Cuba - Varadero & Bay Of Pigs Feb 2006

**Howard Payne** · February 21st, 2006, 06:42 PM

Just got back from 10 days in Cuba diving at Varadero, just east of Havana and the infamous Bay Of Pigs on the south coast (Apologies to members not based in the UK for the odd "in" joke)

No report on Cuba would be complete without at least mentioning Havana (not least for the benefit of American friends on the board who can't go there, or to be factually correct - they can't spend money there). Havana is a remarkable city, but unfortunately decades of neglect have left it literally falling apart. You expect it to be a bit run down, but it's looking almost like it's past salvaging now. The Spanish colonial architecture is simply incredible. The Spanish first came here in 1492 and basically ran the island until the 1890's and their architectural legacy just takes your breath away. A few hours wandering through Vieja Havana (The Old Town) rounded off with a mojito or two at the Ambos Mundos hotel where Hemingway stayed in the 30's and wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls was a memorable afternoon indeed.

Hemingway is everywhere in Havana, his favourite drinking haunts, Cojimar the fishing village where he kept "Pilar" his fishing boat and also his house "Finca Vigia" on the outskirts of town where he spent most of the last part of his life and wrote The Old Man And The Sea. It's a fascinating trail and a sad irony that Americans are deprived of this insight into one their greatest authors and mavericks.

Hemingway dedicated his 1954 Nobel prize for literature to the Cuban people and once you've spent a little time with them - you'll know why. Surprisingly wordly, honest and with a great love of life (in spite of having almost nothing) - the people really do make the country and any time you can spend with them off the "tourist trail" brings its own rewards. Almost 50 years of communism seems in many ways to have worked well and everyone we met was well educated, had access to excellent health facilities and talent be it musical, sporting or any other is usually spotted at an early age and developed to its full potential. You can’t help but speculate just how much further the country would have come if it had access to free trade with the US and its surrounding neighbours. I felt safer walking the streets of Havana at 2am than I do walking the streets of London which is pretty telling in itself.

Anyway enough of the fluff and on with the diving.

Diving is still pretty much in its infancy over here and this would create some problems for the real DIR purists. I could only find one centre near us with Nitrox and it wasn’t one that served our hotel. Trimix doesn’t appear to exist. Its air or air basically. Hire equipment at the Marina Gaviota Dive Centre was mostly modern Mares kit and the centre was clean and well equipped with modern Bauer compressors which meant my regs weren’t full of brown sludge at the end of the week J

All the Divemasters and instructors look like Enrique Englesias but have names like Boris, Vladimir and Nikita which is an amusing hangover from the days when Castro was in bed with the Russians.

Major caveat with diving Cuba is that during the winter, the wind blows from the north across the Straits of Florida and whips the sea up to the point where you can’t get a boat out to dive the north coast. In the summer it’s the reverse. It blows the diving out roughly 3 out of every 4 days and we only got one dive off the north coast the whole time we were there. On the days when the weather’s too bad, you take a 4½ hour 300 mile round coach trip down to the infamous Bay Of Pigs in the south. My flatmate and diving buddy Ross who was with me decided that 4½ hours in a 1950’s coach with no air con was not to his liking for some reason and knocked it on the head after the first day. I carried on regardless because the diving was terrific, but the journey was a real drudge. Typical Bay Of Pigs diving is a shallow bimble across the fish packed reef, through a cavern swimthrough , down onto a wall, across for a while and then back up across the reef, usually taking in a shallow wreck somewhere along the way. Something for everyone in other words: with plenty of fishlife and some beautiful sponges. Temp 25 degrees with 20-30m viz.

