The end of Cuba

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Next morning we ate brekky, Dario went to the bank while I packed and at 9am a bicitaxi with built in stereo system picked us up to take us to the bus station to catch one to Santiago de Cuba. The bus was 30 mins late, but we got on and arrived in Santiago at 12.30pm. A driver was waiting for us with a sign as Lidia´s sister runs a Casa in Santiago and we had organised to stay there. The driver drove us in a tiny little fiat with our bags tied to the roof to our grande casa. It was much bigger than any we had stayed in before, and really nice! We organised everything then headed out in search of lunch. After trying a few places we ate at a small place called Casa de la Trova, where there are concerts held all the time, lots of posters everywhere and a small concert happening in the next room to the cafe while we ate. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and Dario a rice dish with Chorizo that looked basic. We also ordered 2 Maltas as drinks, its like a dark beer but without alcohol and with sugar... we didnt like it very much so ordered cuban cola instead called tukola. My sandwich came so fast, but the rice took forever!!! It wasn´t too bad since all the walls have been written on by lots of people over the last 20 years, so we read lots of little quotes etc.
While we were paying the bill an older jinotero came in and started hustling us a bit, he sang a song (which i liked, he had a great voice) and trying to sell his cd, did a bit of magic. Dario was not amused. We gave him a small tip, gave a tip to our waiter and walked out. We then continued to explore Santiago. There are lots more jinoteros here and beggars. It just seemed such an aggressive city and it put both of us on edge. But we still saw what we wanted to see. A couple of squares and we went to see a museum, but everything shuts early on mondays and it was already shut. We wandered back to the old quarter where we were staying and tried to go to Etecsa to use the internet, but got a shock with the huge line of people outside and gave it up as a lost cause! We wandered the streets a bit and went to a few more sites like the gaol where Fidel was held before the revolution for attacking a barracks. We eventually went back to Etecsa and realised that everyone in the line just wanted to pay their phone bill so we went inside and noone was on the computers! On we jumped for 40 mins. We then bought some icecreams before retiring to our casa. The streets here are apparently not very safe after dark for tourists. The casa we were in does laundry so that afternoon we gave over our pile of dirties. Dinner was nice, pork steaks and lots of vegies and homemade fries. We tried another type of beer called Huey which was good.
Dario had a swollen eye which started 24 hours before, just his bottom eyelid, so as a last resort we tried some phenergan antihistamine... he was out like a light just after dinner! But next morning, no improvement and he was so dopey for the first few hours. We decided the best thing to do would be to go to the international medical centre (especially created for tourists... locals get free healthcare and other clinics, we pay more). Our hostess rang a driver for us but he wasnt home, so we waited for 30 mins for him to call back and he didnt so she called another guy and we left after a nice brekky and packing our bags while we waited. Dario had called the clinic before we left to ensure we had enough cash for the consult... they said it would be 25CUC. We waited 10-15 mins once we had arrived then were seen by a doctor. She had a look and said its a simple infected pore and its probably coz we had recently had dengue so were more susceptible to infections like this. She went to get the antibiotic he needed from their own pharmacy, but they didnt have it in stock. She rang a big hotel nearby and their tourist only pharmacy had it in stock so she sent us there... and she didnt charge us for the consult, she said because she couldnt complete treatment it wasnt charged. We drove to the hotel and went and got the antibiotic, 10CUC per bottle (they´re eyedrops) and we got 2 as instructed by the doc. We then went to the Viazul bus station to buy the tickets to Santa Clara for that night.
There is a big statue and monument across the main road from the bus station and we wandered there as well and took some photos. Our driver then took us to the Cuartel Moncado (army barracks for the Batista government in the 50´s... now a school and museum) where the revolution basically began on 26 July 1953. Fidel Castro was incarcerated for a few years in Santiago prison for the attack. It had some good history and lots of photos and some pretty gruesome details and photos of people being tortured by the batistas in the barracks and lots of photos of dead people from the battle, even a map of where they all died. It was all very interesting.
We left there and walked back to town. We had intended on stopping at the Museo de Ron, the original factory for Bacardi Rum that was started in the 1800´s. It moved to Puerto Rico once the war started and apparently the original owners (now living in Miami) have a law suit going against the Cuban government for unlawfully taking their property from them in the revolution as they were very rich people. But we arrived and the building is closed and under reconstruction (like a lot of places here) so we saw the outside only. We decided it was time for lunch and on the walk back to the casa we stopped at a pizzeria and grabbed a ham and cheese and a couple of lemonades. At the casa they gave us plates to finish our meal with which was nice. We moved all our stuff out of our room as they were expecting guests at about 2.30. We wandered to another museum on our list, Museo de la lucha clandestina which was a block away from the casa, with history of the clandestine war that was fought in Santiago, including pictures of the troops in the same building the museum is in. In all the museums there are large photos with quotes from Fidel, Che and other important people from the revoluton which are very powerful and patriotic. Before going into the museum a man on the street came up to Dario while he was taking pictures of the view and started ranting about Cuba being a prison... he was very frustrated... then a couple of cops on a motorcycle drove past and the guy basically disappeared down the street.
