15 December A trip to market

We're cruisers and crazy enough to travel twenty miles to a the local market.  In Varadero it is also a sightseeing trip on an open top double decker bus.  The 17 miles strip of sand has hotel after hotel along it's length with a fleet of the tourist buses travelling along the length from about 9am until 7pm.  The marina is on the eastern extremity and the market in a village a mile beyond the last stop on the west end of the spit. We hopped on the bus outside the hotal anWid for the princely sum of CUC 5  for ride all day ticket and rode down to Varadero town which took 45 minutes.  It was very pleasant to gaze out on the way down.  Alighting from the bus I pulled out the phone for the Cuban road map I'd downloaded earlier and we started walking to Santa Lucia.  Our path took us along the river bank and up steps to the main road and over the river and onto the village.  It was reassuring to see people walking towards us with bags of produce. I assumed they were coming from the market and for once the assumption was spot on.

tourist bus to reach the market

An agro pecaurio is a farmer's market.  This one was in an open yard.  On one side were the shops and stalls selling pork and beef.  On another side there were trucks loaded with pineapples being sold off the back and in the middle stalls with produce.  What is available is limited to the time of year, nothing grown under glass or treated with chemicals, only natural manure and the orange soil.  Our first purchase was a bottle of honey from an old man.  He was sat on a chair with a dozen bottles on a sack in front of him, some of the bottles were half size rum bottles, other full size wine bottles.  Recycle and re-purpose through necessity.  Using spanish and body language he wanted us to try his honey. He took my hand and poured a nugget on the inside of my wrist to lick off. I had half and David had half.  I didn't like think how many germs there might be after riding a bus and handling unwashed vegetables.  Honey's a natural disinfectant isn't it?  The honey was really good so we bought a bottle and paid a lot less than I had in the US.

pork on the block

To this we added sweet potatoes, fragrant pineapples, green tomatoes, some cucumbers and a large bunch of lettuce.  I was careful to confirm the prices per pound were in local pesos versus CUCs before agreeing, careful to avoid produce with bug holes.  Next door to the market was the bakery which had large white rolls at 15 for £1.   The customers in line spotted we were not locals and were all smiles and help.  One lady pointed to the bread and gave us a thumbs up and an old man generously handed me a large plastic bag.

how old is this tractor?

It was a good day and a positive experience of meeting local people, finding my poor Spanish wasn't a barrier to communication and seeing real Cuban life.  People really are all smiles, colourful and welcoming to guests in their country.   And the quality of the fruit and vegetables?  The tomatoes ripened to red over the next two to three days.  The pineapples were sweet, no blemishes and lasted over a week.  I did wash everything in a weak bleach solution in the cockpit before bringing anything down below.  We don't need any stowaways in the form of cockroaches or ants.

looking like a harvest festival display

When we returned to the marina we had neighbours!  A Canadian boat called Mon Ark with Linda and Chris on board - a lovely couple - and the first cruising boat we'd met.  They had come across from Marathon in Florida.  We had dinner together at the tapas bar and David and I both feel this could be one of those special friendships that will last a long time.  We hope so.