Category Archives: travel

Textiles in the Caribbean

Time to get back on track a bit and talk about textiles!  It IS the driving force of my visits to any location, so I’m always on the lookout for any kind of textile handwork.  And I have not been disappointed this winter!

Some of the places that are well known for handwork have not fallen in our path this winter.  They will be on my list for future visits, but I’ll still mention them here.  Perhaps the most intriguing place is the island of Saba, which lies off the coast of St. Martin.  It is one of the many volcanic islands that make up the Lesser Antilles, and may be the mmost dramatic.

It does not have a good harbor, so sailors must carefully choose a weather window for visiting.  That did not happen for Bob and me this year, although we could have taken a day trip by ferry to visit.  This island has underwater volcanic mountains with coral reefs, so it is also known as an excellent dive site.

In our sailing guidebook (Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands) I read that Saba is only 5 square miles but rises to 3,000 feet in that small area.  It was settled by Dutch, Scottish, and English farmers, along with their African slaves.  Over time they all worked side by side to eek out a living on this steep and rugged island.  These settlers became fisherman and farmers and boat builders.

Until the 1940s, all ships came into Ladder Bay, on a dangerous shore that provides little shelter from ocean swells, where access to land was via an 800-step track that was cut into the rock.  Really!  I’m almost afraid to visit and be found to be the biggest cream puff the Sabans may ever encounter!

In the 1950s, some Dutch engineers determined that the island was too challenging to build roads, so one elderly local took the initiative to study road building via correspondence class and shortly after, with his knowledge, the Sabans hand-built their road, finished in 1958. I guess they don’t easily take ‘no’ for an answer.  The women have become skilled in needle lace which they originally learned from lace makers in Venezuela.  Since living on Saba is very isolated, over time their designs have taken on a specific nature that makes it truly theirs.

I found some images online and links to information about lace making on Saba, but most of them will not open since we have slow internet here.

The inactive volcano on Saba is named Mount Scenery, and I bet it is quite a scenic place!  There is a museum on island that I look forward to visiting someday. You can read about the museum here and their collection of lace here.  And, lucky for me, since it is a Dutch museum, I bet the information will be in English!–a nice change from the French islands where English is not an option.

I should mention that although Iles des Saintes and Marie Galante (the islands just south of Guadeloupe) were discovered by Columbus, they have been French since very shortly after they were colonized.  Until recently, the fisherman here used boats like their fishing forbears from Brittany used.  I am sorry I did not get to see a fleet of those boats. When we arrived on Terre de Haute a few days back, I took some photos of the textiles inside the church in the center of town.

3-26-17a 042

From the back of the church seeing this altar cloth drew me right in.

3-26-17a 045

3-26-17a 046

and from the back entrance I thought the pulpit drape might be filet crochet.  I’m glad I took a closer look because it is needle lace.  I have no idea how Saban needle lace differs from other needle laces, such as this, and hopefully I’ll learn a bit more about that on future visits.

3-26-17a 047

Along the road to the church there are many shops, and one of them is a clothing and accessory shop, called Maogony where everything is dyed blue.  The two owners, Annie and Chakib, use three colors of blue dye to create garments that reflect the colors of the Caribbean waters that lie right outside their store.  Annie and I talked a bit, and I tried my best to understand her excellent English.

3-26-17a 033

When she described her process, using blues she called cobalt, indigo and turquoise I began to think she and her partner might be using Pro Chem MX dyes.  She said they set the colors in the sun and then finish with a hot mangle before washing them. Their mangle is against the back wall in this photo. They work with garments made from cotton, silk and linen.

3-26-17a 038

3-26-17a 034

Just east of Iles des Saintes is an island called Marie Galante.  According to legend, Columbus had already used the names of all the saints that he cared about, so had to resort to some other source for a name for this island. Marie Galante was the name of one of his ships.  There is an indigo dyer on Marie Galante, and I believe she uses the natural plant dye for her work.  I know nothing about her, but am certainly hoping that I’ll meet her next year!  She has a website and a facebook page called Maison de l’Indigo.

Another island we did not get to visit this year is Montserrat, which still has an active volcano on it, Soufriere Hills–the only active volcano in the Leeward Islands, and perhaps in the Caribbean. The original settlers were Irish, and today Montserrat is known as the ‘other emerald isle.’

I have heard there is a mother/daughter weaving team here who weave with sea island cotton. I found Sophie Bufton’s description about her visit to the weavers. This photo is from Bufton’s site.

What I learned from this limited and torturously slow internet search is that the sea island cotton on Montserrat had the longest fibers of any cotton in the world, and that was due to the volcanic soil on this island.  The cotton plants and the spinning factory were destroyed in 1995, the first eruption of Soufriere Hills which destroyed the capitol city of Plymouth where the spinning mill for the cotton was located. This eruption not only destroyed the cotton crop, but also two-thirds of the island.  In the early 2000s, the dome of the volcano collapsed, after a few more years it seemed that the volcano had become inactive.  In 2006, there began to be activity, and another eruption in 2008, has put that theory to rest.    Yet it appears that the weavers are still working with sea island cotton.  I’ll write more when I can get better access to the information.

The internet can be such a treasure trove.  I found this stamp with an image of a spinning ginny and a young Queen Elizabeth.

Madras fabric, originally from India, is considered the national dress of several of the islands in this area — Guadeloupe, Martinique and Dominica.  You can buy almost any kind of souvenir in madras, including plastic key chains and serving trays.  Our granddaughter Tori will be getting a madras sun hat in a couple of weeks.

This part of the world holds a fair amount of geographical confusion for me.  We are in the Caribbean at large, but the particular area we have traversed this winter is known by several labels:  the West Indies, the Lesser Antilles, the Leeward Islands (as opposed to the Windward Islands).  It’s a lot to comprehend, and I just keep looking at the charts to orient myself.  We are in the southeastern part of Caribbean island chain, just before the chain heads due south ending at Trinidad, near Venezuela.  These islands are known as the West Indies because there were slaves brought here from India, and that culture has lived on in West Indian traditions such as food and music.  There is plenty of African cultural influence which melded with the India culture to create something entirely new.  There are so many labels that include ‘west’ and ‘east,’ and also also ‘leeward’ and ‘windward’–how can I keep up??

A few days in Iles de Saintes

We sailed to the archipelago of the Saintes that are just south of Gaudeloupe, about five days ago and have spent time in a couple of different anchorages among these idyllic islands.   It’s no lie that the farther south you go the more pristine the islands become!  For the past several days we’ve been on a mooring off this charming village on the island of Terre de Haut.

The town is nestled into the shoreline with mountains rising up all around it.

3-28-17a 036

There are several markets and boulangeries, so we’ve been able to buy French cheeses and olives and plenty of baguettes!  There are wonderful restaurants as well.  As with most of the villages we’ve visited, the church tower dominates the skyline.