Once we left the museum we were on the street and the same guy came and asked if he could talk to Dario later on as he needed someone to just talk to about his frustrations and didnt trust cubans. Dario agreed to meet him before we left town that night. From there we walked up to the main square and bought some icecreams before heading back to the casa to just chill out and get out of the heat of the day and wait for 8pm to roll by (time of the bus). Out hostess spoke to Dario about the man we had talked to on the street and she said that he is just a con trying to pull the hard story on a tourist and then ask for help (in monetary terms) so we called off the meeting and had dinner (cheap pizza and lemonades) before the taxi arrived to take us to the bus station. We arrived half an hour early at the terminal and waited patiently as the terminal emptied into other buses. We then got asked to check our luggage in and we boarded our bus to Santa Clara. The bus was almost empty! The only passangers were us and a cuban family of 5. They all had blankets... and after half an hour we understood why, the bus was freezing! we each had our jumpers and I wore full length leggings but Dario only had shorts on and we froze all night!
Every hour or 2 the bus would stop at another town to let people off and on adn eventually most of the bus rows filled up. The seats weren´t that comfortable when you try and sleep on them for 11 hours! But we eventually made it into Santa Clara a bit early would you believe. Our new host (a connection from our hostess in Santiago) was waiting for us with a sign. Hugo was his name, and he welcomed us graciously. His wife and daughter were waiting for us at the house. It was a 2 story house in a busy street, the bottom floor is Hugo and his wife´s house and the upstairs level is his daughter and her husbands house. They had an old dog called Niña and a parrot called Kooka and a bunch of gold fish 😊 so i was happy. We had an apartment at the front of the house all to ourselves! 2 double beds, a kitchen (but the only thing in it was a sink and fridge) a private bathroom, kitchen table to eat at, and a separate room that looks out on the street with rocking chairs to read or whatever in! it was great! Since it was 7am, they offered to make us breakfast, we gratefully said yes and had another great cuban brekky.
After breakfast we were both pretty tired but decided it was worth hopping up and looking around town for a bit. We walked the 4 blocks up the street to the main square Parque Vidal. The buildings around the park are magnificant with an old library where lots of students were studying, a lovely large theatre and many other great buildings, though some looked like they needed a bit of TLC. We walked around and up to El Tren, the memorial and museum to the day that Che Guevara and 18 men took an armoured train full of 400 Batista troops and officials with cartfuls of weapons in an hour and a half! crazy stuff! pretty cool though. The museum was 1CUC each so wasnt too bad. The day was pretty hot though and afterwards we walked back down what is called El Boulevard, a pedestrian only zone with lots of shops and restaurants (not touristy which is great about this town... there are tourists, but el boulevard is a local hangout and shopping place), we bought some necassary water and softies to stock our fridge with and headed back to the house for some aircon! We decided to try and walk a few blocks in the other direction to the agropecuario to buy fruit and veg and have a healthy lunch, but it was shut until 2. We went back at 2 and found the lines very large so we didnt bother. Across the road was a small lunch house so we ordered 2 pork lunches which came with rice and beans, a bit of salad and fried platanos for 20pesos of moneda nacional... basically 40cents. I couldnt even finish it all! what a bargain!
That afternoon we didnt really do much as we were pretty tired. That night we had dinner at the casa and got talking with Hugo about the revolution. It turned out that he was in Che Guevara´s column and had some great stories to tell and photos to share. Dario was in heaven. I did listen to a lot but didnt follow all of it so joined the girls watching a baseball game on tv from a rocking chair. They had lots of questions about us and australia and I had some for them too and i was proud that we had conversations! Eventually though my sleepiness won and I went to bed. Apparently Dario stayed up until he fell asleep in a rocking chair and the girls sent him to bed 😊
Next morning we had brekky and chatted with the hosts and then headed up to the road behind the square to catch a horse and cart to the monumento de Che Guevara. The driver completely took advantage and over charged us, but we paid the 2CUC each and got off at the monument. We started in the cemetary where the other men that died with Che are buried along with other close members of his column who died at other times. It is like a garden, flowers and grass and vines everywhere with an eternal flame at the top. Behind this is the huge monument to Che. We had to walk around to get there as the proper entrance was roped off. We found out once we got to the proper monument that the museum and mausoleum where Che´s body is actually buried beneath the monument were shut until the 10th March because of repairs. Dario was understandably a bit pissed off....
We saw and read all the parts of the monument before leaving in a somewhat worse mood than when we had arrived. From the monument we walked the 500m to the Viazul/Astro bus terminal to buy tickets to Havana the next day. We were told they dont take payment until the bus is there as they dont know how many seats there will be when it arrives, so we had our names on a check list to show who was in line for those seats the next morning. We took another horse and cart back to Parque Vidal (these are not tourist carraiges, they are cheap local transport carts where usually its only a few pesos to ride and they fill them up with about 8 people and generally do a regular route). We wandered about a bit again at the square before heading back to the same place to buy lunch and then ate in our casa to get out of the heat. A lot of streets in Santa Clara have horse carts going up and down them, so it smells a bit like a farm at times, but its not a bad smell. There are some stray dogs too but not as many as I expected but there are many small song birds like canaries kept in small wood and wire cages.
