Cuba – New Year in Varadero, Marina Darsena

We had thought our first day in Cuba would be taken up with checking in with the various parties but it was actually quite painless.  First the doctor came on board he asked us various questions but mainly took details on the boat and then asked if we had been sick and he was quite happy with us just answering “no”, he then had a brief look around the boat and he took our passports and boat details to immigration – or so we thought.

An hour or so later the marina manager came and asked in the Coastguard had visited which they hadn’t so he went and hurried them along.  A young woman came onboard and had completed around 90% of our paperwork, we had prepared one sheet of information in Spanish including boat name, dimensions, type of engine, nationality, etc which was the majority of what they needed to know.  She then disappeared with this information and we continued completing paperwork with the marina manager. 

Next came the lady from Agriculture, she was to inspect our food, we were a little concerned as we had huge amounts of tins vegetables and beans and lots of treat filling every available space but she asked about fresh meat, fresh fruit and veg which we didn’t have and then about tea which she inspected and cereal but all was OK and she left happily with a signed document and a can of Coke.  We have since found out that people arrived from the States with various fresh fruit, veg, meat and they were able to keep it all, if only we had known.

Our box of goodies

We were still confined to the boat until our passports were return but within the hour the Coastguard return and presented us with our passports and tourist visas, this was all our Customs and Immigration paperwork complete, took around 2.5 hours, so not too bad.

We were now free and able to leave the boat but all we did was get off to wash the boat and have a little look around the marina.

That evening was New Years Eve and we were invited to join the other cruisers for a Pot Luck dinner although our contribution to this was limited as we had only just arrived and threw together a bean salad.  The food prepared by the other cruisers was amazing, a big chilli, fresh bread, spaghetti bolognaise, ribs and even some wonderful brownies for dessert.  We ate our dinner in the staffroom which had been prepared to be festive but funny that it had one light bulb and we ended up borrowing light bulbs from around the marina to ensure we had enough light, this was a sign of things to come where there is a shortage of many things in Cuba.  Although we did not stay up to see in the New Year to was nice to meet some other cruisers and enjoy the night in company before an early night.