From a distance it looked pretty much like any other city port, jam packed with buildings, sky scrapers, domes…

We’d been sailing along the coast of Cuba since early afternoon, due to dock at 5pm.  I guess it was around 4pm that people started to gather on deck to watch the sail in and shortly after that the captain announced we were being held outside the shipping channel by the port agents

Yes it crossed my mind that maybe we wouldn’t get in, but thankfully after a short hold the pilot boats arrived to guide us through the channel

This spectacular fort guards the entrance to the estuary

As we sailed in we got our first proper glimpses of the old cars going about their daily business

As we sailed deeper and the river narrowed we began to see how many buildings had fallen into disrepair or dereliction, often only the bottom floors of a building are used and the remainder left to decay, I became quite emotional thinking of our Cuban friend and how his family had lost everything during the revolution.

Approaching the dock, we were held again by the officials, gossip about bribery buzzed through the ship as customs officers refused to release our passports.

We finally squeezed into port, the yacht refusing to move, it’s captain was in the bar apparently, our captain refusing to be bullied!  I was amazed at every scene of opulence & dereliction as we looked around

More customs officials boarded our ship and the captain advised us to have a bite to eat on board as it would be some time before our passports were released, so here we are, all dressed up with no where to go, before we were finally free to explore at 7.30pm