Santiago de Cuba and Granma

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The southern part of Oriente – the island’s easternmost third – is defined by the Sierra Maestra, Cuba’s largest mountain range, which binds together the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Granma. Rising directly from the shores of the Caribbean along the southern coast, the mountains make much of the region largely inaccessible – a quality appreciated by Fidel Castro and his rebels, who spent two years waging war here. At the eastern end of the sierra is the roiling, romantic city of Santiago de Cuba, capital of the eponymous province and with a rich colonial heritage that’s evident throughout its historical core. Cuba’s most important urban area outside Havana, the city draws visitors mainly for its music. Developed by the legions of bands that have grown up here, the regional scene is always strong, but it boils over in July when the Fiesta del Caribe and carnival drench the town in rumba beats, fabulous costumes and song.

Spread along the coastline around the city are the magnificent coastal fortification of El Morro and the Gran Parque Natural Baconao; inland, there’s gentle trekking in the Parque Nacional de la Gran Piedra where one of the highest points in the province, Gran Piedra itself, offers far-reaching vistas. In the lush, cool mountains west of the city, the town of El Cobre features one of the country’s most important churches, housing the much-revered relic of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Still further west, bordering Granma province, the heights of the Sierra Maestra vanish into cloudforests, and although access to the Parque Nacional Turquino – around Pico Turquino, Cuba’s highest peak – can be restricted, you can still admire from afar.

  Unlike Santiago de Cuba, which revolves around its main city, the province of Granma has no definite focus and is much more low-key than its neighbour. The small black-sand beach resort at Marea del Portillo on the south coast is a favourite for Canadian visitors, but the highlight of the province, missed out on by many, is the Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma. Lying in wooded countryside at the foot of the Sierra Maestra, this idyllic park, home to an assortment of intriguing stone petroglyphs, can be easily explored from the beach of Las Coloradas. Further north, along the Gulf of Guacanayabo, the museum at Parque Nacional La Demajagua, formerly the sugar estate and home of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, celebrates the War of Independence amid tranquil, park-like grounds.

  Granma’s two main towns are underrated and often ignored, but the fantastic Moorish architecture in the coastal town of Manzanillo is reason enough to drop by, while Bayamo, the provincial capital, with its quiet atmosphere and pleasant scenery, appeals to discerning visitors looking for an easy-going spot to stay.

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CASA DE LA TROVA, SANTIAGO DE CUBA

Highlights

1 Museo Ambiente Histórico Cubano Stuffed full of colonial treasures from the sixteenth century onwards, Diego Velázquez’s former residence is an unmissable treat.

2 Santiago’s summer festivals The city’s musical joie de vivre is summed up in a cacophony of salsa, trova, conga and fabulous costumes at its double summertime fiesta bill.

3 El Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca An impressive seventeenth-century stone fortress, built on a cliff outside Santiago to ward off pirates.

4 Hotel Casa Granda Presiding over Santiago’s main park, the rooftop bar of this historic hotel is a perfect spot to soak up the city’s atmosphere.

5 Santiago’s Casa de la Trova An atmospheric music house thrumming with authentic Cuban sounds.

6 Comandancia de La Plata A trek through verdant peaks of the Sierra Maestra to the rebels’ mountain base brings the 1959 revolution to colourful life.

7 Playa Las Coloradas The site where the Granma yacht deposited Fidel, Che and the other revolutionaries at the inception of the struggle is both a historic and scenic pleasure.

< Back to Santiago de Cuba and Granma

Santiago de Cuba city

Beautiful, heady SANTIAGO DE CUBA is the crown jewel of Oriente. Nowhere outside Havana is there a city with such definite character or such determination to have a good time. Spanning out from the base of a deep-water bay and cradled by mountains, Santiago is credited with being the most Caribbean part of Cuba, a claim borne out by its laidback lifestyle and rich mix of inhabitants. It was here that the first slaves arrived from West Africa, and today Santiago boasts a larger percentage of black people than anywhere else in Cuba. Afro-Cuban culture, with its music, myths and rituals, has its roots here, with later additions brought by French coffee planters fleeing revolution in Haiti in the eighteenth century.