Worth the effort, not least to see the “Cuerva De Los Pesces”, Cubas largest cenote which sits about 300 yds from the beach at the Bay Of Pigs and is packed with the same tropical fish you’d seen on the reef minutes before. Our Divemaster introduced me to his friend who dives there a lot. He explained that the cenote goes to about 70m deep and then is joined to the sea via a network of caves and passages – hence all the tropical fish and the brackish water. The viz was incredible so I asked how deep he’d been and he said: to the bottom several times on a single tank of air, but he’d stopped now because he’d got a “recompression” sic. He laughed like a drain as he told me - they’re hard these Cubans – the yanks didn’t stand a chance in the 1962 invasion

From chats with the Divemaster on the long coach journey’s it became obvious that they’re all cave diving mad. The whole of the Matanzas province which runs through the middle of the country is on a bedrock or porous limestone with huge Mangrove swamps to the south coast around the Bay of Pigs. “Boris” told me that it’s home to a huge network of flooded caves which they all try to dive regularly for fun. It sounds to a complete cave dunce like me that the geology is pretty similar to southern Florida or Mexico and I’d further stick my neck out and say this might be one of the great uncharted cave diving locations in the world. Cave systems 27km long were seriously mentioned – but obviously I couldn’t corroborate that. Might be a big opportunity for a team who wants to do some real “virgin” cave exploration.

The safety record with little redundancy, line laying or other safety procedures and a whole lot of deep air is to say the least patchy. Castro, who was apparently a keen diver in his younger days, has put cave diving on hold for a while throughout the whole country because the death rate was going through the roof. Boris explained that 5 Instructors and Divemasters died in one incident about a year ago. I enquired whether they had run into technical difficulties, but he explained that they’d been up drinking rum all night til 5am, then piled into a cave at 5.30am on a single 10l tank each, got lost and ran out of air! Cue hysterical laughter all round, nervous on my part!

I was trying to just pass quietly un-noticed all week – but the moment I turned up at the waters edge on the first day in a DIR rig, the Cubans all shouted “Cave Diver” at me and immediately assumed I was God’s gift. I genuinely tried to explain that I’d never been near a cave and I was far from experienced – but they weren’t having any of it and produced a well thumbed Spanish Cave diving manual and showed me a page with a Rick Stanton / Martyn Farr sideslung, helmeted lookalike with the caption “English Cave Diver” and a Gorgeous George lookalike on the facing page with the caption “American Cave Diver”. I was then informed that English cave divers were “the best in the world”. I tried to explain that the American’s did have a trick or two up their sleeves as well – but they weren’t having any of that either!

With Ross 150 miles away (he’s not normally much closer to me when we’re under the water frankly J) I then spent the week buddied up with a strange succession of German, Canadian and Dutch divers of *ahem* varying ability, even by my own limited standards! Most of the dives were like the coach outing in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and the conversations that accompanied them were just classic:

Just about to get into the water with a nervous young Canadian guy:
Him: “Oh just to let you know, I’m always real sick when I surface after every dive, but don’t worry – it’s fine”
Me: “Ok – lets just take it steady and use a nice slow ascent and see how it goes?”
Back on dry land afterwards:
Me: “You seemed fine mate – no sickness then?”
Him: “No – that slow ascent thing seems to work real well – I’m gonna use that all the time”

We all muddled along just fine, kept it shallow and I studiously ignored Rule 1 (which of course I don’t know about yet coz I haven’t done DIR-FJ)

The day before we were due to come home – the weather cleared and we finally got to see what the north coast had to offer. First dive was a 20m offshore reef which was a bit dull and passed without event until the five of us were about to surface and a huge Manta ray just drifted past! We tried to keep up with it for a few seconds, but stood no chance not least coz we were all low on air. My first ever Manta and a truly magical moment. We surfaced using the crack bottle DSMB I’d been saving to torment Gledders with and waved it at the hardboat which was now about 750 yds away. They waved back and then left us sitting there for about half an hour. The little Italian guy who’d been at the front of our group then spat out the Octopus he’d been breathing for the last 45 minutes and launched into an incomprehensible “Massimo, bellisimo, cornetto, fellatio….” type rant. When it comes to putting a huge smile on your face, it would appear “Manta” works in any language. The Divemaster said they see them fairly regularly in the area, but that one was the biggest he’d seen. After half an hour floating way offshore in tropical ocean, the words “Open Water The Movie” and “Pelagic Shark” are constantly turning over in your mind as well, but eventually they motored over and picked us up.