1-3-26-018

Typical island structures are brightly painted homes with a bit of gingerbread trim.

3-26-17a 026

3-26-17a 040

3-26-17a 030 Just above the village is one of the highest points of the island, so naturally that was a good choice for a fort.  It is Forte Napoleon and it has been very well preserved and houses a museum.  Yesterday we rented a golf cart with fellow cruisers Corey and Dale aboard Hi Flite, to visit the fort and tour the rest of this small island.

Here is the dry moat that used to protect the outer walls of the fortress. The inner castle is dated 1867.

3-28-17a 009

3-28-17a 027

The museum that is housed in the inner castle has very little information on the fortress itself, and focuses on island history instead.  I would like to know a lot more about this fortress so I’ll look into it when I can.  Meanwhile, although the building is barely more than 150 years old, the techniques used to build this impressive structure are much older.

The grounds within the keep.

01-IMG_3243

07-IMG_3255

08-IMG_3256

I can’t resist windows and doorways and views from both–

06-IMG_3254

05-IMG_3252

–especially this view through a narrow gun slit that looks across the way into another narrow window.

IMG_3251

1-IMG_3246

3-29-17a 059

Here are some of the interior rooms now used for displays.  This is the hearth in the kitchen.

3-29-17a 014

3-29-17a 021

The grounds were beautifully kept, and there is now a project underway to create a botanical garden of ancient native plants.  Here is one flowering tree.

3-28-17a 032

There were plenty of bromeliads and epiphyte orchids with large bulbs and very long flower spikes.  Bob thinks they are encyclias, but we could not find any nursery personnel to answer our questions.

3-29-17a 057

The views from the fortress covered most of the shoreline of Terre de Haut.  It would have been easy to defend this island from this vantage point.  Here we are looking down into the mooring field where Pandora sits off the village of Bourg des Saintes.

3-28-17a 001

3-28-17a 006

3-29-17a 066

The rest of the day we drove along all the roads we could find through island.  Terre de Haut is ringed with beautiful beaches. Here is our chariot of the day.

3-29-17a 081

We had lunch on a vibrantly colored pink and green patio cafe overlooking this beach.

3-29-17a 065

3-29-17a 075

We stopped along the road to take this panorama. You can click on it to ‘biggify.’

10-IMG_3259

We ended the day with a collection of driftwood and sponges from the beaches for me, which I hope will help my friend Mary create some beach themed centerpieces for our upcoming bobbin lace retreat.  Corey got a great cache of sea glass, and we both picked up a few shells and sea urchins.  We returned tired and happy, and got together for sundowners with Carol and Bob from Oasis, who left this morning to sail to Dominica. We hope to follow them tomorrow.  It was a very full day of sightseeing that left us wanting to know more about the history of this place, but well sated in beach combing and good food.

 

 

 

Antigua to Guadeloupe, from English Charm to French Shabby Chic

We left Antigua more than a week ago, and I have not had internet until now.  Bob has had better luck than with that than I have.  Isn’t that weird??  He’ll be sitting next to me able to get email and write a blog post while my computer will not connect.  The mysteries of cyberspace…. especially the mystery that his ancient clunker of a PC works so much better than my moderately middle ages Macbook.  Hmmm…

Guadeloupe is the most beautiful island I have ever seen!  Some of our cruising friends have told me that Antigua is the beginning of the ‘real’ Caribbean, and that every island gets more and more beautiful as you head south.  I really cannot imagine that.  We spent almost a week in the small harbor of Deshaies (pronounced DAY ‘Eh–reminds me of a certain Caribbean song made famous by Harry Belafonte…how about you?) on the northwestern coast of Guadeloupe, and I was thoroughly enamored of the charming seaside village.  As we sailed in the mountains rose up all around us and a tiny bit of shoreline was dotted with colorful buildings, all with red roofs.  The scene was dominated by a white tower with a red roof that rose above all the other buildings.  No surprise that it is the Catholic church for the village.  We had arrived back in the land of baguettes and wonderful vegetables!

But before I talk about Guadeloupe, I should finish up with our last days in Antigua.  We rented a car to take Chris to the airport, so after we said our tearful goodbyes (for my part certainly), we took the rest of the day to explore parts of the island we could not get to on foot.

Betty’s Hope is a well known tourist attraction.  At some point in Antigua’s past there were about 600 stone windmills on the island, used to power the processing of sugar cane into sugar.  All these windmills were built by the hard labor of slaves and oxen.  There are still about a hundred windmills in various stages of decay on the island, but two at Betty’s Hope are beautiful examples. One has been restored to working order and is used to demonstrate grinding the cane on certain occasions.  While we were not there on one of those occasions, it was still very impressive to see the windmills.  Just to move the arms to face into the wind requires a lot of manpower and oxen power.

3-22-17a 111

Betty’s Hope was named for the daughter of the landowner.  I was disappointed to learn this.  I had hoped that the name was in honor of a slave woman, possibly the wife, mother, aunt, grandmother of several of the men who had built these windmills.  Well, so much for my romantic notions about the history of this place.  What on earth was this Betty hoping for?  A big sugar yield to make her family wealthier than they already were?  I can imagine so many more interesting hopes for a Betty who lived and worked the land with her family than for the real Betty.  Still, I bet there is some pretty interesting history here.  I would know more if we had internet!

3-22-17a 071

Betty’s hope is now home to a large herd of goats, which Bob and I enjoyed most of all!  There were lots of kids frolicking, even some newborns.  Baby goats are about as cute as babies get! Our new baby granddaughter, Tori, would have enjoyed them too!

3-22-17a 085

3-22-17a 096

3-22-17a 100

We have been so entertained by all the goats on Antigua.  There is large solar farm in the middle of the island where we saw goats eating the weeds around the panels.  This is their day job. Late in the afternoon the goats somehow know it’s time to go home.  They head out with no shepherd to guide them.  They know the way.

Bob and Chris encountered this mother and kid heading home after a day out.  Bob said the kid whined the whole time he and Chris were behind them.  Makes you wonder if kids complain about the long trip home, or the heat of the day, or even the two creepy humans following them, just like our kids might. The goat mother bore it without comment.

3-18-17a 036

And speaking of kids, here is a scene from our last full day with Christopher before he headed back to his new home in San Francisco.  We took a cab up to Shirley Heights, right outside of English Harbour.  It’s a great place to watch the sunset, and every Sunday hundreds of people show up to do just that.

3-22-17a 040

With a view like this, you can see how popular it would be–

3-18-17a 043

–especially at sunset.

3-22-17a 070

Back to the day that Chris left– at the end of the day we drove out to the northeastern corner of the island to see something called “Devil’s Bridge.”  I had no idea what this might be, and so I was pretty awestruck to see this natural wonder.  It doesn’t look like it will last much longer, but that’s just conjecture on my part. Maybe it’s been in this almost crumbled state for a century already.  I know that people walk across this bridge, but I certainly wasn’t going to try it.  Bob didn’t either!

