Regret

Does anyone else see regret as an essential part of travel?

Our visit to Rapa, for me, will always be marked by a splendid chance that I had to be open-hearted and big-spirited, which in the one moment that I had to take it, I missed.

Alisa and I were looking through Cuba pictures yesterday, and we came across the ad for live music that she had photographed in Cienfuegosso that we could follow up. Somehow in our rush to get out of Cienfuegos before Christmas, we neglected to go check it out. Other things seemed more pressing at the time, but of course now I can't even remember what they were.

So, no music for us in Cuba, if you can believe it. I guess I'll have that to regret.

But I'll note that it's a very different regret, having gone somewhere and then thinking of something that you left undone while visiting, than the regret of never going at all.

In haste, with a good wind and our outward clearance about to arrive...

Guantanamera...

...guajira Guantanamera.

If you know the lyrics you can hear them as you read them from your screen.

Is there a more swinging melody out there?

The more hip among you will also grasp the connection to José Marti, Cuban hero.

So, this is clearly a lead-in to something...

We have tried to concentrate on the beauty of straight lines, but we have failed.

Particularly when it became clear that the land ahead of us, Colombia, was a land of marinas where visiting yachts were concerned.

I'd love to spend some time in Colombia. But if we're going to have to stay in a marina anyway, and this is our one-and-only (please, god) visit to the Caribbean, then maybe we should go stay in a marina in Cuba instead.

So! I overcame my severe allergy to authority long enough to ask the US Coast Guard, "Mother, may we?" in my sweetest voice. And today we got the answer (above).

So as soon as I finish off these damn research proposals (may they go forth and be fruitful) and finish a few pressing boat jobs (some things never change), we're gonna catch the first thing smokin'.

And we're going north, not west.

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera...