Sailing "No Keys": Getting Familiar with Cuba

Santa Martha, Cuba

Well, after a good sleep, it’s time to meet our fellow sailors and get familiar with the area and marina. There are lots of Canadian’s here, some live here full time now.

We washed the boat of all the salt we collected and got to meet our neighbors. We had the drug dogs on our boat again. Once we passed this second check, it was time to exchange some money and head into town (Santa Martha). There are two kinds of currency in Cuba. The CUC or convertible peso’s (which is 1 for 1 or par) and the Nationale (24 to 1, therefore if you can use them, items are a lot cheaper). The CUC is the exchange that tourists use for everything. The Nationale is what the Cubans use. When you are walking around in the town, you can see where the Nationales are accepted. It is best to have Canadian Dollars to exchange, there is a big service charge for using US Dollars and the exchange is not that great.

We went to the Market in Santa Martha to get veggies and see what was available today. This is where you can spend your Nationale’s. The market is divided up into 2 areas…..the government run stalls and the newly created entrepreneurial stalls. Each stall has something different to offer. If they do not have it today, there is always tomorrow. There are no large grocery stores and items that are available are limited. There is no beef here and pork is the #1 meat. Bread is baked in government run shops and is available daily. The price for a loaf of bread is $1 CUC. Eggs are hard to come by and when you do find them, they are about $0.03 each and they come in flats. We shared when we found them. Frozen chicken, hot dogs were available, when you could find them. Pasta was available but cost about $4.00 CUC’s a box (same brand at home $0.99 each). So having a wide variety of canned goods in your ship stores is a must.

Pizza is available, hot and fresh. They are made on the spot in stalls in the street. The cost is $10.00 Nationales (which is about $0.40 cents Canadian) for a pizza with some ham. Ice cream is available too. Hamburgers are made fresh but are made with ground turkey or pork. One place we found also added a glass of juice for about $35.00 Nationales.