Santiago de Cuba

 

We travelled back across La Farola stopping on the mountain pass  to take photos and purchase roasted coffee beans and chocolate from the locals.  We stopped again at a viewpoint with far ranging views across Guantanamo Province to the bay and Camp X-Ray in the far

distance, and a third time to purchase a ridiculously large quantity of bananas for an equally ridiculous tiny price.

 

We took lunch at a spot high on the cliffs overlooking the Caribbean Sea next to the Castillo del Moro fort guarding the entrance to Santiago harbour.

Casa Del Gobierno

 Santiago da Cuba is the second largest city in Cuba and the birthplace of the 1959 Cuban Revolution.  Our hotel, Casa Granda,

Santiago Cathedral

is in the centre of the city on the east side of a pedestrianised square, the Parque Cespedes.  The cathedral lies to the south; the oldest house in Cuba to the west, and the Casa Del Gobierno, from which Castro made his victory speech, to the north. It is a lively spot full of people and music at all times of day and night. Graham Greene is reputed to have written Our Man in Havana whilst staying at our hotel and entertaining the likes of Tennessee Williams.  Sitting in one of the rocking chairs on the hotel terrace whilst sipping daiquiri it is easy to imagine the scene.

 

There are many interesting museums in Santiago and fine colonial buildings including the former home of the Bacardi family, now a student centre.  At Revolution Square there is a striking monument to one of Cuba's foremost revolutionaries of the 19th century, General Antonio Maceo.  This is also the point where Castro made many of his stirring speeches.

 

Moncada Garrison - the bullet holes have been "reinstated"

 

The main point of interest for us was the former Moncada Garrison, now a school for 2,000 children between the ages of 5 to 16.  In 1953 the garrison was attacked, unsuccessfully, by Castro and his revolutionaries.  Most of the men were captured, tortured and murdered although Castro escaped to be recaptured some days

later.  There is a fine museum at the site which explains the history of the period. Castro was released after 2 years imprisonment and went into exile in Mexico where he met Che Guevara and began to plot the overthrow of the Batista government.

One of the restored colonial buildings on the Parque Cespedes, soon to be re-opened as a luxury hotel