Varadero and Santa Marta - First thoughts

It felt odd that the marina was going to be our home for the next few months and we still had so much to find out about the area – how did we change our money? How did the money work? Where could we get some fresh food? How far were we from Varadero centre? How far was this from where Amanda’s mum and dad would be staying? Were we going to speak enough Spanish?

So we hopped on our bikes and headed into Varadero which is the local tourist resort, it is only about 10-15 minutes ride.  We found a main street running along the seafront with various hotels, shops/shacks and bars/cafes.  Being New Years Day it was quite quiet but most places were open.  With the sun beating down on us we probably managed to get half way along the strip that runs for around 10 miles.   We were joined on the road by horse and carts, old American convertible cars and even a hop on hop off tourist bus, odd how all these things fit together.

Later that afternoon we visited the beach for the first time, again it is easier to access by bikes, it is a beautiful golden sandy beach and the waves were crashing on the shore which a bit of a northerly breeze.   It was quite busy filled with both Cubans and tourists, making the most of the sunny New Year.  This was our first proper dip in the sea since the Bahamas the previous May, it was lovely to get back into the warm, clear waters.

Varadero Beach

The next day we did attempt a trip to the local village market in Santa Marta which is 10 minutes walk from the marina although we were told that we had yet more paperwork to complete, this time with the Vet, this was mainly about food waste and disposal on this whilst in the country, odd but another necessity.

Our first trip to the market was a disaster as we were unable to find it, we knew it was in Santa Marta but it wasn’t obvious where but it was nice to look around the village.  It was a hive of activity, with people bustling around on bikes, in cars and by horse and cart.  There were a few small supermarkets all of which seemed to have a queue outside, we have since learnt this is because only a limited number of people are able to access at one time.  So after an unsuccessful trip we headed back to the marina back on our bikes and out to Varadero to see if we could succeed in getting to the bank and using the internet, 1 out of 2 didn’t seem bad as we managed the internet, the queues for the bank were just too long and then they closed – gone were our easy days of going to the cashpoint and popping into Starbucks to get wifi.  We did also managed to purchases bus tickets into Havana for the weekend so we were at least getting to learn how some things worked, any small progress felt like a major achievement.

Round two at the market the next day and Debbie the local liveaboard Canadian who is super helpful took us into Santa Marta.  After stopping via the bank and teaching us the Spanish we needed to know just to join the queue we were then off to the market.  Unfortunately the market was very limited but we at least knew were it was located and also how it worked – you would think this would be straight forward but with two currencies in Cuba this is not quite as easy, the Convertible Pesos we had just obtained at the bank were not what the locals used at the market so we also needed some National currency, we at least knew for our next visit.  The good news was the few bits of fruit and veg we did manage to get were very cheap, fresh and would keep us going for a few days.  It felt like we were finally getting to see the real Cuba as we sat in a local café and watched the world go by.