell our boat when we come home in July. You can look at the prospect at finn.no by clicking the link on the top of this site. It will not be easy to sell our ship and home for one whole year, but we have realized it will be too difficult owning a boat four persons together living in different corners of Norway. So that is the reason.

Cabarete

We are now in Cabarete on the north coast of Hispaniola. This little town is crowded with tourists because of its amazing long beach. The conditions for surfing and kiting are among the best, with steady winds all year, so this is the place if you want to learn. But it is expensive, so Hansi and Sandra are not taking lessons even if they started in St.Lucia.

After Santo Domingo we took a bus to Jarabacoa not far from the mountains and the national park. The day after we took a local transport(guagua) to the little village of Cienaga, from where it is possible to walk Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in Carribean. But, this is a big prosject, you need camping gear and guides and mules an it takes three days, so we decided not to. But the transport from Jarabacoa to Cienaga was an experience, a pickup car loaded with 14 people on the most, 9 of them on the back, along with food, cement, diesel cans, beer and a poor hen in a sack. Maybe not safe, but we didn't fall of. In Cienaga we were invited to the house of an old man and probably his daughter. They served home grown coffe from their garden, with a lot of sugar, and they also gave us a some grape fruits. Very nice people, and even if they only spoke spanish, we were able to communicate a little.

After spending one night in Bonanza in Luperon, we took taxi and bus to Cabarete. We were happy to see that the boat was ok. Not so much to worry about maybe, boats have stayed here for many years on the same anchor and the theft is not so common. On thursday and friday we will leave for Puerto Vito on Cuba, where we can place the boat while travelling on Cuba by other kind of transport. Our german crew, Tatjana, is suppose to leave the boat here in Luperon, but she has to find a new boat in order to sign out from Bonanza. She is working her way through the world, and she got a job on a restaurant in Luperon the same day we arrived. If she does not find a boat, but has the money to buy a ticket from Cuba, she will probably come with us to Cuba.

Here in Cabarete, the hotels are really cheap, but nice standard. We enjoy sleeping in a real bed and zapping through the channels on the cable tv. We have also met many norwegians here. 30 norwegian students from HIF(Hogskolen i Finnmark) live here here for three months, studying tropical outdoor life. Sounds really nice actually!