  The leisurely pace of life doesn’t make for a quiet city, however, with the higgledy-piggledy net of narrow streets around the colonial quarter ringing night and day with the beat of drums and the toot of horns. Music is a vital element of Santiaguero life, whether heard at the country’s most famous Casa de la Trova and the city’s various other venues, or at the impromptu gatherings that tend to reach a crescendo around carnival in July. As well as being the liveliest, the summer months are also the hottest – the mountains surrounding the city act as a windbreak and the lack of breeze means that Santiago is often several degrees hotter than Havana, and almost unbearably humid.

  Although Santiago’s music scene and carnival are good enough reasons to visit, there are a host of more concrete attractions. Diego Velázquez’s sixteenth-century merchant house and the elegant governor’s residence, both around Parque Céspedes in the colonial heart of town, and the commanding El Morro castle at the entrance to the bay, exemplify the city’s prominent role in Cuban history. Additionally, the part played by townsfolk in the revolutionary struggle, detailed in several fascinating museums, makes Santiago an important stop on the Revolution trail.

  One downside to a visit here is street hustle in the downtown area. Begging and being propositioned is an unbearable problem, especially in and around Parque Céspedes. The level and persistence of hassle is worse than in any other Cuban city – and women travelling on their own, in particular, need to grit their teeth.

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Brief history

Established by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in 1515, the port of Santiago de Cuba was one of the original seven villas founded in Cuba. Velázquez, pleased to find so excellent a natural port near to reported sources of gold (which were quickly exhausted), named the port Santiago (St James) after the patron saint of Spain. With the construction of the central trading house shortly afterwards, the settlement became Cuba’s capital.

  After this auspicious start – boosted by the discovery of a rich vein of copper in the foothills in nearby El Cobre – the city’s importance dwindled somewhat. Buffeted by severe earthquakes and pirate attacks, Santiago developed more slowly than its western rival and in 1553 was effectively ousted as capital when the governor of Cuba, Gonzalo Pérez de Angulo, moved his office to Havana.

Sugar, coffee and slaves

Santiago’s physical bounty led to a new boom in the eighteenth century, when Creoles from other areas of the country poured sugar wealth into the area by developing plantations. The cool mountain slopes around Santiago proved ideal for growing coffee, and French planters, accompanied by their slaves, emigrated here after the 1791 revolution in Haiti, bringing with them a cosmopolitan air and continental elegance, as well as a culturally complex slave culture.

  Relations with Havana had always been frosty, especially as culturally distinct Santiago had fewer Spanish-born Penínsulares, who made up the ruling elite. This rivalry boiled over during the Wars of Independence, which were led by the people of Oriente. Much of the fighting between 1868 and 1898 took place around Santiago, led in part by the city’s most celebrated son, Antonio Maceo.

The US takeover

The Cuban army had almost gained control of Santiago when, in 1898, the United States intervened. Eager to gain control of the imminent republic, it usurped victory from the Cubans by securing Santiago and subsequently forcing Spanish surrender after a dramatic battle on Loma de San Juan. The Cubans were not even signatories to the resultant Paris peace settlement between the US and Spain, and all residents of Santiago province were made subject to the protection and authority of the US. As an added insult, the rebel army that had fought for independence for thirty years was not even allowed to enter Santiago city.

The Revolution and Santiago today

Over the following decades, the American betrayal nourished local anger and resentment, and by the 1950s Santiago’s citizens were playing a prime role in the civil uprisings against the US-backed president Fulgencio Batista. Assured of general support, Fidel Castro chose Santiago for his debut battle in 1953, when he and a small band of rebels attacked the Moncada barracks. Further support for their rebel army was later given by the M-26–7 underground movement that was spearheaded in Santiago by Frank and Josue País. It was in Santiago’s courtrooms that Fidel Castro and the other rebels were subsequently tried and imprisoned.

  When the victorious Castro swept down from the mountains, it was in Santiago that he chose to deliver his maiden speech, in the first week of January 1959. The city, which now carries the title “Hero City of the Republic of Cuba”, is still seen – especially in Havana – as home to the most zealous revolutionaries, and support for the Revolution is certainly stronger here than in the west. The rift between east and west still manifests itself today in various prejudices, with Habaneros viewing their eastern neighbours as troublemaking criminals, and considered as solipsistic and unfriendly by Santiagueros in return.

