10-Jul-2004 -- When the possibility of a humanitarian licensed trip to Cuba arose, I immediately went to the Confluence website to check the status of the country confluence-wise. It didn't surprise me when I found that Captain Peter had already made the first visit to an offshore point, however none of the terrestrial confluences had yet been visited.
Upon looking at my mapping software, I was happily surprised to find more detail for Cuba than I expected it might have, as I didn't have any luck trying to track down a topo map for the area. It appeared that the 23-82 confluence was less than half a kilometer from the road.

Having a bit of free time on the morning of July 10, I was able to arrange for a ride out the 40 km. from downtown Habana with the help of Lázaro and Eduardo who were both very interested in learning about the project. We sailed southeast along the A1 autoroute to the Tapaste exit and then headed for Jaruco, a small town which was a bit north of the confluence. All along I was wondering what kind of terrain we would encounter in the vicinity of the point.

I thought it likely that it would be somewhere in the midst of a sugarcane field. As we drew closer, the topography changed from fields to a land of what looked like some karst outcroppings leading me to fear that getting to the point might prove impossible in the amount of time I had. (I realized later that these must be part of the Escaleras de Jaruco.) However, the outcroppings ended, and the terrain again became flat.

Then I began to worry as the road started going away from the direction of the point, but soon enough, we came upon an intersection with a smaller road. We turned onto that road, went a couple of kilometers on the very straight road, until my GPS indicated that we were arriving at the destination. There were a couple of small farmhouses right there, just a few meters from the point.

I got out of the car and located the point in a field just a few meters from both the houses and the road. No machete was needed to hack my way to it! No need to to walk through jungle and swamp with thousand of spiders as was reported in 19-69!
I was astonished at my good fortune!