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Estatua Che y Nino, Santa Clara
Scarily realistic but emotive bronze statue of Che Guevara carrying a young boy.Santiago de Cuba is a pretty small place; we kept bumping into the same locals all over town as well as Emma and Patrick again, two days after they had left us behind in Baracoa. Having all enjoyed each other's company so much first time around, we thought we might as well reconvene in the evening for one last night out together.
Famed for its music and nightlife, Ching enjoyed both so much in Santiago de Cuba
last time around that she was keen to hit Casa de la Trova again that evening. I enjoyed it too but thought that once was enough and so I joined Emma, Patrick and a girl Emma had previously met on her travels – Aude from France and her casa-mate Lara from Holland – for a few ‘quiet drinks’. With an early bus to catch the next day, Patrick took his leave early – which was probably a good move considering ‘a couple of quiet drinks’ almost certainly never works out that way.
Picking up Ching from Casa de la Trova when it closed – with no wifi you had to arrange to meet people at a time and place just like the old days – it
turned out she ran into the singer of the band we saw last time in Santiago, but this time sans Obama and Ronaldo.
At the rather plush bar in the Hotel Casa Granda, we sank a few more mojitos before Ching and Lara decided they had sunk one too many and went home.
This led to Emma, Aude, the singer of the band and a few stragglers jamming in the middle of Parque Cespedes. Turns out the stragglers were able musicians as well and were pretty good. We already knew how good the singer of the band was, but he reminded us again as he showed off his talent once more.
With a bottle of rum being passed around, we were all smashed by now and loads of Latin songs, a bit of Bob Marley, a bit of Ed Sheeran were all played. Handed the guitar, my rendition of Wonderwall wasn’t as well received – though this was due to a lack of knowledge of the song on my audience’s part rather than my lack of talent, of course.
It all ended with me literally stumbling home at the not-so-early (or early, depending on your perspective) hour of 5am. Fun
Streets Of Santiago de Cuba
Colourful street in Santiago de Cuba. night though!
It wasn't ideal that we had to check out of our room at midday - I could've done with a bit more sleep. As well as being hungover, I also now had a cold from being a bit overzealous with the air-conditioning.
For the rest of the day we walked around Santiago one more time to tick off the last few sights.
Plaza de Martes is a pleasant square with wifi, and the art-deco Palacio de Justicia just around the corner was where revolutionaries were tried for the famous attack on the Cuartel Moncada, the old army barracks for Batista's troops, which is right opposite. Parque Historico Abel Santamaria was the site of a hospital where Fidel Castro was tried for leading the Moncada attack on 26th July 1953 - a date displayed in remembrance all over town - where he made a famous and inspiring speech in his defence. This park is also opposite the Moncada, on its west side.
Supposedly one of the best museums in the country, the museum inside the Moncada was unexpectedly but typically, closed for the day.
We had now had our fill of Santiago and Cuba's east - all that
Parque Vidal
Santa Clara's main square. So 50s! The mint green hotel in the background is the Hotel Santa Clara, which still has bullet holes in its facade from battles fought in Santa Clara during the revolution. was left was to have one final meal at Pizzeria Fuji, our favourite restaurant in Santiago, before catching our overnight bus to Santa Clara.
Getting on an air-conditioned, overnight bus is probably not the best idea when you have a cold but I had no choice. Some of Ching's cold and flu medicine made things a little less uncomfortable. Unexpectedly joining us on the bus was Emma, who had decided to skip her morning bus with Patrick that morning having sung karaoke in the main square with me all night with our rag-tag street band. She wasn't stopping in Santa Clara with us however, she was going all the way to Varadero on this bus.
It was my first overnight bus since
Panama and I managed to get a few decent patches of sleep.
Che Guevara monuments, Che Guevara statues and Che Guevara memorials apart, there isn't really too much to Santa Clara, although the main square is nice which like many other places in Cuba, is a time warp back to the 50s.
Such is the fame and legend of the great man however, you'd have felt like you'd missed a key part of Cuba and its
Monumento a la Toma del Tren Bandido
Site in Santa Clara where a team of 18 revolutionaries led by Che Guevara derailed a train of 350 government soldiers. The train carriages have been left exactly as they were after the derailment. history without paying El Che's adopted hometown a visit.
