”Did someone say Havana?”

It was 3:30 am when a classmate knocked on the door to wake us up. I was tired and wanted to go back to sleep but I knew that I had to get up. It was time to put some clothes on and be ready for having watch.

When I realised that it was the last watch before arriving to a harbour It felt easier to get up and get ready. During the watch we did a lot of thing but the most important work was to put down the last sails we had set before. When the pilot stepped onboard we got to know that we had to anchor outside of Havana instead of getting a spot in the harbour. The pilot also told us that we would be in quarantine until a team of doctors had examined us and made sure that we didn’t have any diseases. After being examined and deemed in good health we got onboard a taxi boat which finally took us to the city.

It was about 1 pm when our adventure started. We strolled around the city and visited “shops” for a few hours and got to see the old part of Havana. We blended in with the other tourists from the cruise chip and it was obvious that the Cuban people was searching for one thing, our money… But I said no to everything and everyone and held tight to my bag. I’m quite rude but here it feels like it’s necessary to not get robbed or betrayed.

Our captain had ordered a taxi boat back to the ship at 7 pm and 10 pm. We were six people at the terminal 6:40 pm ready to go home and get some sleep after being awake since 3:30 am. The terminal workers said we were not able to go back because we had to be 18 people to leave the terminal. Before we were able to explain the situation in Spanish since they were bad at English they showed us out of the terminal and closed the door. Tired, hungry, and disappointed we had to figure out something to do for the next three hours. We kept walking around the city and also finally found a restaurant to eat that was fresher than the majority of the “restaurants” here in Havana. It feels like, in my opinion, that a lot of the “restaurants” are in people’s homes or at small, odd locations and is not generally keeping the same hygiene standard that we are used to back in Sweden.

But after all I am happy to be in a harbour and also thankful to have had the chance to experience Havana. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the city and more of Cuba but I think that it will be enough with a week here. I am excited for what’s to come in the rest of the harbours and having an amazing last trip with T/S Gunilla and my classmates.

XOXO

Linn, Portside