Avalon IV, Jardines de la Reina, Cuba: Undercurrent 01/2024

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Dear Fellow Diver,

Sharks, sharks, and more sharks! When a Bluewater Dive Travel photography workshop in Cuba appeared on my radar, it piqued my interest. I've made 43 dive trips to the Caribbean to nearly all the best places -- and some not-so-great places -- but I had never dived Cuba's isolated and reportedly pristine reefs. Little did I know that I would swim with several reef sharks and friendly goliath groupers on nearly every dive.

Avalon IV Bluewater has partnered with Avalon Outdoors, a Cuban Company, and this trip fell under the "Sustainable Marine Conservation Humanitarian Project" category, qualifying U.S. citizens for legal travel into Cuba. Avalon has a fleet of seven ships, and I signed up for a mid-October liveaboard trip to dive the Jardines de la Reina (the Gardens of the Queen), a marine park 60 miles off Cuba's southern coast.

While this would be my 14th liveaboard trip, it didn't turn out to be a "typical" liveaboard cruise, but only a short sailing trip to the national park where the ship tied off for the week. From our floating hotel, we would dive from large tenders, with 20- to 30-minute rides to similar dive sites throughout a small area of the archipelago. I had expected to travel along the archipelago, mooring at different places and exploring a large swath of it, so I was a little disappointed. That said, had I studied the Avalon section of the Bluewater website, I might have known more about what to expect.

After overnighting in Miami, I took a one-hour American Airlines flight to Santa Clara, where I quickly passed through immigration and customs. Outside, I spotted a taxi driver holding a sign with my name; he loaded my bags into his taxi, and off we went on our memorable drive. I hadn't planned well for the three-hour trip. It was hot -- the taxi's air conditioning didn't work well -- and I hadn't purchased a bottle of water in the terminal. My driver had none. I don't speak Spanish, and my driver didn't speak English. We dodged a lot of potholes along the way, passing more horse-drawn carriages than the few cars on the road. Some carriages sported solid rubber wheels, with much of the rubber missing, mounted on wooden wheels. Halfway into our drive, I noticed our speed decreasing. We pulled over -- the engine had overheated. We weren't going anywhere, but a half hour later, another taxi arrived to pick me up, and we were off again to the harbor, where the Avalon crew helped me with my bags....

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