SANTIAGO’S STREET NAMES

Many streets in Santiago have two names, one from before the Revolution and one from after. Theoretically, street signs show the post-revolutionary name, but as these signs are few and far between, and locals tend to use the original name in conversation, we follow suit in the text. Cuban maps, however, usually show both names, with the original in brackets; in our maps we’ve followed their example. The most important roads are listed here.

Old name	New name
Calvario	Porfirio Valiente
Carnicería	Pío Rosado
Clarín	Padre Quiroga
Enramada	José A. Saco
Máximo Gómez	San Germán
Reloj	Mayía Rodríguez
Sagarra	San Francisco
San Basilio	Bartolomé Masó
San Félix	Hartmann
San Gerónimo	Echevarría
San Pedro	General Lacret

Parque Céspedes

Originally the Plaza de Armas, the first square laid out by the conquistadors, Parque Céspedes is the spiritual centre of Santiago. Sadly, it suffered significant damage in October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy uprooted all its fig trees and nearly all its plants, and it’s now a shadeless spot where few brave the sun to sit on the wrought-iron benches. There’s still a gentle ebb and flow of activity, however, as sightseers wander through between museum visits, musicians strum their instruments around the edges and impromptu performances by a brass and percussion band draw in a crowd. Unfortunately, the engaging nineteenth-century tradition of the evening promenade, which saw gentlemen perambulating the park in one direction, ladies in the other, coquettishly flirting as they passed, has been replaced in recent years by a less attractive influx of Western men on the prowl for jineteras, and local men severely hassling Western women.

  The rooftop bar at the picturesque Casa Granda hotel, on the park’s east side, provides a fantastic setting to admire the sunset as well as the surrounding sights, while the hotel’s balcony bar, on the ground floor, is a great place to people-watch over a glass of fresh lemonade. Two doors down from the hotel is the old high-society Club San Carlos, housed in an exquisite nineteenth-century building, part of which holds an art gallery. On the south side, a small monument celebrates the park’s namesake, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, one of the first Cubans to take up arms against the Spanish, issuing the Grito de Yara (cry of Yara) and urging his slaves and his comrades to arm themselves. Facing the cathedral on the park’s north side is the brilliant-white Ayuntamiento, or town hall, whose balcony was the site of Fidel Castro’s triumphant speech in January, 1959.

Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

Parque Céspedes • Tues–Fri 8am–noon & 5–8pm, Sat 8am–noon & 4–5.30pm; Mass Tues–Fri 6.30pm, Sat 4.30pm, Sun 9am & 6.30pm

On the south side of Parque Céspedes is the handsome Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. The first cathedral in Santiago was built on this site in 1522, but repeated run-ins with earthquakes and pirates – in 1606 English privateer Christopher Myngs even stole the church bells after blowing the roof off – made their mark, and Santiagueros started work on a second cathedral on the site in 1674, only to see the building demolished by an earthquake just three years later. A third cathedral was erected in 1690 but was wiped out by another earthquake in 1766.

  The present cathedral, completed in 1818, has fared better, having been built with a fortified roof and walls in order to withstand natural disasters. However, it has been shaken by quakes in 1852 and 1932, and lost much of its roof after Hurricane Sandy tunnelled into the city in October 2012, also toppling the two crosses that once capped its twin towers. The cathedral features a Baroque-style facade, its twin towers gleaming in the sunshine and its doorway topped by an imposing herald angel, statues of Christopher Columbus and Bartolomé de las Casas, defender of the Indians, erected in the 1920s, and four Neoclassical columns.

The interior

The interior is no less ornate, with an arched Rococo ceiling rising above the pews into a celestial blue dome painted with a cloud of cherubs. Facing the congregation is a modest marble altar framed by rich dark-wood choir stalls, while to the right a more ornate altar honours the Virgen de la Caridad, patron saint of Cuba. The prize piece, almost hidden on the left-hand side, is the tremendous organ, no longer used but still replete with tall gilded pipes. Lining the wall is a noteworthy frieze detailing the history of St James, the eponymous patron saint of Santiago.

Museo Ambiente Histórico Cubano

Parque Martí e/ Aguilera y Heredia • Mon–Thurs & Sat–Sun 9am–4.45pm, Fri 1–4.45pm • $2CUC, photos $5CUC

Built in 1515 for Diego Velázquez, the first conquistador of Cuba, the magnificent stone edifice on the west side of the park is the oldest residential building in Cuba. It now houses the Museo Ambiente Histórico Cubano, a wonderful collection of furniture, curios, weapons and fripperies which offers one of the country’s best insights into colonial lifestyles, and is so large that it spills over into the house next door. There are also traditional music peñas and choral performances here on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday mornings.