When we returned our rental car to a parking lot in Falmouth just around sunset, and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself to return to Pandora sans Christopher, we found that the local liquor store was having a tasting of French wines hosted by a French importer who lives on St. Martin.  It was a very nice distraction to an evening I was dreading!  All in all a wonderful last day on Antigua.

The next day we sailed about 50 miles to the pretty harbor of Deshaies on Guadeloupe.  Here is a bit of what we do when we have a long day at sea.  Bob fishes!  This time I was quite lucky that he caught a small tuna!  It’s no fun at all when he catches a king mackerel, and hardly fun when he catches a giant mahi mahi because we have to deal with a very large fish on a rather small boat!  This tuna was perfect for our appetites and our size boat!

3-22-17a 128

I worked on my orange linen sweater while we were underway, which sometimes includes winding a ball of yarn (Shibui linen) on the steering wheel.

3-22-17b 003

At mid-afternoon we arrived in Deshaies.  It was wonderful to be back in the land of French food.  There are plenty of tourists here, but also a big fleet of local fisherman.  The next morning we were given a first hand view of fishing with a purse seine right behind Pandora.

First the men dropped the net in a wide circle between Pandora and the boat behind us.  One of the crew jumped overboard wearing his shorts and t-shirt and snorkeling gear.  Perhaps he was checking on how the net was laying before the rest of the crew began drawing in the purse.  3-22-17b 006

As the crew began to draw in the circle of net at the water’s surface, the diver stayed at the opening.  We are guessing that by being there, he discourages any fish from trying to escape at the opening of the net.

3-22-17b 019

The crew began drawing in both the perimeter of the net on the surface as well as the purse at the bottom to trap the fish.  As the net closed more I could tell that this was very hard work. In fact, once both the top and bottom of the net was closed, the diver got back on board to help pull it in.

3-22-17b 026

There is a pelican inside the net, helping himself to a bit of the catch.

3-22-17b 031

It was a good catch! My friend Maureen (Kalunamoo) told me that these fish get fried in strips and served like French fries.  I have not seen this yet in any restaurants. But, when we were ashore yesterday, we came back to our dinghy to find several pelicans diving right around the dinghy dock and three dead fish in our dinghy, just like the fish in the net.  There must have been a school of them being chased by larger fish and some jumped right into our dingy to escape certain death from the big fish– only to find themselves stuck in our dinghy.  Out of the fire and into the frying pan, as the saying goes….

3-22-17b 038

Experienced cruisers in this area, including Bill and Maureen from Kalunamoo, have told us that once you get to Antigua the islands just get more and more beautiful as you head south.  It’s hard for me to imagine this!  Both Antigua and Guadeloupe are so charming and scenic and dramatic with their ancient volcanic mountains–how can it get better?  I guess I will have to wait and see.

Pinned down in Falmouth, Antigua

We are back in Falmouth Harbor on Antigua, which is only a short walk to the very pretty English Harbor where the ambience of 18th c. British naval history is well preserved.  We are back here because Bob decided to call in the professionals to whack the mole that is playing havoc with our SSB.  It turns out that the mole won this round; the SSB is dead.  At the moment there are no new ones available for shipment from the US, so we wait.

Meanwhile, to bide time, Bob met a rigger name Bishop yesterday, and after watching him make some soft shackles, Bob asked if he would be willing to teach us how to do it.  They made a date for Bob to bring Bishop out to Pandora right after work.  I thought I’d stay out of their way (not that easy on a boat!), but Bob thought I’d enjoy learning along with him.  And he was right!  A soft shackle is a bit of rigging that is one of the strongest things ever….way stronger than a typical shackle.  What a little bit of wonder–and Bishop is a good teacher!

2-28-17a 050

First you make the splice, then with the two ends that come out of the splice you make a knot that ends up looking a bit like a small Turk’s head.

2-28-17a 067

I practiced this little bit of splicing and knot tying about five times yesterday to make sure I learned it.  Today I’m not so sure I can do it again–I’d better keep practicing.  I’m fascinated by it!  I think there must be some wonderful use for this in kumihimo.  I have lots of time to ponder this, and then I can try a few ideas when I get home.

2-28-17 004

While we are back here in Falmouth for repairs and waiting out some strong weather, we went to dinner Sunday night at the beautiful Pillars resort.  I did get my G&T under the canopy in the garden that overlooks English Harbor.  It’s even prettier at dusk!

2-28-17a 032

There was a bougainvillea that had been trimmed into small shrub right near my leg, and a little hummingbird was flitting all around it.  He was not in the least concerned about my proximity.  He has a little crested head and from certain angles his crest is a brilliant, tropical green.  What a sight!

2-28-17a 015

As dusk fell we began to hear very sharp tweets from what we thought were little birds that were starting to settle down for the night in the trees above us.  But instead of settling down, the tweets became louder and more like sharp shrieks.  It turns out there are lots of big tree frogs here that are quite loud.  I’m glad we can’t hear them out on Pandora.  There’s no sleeping when these things are calling.

After dinner we took a walk around English Harbor…as pretty at night as it is during the day.

2-28-17a 034

2-28-17a 043

Today is very unsettled with passing squalls that disrupt the bright blue skies and puffy white clouds that are sailing by in these high winds.  The squalls darken the whole sky and send down horizontal deluges of water.  In the midst of the quickly changing weather we happened to see a rainbow right behind Pandora!  I have never seen both ends of a rainbow before!  What a thrill!  Shouldn’t there be two pots of gold?

2-28-17a 071

P.S. It’s now afternoon.  I have answered emails and made two two soft shackles for practice. Bob went ashore to consult with Arrougoo, our electronics repair guy, and while there he went to the rigger and bought some finer spectra ‘dyneemo’ line for me to try.

Both of these were supposed to be bracelets, but as you can see I made some miscalculations on measuring the materials for the first one.  It is way to small for a bracelet, yet too big for a ring.  Voila!  A belt for Louis the sailor mouse.  He really wanted a nautical belt.  So, now I know that I must measure 4x’s the length of what the finished item should be. I now also know that the knot is called a stopper knot.  Here is the first bracelet, along with little Louis and his new belt.

IMG_3208

 

 

Photos of English Harbor, Antigua

Those of you who know me know that I love taking photos of doors and windows, especially if they are festooned with lace or flowers or vines.  That’s the first thing I want to see whenever we go ashore.  I’ve seen a good deal of lace curtains blowing in open windows over the past week.

We had to get out of St. Barths earlier than we would have liked due to strong westerly winds that made the harbor quite unpleasant.  Before we left a number of boats had already dragged anchor, and two in particular had tangled their anchors and lines with other boats.  This took place in the very dark hours after midnight when these types of calamities always choose to happen.  Murhpy’s Law on boats, don’t know you.

