The sea of floating lights

Cienfuegos is known as “the south pearl”. Colonial architecture all over the city mix with a long seafront. You can walk to the beach, eat seafood like lobsters or rent a room with an astonishing view to the sea. But an extraordinary place lays once crossed the bay. It remains untouched by tourist besides being touristic.
Jagua castle is a fortress at one side of bay´s threshold. It belongs to a little town named Pasa Caballo. A cheaper way to get there is taking a crowded local launch twice a day. The XVI´s century structure cannot be noticed from sea until you disembark.
The castle is upon a hill. From there, you can see Cienfuegos city, the whole bay and its inlets, a five stars hotel just in front and the nuclear city at the other side. It´s that what people commonly do.
Forget about the castle: one hour, and you have seen it all. Stay at least a day in Pasa Caballo. The apparently ordinary coastal little town is actually a surreal fisherman´s community where the main transport are rowboats and neighbors are not separated for streets but inlets. So, if you want to have some face to face gossip with a friend who lives a couple of blocks away, you just row to get there.
Cienfuegos´s bay is famous for having this inlets around it coast. Corsairs used to hide in there and wait for the crown´s ships to leave city and rob them. Currently, well preserve rests of those crafts can be seen when you are on your way towards the castle. If I knew that locals can get you there even for free, I would have go.
Pasa Caballo´s people are very welcoming. They aren´t used to have visitors for long so if you need to, they have a space to stay the night. Then, surrealistic images start to appear.
As night falls, sky turns into a colourful canvas. Fisherman goes massively to sea because those are the better hours to fish. Some goes first, but most wait for the church´s bell to ring at 18h. Leaving all at the same time is a good-luck tradition that none can exactly explain but everybody says it´s being like that for generations.
During night, many little lights float, shine through darkness and moves slowly to the edge of the bay: are the oil lamps every boat has. Any voice can be heard, but the sound of the waves and the casual steps of someone who cannot sleep. Sometimes, a certain light goes across and turns bigger as its approach: it´s a person coming from a near inlet. Just a few hours until sunrise, but feeling that spiritual, daily sensation, it really worth a stop.