The Monumento a la Toma del Tren Bandido is a pretty symbolic memorial. In what was a key victory for the revolutionaries against Batista's dictatorship, Guevara led a band of 18 men who managed to derail a train carrying some 350 of Batista's troops on this exact site, using just a bulldozer and homemade Molotov cocktails. The carriages have been left exactly where they were derailed, with the bulldozer - not a big one at all - proudly displayed upon its own plinth.
A few hundred metres down the road is a scarily real-looking bronze statue of El Che with a boy in his arms and a baby on his shoulder. It is a touching, poignant memorial - almost inspiring as much awe as the man himself. It's a feeling akin to seeing the
ANZAC memorials in Gallipoli; a feeling I've never felt before merely from looking at a statue.
Before running into some typical Cuban bureaucracy - apparently in some places you need to show your passport to buy wifi cards - we then headed back to our friendly (perhaps overly so) casa.
On our last day in Santa Clara, I slept
Plaza de la Revolucion, Santa Clara
Where the Che Guevara monument and mausoleum is located. in until 1pm! It was a thirteen hour sleep and I probably needed it. With a short drunken sleep in Santiago followed by a broken, uncomfortable sleep in an overnight bus - all this with a cold - I needed it. My body is telling me to stop for while, I think.
For lunch I decided to get two cheap pizzas which were bigger than I was expecting and had
mucho cheese. I swore I felt a heart attack come on straight after I ate it. My body probably didn't want that. Maybe no more pizza for a while...
The last sight we had to visit was the Che Guevara Museum & Memorial. The guy's story is the stuff of legend and is grand memorial in the middle of the vast Plaza de la Revolucion reflects this.
Underneath the huge plinth upon which a huge statue of El Che stands tall, is the very good museum, which details Guevara's life and times with objects and photographs from his time on Earth. Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Che's school report card showed that his best subjects were history and natural sciences (he went on to become a doctor, before joining the
Calle Independencia
Santa Clara's nostalgic-looking pedestrian shopping drag. revolutionaries as a medic) and even when he was young, one could see the iconic facial features that would go on to grace many a poster and t-shirt.
What I liked about the museum was that it captured many candid moments alongside the important ones and it presented him as less of a revolutionary and more as a human. I don't know of anyone who dislikes Che Guevara even though he is supposed to be a divisive figure. Here was a guy who wanted to lift Latin America out of poverty and liberate its countries from dictatorships (even if ironically, his revolutionary exploits in Cuba arguably led to one of its own) and ultimately gave his life for the cause. And not even for his own cause but the cause of others; when he was found, captured and executed in front of CIA officers, he was leading an insurrection in Bolivia. His death only made him a martyr - who could hate a rebel with such a noble cause?
His remains, along with the remains of 16 other rebels executed in Bolivia in 1967, lie in the poignant mausoleum complete with an eternal flame and with a bronze plaque for
Mural, Santa Clara
There are a whole host of peace-promoting and satirical murals on the way to the Plaza de la Revolucion. I liked this one as it highlights censorship - something ironically done by the current Cuban government. each of the total 38 fighters who died in the failed Bolivian revolution. The faces of each of the 38 men are individually etched into their own plaques - with El Che of course, in the centre. By fortune, I managed to get in there for a couple of minutes without anyone else in there with me - the silence is amazingly special, as sombre and as respectful a memorial as you're ever likely to see.
In line with all the Che memorials, Santa Clara is a student town that perennially challenges the government censorship laws, though we didn't really see any of this in evidence. So because of this, we didn't think that there was too much to the town, as mentioned earlier.
Therefore we made a beeline for some R&R in Varadero - 20km of white sandy beach and home to the largest slew of hotel resorts in the Caribbean. I had not even heard of Varadero before researching my trip here - but indeed the Cuban government realised that some of the best beaches in the world were in their possession, and that they needed to be sold out to fill its rather empty coffers.
