Days 18 &19 Santa Clara and Trinidad Cuba

Day 18  Havana to Trinidad via Santa Clara Cuba     3 April 2015  Easter  Good Friday

Cuba Day 5

We checked out from our hotel and were on the road by about 9:15 for Trinidad on the south east coast, via Santa Clara (about the middle of the main Cuban Island.)  All up we have around a 4 ½ hour drive today.

As you drive around Cuba on the roads, especially away from the cities, there are a lot of people hitch-hiking waving notes/money at the cars approaching. It is common practice to “buy” a ride (essentially contributing to the cost of the trip). Public transport is so poor that government cars, trucks and buses must stop and pick-up hitch-hikers if they have room.

Our first stop for the day was after about 2 hours drive, coffee and rest break. I have taken to drinking espresso shots. J  Puts a zing in your day. The coffee at this stop was the smoothest I have had to date; it didn’t have the bitterness of some in Havana.  At this stop there was a sort of zoo, ok, well animals in small cages) not too small, but sort of 1980’s zoo style). In one of the cages I noticed an Iguana was caged up with some big guinea pigs. It was very different to those we saw in the Galapagos, it had different shaped head and was also very dull in colour.

Back on the road, there isn’t very much traffic on the Highway, and the further you got away from Havana the more horse or donkey drawn carts there were.  We also saw many broken down cars being towed; I even saw a car being towed by a tow-truck that was already towing another car!!  We even saw and heard a truck towing a broken down car, blow a tyre, with rubber going everywhere!

We arrived in Santa Clara at 1pm and had lunch before going to the Che Guevara Monument, mausoleum and small museum.  The Mausoleum was very dignified, and while the centre attraction was the resting place of Che’s remains, the remains of many of those that fought with him were entombed there as well. In a fitting tribute, all the Niches were marked with a picture of the person and the name by which they were known to their comrades in arms. The museum had many very interesting items, but we both agreed it was the photographic history that was the best. The monument consists of a very large statue of Che standing, looking into the distance, on top of a “hill surrounded by sculptures depicting some of his greatest moments.

From there we went into the centre of Santa Clara and walked through town, a very picturesque town, to a monument on the site of the decisive battle of the 1958 revolution. It was the site where on December 29 1958, Che and the troops he led, derailed a heavily armoured train delivering fresh  arms, ammunition, supplies and troops to the Batista forces north of Santa Clara . This action led to Batista fleeing Cuba on 1 Jan 1959, effectively conceding defeat to the rebels.

After this visit I am eager to find out more about Che, he was a Doctor and social activist turned revolutionary, born in Argentina and helped fight revolutions in many South American countries including Cuba and Bolivia.

We left Santa Clara at 2:50pm on our way to Trinidad, a further 190km away. We got about 20 minutes into our trip when we hit what essentially was a broken road. It took us 40mins to do the next 13kms. (Deb compared the road favourably with the Marinie Loop near Uluru). While having our bodies shaken to bits we noticed many bushfires in the hills, with a lot of smoke through the valleys.  Just after we cleared the bad road it began to rain, and it poured down for a while. This area (maybe all Cuba) has been in drought, so the rain was a welcome relief, settling the dust and washing it off buildings and the vegetation. It may have even helped with the fires.  Since we left the highway we have seen more horse/donkeys and carts, and horse riders than cars. This country really is living 50+ years ago.

We arrived in Trinidad at about 5pm, very glad to prise ourselves out of the car. (We are travelling in a little car, sitting in the back and the car has no suspension to talk about and little padding in the back seat, our travel time was closer to 61/2 hrs than the 41/2 we were advised, it was very nice to finally get out of the car.)  This town was cut-off from the rest of the world for about 100 years until 1950 or so. It has been UNESCO listed for its “Time Capsule” buildings, that are very well preserved.

Being Good Friday, the local, very large Catholic Church had a Big Religious procession through town with people carrying all sorts of effigies. There were thousands of people in the streets to watch and participate in it.

Dinner tonight was at another Paladar, the Vista Gourmet.   Apparently they are famous for their Lobster mains and Guava desserts. It was about a 10minute walk (about six blocks in a convoluted way)  from our Hotel, The Grand Hotel. We got there and there seemed to be a mix up in our reservation, but Victor, our guide, soon had it sorted and we were seated with a view to the hills. We both had the lobster for main, and it was delicious, but we are still not quite sure if we had their famous Guava dessert, we are not quite sure what was in those pastries.