Second dive was called Neptuno - a 1940’s war wreck in only 10m of water! She was a big ship (100m+) of unknown origin – maybe an American Liberty ship or something similar. The kind of thing we’re used to diving off the south coast of the UK, but with 20m+of viz, in 23 degrees and tons of fish life and Moray Eels! Bliss. The Cubans are not big on the whole politically correct “look don’t touch” thing as you can see from the photo of Boris hugging the big old Moray who comes over to check you out and get fed with titbits. They’re very drawn to underwater cameras, apparently they associate them with food!

All in all a perfect end to the holiday and a taste of how good the diving can be when the weather permits. With the benefit of hindsight, the south coast would have been a better bet at this time of the year. Isle de Juventud, Cayo Largo, Jardines De La Reina and Maria La Gorda are the top diving destinations on the south coast.

I know that our own Garf went to Cayo Coco a little further along from Varadero where we were and rated the diving and the resort very highly.

Contrary to what you’d think, everything is pretty expensive and milking the tourists seems to be the national sport. 40 cuc’s (Cuban Convertible Pesos – the currency used by tourists) – about £30 is normal for a single dive.

In conclusion – a great place for those who get bored with the whole Red Sea “fishfest” thing. Neptuno was the tip of the iceberg on the north coast – there are loads of wrecks including a huge oil tanker and a Russian frigate all in close proximity of Varadero. None of it is very deep (except the walls on the south coast) – this is 30m sport diving.

Finally, the wit and wisdom of IL Commandante Che Guevara, Castro and other national heros is everywhere on huge billboardings by the roadside:

Which literally translated from the Spanish means “Frankly if he was a better f&%^$n diver he wouldn’t have only got a provisional”. It’s good to hear that Daz’s fame has spread across the Atlantic – it was only a matter of time.

Adrian Kelland · February 21st, 2006, 06:58 PM

Your pictures bring back a few memories Howard. Thank you.

The guy hugging the moray was pretty brave - or stupid. Those things are quite capable of giving you a bite. It was amazing to see so many free swimming when I was there.

Adrian

**Howard Payne** · February 21st, 2006, 07:06 PM

Whatever your feelings about leaving the wildlife undisturbed - you can't really help interacting with them - they've been feeding and handling them for so long that they won't leave you alone. You definitely keep your fingers close to your body. Hell of a dive in virtually no depth

Mark Chase · February 21st, 2006, 07:27 PM

Excelent write up Howard Thanks.

We fly out to Cuba on Sunday, didnt like the look of those clouds

Were in Havana for a couple of days then off to one of the islands.

How warm / cold was the water?

ATB

Mark Chase

**Howard Payne** · February 21st, 2006, 07:49 PM

I was thinking of you when I saw you were going.
The NH Parque Central is the best hotel to stay at in Havana (hotels can be patchy to say the least) - We stayed 3 days here - its was a perfect base for seeing the city.
I had between 23 and 25 degrees on the computer all week. The south coast is a bit warmer. I was in a 5MM shortie and was fine, but if you feel the cold - you might want a full suit.
Take everything you need, batteries etc, there's nothing to buy out there.
Take plenty of money as well - I was hemorrhaging it all week

Weather was a bit patchy to say the least - 25 -28 degrees most days- but quite windy.
Have a great time