Chillin' On Varadero Beach
Emma and I chillin' on one of the best beaches I have ever been to. Waiting for us in Varadero was Emma, who had managed to find us an amazingly located casa just one block from the beach, with a good rate, a kitchen and a living area, as well as the room and ensuite. We were sorted! The kitchen would allow me to finally drink the awesome coffee I had been lugging around with me
since I bought it in Colombia! There were local places for food nearby as well, where you could buy cheap meals. We basically had everything we needed within a 100m radius; a cheap local breakfast shop, three restaurants, an ice-cream shop ad the beach. Life was good. After the frustrations I had been through in Cuba, I had earned this.
Also relatively close-by was the biggest supermarket I've seen in Cuba, which had all of twenty items in stock. So although we had a kitchen, we couldn't even buy the basics to cook anything decent apart from pasta and pasta sauce. And even by cooking ourselves, we weren't even saving that much money! There was no rice, vegetables, meat or yogurt for sale - but there were about three aisles of rum. Cheap too; a 700ml bottle of Havana Club would set you back
Ching, Me & Emma
My Varadero crew. just US3.85. You can't say that the Cubans haven't got their priorities in order.
I wasn't planning on having a big night out - I was still feeling the effects of the cold/virus I had - but a few games of Scum and a few cokes and rum later soon put pay to that. Taking a cab across the skinny, barely-three-blocks-wide peninsula, we came across Calle 62 - an open-plan venue with a live band and an audience spilling out onto the street. We had a decent boogie and also met some Filipino-Canadians who invite us back to their hotel resort afterwards.
We got to see how the other half of non-backpacking holidaymakers lived; the half that paid hundreds of dollars to stay at a plush - and this one had beach access and multiple swimming pools - all-inclusive resort. It was a bit sad - these guys had come all the way to Cuba to stay in this resort for a week without seeing the real Cuba. You could tell that they felt the same though and that they admired the way we were doing it. But then again, we didn't mind getting a few free drinks, free
Behind Varadero Beach
Every good beach should have a bit of shade behind it. burgers and free hot dogs from them for just one night - everything is included after all and is available 24-hours a day - it was nice to get a glimpse of the relatively high-life. i admittedly had a wee bit too much to drink and was glad when we made it back to our US$10/night casa from the US$100/night hotel resort.
As for the beach itself...it is probably one of the best beaches I have been to. The soft white sand is almost perfect, the turquoise water is clear and warm (could maybe do with some bigger waves for fun), there is shade at the back of the beach beneath the trees, but most importantly, the beach is 20km long so despite all the hotel resorts that line it and the town itself, it never felt crowded.
Despite Cuba's relative isolation and the fact that baseball is the national sport here, football is still wildly popular - particularly Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose emblems and products are everywhere. Everyone here supports one or the other.
Therefore it didn't take as much effort as I thought it might to find a hotel showing the Champions League Final between
Hotel Resort, Varadero
The resort the Filipino-Canadians were staying at in Varadero. Madrid rivals Real and Atletico.
I personally hate Real so was going for Atletico, who have been punching far above their weight for several seasons now and who were 1-0 down when I tuned in. Early in the second half, Atletico's prodigal son Fernando Torres then won a penalty for his team - only to see his joy turn to despair as Antoine Griezmann smacked the spot kick against the bar. They dominated most of the game and they are nothing if not courageous and it finally paid off when Yannick Carrasco equalised in the 79th minute. Real had had a couple of good chances to extend their lead beforehand but profligate finishing ensured the final went to extra time and penalties.
Two years earlier, Atletico were just six minutes away from winning the same final against the same opponents but contrived to concede an equaliser; their heartbreak was complete when Real went on to score three goals in extra time to shatter Atletico's dreams of a first European Cup.
There is always a fall guy in a penalty shootout and you could read poor Juanfran's permanently frowning face before his spot kick that it might be him. It was.
Avenida 1, Varadero
The main road in Varadero complete with 50s-American-dream architecture. Cristiano Ronaldo then put away the winning penalty past the hapless Jan Oblak who never looked like coming close to saving any of Real's spot kicks. Real were champions for a record 11th time and it was heartbreak once more for Atletico. It put me in a shitty mood for the rest of the day.