The pre-dawn departure to sail to Antigua that day was no fun, although I’m certain that Bob enjoyed it, especially the part when several of the Caribbean 600 contenders crossed our path–flying spinnakers no less.

2-22-17a 051

At one point during the journey, when I was fighting a moderate case of mal de mer, I could hear all the cans and jars in our pantry crashing back and forth, and the pots in pans in the cabinets doing the same.  Can you imagine taking your house out in to the elements and letting your possessions get bashed around for a few hours every few days?  That’s one of the main reasons that sailing is an endless game of ‘whack a mole.’  Everything keeps getting bashed about until it breaks.

Anyway, we are safe and sound in Antigua now, and here are some scenes from English Harbor. Lord Nelson was here for a number of years, and these buildings were here then as well. There is a small but well curated museum dedicated to Lord Nelson, that we enjoyed–no photos this time.

We had lunch in this historic building that is now a hotel and restaurant, and were underwhelmed by our meal after a couple of weeks of food in the French islands.  However, I think that English food is unfairly maligned–we just had a bout of bad luck.  I’m sure we’ll have other great meals ashore here….we just didn’t pick the best place yesterday–charming spot though!

2-22-17a 087

English Harbor is charming, isn’t it?–although life here in the 18th century certainly had a dark side. On one of the placards at the Nelson Museum I read that 40,000 English soldiers died on this island (over how many years?–the placard didn’t say) from minor things like heat stroke and similar maladies, often brought on from wearing layers of wool clothing in a tropical climate.  I couldn’t help think about the women and their corsets and their own layers of undergarments.   This is part of the customs and immigration offices, where we checked in.

2-22-17a 081

The quaint building on the left is still in use as sail loft.  I don’t know how long it has been in use because there is an even older site where a sail loft used to be.  Next door is the even quainter building, with its whitewashed walls, cedar roof and pretty blue shutters. It is a shop full of carved wooden fish and turtles for sale and a good amount of pottery.  The fish were very tempting, but we didn’t buy one.  How to choose?

2-22-17a 068

These columns used to support a building that housed another sail loft, in use during Nelson’s time.  Now the columns have been restored to enhance a beautiful garden setting for a local resort and restaurant.  I’m definitely giving this place a try in the next few days. I am confident the meal will be as memorable as the setting….

2-22-17a 092

…starting with cocktails right here!  I will have to have something thoroughly English, like a Pimm’s Cup or a G&T.  Bring it on!

2-22-17a 096

With our friends Maureen and Bill (from Kalunamoo), we walked out to one of the promontories on this end of the island.  There are a couple of defunct cannon here from the distant past when this harbor needed protection.  I wonder if this tree was sapling back then.

2-22-17a 099

Walking back into the village I caught our friends and Bob stopping along a beautiful walled garden.

2-22-17a 111

Yesterday we moved to Nonsuch Bay, and today has been a day of household chores.  Bob has been busy ‘whacking’ the SSB mole, with no success, and I did two loads of laundry.  In this climate the first load dried, flapping in the breeze on our makeshift laundry line at the back of our cockpit, by the time the second load was finished.  I do love having a washing machine onboard….one less thing to search for on shore.

Now that the laundry is done I think I will spend a little time on embroidery while sitting on the shady side of the cockpit.

Issues in Paradise…or the Ying and Yang of Life

Boaters have all kinds of sayings and phrases for the life we lead aboard.  We know that non-boating people think we’ve sailed off into the sunset on gentle breezes, blowing from just the right direction….like that popular song by Chris Cross.  Here are some of the things that sailors know to be true:

–that Murphy’s Law reigns more supreme on the seas than on land.  If something can go wrong, it will definitely go wrong–and in spades.
–that one year spent cruising on a boat puts the equivalent of 10 years of wear and tear on a boat that is used for weekends and short vacations of coastal sailing.
–Life on board is an endless series of boat repairs in exotic places.
–Life onboard is a strenuous game of ‘Whack a Mole.’  (What’s this, you ask?  check here for a good description)

So I will start this post with some lovely photos of our current paradise, Grand Case, St. Martin. This is the dinghy dock where we come ashore.  It’s not always this peaceful, but aren’t we lucky that this was a perfect day?

This is the sunset we viewed over margueritas on the deck of a beach bar.  I know, you are thinking, SEE?  Just what you’ve been saying all along….

When you get ashore in Grand Case, you are greeted by a charming French seaside town.  Lots of restaurants and shops.

–not to mention tropical gardens enhancing such lovely buildings.

2-17-17a 016

Even the trash is exotic.

2-17-17a 001

The pretty Catholic church in the center of town.

The beach is as charming as the village–all those colorful umbrellas remind me of  beaches on the Mediterranean.

2-17-17a 008

For luxury, you can’t do better than eating in one of the French restaurants along the waterfront.  For Valentine’s Day dinner we chose Ocean 82.  They even make their own flavored rum with vanilla (grown nearby), caramel, and ginger.  I really must give this a try–flavoring rum, that is– when I return home.

It was a beautiful location for watching the sunset, with rain on the horizon, while eating a terrific dinner with our good friends from Kalunamoo!  See the rain shower in the distance?

2-17-17a 049

I have had a great time ashore in Grand Case.  Here’s some of my swag.  There is a quaint housewares shop call MerSea with wonderful designs from Denmark.  I could not resist the bird fabric used for the travel bag….and our new live aboard, Louis!

IMG_3201

 

Isn’t Louis adorable in his sailor garb?  He comes with his own bunk with mattress, pillow and blanket.  He is making his way into our affections.  Eventually he will live with Tori, but for now he is having some sailing adventures with us!

2-17-17a 078

Another incredible bonus of being here is having sting rays and turtles swim right around our boat.  At this time of year there is also the possibility of seeing humpback whales with their calves.  We have been treated to the first two, but haven’t seen any whales yet.

2-17-17a 060

What you don’t see is that there is often quite a swell coming through the anchorage, so only the hardiest sailors–like Bob– find this a quiet anchorage. I am not part of that club.  And while my photo of dinghy dock was taken on a  peaceful evening, the waves are often crashing on the beach where the dinghy dock juts out into the bay.  That means that you will be landing and taking off from a dock where your dinghy is bouncing wildly as you try to get your supplies just purchased and your self into the boat without too much ill effect.  Being ashore is definitely luxurious but getting there and leaving again is dicey.

Now shall we move on to the repairs we now need in this exotic place.  We’ve only been down here for two weeks, and this is the list of what has been damaged or died from the harsh elements of sea life:
–Damage to main sail during 4-day gale as Bob sailed to BVI, being repaired at sail loft on shore.
–Broken batten on sail, which could not be repaired, so awaiting new batten being flown in from Boston, delayed due to winter storms in New England
–VHF radio with very light signal
–Non-functioning SSB, diagnosed by local electronics guy but not solved at all–nada.
–Dead windlass (that’s the thing that picks up the 100 or more feet of anchor chain which no one human can continue to do by hand day after day.  This is a BIG deal.  Looks like we need to buy a new one.  At least this is in stock in the local chandlery.