Beth · March 30th, 2006, 08:22 PM

I really enjoyed reading that Howard - thank you

February 21st, 2006, 06:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
Howard Payne(Offline) Strokey Dokily Doo Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: London Posts: 1,202	Cuba - Varadero & Bay Of Pigs Feb 2006 Just got back from 10 days in Cuba diving at Varadero, just east of Havana and the infamous Bay Of Pigs on the south coast (Apologies to members not based in the UK for the odd "in" joke) No report on Cuba would be complete without at least mentioning Havana (not least for the benefit of American friends on the board who can't go there, or to be factually correct - they can't spend money there). Havana is a remarkable city, but unfortunately decades of neglect have left it literally falling apart. You expect it to be a bit run down, but it's looking almost like it's past salvaging now. The Spanish colonial architecture is simply incredible. The Spanish first came here in 1492 and basically ran the island until the 1890's and their architectural legacy just takes your breath away. A few hours wandering through Vieja Havana (The Old Town) rounded off with a mojito or two at the Ambos Mundos hotel where Hemingway stayed in the 30's and wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls was a memorable afternoon indeed. Hemingway is everywhere in Havana, his favourite drinking haunts, Cojimar the fishing village where he kept "Pilar" his fishing boat and also his house "Finca Vigia" on the outskirts of town where he spent most of the last part of his life and wrote The Old Man And The Sea. It's a fascinating trail and a sad irony that Americans are deprived of this insight into one their greatest authors and mavericks. Hemingway dedicated his 1954 Nobel prize for literature to the Cuban people and once you've spent a little time with them - you'll know why. Surprisingly wordly, honest and with a great love of life (in spite of having almost nothing) - the people really do make the country and any time you can spend with them off the "tourist trail" brings its own rewards. Almost 50 years of communism seems in many ways to have worked well and everyone we met was well educated, had access to excellent health facilities and talent be it musical, sporting or any other is usually spotted at an early age and developed to its full potential. You can’t help but speculate just how much further the country would have come if it had access to free trade with the US and its surrounding neighbours. I felt safer walking the streets of Havana at 2am than I do walking the streets of London which is pretty telling in itself. Anyway enough of the fluff and on with the diving. Diving is still pretty much in its infancy over here and this would create some problems for the real DIR purists. I could only find one centre near us with Nitrox and it wasn’t one that served our hotel. Trimix doesn’t appear to exist. Its air or air basically. Hire equipment at the Marina Gaviota Dive Centre was mostly modern Mares kit and the centre was clean and well equipped with modern Bauer compressors which meant my regs weren’t full of brown sludge at the end of the week J All the Divemasters and instructors look like Enrique Englesias but have names like Boris, Vladimir and Nikita which is an amusing hangover from the days when Castro was in bed with the Russians. Major caveat with diving Cuba is that during the winter, the wind blows from the north across the Straits of Florida and whips the sea up to the point where you can’t get a boat out to dive the north coast. In the summer it’s the reverse. It blows the diving out roughly 3 out of every 4 days and we only got one dive off the north coast the whole time we were there. On the days when the weather’s too bad, you take a 4½ hour 300 mile round coach trip down to the infamous Bay Of Pigs in the south. My flatmate and diving buddy Ross who was with me decided that 4½ hours in a 1950’s coach with no air con was not to his liking for some reason and knocked it on the head after the first day. I carried on regardless because the diving was terrific, but the journey was a real drudge. Typical Bay Of Pigs diving is a shallow bimble across the fish packed reef, through a cavern swimthrough , down onto a wall, across for a while and then back up across the reef, usually taking in a shallow wreck somewhere along the way. Something for everyone in other words: with plenty of fishlife and some beautiful sponges. Temp 25 degrees with 20-30m viz. Worth the effort, not least to see the “Cuerva De Los Pesces”, Cubas largest cenote which sits about 300 yds from the beach at the Bay Of Pigs and is packed with the same tropical fish you’d seen on the reef minutes before. Our Divemaster introduced me to his friend who dives there a lot. He explained that the cenote goes to about 70m deep and then is joined to the sea via a network of caves and passages – hence all the tropical fish and the brackish water. The viz was incredible so I asked how deep he’d been and he said: to the bottom several times on a single tank of air, but he’d stopped now because he’d got a “recompression” sic. He laughed like a drain as he told me - they’re hard these Cubans – the yanks didn’t stand a chance in the 1962 invasion From chats with the Divemaster on the long coach journey’s it became obvious that they’re all cave diving mad. The whole of the Matanzas province which runs through the middle of the country is on a bedrock or porous limestone with huge Mangrove swamps to the south coast around the Bay of Pigs. “Boris” told me that it’s home to a huge network of flooded caves which they all try to dive regularly for fun. It sounds to a complete cave dunce like me that the geology is pretty similar to southern Florida or Mexico and I’d further stick my neck out and say this might be one of the great uncharted cave diving locations in the world. Cave systems 27km long were seriously mentioned – but obviously I couldn’t corroborate