Cuba, January 27, 2019
Cayo Largo
“Remember to take your passport”
Cayo Largo is a small (16 miles long, 1.9 miles wide) resort
island off the south coast of Cuba. Made of limestone it has flat beaches of
white, powdery sand, living coral reefs and clear,calm waters perfect for
diving. There are no villages other than those built for tourists. Around 2300 Cubans
rotate on and off the island (20 days on, 10 off) to work in the hotels,
restaurants, shops and diving operations.
The VV anchored well off shore, beyond the reefs so today
was our first experience with local tenders for the ride to the tourist dock. We
were scheduled to visit a sea turtle breeding center and the Cayo Largo Clinic,
part of the Cuban health care system. After that you could return to the ship,
go snorkeling or relax on one of the beautiful beaches. All aboard at 4 pm.
Because we spend a lot of time on the Florida Panhandle we
have some knowledge of sea turtles that lay their eggs ashore. Expert conservationists
carefully fence off the egg nests on the beach, monitoring the hatching.
Houses, hotels and condos along the beach are prohibited from exterior lighting
that might confuse the hatchlings when they rush to the Gulf waters without any
human contact.
The Sea Turtle Breeding Center approaches saving three
different types of the protected animals. Each season they take the eggs from
one of the nests and incubate them until they hatch. The baby turtles are then
kept in large (several meters across) cement ponds. Some are released to the
sea when they are one year old, while others are kept longer and released
periodically. The modest facility a short walk from the dock is overseen by two
naturalists, who like the other island workers, also rotate on 20/off 10.
Yunney translated as the senior man explained the goals and processes of the Center.
And then we were invited to “wash our hands” at a hose bib and then reach in
and pick up one of the year old turtles, about 12 inches long. Whoa. This is
entirely contradictory to accepted practice of no human contact with any animal
that is to be returned to the wild and makes me wonder how scientific this
Center really is.
Next up, a visit to the Clinic a short distance from the
turtles. It was a modest facility, but very clean with a roomy waiting area and
a staff of doctor, dentist, nurses and a few other support staff. All health
care in Cuba is free. All medical personnel earn that very modest wage from the
State, so these people are dedicated to their chosen profession. The doctors
all attend medical school in Cuba. The doctors and other staff welcomed us and
our questions. Once again Yunney translated (So much for the American conceit
that everyone everywhere speaks English) as they answered our many queries.
They could handle most medical concerns on the island but if surgery or more
advanced care was required the patient would be flown to Havana. There is an
international airport on the island with flight path right over the Clinic. One
of our fellow passengers had left a medication at the hotel in Cienfuegos so
the ship had arranged for her doctor to confer with the island doctor. And here
lies the problem; between the embargoes and lack of Soviet support, there is a limited
variety and supply of medicines. The one she needed was not available and the
substitute drug was not effective. On the other hand, pre-natal care is first
rate and constant.
We shopped a bit at the little tourist stands near the dock.
I bought a few keychains with carved wooden objects (turtle, conga drum) that
were probably made in China. The native crafts were a bit crude and the
T-shirts seemed to all feature a bottle of Havana Club rum. While a number of
our group boarded a large catamaran for a snorkeling adventure the rest of us
boarded that tender/dive boat to first bounce and splash to the dock serving
the beach area and after the beach-goers got off the dozen or so of us left
headed back to the ship. It was a bit choppy which always makes getting on and
off a tender a bit of a challenge. Lunch in the dining room and then relaxing
time until the rest returned. I was reading the stack of NY Times Sunday magazines
I’d brought along when Jim found me to watch the others attempting to return to
the VV. By then it was more than choppy; so much so that the tender could not
safely transfer the passengers so one of the ship’s Zodiacs was launched to
pick up the people from the tender and then bring them back to the ship. As we
looked down from the second deck we saw the crew members as they grabbed each
passenger from the bouncing Zodiac and almost tossed them onto the dive deck of
the equally bouncing VV. Yikes. But everyone was soon safely back on board,
ditto the Zodiac and then we lifted anchor and headed towards our next stop.
The pre-cocktail presentation was to be Stephanie Hendrich
from the Met who has just begun curating a Winslow Homer exhibit scheduled to
open in two years. Jim had already changed for dinner (resort casual, no black
tie on this trip) and gone up to the lounge to lay claim to a good spot. By the
time I had showered and was attempting to blow dry my hair the VV was really
rocking and rolling, so much so that I couldn’t finish dressing. I finally gave
up and laid down on the bed to hang on. Big mistake. About 10 minutes before
Stephanie’s scheduled talk, an announcement was made that it was cancelled.
Shortly thereafter another announcement was made that dinner could not be safely
served in the dining room but the kitchen was going to provide a selection of
toasted sandwiches in the lounge. About this time Jim came back to our
stateroom to find out what had happened to me. He said that most of the
passengers were down for the count. Lying down, inside, while a smallish ship
is navigating high seas? What a rookie mistake. I haven’t been that seasick
since I was a kid crossing the Catalina Channel from Newport to Cherry Cove
near the Isthmus. Let us just say it was a long, long night with Jim as my
Nurse Nightingale.
The next morning Jim scouted some soda crackers and hot
water for ginger tea. He came back with tender tummy supplies and a report that
the crew had brought the passengers down from the third deck to spend the night
in the lounge/infirmary which was relatively more stable than the upper decks.
Kudos to the ship’s staff who really stepped up to take care of us.
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