Cuba, The Forbidden Island
Not for the faint hearted, impatient, or pessimistic is the Forbidden Island. If you are any of the above then don’t do it. On the other hand if you are open minded to an adventure, have the patients of Job and are the cockeyed optimist then you can be in for the trip of a lifetime and some of the most spectacular diving in the world.
September 1, 2001 Richard and I set forth for our adventure. Some of our mishaps were; Confusion in Nassau as to where to meet, missing luggage in and out of Havana, both of us had broken zippers on our booties, both of us flooded our cameras, my primary dive computer crapped out on one dive, one of my flash lights flooded, one quit working, Richard's digital camera overheated and had a cooling down period before he could use it. The viz on one of our dives turned from beautiful to Gulf Green from one dive to the next. Then when we got back to the hotel, the batteries in Richard's toothbrush were dead. All very minor inconveniences that we managed to keep our good humor and cope with.
Good points were; excellent treatment by our Scubacan hosts, a warm welcome by the Cuban people, good and plentiful food (although simple and basic) was attractively and tastefully prepared. The accommodations were attractive and well kept. The dive masters were skilled, competent and knowledgeable. They were very helpful with our equipment and getting us on and off the boat. The diving was second to none and the wild life was abundant. Every dive we saw a plethora of critters which included Queen Trigger fish, Parrot fish, Black Durgeon, Grunts, Blue Cromis, Indigo Hamlets, Black, Nassau and Marble Grouper, Jacks, Snappers, Tarpons, Rock Hinds, Smooth Trunk fish, Ocellated Flounder, Blue Tangs, Squirrel Fish, Spiny and Spotted Lobsters, Green and Spotted Morays, Arrow Crabs, Banded Coral Shrimp, Blue Cleaner Shrimp, Jelly fish (beautiful but watch out!) Grey, French, and Queen Angels, BiColor Yellowtail and Threespot Damsel Fish, Four Eyed, Banded, and long Snout Butterfly Fish, Rock Beauties, Hogfish, Sand Divers, Blue Headed and Clown Wrasses, Spotted Goat Fish, Giant Crabs, several kinds of Anemones, several kinds of Sea Urchins, Donkey Dung and Tiger Tail Sea Cucumbers, Brittle Stars, Basket Stars and Cushion Sea Stars, Flamingo Tongues, Rough File Clams, many Conchs (several of them mating) Spotted Drum, Red eyed Triplefin, Barracudas, Tobacco Fish, and Yellow Headed Jawfish, Red Lipped Blenny and several types of Gobies. And many more that I probably left out.
Details of our trip:
In Nassau we were to "meet" in front of the Nassau Flight Services area which would lead one to believe that someone would be there waiting for us. Well there was quite a confusion as to where exactly we were suppose to meet but after running back and forth for a bit we finely found where we were suppose to be and picked up our ticket from the Agent at the Cuban ticket counter who had our information. We settled down for a Kalik beer and a meat pie and waited for our flight, which was pretty uneventful. Upon arrival in Havana, Cuba we were greeted by "Bernardo" our Havana host who (after determining we didn't have our Visas) assisted us in getting another one then whisked us right to the front of a very long line and through Immigration. Immigration was a bit intimidating, as we had to go into a cubicle one at the time with a very formidable military looking person. After crashing the line and getting right through we were to find our suitcases were among some of the missing. Several of us who had come in on the flight from Nassau had about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour wait for our luggage. We never did find out exactly what had happened to it. The communication at times was a bit lacking. But again Bernardo was there to rescue us and get us through Customs without incident and through a tremendous crowd of Cuban residents waiting for a first glimpse of their relatives who had come in on a flight from Miami. Also waiting for us was Cha Chi our Havana driver in his Russian made car. Cha Chi and Bernardo delivered us to the Copacabana where we spent the night, experienced our first Mojito (a delicious drink made of rum, lemon, sugar and mint) had a good dinner and enjoyed the first of several beautiful sunsets. We were picked up at 4:30 on Sunday morning, transported to the airport for our flight to the Isla de la Juventud. There we were met by Tania who took us to the Colony Resort for check in and to get ready for our first dive.
We joined a group of nine divers from Mexico City with whom we became good friends. Our dives included three deep dives around 130 to 165 feet, two spectacular night dives and 7 other dives. The deep dives were magnificent. We would descend into a very deep cave/tunnel, very dark at the first but then light would appear at the tunnel's end. The bottom of the tunnel opened out onto a wall at anywhere from 130 to 180 feet to an array of blue depth. The bottom of the wall seemed to be at infinity. The visibility at that depth was astounding. This was the first decompression diving that we had done but not the worse for the wear. After a very slow ascent we leveled out on the reef at about 45 feet and continued to off-gas back to the boat all the while continuing to see beauty every where we looked. We did a 10-minute (non-required by this time) safety stop. Back on the boat our computers were already in the green. Most of the reefs were quite similar as Belize or Roatan, with old riverbeds cutting through Coral heads and deep canyons full of marine life. The shallow dives 45 to 70 feet were along these types of topography and many sand flats where we would find small areas alive with marine life, such as the arrow crabs the morays and the small fish. On these flats we saw the majority of the hard to find small creatures such as the rough file clam the Blennies, Gobies and Sand Divers. On one such sand flat we came upon a "Conch Orgy" there were literally dozens of conchs making mad passionate love. Being a shell collector I managed to find some really beautiful little shells with no residents and smuggled them into my BC pocket. On the day of our first night dive we were treated to a magnificent sunset to the west and a rainbow in the eastern sky followed by a really great night dive as we would find to the norm, alive with critters. On one of the night dives we were watching a large horse conch that was out of his shell and attached to a Gorgonian when we were startled by a Moray out swimming around. On the same dive I spotted a long spine sea urchin out walking around on the wall. Our daily routine was to board the boat at between 9:00 to 10:00 dive two morning dives, lunch on the pier, a siesta or just hang out to rest then either an afternoon or night dive. The ride from the marina to the pier was approx. 45 restful minutes on a fast comfortable boat. As a special treat the crew provided fresh lobsters for us after our last night dive on the way back to the marina. What a great end of a glorious day of diving. A beautiful night on the water, a cold beer and a lobster. "It just don't get much better than this" On our last day on the island unable to dive, we joined our Mexican friends on the boat to snorkel while they dove. At lunch we were treated to entertainment by Mongo Rivas a well-known local musician.
Friday we were transported back to the local airport for our flight back to Havana where we were again met by our driver Cha Chi who took us back to the Copa to freshen up. Then we were off for a day tour of Havana. In the streets of Old Havana we stepped back into history. Most of the vehicles were of the late 40 and early 50 vintage. The Cuban people are a very ingenious people. Not having the tools or supplies to maintain things in a proper fashion, they make the best of what they have. It is very interesting to see their ingenuity at work. The architecture while in great need of paint and repair was pretty elaborate and old world. We visited the Capitol, the church where the Pope said mass while in Cuba, the old city, the waterfront and the Castillo del Morro that was completed in 1597 to protect the city from attackers. All in all it was a spectacular trip.
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