It was a toss up between Cuba and New Zealand for our long awaited deferred ‘Summer’ holiday. What should have been Vietnam in September ‘07, due to work commitments ended up being Cuba in January. Cuba won out over New Zealand due to the fact that it was half the price and half the distance of New Zealand.
The first two weeks were designated travelling and sightseeing and the last week was to be a relaxing week on a quiet beach in Peninsula de Guanabacabibes on the shores of the Caribbean sea with the possibility of the odd dive. I had read that Maria La Gorda was a world Biosphere Reserve and was the best place to dive in Cuba (I may have forgotten to mention this to Liam as I booked the holiday).

Our holiday did not start off quite as well as we had hoped and after three days in Havana we hightailed it to the airport in the hope of hiring a car to get away from the city and if no car was available then we were getting on the next plane out of there. Luckily there was a car available so off we headed armed with a map with the intention of getting to the old port town of Trinidad. We had heard rumours that the roads were not very well signposted. That turned out to be completely untrue, they were just NOT signposted at all. By some stroke of luck after an hours drive from the airport Liam noticed a road up ahead that had slip roads adjoining it. Should we take it? Why not? We took the unmarked slip road onto the unmarked road and found ourselves on the Autopista, what was even more extraordinary though was that we where heading in the right direction. Now we knew where we were. The were still no signs as we know them just distance markers from Havana. I had found a schematic map that would tell you how to get to anywhere along the Autopista by the distance from Havana, so only one detour (we were lost), one hitchhiker and five hours later we arrived in Trinidad for the start of a fascinating visit to Cuba. From the music of Trinidad, the beautiful mountain walks, tropical seas, along the coast to Cienfuegos and the old decadent American playboy joints, to the Bay of Pigs and the Zapata Peninsula this was a beautiful part of Cuba. After 6 days we headed west to a spectacular area called the Vinales stopping en-route in an eco village built by the Castro government in the 1970’s to start the re-forestation of the mountains. Vinales is a valley with the most strange scenery with mountains that resemble sandcastles just standing vertically up from the ground. It is also the place where the best tobacco in Cuba is grown. After enjoying the hospitality of a local couple and their daughter in the small town of Vinales for 4 days we headed for our final destination - Maria La Gorda.

The following day the wind had died down and a different dive boat had arrived at the marina so I made my way over to the centre to make some enquiries about the diving. Yes there would be diving today, but where and when had not really been decided. As the resort was full and there was only one dive boat I was a bit worried that the boat would be full but the guide did not seem too worried. I soon learnt that most people on the resort were just there for the beach so the dive boats were happily very uncrowded. I was also quite happy to find that most of the divers, were quite experienced and the few beginners there were would always go in a separate group. This worked out very well except on one occasion when an ‘Advanced’ diver infiltrated our elite group and was on the guide's octopus after 18 minutes.

There were about 50 dive sites to choose from and they were all within a 15 minute boat journey from the shore. The boat returned after each dive to get new bottles. After the first day the two boats that had been broken were now fixed although on a number of occasions we had to stop mid journey while a dive guide, spanner in hand, would lift the floor of the boat and climb down to the Volvo engine and make some adjustment or other before putting the floor back and continuing on with the journey.

The diving was generally a mixture of wall and reef. Visibility was mostly very good and the corals were really beautiful and unspoilt. Given that there would only be about 10 -15 divers a day it meant that there was very little damage done. Although a lot of the dive sites were very similar there was always lots to see on each dive. The dives ranged from vertical walls to coral canyons, tunnels and caves. There are some wrecks of Spanish Galleons and one huge anchor chain which hangs off a vertical wall and drops deeper than our guide would allow us to go. There was a huge variety of fish life, and nudibranchs. There were turtles and loads of barracuda, lobster, groupers, eels, angle fish and we did see one magnificent eagle ray who decided to put on a show for us. Unfortunately it was not the season for whale sharks, hammerheads and nurse and blue sharks. The flora was also beautiful which included gorgonians like Acroporas, Madrasis, Oculina (don’t ask me which is which) but the colours and size of these gorgonians were really amazing.

At first I decided I would take a 6 dive package, but there was very little to do in Maria La Gorda so I changed my mind and changed it to ten dives. On the third day I took, as recommended by CFT, the afternoon off. I decided to do the same on the fourth day too. On that afternoon Liam was venturing very near the water’s edge so I decided that the next day he should try a snorkel by one of the jetty walls. The gaps in the brickwork served as little hatcheries for millions of baby carajeula fish which were the most abundant fish in the area. After all it was very shallow and very warm there were loads of fish to see and I knew he would enjoy the experience. That evening Liam announced that maybe I would be better off diving the next afternoon, I took a little persuading as you can imagine, and extended my package to 15 dives!

As with everything else we experienced in Cuba diving has it’s own character. It was like stepping back in time as the water was devoid of any other dive boat, or other boats for that matter. On average only one boat was ever out at a time. Dive equipment is very expensive for the local dive guides and therefore everything is maintained to last indefinitely. That also includes the guides wetsuits, one guide had a suit that would have made Shane Tyrrell’s old wetsuit look positively modern. Another aspect that was peculiarly Cuban was the marshal counting everyone in and out of the boat, we were after all quite close to Mexico. In the hotel in the evening all the guests had a certain camaraderie, so far from civilization, discussing the diving and what the future would hold for this beautiful, pristine resort and indeed for the rest of the country.
We knew when we booked our holiday that Fidel was not going to be leader for very much longer due to his failing health but we did not realise just how close it was to the end of his reign. We were glad to have gone to see the way the country and it’s people have managed to survive and prosper, although not in a commercial sense. From the old 1950’s American jalopies, the horse drawn taxies, the oxen ploughing the land, to the music, good nature, smiling faces, everyone we spoke to was rightly very proud of their country. What would be nice to see though post Fidel is the same spirit of survival to continue without American intervention but with freedom of speech for the individual, freedom to trade and a lifting of the crippling embargo.

Jean

Newsletter Articles

Notes From the Chair
Beyond Lambay
Borneo
Breathless
Cuba 2008
My Trainee Weekend