And I have suffered a little damage myself, but no hope of repairs until I return home.  The block and tackle on the dinghy davits hit me in the mouth about a week ago.  I was looking the other way, then turned my face right into it!  I was also talking…no surprise….so I got it right in the mouth, on my two front teeth.  I have a chipped front tooth now.  Then a few days later I was doing something in the kitchen so simple that I cannot even describe–just leaning over the counter trying to find something in our deep freezer.  We have very high fiddles on our counters to keep things from rolling off on to the floor in a seaway. Around here you can have a seaway in the anchorage, and that’s what happened.  Somehow I was thrown off balance a bit and the big fiddle bruised my rib.  Now that’s a fun injury, isn’t it?

These are the very big projects facing Bob right now.  We cannot leave until each of these has been addressed and corrected.  So, we may not get out of here for some time to come.  Yes, it’s lovely here, and I’d rather be here than on Pandora in New England right now (though warm and snug in my house is a strong contender).  We are certainly NOT gliding along from island to island on a zephyr, drinking our umbrella drinks.  In fact, although we get to experience such dramatic scenery and wildlife,  and interesting cultures on our travels, living aboard is still very much like living on land.  Each day brings its own demands and challenges, and in fact, procrastinating on boat chores has somewhat bigger consequences than neglecting chores at home.  Boat has more challenges for sure than my cushy land life, but it does have its rewards. One of those is magnificent views.

2-17-17a 021 I don’t expect much sympathy!

More photos, less words…

This year’s trip started with a revisit to a romantic hotel we stayed in 31 years ago.  Where did the time go?  In some ways it definitely feels like a different lifetime ago, but I am stumped at where all that went…so quickly! It’s still a very romantic spot, and dinner here was quite wonderful.  30 years on, I am even more appreciative of a stunning setting and excellent food.

The road in front of the Sugar Mill runs along the coast and looks north to Jost Van Dyke.  Last time that didn’t mean much to me, but this time we visited that island shortly after our evening here, so now I know a little about Jost Van Dyke.

2-5-17a 030

We made sure we got here in time to enjoy the sunset, which is beautiful from this lovely Victorian porch with cushioned settees for relaxing.  It was very relaxing.  To mark the occasion I had a Pimm’s Cup to remind me of spring evenings in England with my dear friend Lesley.

2-5-17a 033

The dining room is just as I remember….the stone walls of the old mill yet open air to the ocean.  That’s me at the back of the room on the right, deciding what to have for dinner!

2-5-17a 039

The Sugar Mill does not show up in any of the guide books we’ve got with us, which is rather baffling.  It is listed in “Romantic Inns of the World,” but that might not be the place you’d look if you were researching where to stay on Tortola.  Anyway, clearly they are doing something very right.  We would have loved to see the owners from 30 years ago, Jeff and Jinx Morgan, who wrote for “Gourmet Magazine” for many years.  We missed them by only a year or two.  I hope that they are well, wherever they are these days.

We are now in St. Martin/St. Maarten which is new territory for me.  The island is a range of tall volcanic mountains, some so steep that there are no roads and no inhabitants up those slopes.  Part French and part Dutch, there is lots to see and do, and two rather different cultures to enjoy.

Here we are at the top of one of the highest points.  We drove partway up with our rental car, then walked the rest of the way.  Our friend Bill took this photo which looks idyllic.  You cannot tell there is a gale blowing up there, and we were afraid to go any closer to the edge for fear we’d be blown right off!

2-8-17a 012

Aren’t these pretty?  The petals are so like an oncidium orchid that flutter in the breeze, but those long stamens are definitely NOT an orchid. These flowers come in yellow and orange, and my favorite here, a blend of the two!  They grow on a somewhat shrubby plant that has leaves similar to a maiden hair fern.  I would love to have a plant onboard, even a red geranium.  So far, I have not found a nursery where I can buy something green. My friends aboard other boats suggest I get over this.  If I get a plant it will just be taken away when we enter a different island nation.  Sad face….

2-7-17a 031

Along that road to the top of the mountain were some very impressive villas, and some houses that looked like they’d been built by hands that did not know much about building a house!  I think some of these diy houses were hideouts for people who no longer wished to be known.

Along with wild goats and chickens that roam the roadsides, here there are also wild cows.  They do not cross the road quite as quickly as goats or chickens.   

On our way down we stopped at a large park called Loterie Farm.  It is preserve for wild monkeys, iguanas, and had a maze of zip lines for use in getting a wonderful view of the flora and fauna from some thrilling heights.  That is a bit too much of a thrill for me, but I enjoyed seeing the views from the tree house style tapas bar, where I had a tropical drink with a salad and a crab cake.  Far more sedate than zip lining!

I was happy to enjoy the restaurant views, rather than experience them from the tree tops on a zip line!

Next time it would be fun to rent this tree top cabana near the pool.

We ended the day at the beach right near Princess Juliana Airport, where some of those adventurous zip lining people line up at the end of the runway to be blown off their feet whenever a jumbo jet lands or takes off.  There is no end to the risk taking you can experience on St. Martin.  I’m happy to watch from the safety of the nearby bar, thank you.

 

 

 

Farewell to Cuba with a Surprise Stowaway

Our final day in Cuba – Pandora on the dock at Marina Hemingway. Isn’t it a lovely spot? Most days were a bit too hot, but our last day was picture perfect.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

We made plans to meet with a number of our new cruising friends for a goodbye drink—Anne and Christian aboard Tidom (France), Lars aboard Luna (Norwway), and the Trudel family (Silvain, Natali, Romane, Elisa, and Victor) aboard Masqueret (Quebec), and Addison and Pat aboard Three Penny Opera (Ontario). Some of us made plans to walk into Jaimanitas for dinner at a paladar that has a great reputation.

Jaimanitas has a section that is done in Gaudi-style mosaics, and it is a wonderfully colorful place. The mosaicist lives in the neighborhood and continues his homage to Gaudi with ongoing projects.

5-1-16a 002

5-1-16a 003

The paladar was also wonderful. I did not get the name, shame on me! Beautiful ambience, room after room of open air seating and terrific food. Our two best meals of the trip took place here and at the paladar in Old Havana—Paladar los Mercederes.

5-1-16a 012

Early the next morning (April 29), we rose at 5.30 to head to the Guarda Frontera office to check out of Cuba. Bob took this photo of my exit interview with the Guarda Frontera before they warned him that photos are not permitted.

5-1-16a 014

What a sight to see the sunrise over Havana as we headed north for Florida in the early morning.  The odd shaped tower that gets a bit wider at the top on the right side of the photo is part of the sprawling Russian Embassy.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It was a rough crossing, and I did not fare well. I had about 30 hours of mal de mer on the journey to Ft. Lauderdale, and that meant that poor Bob had to stay awake and do all the navigating during the trip. He was really tired when we finally arrived.

