Monday, November 26, 2018- Ciefuegos, Cuba
We awoke to find ourselves gliding along the channel leading into Cienfuegos, Cuba. The vegetation included cacti and palm trees growing on strata of volcanic and sedimentary formations.
Our ship set anchor in the harbor, along with the Holland America ship Veendam. We had breakfast in the World Cafe. I had steered clear of “Bangers” because on Princess, the English Bangers are usually very bland, but I tried one from the buffet and it was pretty flavorful.
Because we were transferring by tenders to shore today, most of the excursion groups met at the Star Theater and then were escorted down to the tender station by groups. The process went very quickly. We sat for less than 5 minutes before we were sent down to the tender station.
Princess ships have a dock that swings down from the side of the ship that the tenders then tie up to. The Viking Star simply has an enlarged port just above the waterline, so the tenders come up directly against the side of the ship. The tenders have large rubber fenders built into their gunnels so you step directly from the ship onto the tender. The tender ride to shore was less than 10 minutes each way. At customs and immigration, the agents checked our passports and then kept our Cuban Visas since this was our last Cuban port of call.
We boarded similar Chinese built charter buses for our tour. The buses took us only about 4 blocks to the main city square named José Marti park. This was a spacious and uncrowded plaza with beautiful trees, a band gazebo, statues and city arch. The square is surrounded by government buildings on one side, private buildings opposite, a cathedral, and a school. José Marti was one of Latin America’s great intellectuals at the turn of the century who spent much of his life advocating for liberation of Cuba from Spanish rule, and the abolition of slavery. He ended dying in 1895 as Cubans fought for their independence from Spain.
The bus then took us to a government cigar factory where we saw some of the supposedly over 100 steps to produce a hand made Cuban cigar. Oddly enough, photography was forbidden inside the factory, and there was no factory store selling cigars. We saw some women grading tobacco leaves based on color, texture, size and potency, stripping out the central stem and separating each leaf into two half leaves. Then in the rolling room, we watched factory workers create cigars by first laying out leaves specifically graded for the outer shell, then taking other leaves graded for filling, laying them on the shell and rolling it up in a spiral manner. Then they use maple sap as glue to seal up the seams and ends and assemble caps cut from leaf scraps. The rolled cigars are then placed in a press. Then a machine was used to test the “Draw” or flow of air through the cigars to make sure that they would smoke properly. We had heard that workers can smoke all the cigars they want while at work but there was nobody smoking in the factory, or at least the part that we walked through. The only thing that stank in the factory was the bathrooms, which were worse than porta-potties because it appeared that none of the sewer plumbing was working. The factory hallways were lined with propaganda posters and pictures of Fidel and Raul Castro.
Our next stop was the main shopping district in Cienfuegos, which had a nice pedestrian mall. Unlike in Santiago de Cuba, we were not mobbed by beggars at all in Cienfuegos, either in the square or shopping area. There were also Cubans going about their business despite the invasion of their city by two cruise ships. We could walk into a government commissary where residents redeemed their ration coupons for goods. There were a lot of empty shelves and the chalkboard with a list of coupon redemption prices for goods was less than 15 lines long. We also walked a bit through a mall with both government and private counters selling a variety of goods. It looked more like a flea market than a Walmart, to be sure.
One interesting fashion note was that we noticed that several of the female police and customs employees wore patterned fishnet black tights as part of their work outfits. It was at least 90 degrees in temperature, so it’s hard to imagine how wearing any kind of tights would be comfortable.
We eventually ended right back at José Marti park, where we then went into the recommended government tourist store which sold Cuban rum and cigars. This store seemed much more legitimate, with uniformed employees and cash registers. We ended up buying two boxes of Montecristo #2 Petit cigars. This store did not have the full length Montecristo #2’s, but the cigar salesman said the Petit’s smoke and taste exactly the same as the full length version, only for a little less time.
The last stop on our tour excursion was Palacio de Valle in the Punto Gorda neighborhood, a formerly grand Villa built in 1913 by an Italian architect with Moorish and other motifs. We were treated to a Cuba Libre cocktail, which is Coca-Cola, lime and white Cuban rum. An iron spiral staircase leads up to the rooftop bar where a band was playing, and we could catch a glimpse of the Viking Star in the bay.
From there, the bus took us back to the tender pier, where a small collection of vendors waited patiently for us to spend the last of our Cuban dollars. We ended up picking up a few T-shirts, and then boarded the tender. We ended up sitting right next to Dr. Carin Bondar, the sexy crocodile biologist lecturer, who enthusiastically greeted us both by our first names. We did learn that she is actually over 40 and has 2 children.
Lunch was at the poolside grill where Janet had them build her a custom bacon cheese burger with guacamole, and Ben ordered their “Norway Hotdog” which featured pickled red cabbage and shrimp salad on a beef hot dog.
Then we were off to the fitness center and thermal suite for some guilt reduction and hot/cold therapy. That snow grotto’s 14 degree temperature is surprisingly refreshing after a half hour on the elliptical and hot tub soak. Don’t worry, Ben did take a shower between the cardio and hot tub. It is so nice that there is no extra charge for all this, and there hasn’t ever been a crowd when we have gone.
The big screens around the ship had been tuned to NASA’s Mars landing, which apparently went OK. It was interesting to see all the young and female engineers on the NASA videos and how hard NASA was working to build up this landing as a really big deal. They must have figured out that funding is tied to popularity.
A guitarist put on a program in the atrium on “Samba and other Bossas”, which are Brazilian musical genres. It was nostalgic to hear tunes made popular by Basia and Karrin Allyson, but he didn’t do O Pato, the Duck song.
The World Cafe featured “Cuban Street Foods” which included a pork sandwich with potatoes and aioli sauce reminiscent of a Peruvian pork sandwich, and what looked like taco bar fixings without the taco shells. They were also featuring Cuban cocktails, but not for free.
Viking put on the Metropolitan Opera’s Aida in HD. We both struggled to stay awake, and ended up retreating to our stateroom to watch “Three Identicals” on TV.
Our itinerary was changed at the last minute to substitute Cartagena, Columbia for Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. We have been to both ports of call during our first Panama Canal cruise in 2015, and back to Cartagena a second time towards the end of our South America cruise. We’ll just have to see how the included Viking excursion compares with the two Princess excursions we have previously done. We have a sea day tomorrow, and then arrive at Cartagena in the late afternoon. The ship will stay in Cartagena overnight and will depart in the afternoon the next day.
There is a 5 story visitor center overlooking the Miraflores locks, which step the final levels to the Pacific ocean. Catherine probably stood on one of the balconies earlier in the month when she, Carl, Franklin and Betty took the Norwegian Pearl into Lake Gatun. Catherine took an optional excursion to see the Miraflores locks since the Norwegian Pearl did a turn around in Lake Gatun and exited back into the Caribbean on its way back to Florida. The Viking Star was the first cruise ship to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific that day, so the balconies were jammed full of enthusiastic tourists who cheered as we arrived. They made a surprising amount of noise.
We have to get up early tomorrow to catch our tender tide and included tour of Panama City. Even though this is our third trip to the Panama Canal, this is the first time we got to visit Panama City.