that. Might be a big opportunity for a team who wants to do some real “virgin” cave exploration. The safety record with little redundancy, line laying or other safety procedures and a whole lot of deep air is to say the least patchy. Castro, who was apparently a keen diver in his younger days, has put cave diving on hold for a while throughout the whole country because the death rate was going through the roof. Boris explained that 5 Instructors and Divemasters died in one incident about a year ago. I enquired whether they had run into technical difficulties, but he explained that they’d been up drinking rum all night til 5am, then piled into a cave at 5.30am on a single 10l tank each, got lost and ran out of air! Cue hysterical laughter all round, nervous on my part! I was trying to just pass quietly un-noticed all week – but the moment I turned up at the waters edge on the first day in a DIR rig, the Cubans all shouted “Cave Diver” at me and immediately assumed I was God’s gift. I genuinely tried to explain that I’d never been near a cave and I was far from experienced – but they weren’t having any of it and produced a well thumbed Spanish Cave diving manual and showed me a page with a Rick Stanton / Martyn Farr sideslung, helmeted lookalike with the caption “English Cave Diver” and a Gorgeous George lookalike on the facing page with the caption “American Cave Diver”. I was then informed that English cave divers were “the best in the world”. I tried to explain that the American’s did have a trick or two up their sleeves as well – but they weren’t having any of that either! With Ross 150 miles away (he’s not normally much closer to me when we’re under the water frankly J) I then spent the week buddied up with a strange succession of German, Canadian and Dutch divers of ahem varying ability, even by my own limited standards! Most of the dives were like the coach outing in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and the conversations that accompanied them were just classic: Just about to get into the water with a nervous young Canadian guy: Him: “Oh just to let you know, I’m always real sick when I surface after every dive, but don’t worry – it’s fine” Me: “Ok – lets just take it steady and use a nice slow ascent and see how it goes?” Back on dry land afterwards: Me: “You seemed fine mate – no sickness then?” Him: “No – that slow ascent thing seems to work real well – I’m gonna use that all the time” We all muddled along just fine, kept it shallow and I studiously ignored Rule 1 (which of course I don’t know about yet coz I haven’t done DIR-FJ) The day before we were due to come home – the weather cleared and we finally got to see what the north coast had to offer. First dive was a 20m offshore reef which was a bit dull and passed without event until the five of us were about to surface and a huge Manta ray just drifted past! We tried to keep up with it for a few seconds, but stood no chance not least coz we were all low on air. My first ever Manta and a truly magical moment. We surfaced using the crack bottle DSMB I’d been saving to torment Gledders with and waved it at the hardboat which was now about 750 yds away. They waved back and then left us sitting there for about half an hour. The little Italian guy who’d been at the front of our group then spat out the Octopus he’d been breathing for the last 45 minutes and launched into an incomprehensible “Massimo, bellisimo, cornetto, fellatio….” type rant. When it comes to putting a huge smile on your face, it would appear “Manta” works in any language. The Divemaster said they see them fairly regularly in the area, but that one was the biggest he’d seen. After half an hour floating way offshore in tropical ocean, the words “Open Water The Movie” and “Pelagic Shark” are constantly turning over in your mind as well, but eventually they motored over and picked us up. Second dive was called Neptuno - a 1940’s war wreck in only 10m of water! She was a big ship (100m+) of unknown origin – maybe an American Liberty ship or something similar. The kind of thing we’re used to diving off the south coast of the UK, but with 20m+of viz, in 23 degrees and tons of fish life and Moray Eels! Bliss. The Cubans are not big on the whole politically correct “look don’t touch” thing as you can see from the photo of Boris hugging the big old Moray who comes over to check you out and get fed with titbits. They’re very drawn to underwater cameras, apparently they associate them with food! All in all a perfect end to the holiday and a taste of how good the diving can be when the weather permits. With the benefit of hindsight, the south coast would have been a better bet at this time of the year. Isle de Juventud, Cayo Largo, Jardines De La Reina and Maria La Gorda are the top diving destinations on the south coast. I know that our own Garf went to Cayo Coco a little further along from Varadero where we were and rated the diving and the resort very highly. Contrary to what you’d think, everything is pretty expensive and milking the tourists seems to be the national sport. 40 cuc’s (Cuban Convertible Pesos – the currency used by tourists) – about £30 is normal for a single dive. In conclusion – a great place for those who get bored with the whole Red Sea “fishfest” thing. Neptuno was the tip of the iceberg on the north coast – there are loads of wrecks including a huge oil tanker and a Russian frigate all in close proximity of Varadero. None of it is very deep (except the walls on the south coast) – this is 30m sport diving. Finally, the wit and wisdom of IL Commandante Che Guevara, Castro and other national heros is everywhere on huge billboardings by the roadside: Which literally translated from the Spanish means “Frankly if he was a better f&%^$n diver he wouldn’t have only got a provisional”. It’s good to hear that Daz’s fame has spread across the Atlantic – it was only a matter of time. __________________ The Foxturd Chimp Last edited by Howard Payne; February 22nd, 2006 at 01:23 AM.