A couple of hours after leaving we noticed a snowy egret flying very close to us. He was very far from shore and was clearly getting tired. He made quite a few attempts to land, but he was having a lot of trouble landing onboard, both because he feet are not made for perching and the wind was quite strong.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

He tried several times to land on the lifelines near the stern of our boat, and he attempted to land on the dinghy up in davits a few times.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Finally he made a successful landing up on the traveler, on the windward side. He stayed with us for the entire day, and luckily we stayed on the same starboard tack for most of the day. Whenever Bob adjusted the traveler or the sails the egret got very nervous, but he did not fly away. I felt terrible for him.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Later, just a short time before sunset, we needed to tack to head up the coast of Florida. We knew it would startle our Cuban stowaway into taking flight, but we hoped he would return once the boat settled into its new course. The egret took flight and appeared to head right back for Cuba. He never even looked back. It was getting dark, and now Cuba was more than 60 miles away. As a wading bird, egrets cannot land on water. We had already watched him try to land and flounder a bit as he struggled to ascend again.

I had imagined that this bird, like all birds, must have some inborn navigation sense, and I thought there’d be a good chance that this bird knew we were sailing northeast. He might not know that there would be land to the northeast, but I was hoping he’d want to stick with us to find out. Certainly it would have been an easy trip for him if he could make peace with confined so close to us. But he headed right back to Cuba once we frightened him by changing tack. I was heartbroken by this. He had almost no chance of making it all the way back.

And speaking of stowaways…. as we left Marina Hemingway and entered the Straits of Florida, we heard the power yacht that had cleared out of Cuba just before we did, call Marina Hemingway to report what they thought were two boats in trouble:  a small fishing boat far offshore, and a small sailboat.  The sailor immediately answered the call to say that he was not in trouble.  No info on the fishing boat–most likely because they didn’t have a radio.  We saw a large Guarda Frontera cutter (possibly an ex-US Coast Guard cutter?) come out from the harbor to check things out.  Look at the gun on the bow!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Moments later a bright red Donzi-type speed boat joined the cutter and both boats circled the small sailboat for quite some time.  The sailboat lowered its sails and drifted as the two Guarda Frontera vessels checked things out.  In the end, both Guarda Frontera boats went back to the harbor, which means they never did check out the report of a fishing boat in trouble.  Hmmm….

Clearing in with Customs and Immigration in Ft. Lauderdale was quite an experience. With the quickly changing rules about US citizens visiting Cuba, no one really knows what the procedure should be right now. We expected to be visited by the health department and immigration to check for stowaways and rum and cigars, and any forbidden food items in our fridge/freezer. When Bob called to find out where we should go, he was given numerous phone numbers and no one at the other end of the line at any of these numbers knew what to do with us! In fact one phone number gave us nothing but a recorded message saying that this office is now officially closed and no one would be checking messages henceforth! 24 hours after arriving we got a phone call from one of our previously called contacts asking us to present ourselves at the immigration office at the ship terminal. We only needed to present ourselves, not Pandora, so we rented a car to get there, which allowed us the ability to do some shopping and dining afterward. When we arrived they did not look at all the papers we brought with us— such as our Commerce Dept. form that allowed us to sail Pandora to Cuba. They only looked at our passports, and asked us if we had a good time in Cuba.

You bet! It has been an unbelievable experience!

Basket Man

Yesterday may have been our last day to visit Old Havana, and I’m so glad I didn’t know it then because I would have felt a need to rush about more. Luckily we had a relaxing day and enjoyed some kind of holiday celebration that was happening.

We are trying to figure out the best ‘weather window’ for leaving Cuba. We knew we’d get the window some time this week, and now it looks like tomorrow is the day. So, here is our loose game plan. The winds are opposing the gulf stream a good deal of the time right now, but for the next couple of days those winds are pretty mild from pre-dawn until midday. So we will leave early in the morning, and sail in the gulf stream until the afternoon, when hopefully we will be near Key Largo. At that point we’ll head toward shore, out of the stream, and sail near the Florida coast until early the next morning when the winds die down again. We’ll head back into the Gulf Stream to Ft. Lauderdale, where we hope to clear in. By doing this we get a boost of speed from the northbound currents in the Gulf Stream while the opposing winds are mild, and when those opposing winds are stronger during the afternoon and evenings, we’ll slip out of the stream into the calmer waters outside the stream. I’m sure I’ll be sick, but hopefully less so than during some of our passages this winter.

The US Coast Guard sent us an email the other day (right after Bob had just composed a message to them) to ask if we were still on schedule for returning to the US by May 1. Bob responded, and we are hoping to hear back on whether we can clear in to Ft. Lauderdale. I have my fingers crossed about this because it will be more convenient for us to arrive in Ft. Lauderdale than in Miami. My flight home is Tuesday morning, out of Ft. Lauderdale.

Bob has just heard that the no-anchoring bill in Florida will indeed go into effect on May 1, so our plans for arriving in Ft. Lauderdale have to be adjusted. We will go to Miami instead, not a first choice for either of us. I guess we will rent a car to get to my Ft. Lauderdale flight. That’s boat life for you….you can make all the plans you want, even at the last minute, when you think you’ve got everything in hand, but the powers that be just laugh and laugh.

Yesterday we went back into Old Havana to look for the headquarters of the Women’s Federation for Handwork. Over the weekend we found the retail shop where the garments are sold, but the workshop where women take courses and make things for the shop is closed on the weekends. Yesterday we had a bit of a run around trying to find the workshop. When we did find it, we learned that all the ‘professores’ were gone since classes only take place in the mornings, while we arrived in the early afternoon. Maybe it’s just my imagination, and a leftover feeling from my visit to the workshop in Santiago, but I got the distinct impression that there would be complications trying to get anyone to see me. Yesterday I got to speak to a custodian and a language teacher, but when I asked for a ‘manager’ they both responded that ‘this was not possible.’ After meeting the open and generous women on the Paseo del Prada, and sharing such an excitement for handwork in spite of our communication barriers, I just couldn’t muster enough energy at this point to care if I met the administrators of this federation. I don’t think their goals are quite the same as mine. Admittedly I do not have the ‘whole picture,’ but from my limited perspective I believe their goal is to promote traditional clothing and make a successful business training women to keep these techniques alive and make the garments ‘saleable.’ It is a business venture that needs to succeed, and I hope it does succeed because that just makes handwork more valuable to everyone. But my mission is to meet women who love handwork and want to share what they do. I found that in spades with the group of women who surround Adriana Martinez.

