We have been in Cienfuegos for a while now. Spacegrazer is anchored just outside the marina. It´s lovely here. The bay is very sheltered, so no rolling around, and safe to jump off for a swim. The town is friendly and relaxed, much more so than Havana. The water is not super clean, but well you can´t have everything!
When we go into town from the harbour, we have a choice of walking (hot during the day and the kids will whine the whole way), taking a classic American car, taking a modern Russian Lada in New York City yellow cab colours, taking a riksha-style bicycle taxi, or taking a horse-drawn cart. I am happy to say that we have sampled all options by now. It would be hard to choose a favourite. I can say with confidence that walking with whining kids is low on the list…
The Art of Grocery Shopping
Shopping for groceries is a bit of an event here. We still haven´t worked out exactly how it works, amateurs as we are. In a nutshell this is what we found: Cubans receive rations, so they can pick up free foods at special stores. Everyone is allocated a monthly allowance of staple foods like flour, rice, et cetera. If people want items above and beyond these basics, they can buy stuff at some other stores, which charge low prices in the local currency. There are some US dollar stores now too where Cubans can get American imported goods like electronics. For us foreigners, we can buy whatever is left, paying in a separate currency – yes Cuba has 2 currencies, the national peso and the CUC. We can get our hands on the national peso, but everything gets converted to the CUC (=higher) price level for us anyway so I don´t feel like it makes a lot of difference.
When you walk into the kind of store that foreigners can buy stuff from – the word supermarket does not really apply- ,you will often see shelves filled with one product – in one flavour and of one brand. For example, Pringles chips – salt. No other brands or other flavours, but there are about 300 of them. The next shelf might contain 250 cans of Nido baby milk powder, 450 tins of Danish biscuits. The next shelf: completely empty. Then: chocolate biscuits with a large piece of cardboard over it, saying Not For Sale. It´s a whole new world.
After buying 3 tubes of Pringles and a tin of Danish biscuits, we decided we also needed fruits and vegetables. They did not have any. We had to ask around. After a few shrugs and surprised looks, a lady pointed us to a covered market place. The vendors there did not seem to have much to sell, but they looked happy enough, hanging about, chatting. A few came up to us to prize their wares. I followed a friendly lady to a store room in the back where she proceeded to sell me a bit of everything she had, away from the prying eyes of the competition.
We came away with two bags of tasty fresh produce. Oh and Beau got a chance to visit, in his words, ¨the most disgusting toilet in the world¨. All in all, a successful outing!
Homes along the channel leading into Cienfuegos bay 
Cienfuegos marina. We are anchored in the distance 
There is a little park with some cool art around the corner 
Our first ride – the guy is actually pedalling the five of us into town. It was slow but fun (for us) 
On the way back with our groceries we opted for a motorized bicitaxi 
The most opulent house in town… Now a hotel 
Another day another cool ride 
At the marina entrance, the security ladies in there sexy uniforms were sometimes in the mood to scan all our bags… 
Too tired to walk? No problem! 
Kids trying to phone grandparents 
Another milestone! We completed 15,000 miles of sailing since starting in April 2016 (the counter resets after every 5,000 miles)