February 21st, 2006, 07:06 PM	#3 (permalink)
Howard Payne(Offline) Strokey Dokily Doo Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: London Posts: 1,202	Whatever your feelings about leaving the wildlife undisturbed - you can't really help interacting with them - they've been feeding and handling them for so long that they won't leave you alone. You definitely keep your fingers close to your body. Hell of a dive in virtually no depth __________________ The Foxturd Chimp

February 21st, 2006, 07:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
Mark Chase(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Kent England Posts: 905	Excelent write up Howard Thanks. We fly out to Cuba on Sunday, didnt like the look of those clouds Were in Havana for a couple of days then off to one of the islands. How warm / cold was the water? ATB Mark Chase __________________ The only DIR Inspiration diver in the village

February 21st, 2006, 07:49 PM	#5 (permalink)
Howard Payne(Offline) Strokey Dokily Doo Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: London Posts: 1,202	I was thinking of you when I saw you were going. The NH Parque Central is the best hotel to stay at in Havana (hotels can be patchy to say the least) - We stayed 3 days here - its was a perfect base for seeing the city. I had between 23 and 25 degrees on the computer all week. The south coast is a bit warmer. I was in a 5MM shortie and was fine, but if you feel the cold - you might want a full suit. Take everything you need, batteries etc, there's nothing to buy out there. Take plenty of money as well - I was hemorrhaging it all week Weather was a bit patchy to say the least - 25 -28 degrees most days- but quite windy. Have a great time __________________ The Foxturd Chimp Last edited by Howard Payne; February 22nd, 2006 at 12:09 AM. Reason: spelling

March 30th, 2006, 08:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
Beth(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Surrey Posts: 26	I really enjoyed reading that Howard - thank you __________________ Beth

February 21st, 2006, 06:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
Adrian Kelland (Online) Can't remember Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Exeter - Team of 1 Posts: 268	Your pictures bring back a few memories Howard. Thank you. The guy hugging the moray was pretty brave - or stupid. Those things are quite capable of giving you a bite. It was amazing to see so many free swimming when I was there. Adrian