It was some kind of holiday yesterday, but I never understood what! Several people wished us a ‘happy holiday,’ and museums were open in Old Havana that had been closed during our previous visits. While we were in the ceramic museum, I asked our guide what holiday was being celebrated, and she replied that it was the national holiday for ceramics. Bob and I are not at all sure we understood this properly. All kinds of museums were open that have been closed during our previous visits…maybe the holiday was really about Cuban heritage. Anyway, our guide still maintained that it was a ceramics holiday.

The ceramic museum was in the home of an historic ceramic artist who had a workshop and shop on the ground floor and living quarters for his family on the upper floor. The building was from the late 19th century with a central courtyard, and it made a wonderful museum for a history of Cuban ceramic artists. Each room featured a different time period of artists’ works. The courtyard was devoted to vessels and large figures.

4-27-16a 020

Our guide understood enough English for me to tell her that one of my good friends is a ceramics artist who does large figures in terracotta. I took these photos for her.

4-27-16a 019

4-27-16a 018

Somehow in our conversation it came about that our guide loves to knit. She took us to the entrance of the employees lounge and asked us to be very quiet since her boss was in there. She went in and came back moments later with a little bag of her knitting. It was the same ecru cotton floss type thread that the women on Paseo del Prada were using to crochet and make lace. I wonder where they get this material. Our guide told us she’d like to knit all day long, but can only find a few minutes here and there during her breaks at work. She said she never gets any time to knit at home because she has to cook and take care of her family. Sound familiar?

There were so many places open for touring or for business that had not been open all weekend long. It was a festive day, and there women dressed in traditional costumes on many street corners. You could take a photo of there for $5 CUC, which seemed a bit dear to us. Near the end of the day, Bob managed a discreet photo from a distance.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

One of the places that had been closed over the weekend was a perfumerie. We had looked through the windows of this museum/shop and admired the antique brass containers used for distilling fragrances, the wonderful colonial furniture and display cabinets, and the glass apothercary jars that held the fragrances. I was thrilled to get into this shop to see things at close range! Bob took some photos while I smelled the fragrances and bought a ceramic jar of violetta for myself and lavender for my sister.

4-27-16a 015

Every store has a beautiful courtyard since they are housed in historic buildings. This is the courtyard of the perfumeria.  Bob and I had been admiring the stained glass every time we walked by this building over the weekend.

4-27-16a 013

In the late afternoon yesterday, Bob and I happened upon a young man making baskets from palm fronds. In his large basket he had a number of exquisite, small items made from the fronds….birds, and a little house with a cricket on top.

4-27-16a 057

He was easy to talk to and knew enough English that we could communicate quite well. As Bob and I were marveling at the fineness of these tiny basket creations, he offered me one of his ‘birds.’ It appeard that he was giving me a gift, but I wasn’t entirely sure. Here again was someone offering a gift and letting fate take his generosity where it would. I put the bird back in his large basket and asked him for the little house with a cricket on top. Buying that took a bit more time and frustration than we’d anticipated! First, Bob could not find his money, and as he searched we had the sickening feeling that maybe we’d lost all our money. After a few heartstopping minutes he did find his stash of money, but then we did not have exact change to buy the little cricket. The basket maker could not make change for us. So Bob went in to the local bar to ask for change, but they did not have it either. Then the basket maker left his spot to go buy a beer which would give him change. (You can walk about the streets in Havana with alcohol). He came back smiling, and yet he still did not have the necessary change! In the end, laughing, he accepted somewhat less than his price, and he still handed me the little bird as a gift.

Bob and I went to dinner with my little house with cricket and my birdie sitting on the table before us as a quirky centerpiece. We kept admiring both these baskets, and I decided I had to have another little house with cricket as a present. I hoped we’d still find our basket maker on the street where we left him by the time we left the restaurant—which was a beautiful courtyard that had once been a print shop.

4-27-16a 035

Restaurant Imprenta:

4-27-16a 037

4-27-16a 039

When we got back to the spot where we’d seen the basket maker, the other street artists had just finished packing up their wares and were headed home. Likely the basket maker would soon be doing the same. But we’d gotten there just in time to ask if we could watch him make a little house with cricket on top, and he seemed happy to oblige even though he still had one already made. It took about 20 minutes for him to make, and we had a wonderful conversation with him as he worked.

4-27-16a 032

He started with two long palm fronds and crossed the fronds (north/south/east/west) over each other in the middle of the frond lengths. Starting with the ends that taper down to points, he began to fold each frond over the other in a consecutive direction. Since the fronds were tapering down to their outer ends the little box he was making got smaller and smaller, tapering like the fronds themselves. This made the roof of the house.

 

4-27-16a 043

Then he went back to the other half of the fronds that led to the base of where they’d been cut from the tree, and he made the same consecutive folds for making a square. This made the house itself. Very clever. He cut some frond strips to insert into the box for doors and windows.

4-27-16a 051

The exquisite litte cricket!

4-27-16a 059

As he worked we talked…. He loves to make baskets and these little figures are things he ‘invents’ himself. He is always thinking of ways to make some kind of little structure or animal out of the traditional basket making techniques that he uses to make regular baskets. He took out his phone and showed us photos of his baskets. If he’d had any of these with him I would have bought some too! He does careful work that results in beautiful baskets!

I told him that I sometimes make baskets too, but not from palm fronds since there are no palm trees where I live. Bob took my phone and began showing photos of my weaving and bobbin lace since he could not find any photos of my baskets. When Bob showed a photo of my tatting the basketmaker’s face lit up and he said his wife does this! I asked if his wife also does crochet and ‘tejer,’ and of course he said yes! He said she loves these techniques and loves to work with her hands. We had a little discussion of how it feels to let our hands work the repetitive motions of these crafts while our minds are free to ponder. Making things with our hands allows our brains time to contemplate many things.   He also told me he plays the piano and the violin. Someday he’d like to have a cello. He loves the cello most of all.

After giving me the little house with cricket he’d just made, he asked if I’d like him to make a snake. Naturally I said yes. I was curious to see what other techniques might be used to make these little figures, and the snake involved a different kind of manipulation of the fronds. When he finished he gave me that too. He really was most generous!

The only downside of our visit with him happened when a woman stopped for a moment to watch while he was making little cricket on top of the house for me. He offered her the one that was already completed. When he told her the price ($3 CUC) she said, “Big city prices….no thank you!” and walked away. We were all stunned. Yes, there are vendors who have high prices for things and who expect you to bargain, but these are mostly vendors who sell things that they have bought to sell. The artists we’ve encountered sell their work for very little, and I cannot imagine haggling with them. Perhaps I’m wrong about this, but how can you expect to pay even less for such an exquisite concoction of creativity? $3 Cuc for 20 minutes of work? Also, as a craftsman myself, I have stood in my own booths over the years and overheard people say that handwoven items are too expensive—that you can buy something just like it in a store for far less.

Well, you cannot buy a little basket woven house with a tiny cricket on top in any store that I know of. I was disappointed in this exchange. It would have been better for her to acknowledge what a little gem he’d just handed her, but that she could not spare the money at this time. It’s such a sad commentary that she felt she had to devalue his work in order to get away.