Next morning we left early to go to the bus station in a taxi for 3CUC, we waited around for half an hour and then were told that the bu we were waiting for was delayed by 5 hours in another city! so we organised a taxi instead. We shared it with 2 cuban passengers who were waiting for the car to fill up, we were the final 2. Off we went for the 3 hour drive to Havana in a 1950´s chevrolet sedan! anyway, it was a nice drive, and they dropped us right at the door, so it was probably cheaper overall than taking the bus for 18CUC each then a taxi to our casa (they charged us 20CUC per person for the taxi) and it was a lot quicker. We arrived in time for lunch but were still going from a large breakfast. We dumped everything at the casa that we stayed at when we first arrived in Cuba and went for a walk. That night we had dinner at the casa.
Next morning I´d organised with a guy in australia that I would pick up his phone that he had accidently left in another casa in Havana vedado. So we walked all the way there, about 40 mins. Found the casa, but the owner wasnt home and her brother who was home had no idea what we were talking about, but he gave us their phone number and said to call in about an hour and a half. So we walked around Vedado a bit (Havana for tourists is basically separated into 3 adjacent sections, Vedado, Vieja and Centro-we were staying in Centro). We found some markets and I bought some very cute things for very cheap in comparison to the tourist shops, but exactly the same! Eventually we went to a big hotel to use the phones and called the casa again and the lady was home, so we walked all the way back again, another 25 mins and got the phone. We took a taxi to Havana Vieja and walked through some more markets and lots of bookshops.
We used the internet for emails etc. Then walked all the way back to centro almost to our casa before realising we needed to send a very specific email to Uruguay about when we were arriving the next day! We still had some credit left on our internet card so off we went to the large hotels in the district who all have computers... one place told us that yes we have computers, but we dont have any of the cards to sell you... we said dont worry we have one... they said no, you need a special one for our hotel... we went .... what?! anyway... there was a lot of silliness but in the end we had to walk all the way back to the old town to go to the only Etecsa (internet and phone company) close by where we could use the internet again. We arrived and were about to walk in the door when a security guard with a mighty big gun oushed us aside and said wait over there... we waited... he was with other guys and a van, they were doing the cash pick up for the day. After 20 mins they finally left and we could send our emails. (I swear noone works much in Cuba, while we were there for an hour or so, there were at least employees at all times clustered around a work desk nearby playing with music and other things while outside there was a line around the block of people trying to pay their phone bills!).
We had dinner again at the casa. Next morning we got up and had brekky and then headed to the museum of the revolution just a few blocks away. Where the Granma is kept along with other important vehicles from the revolution, many with lots of bulletholes. We left there in time to go and grab our belongings and head downstairs for our taxi that our hosts had booked to take us to the airport for our 6.30pm flight. Now the airport was funny, we walked over to the checkin counters and were near the front of the line for our flight. There were 3 people to service our checkins... one was yabbering away with a friend for a while because ´my computer isnt working´ while another guy just waited forever to put the sign above his desk.... and the 3rd was for business class... but noone was in that queue so you´d think to work more efficiently she would start taking checkins... but hey its cuba! we eventually got checked in. Then had a bite to eat before paying our leaving tax of 25CUC each, and exchanging the rest of our money. We went through customs and made sure we asked for stamps in our passports so we didnt miss out on a country! otherwise they dont stamp it 😞
We played cards for a while and then over the loud speaker... Jessica Mason al aduana (imagine a very strong accent so it took a second for me to recognise my own name). So we went to customs and one guy was like nah, theres no problem. So we went back to the gate to wait for our plane, then a guy was walking around yelling out my name so we went with him to find some lady, she walked us around a bit looking for her manager and then we went downstairs to customs bagcheck where there was a bag with my name on it but it wasnt mine! Eventuly after more walking around she kind of explained that some lady who we then met, was travelling with lots of excess baggage and to make it cheaper for her they added one bag to my name because I was travelling very lightly! talk about illegal and what if she was some drug smuggler!!! anyway, they took my name off in the end and that was fixed. But we went back to the gate and most people had boarded so on we went laughing our heads off as we left the weirdness of Cuba.

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Photos

cuartel moncad
complete with bulletholes in the walls, it was a barracks that Fidel attacked with 50 or so men, lots of them died and he spent time in prison. It is now a school and a museum.

the freezing bus!
very empty at the beginning of the p!

the bulldozer that freed santa clara
che and 18 men took a train full of 400 batista troops etc with lots of weapons using a bulldozer to break the tracks, the fight was over in 90 minutes, the batistas surrendered!

Hugo and Dario
with che in the background and all of Hugo´s medals.

Rebelde Radio
or for you rage against the machine nuts out there, its guerilla radio