Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/370921
26 G O I N G P L A C E S | F A L L 2 0 1 4 (paNoRama) JamEs FEathERstoNE, (map) maRcoNi soaREs T he map above cruise coordinator Lissett Maria Perez Garcia's desk charts our route in bright blue marker. Excursion guide Joanny Camejo has described every stop in alluring detail, and, with my wife Lori's help, I can now pro- nounce at least half of our upcoming destina- tions correctly. But sitting on the sun-drenched aft deck as Panorama sweeps around the tip of Cuba's Guanahacabibes Peninsula towards the shores of María la Gorda is when I decide this trip is truly underway. As the choppy waters flatten, a gorgeous eight-kilometre run of underpopulated, uninterrupted beach appears off the portside and our ship slows to a stately pace. Cuban customs agents soon board to check the manifest and approve our anchorage in the country's most western bay, lapping up against the peninsula's 50,000-hectare national park and UNESCO biosphere reserve. There are 24 adventur- ous passengers on board the three-masted, 54-metre- long, 25-cabin ship, and they hail from Switzerland, Austria, England, Scot- land and Chile. All are dressed for the evening beach barbecue: long pants, light-weight dresses, one ascot and a couple of plunging necklines. e sun sets on cue as we hit the beach and I fumble with my camera when handed a rum- laced coconut with its top sliced off. Grilled pork, shrimp skewers, rice and yams are served at informally arranged shoreline tables with chilled cans of Cristal, the country's light lager beer. It is good food and, be warned, most Cuban food – bland, basic, occasionally stale – is not. We share a table with Captain Georgios Gkoutis, a quietly imposing but gen- uinely sweet man from Olympia, Greece, as a crescent moon appears above the palms. e next morning we return to the beach in the ship's speedy 16-foot Zodiac to snorkel, swim or just fl oat in the 24 C water. e rocky shoreline quickly transitions to a dazzling white-sand bottom. e ocean recedes behind the boat and in front of us stretches a lagoon in distinct bands of aqua, neon turquoise and rich Prussian blue. Snorkellers encounter sev- eral schools of small, colourful tropical fish and a lionfi sh, an invasive species with venom- ous spines that should not be touched. No one Small-ship cruising – the new way to see Cuba BY RICK STAEHLING Waterfront View Waterfront View Waterfront Havana Playa Giron Trinidad Isla de la Juventud María la Gorda Varadero Cienfuegos CARIBBEAN SEA Panorama, the three-masted ship that cruises Cuban waters.