During all our cab trips to and from Old Havana we drive through modern Havana, including Embassy Row.  The US Embassy is newly opened and has never been on the avenue where all the other embassies are.  Most of the embassies are in historic colonial buildings and are quite a sight.  The Russian Embassy is the exception, although it too is quite a sight!  It is an wonderful example of Soviet architecture.

4-27-16a 065

Tonight we’ll have drinks around the pool here in Marina Hemingway with some of the other cruisers we’ve met in the last few weeks, along with Lars whom we met as we arrived in Cuba two months ago.  Some of us will walk to a local Spanish restaruant in the nearby town (Jaimentio?–something like that) to have a final dinner together.  Then is farewell to Havana and to Cuba.  It’s been great, but home is beckoning.  Bienvenidos Florida by this time on Friday!

 

Adriana, Nancy, Dazmira, Hidalgo!

Everyone turns out on Sundays in Havana. The weather is always fine, so why not? I found more women crowded around Adriana late Sunday morning., and we had another session of exciting talk about handwork.

Since Adriana’s table was not covered in other people’s work in need of her advice, she showed us the progress she has made on her lace blouse. She is more than half finished. Very soon I became too involved in conversations to take any photos, so I’m glad Bob took a lot!

4-25-16a 003

Look at the wonderful work these women are doing. A beautiful bobbin lace (bolillo) piece.

4-25-16a 005

Tatted sleeves, anyone? I would never have thought of it! This is tatting with pearl beads, and is a stunning piece. In black and white it would make the most elegant eveningwear, attached to a silk tunic. The tatting was perfectly done. Doesn’t it look fabulous on Adriana? She did not make it, but since she was wearing the perfect green tank top she had to model it!

4-25-16a 026

I happened to wear one of my Turkish scarves, which all the women loved. They asked to take photographs of it because they want to try their hands at crocheting this type of edging with fun, dangly flowers. I bet they’ll have it figured out in no time!

4-25-16a 008

Dazmira has her own booth nearby Adriana, where she displays her crocheted blouses, little girls’ dresses, handbags and hats. She buys large containers of the pull-tabs from beer bottles for $1 CUC (about $1.15 US) with which she embellishes many of her handbags and hats. She also crochets with plastic shopping bags and old video tapes. You can find her on Facebook as Dazmira.  I’ll post a link when I get home.

As is typical in Cuba, you cannot give a gift without getting something in return, though this has taken almost two months for me to realize. I think this is what caused some awkwardness when I gave away some spools of tatting thread to the teacher at the Women’s Federation in Santiago. Here, though, it was wonderful to see Adriana’s face light up with the spools of lace thread I brought for her. She showed me a baby’s outfit she made with this type of fine cotton. She took the pattern for a handkerchief edging (perfect square opening in the center for the neckline) and adapted it to make the bodice of a little boy’s one-piece suit. I got weak in the knees when I saw the lace bodice on this outfit, but I could not bring myself to buy it. I don’t have any grandchildren yet, and I don’t want to jinx it!

Instead I bought two beautiful pieces of tape lace and a small Torchon centerpiece.

4-25-16a 031

Adriana gave me a pair of tatted earrings done in navy and pale blue with fire polished crystals! I treasure them!

I don’t remember this woman’s name, but she turns out a lot of elaborate tatted projects. She made the interesting green and white beaded sleeves, and here she is modeling (against her will) a lacy tatted hat that has not been starched yet. It will be such a frivolous and fun accessory when it’s finished.

4-25-16a 037

The materials available in Cuba dictate the projects these women make. Most of the cotton threads are thicker than we are familiar with for doing tatting or bobbin lace. If I’d known so many of these women tat, I would have brought much more of that. Ah, well.   The tatting projects and bobbin lace projects are done with cotton that is considerably thicker than what we use in the US. Some of it looks like cotton floss, but even thicker—almost like a 12 strand floss. I can see it is NOT easy to work with in tatting because it splits so easily. Still, these women manage very well.

Adriana believes that they can now receive mail from the US. Boy, I hope so. I will send them more fine threads to work with. They oohed and ahhed over the threads I brought with me, and of course you can fit a lot of thread in a small package. The problem will be with mail service between the US and Cuba, and hopefully Adriana is right that things have already changed.

Internet in Cuba is challenging since it is rationed, so although there is plenty of information online these women cannot access it.   I bet it will be at least a month before I settle back into taking internet access for granted when I get home. It’s been highly frustrating here!

There were two handwoven scarves on Adriana’s display. When I questioned her about them she told me they had been woven by a man. I made all kinds of motions to describe a rigid heddle loom, and she was nodding her head through my whole pantomime, so I think that’s what was used to weave these scarves.

4-25-16a 023

Adriana is very interested in having instructions to make a simple floor loom, so I will be on the lookout for that when I get back home. I have not found any handweaving in Cuba, and she confirmed that herself. She did not know the word for handwoven in Spanish, nor the word for ‘loom.’ She was calling it the ‘machina por maya,’ the machine for fabric, until I wrote down the word ‘loom’ for her in her notebook.

Hidalgo joined us again, and Adriana teased him that he already knows so much about handwork he should start crocheting himself! And that’s when I learned that he paints, and sculpts and does woodworking in his free time. The people who have booths on the Paseo del Prada are very interesting, and I know I would enjoy getting to know them better! I hope we can stay connected through email…we have all exchanged email addresses.

In the end we discussed the value of handwork. When I said that not many women do handwork in the US, and that when they see it for sale many women are shocked at the price we ask for handwovens, lace, knitting…etc. These Cuban women agreed. They said young women in Cuba want inexpensive, manufactured garments. We agreed that in both the US and in Cuba women who do handwork are the biggest supporters of textile handwork! We buy from each other! In the photo below, from left to right: me, Adriana, Nancy, and Dazmira.

4-25-16a 020

Later in the day, near the restaurant we enjoyed on Mercederes we found a small gallery of woodcut prints. A group of artists were working together, sharing a printing press that had been donated by Unicef.   The gallery itself was part of a beautiful historic building.

4-25-16a 039

4-25-16c 002We ended the day with an early dinner at an outside café called Dominica, where the music was more intoxicating than the mojitos! First a band of men playing xylophone, bongos, guitar, saxophone and string bass, followed by a ‘girl band’ playing keyboard, saxophone, bongos and string bass, with a wonderful female lead singer. Beyond mariachis there are some other interesting percussive instruments, including a hollowed out gourd that has grooves incised along one side. You play it by rubbing a stick across the grooves, and it adds a wonderful rhythmic nuance to bongos and mariachis. I don’t know what it’s called—maybe it’s just called what it is!—a gourd. I love the rhythms of Cuban music— samba and bossa nova. Fantastic! You cannot sit still to this music, which must by why Cubans, and many tourists, are always dancing!