While our crew headed off to Varadero for the day, Tim and I
decided to chill after our long Vinales excursion and explore the area and
check on provisions.
Since trying to get history in Cuba pre-revolutions tends to
be a bit..let's say...rewritten? I had to do some research to find out the
history of the marina. It was originally
built in 1953 as the Marina Barlovento Complex intended to be a playground for
the wealthy with houses/hotels and private canals for boats.
Then the revolution happened.
The government took over the ownership of the marina and
after that time stood still. It was
renamed Marina Hemingway after Ernest. Some of the original bungalows were torn
down, we can still see the foundations from them. Two hotels remain--both are getting worked
on. One is habitable, the other....not so much, but it is being worked on. The hotel Acuario is where you can pick up
wifi (it's not very good) and you can buy a day pass to the pool. The Old Man
and the Sea hotel (El Viejo y El Mar) is in desperate need of renovation. It had been used in the past as a hostel for
medical tourists and medical students.
If they can get her fixed up she has some killer views of the ocean and
the Havana skyline. There is also a
small bowling alley that the locals go to.
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| Solar powered water heaters located on property. |
The marina has an Italian/pizza restaurant, a small
cafe/bakery and a Chinese restaurant.
Yes. Chinese restaurant as only Cuban government run restaurants can do chinese food, which
is....not very well. They were out of a
lot of items (common with the government run properties) and vino 'no es bueno'
and indeed it was not.
Besides the restaurants there was a chandelry-which supplies
pretty much anything but stuff for your boat.
They had wine, rum, jellies by the pack, butter (!-not easy to get in
Cuba), cheeses and things that weren't at the actual market. However, the lovely gentleman at the
chandelry could probably have helped us out if needed. The main store had bottle water, sodas, every
ripoff of Kellog's cereals you could imagine.
A row of what appeared to be manicotti and other assorted pastas and
some paper products. There was also a
government run liquor store attached to the market and a meat market attached
to the store.
For some reason, I don't seem to have pictures of all of these places.
All products-including those in the chandelry--is based on
what can be acquired on a delivery by delivery basis.
We ran over to the bakery to by their last loaf of Pan Molde
(loaf of bread) and I decided to add a bag of small croissants last
minute. Let's just say Pan Molde 'no es
bueno'. The croissants were
marvelous. If we had waited, we could
have bought non-government bread from the bakery/electronics shop just outside
the marina. Lesson learned.
Improvements are being made to the marina itself, new lighting around the facility and new pedestals have been installed at most of the slips.
We walked around the small of Jaimanitas outside the marina
finally winding up at this paladar called Restaurante Santy Pescador. It is a sushi restaurant. Yes. Sushi.
Admittedly we weren't brave enough to go Cuban sushi, but the restaurant
gets rave reviews for its fresh fish. We
wound up having the seafood pasta which was delicious, and there was a ton of
it, we should have shared. No menu, she
just rattles off what they have available that day. I didn't know all the spanish seafood names
and she wasn't sure of all the english names so we stayed with what we
understood.
Santy is a licensed fisherman and the paladar is located on
the inlet of the Rio Jaimanitas. There
is a small working marina of fishing boats, everything a bit haphazard as far
as docks and facilities.
I'm sure when we go again, we'll be exploring outside the
marina more.
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| Rio Jaimanitos. Santy's is the wooden building in the center of the picture. |
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| First Place trophy from the Hemingway Fishing Tournament |
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| Upstairs at Santy's. |
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| I would laugh. But I used to have a boat at a marina that wasn't much better. |
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