After dinner, Victor took us to a dance club where he had reserved  a table for us. But when we got there the table had been taken. So we stood and watched the dancing and band for a while then went back to the hotel. The Latin dancing and music were both great.

A bit more trivia to finish your read 🙂

• There are trees in Cuba nicknamed “Tourist Trees” because they have red/brown bark that is peeling off, just like many sunburnt tourists!
• The highest point in Cuba has an elevation of 1792m (But we aren’t sure where that is)
• Cuba has the hardest seating in the world!! I kid you not!! Even chairs that look well upholstered prove to be like concrete when you drop your backside onto them. You have been warned J
• When you sneeze in Cuba, rather than getting “Bless you” they say “Salute”, the same as when you toast with a drink.
• The cars in Havana, and everywhere else in Cuba, drop a lot of oil, and I do mean a lot!!! It must be a panel beaters dream when they get some rain in the cities.

 

Day 19  Trinidad      4 April 2015  Cuba Day 6

We started our day with a slow, very slow train ride through the Sierra del Escambray to a small village called Meyern. We were a little late getting to the train so we had to sit at the bar for the ride.

We couldn’t believe how many Mojitos, other cocktails and beers were served on the train. It left at about 10am, first drinks served at 10:01, the barman was slow!! All the seats on the train were Cuban Comfortable, every seat was made of flat steel plate! No cushioning!

Anyways, the ride was unremarkable through very dry farm lands. This country is in desperate need of good rain, and some expertise in modern farming methods. Their farming methods seem to date back to the 1800’s and the farming machinery, where they have it, (there are many farms that still rely on donkey power for ploughing, etc) seems to be 1950/60’s Russian castoffs.

We arrived at Meyern at around 10:30. This is the site of an old Sugar Mansion and has one of the last remaining “Slave Towers” in the area, called the “Iznaga Tower”.   A “Slave Tower” is described as a tower used to monitor the location, movements and work ethic of the slaves’ owner by the “Sugar Baron”.  It was about 50m tall and the top was accessed by a very thin set of steep stairs (136 steps to the top).  It get a bit congested, it you have a lot of tourists wanting to go up and down them at the same time!!   And yes, watch out for low beams near the top!!

The paths leading to the tower were lined by locals selling their wares.  In this area that means embroidered linen along with the usual tourist trap items.  We also had a bit of a look through the old mansion, with very high ceilings and extra wide verandahs.  We spent some time out back near the old “slave powered” sugar press keeping cool, unlike the slaves that must have walked hundreds of miles around the thing in the heat and humidity, extracting the juice from the sugar cane for conversion to sugar.

We were back on the train at 12 noon, and after collecting the last few passengers we headed off at about 5 past.   Went rode for about 20 minutes when the train stopped and reversed back and off onto a side curved track.   It stopped again and went forward onto another curved track (This was a train version of a 3 point turn, very clever, the train was now facing forwards back to the way we came. It wasn’t long and it stopped and let us off at Casa Guachinanco. We sat outside and had lunch on a very wide veranda, with cats, dogs and chickens scurrying around and under our table and chairs. The lunch was very traditionally Cuban, we both had beef with black bean and rice.  As we were finishing lunch they brought out a pig on a spit to finish roasting over a fire pit in the backyard. It looked great.

After lunch we got back into our car, a welcome relief from the train!!   In the afternoon we walked around Trinidad a bit and visited 3 museums.

The “Historico Municpal (Palacio Cantero)” – which exhibits colonial furniture and artifacts from the slave trade era.

The “Museum Romantico (Palacio Brunet)” – The former “palace” of a Sugar Baron (who bought his title from the King of Spain) dating back to the 18^th century. The house is set up as it would have been when the “Baron” was living there in the good times.

It was then time for a break and a taste of Trinidad. We called into Taberna “Le Canchan chara” to have one of the lesser know cocktails from the 19^th century, a “Canchan chara”, made from water, lime juice, honey and sugar cane liquor (Rum).   Deb has been struggling with the number of cocktails we seem to be being given, so I had to have both!!  Tasty with a kick!!

And finally, we did a very quick walk through/by the “Casa Templo de Santeria Yemaya”, Trinidads Santeria Museum.  A brighter “dark” place than the one we visited in Havana.

That was it for the afternoon.   Rest/cooling off time, it was a very hot, humid afternoon.

For dinner tonight we went to Palandar Sol & Son  (Sol as in the Sun and Son as in Music). It was a courtyard setting and very elegant. We both started with a mango daiquiri and followed that with grilled lobster. Another great meal.

Tomorrow we head back to Havana via The Bay of Pigs, hopefully its an interesting day

 

 

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