And Cuba wasn't helping later that afternoon either. What do you mean I can't buy wifi without ID?! Why does a litre of milk cost US$2?!
One thing I could count on to cheer me up was Ching, who is like the exchange student you had at high school who you taught bad words to with hilarious consequences. When drunk, she had Emma and I in stitches!
"A friend told me about AC/DC and now I f*cking love it!" was probably the funniest thing that came out of her mouth in her Taiwanese accent.
She would also use dramatic facial expressions that we as Westerners would only use if we were in real trouble or danger. She would often look like she is on the verge of passing out, rotating her neck and rolling her eyes - but she was actually fine, just a
Jammin' In The Park
The singer we saw sing in a band on our first night in Santiago joins us for a drunken, spontaneous jam session in Santiago's main square. bit tired. She often had me pretty worried! She wasn't great at hiding her feelings either - you could always tell if she was tired or angry!
My last two days saw me do some things that I had been meaning to do for a while; buy and drink a coco-loco (a fresh coconut with a bit of rum in it - delicious); watch Spectre, the latest Bond flick that I got off
Aidan in Nicaragua; and watch City Of God on Ching's laptop - and what a good film it is, bringing to the screen the reality of life in the
favelas during the drug wars in Rio and the never-ending cycle of violence. I wished I had watched it before
my trip there three years ago.
My trip to Cuba wouldn't be complete without one final rip-off.
My flight to Madrid was out of Havana so it would cost me US$10 for the bus back there and then US$20 for a taxi to the airport. So I thought I'd try and get a cab to Havana - which would cost about the same as the bus or slightly more - and then try and get them to take me to the airport for
a little extra. But the taxi drivers aren't stupid - they know that I will have to pay US$20 to get from Central Havana to the airport so they factor that in when quoting me their price, even though it is only slightly further to the airport given that they would have driven me all the way from Varadero to Havana beforehand! Cheeky bastards.
Though frustrating and irritating, I think I had found my peace with Cuba after Baracoa. Almost a resignation that this is the way things are in Cuba, a resignation that ensured that I no longer got too annoyed whenever stuff like this happened. For example, I now go to restaurants expecting them not to have half their menu and the first question I always have before ordering is now;
"Que hay?" As this is my final entry from Cuba, here are some final observations;
- Most toilets in public places - bus stations, shops, museums etc. - rarely have running water.
- Chickens are running around everywhere. Like literally, everywhere.
- Everything is made of concrete. Call it Soviet-chic. It is fascinating how you can find Soviet-chic architecture and 50s-American-dream architecture side-by-side here. I
Cuartel Moncada, Santiago de Cuba
Former army barracks for Batista's troops. See the bullet holes in the walls from the failed attack on the barracks by Castro's revolutionaries. don't think you'd find that anywhere else in the world.
- Cuban drivers are generally slow. You have to wait so long for them to turn into a street or to pass you when crossing the road.
- Cheese is a little weird here, especially the cheese on pizzas which tastes a bit blue.
- Cuba is full of German tourists. They made up by far the largest proportion of all tourists to Cuba.
- There are a lot of fat Cubans. This is perhaps no surprise when you see that the cheapest foods are pizzas, ice creams and grilled sandwiches.
Cuba was by far the most fascinating and interesting place that I have ever been - and I have been to a lot of places - and it is also frustrating and exasperating in equal measure. However, if Cuba does - and it probably will - get dragged into the 21st century with the lifting of the embargo and free trade, then it simply will not be the same place anymore, so I am glad I got there when I did. Without its annoyances and red tape, it just wouldn't be the same, inspiring and beautiful place.
Relaxing
Bacardi Factory, Santiago de Cuba
After a dispute with the new socialist government after the revolution, Emilio Bacardo shifted his operations to Bermuda. His original factory still bears his name - although it is faint, you can see it on the bridge. in Varadero seemed to be the perfect way to sign off my time here and watching Spectre and seeing all the shots of Europe in the film got me excited about my return to the continent. It is now time for the next chapter of my trip to begin!
Hasta luego!
Derek
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