The first floor

Start your tour on the first floor, in the family’s living quarters, where you’ll find some unusual sixteenth-century pieces exhibited beneath stunning Mudéjar ceilings. All the windows have heavy wooden lattice balconies and shutters – intended to hide the women, keep the sun out and protect against attack – which lend the house a surprising coolness, as well as the look of an indomitable fortress. The house was strategically built facing west so that the first-floor windows looked out over the bay, and a cannon is still trained out of the bedroom window. The next two adjoining rooms represent the mid- and late seventeenth century; the burn damage outside the rooms was caused by a fire in 1990. The first room holds a chunky, carved mahogany chest, and a delicate Spanish ceramic inkwell that has survived intact through three centuries.

  The final rooms on this floor take you into the eighteenth century, and the furnishings seem incongruously grand, set against the plain white walls and cool tiled floors of the house. Also in this room, cut into the inner wall, there’s the Poyo de la Ventana, a latticed spy window overlooking the hallway, which allowed inhabitants to check on the movements of other people in the house.

  Out in the cool upstairs hallway you can fully appreciate the cleverness of its design in its stark contrast with the dazzling, sunny central courtyard visible below, where there’s an elegant central fountain and a huge tinajón water jar from Camagüey. Before you venture downstairs, walk to the end of the hallway to see the remains of the stone furnace that Velázquez built into the corner of the house so that he could smelt his own gold.

The ground floor

The rooms on the ground floor, where Velázquez had his offices, are now laid out with more extravagant eighteenth-century furniture and artefacts, though more impressive, perhaps, are the details of the house itself, such as the wide entrance made to accommodate a carriage and the expansive trading rooms with a stone central arch, marble flagged floor and window seats.

The annexe

The collection overflows into the house next door, which dates from the nineteenth century. Again, much of what’s on display is imported from Europe and shows off the good life enjoyed by Santiago’s bourgeoisie, but the most interesting items are native to Cuba, like the reclining pajilla smoking chair with an ornate ashtray attached to the arm, made for the proper enjoyment of a fine cigar.

HURRICANE SANDY

In October 2012, the category three Hurricane Sandy hit Santiago de Cuba province hard, tearing through the coastal Gran Parque Natural de Baconao before wreaking havoc on Santiago city. Some 200,000 homes were damaged and 15,000 people lost their homes entirely; many buildings lost roofs, and the city was also almost entirely denuded of its trees and greenery. Even more tragically, eleven people lost their lives – an unusual occurrence in Cuba, as the government’s hurricane evacuation strategy is heralded the world over for its effectiveness, and fatalities are a rare event.

  Immediately after the storm, the army was sent in to start on the clear up of the city. Six months on, though many families in the outskirts were still living in makeshift accommodation, the historic heart of Santiago was more or less back to normal, though many of the colonial-era buildings showed roof, tile and wall damage, and the lack of greenery remained noticeable.

Balcón de Velázquez

Corona esq. San Basilio • Daily 9am–9pm • Free; photos $1CUC, video $5CUC

West of Parque Céspedes, the Balcón de Velázquez fortification was built between 1539 and 1550 as a lookout point for incoming ships, and was originally equipped with a semicircle of cannons facing out over the bay. It was renovated in 1953, sadly without its most intriguing feature, a tunnel entered from beneath the circular platform in the centre of the patio and running for less than 1km down to the seafront. This was presumably used by the early townsfolk for making a swift exit when under siege. The modern covered entrance is lined with a history of Santiago (in Spanish) and honorary plaques to influential dignitaries, but the highlight here is the view over the ramshackle, red-tiled rooftops down towards the bay and the ring of mountains beyond.

El Tivolí

Occupying the hills about four blocks south of the Balcón de Velázquez is the El Tivolí neighbourhood, named by the French plantation owners who settled here at the end of the eighteenth century. With no real boundaries – it lies loosely between Avenida Trocha to the south and Calle Padre Pico in the north – there’s not much to distinguish it from the rest of the old quarter, save for its intensely hilly narrow streets heading down towards the bay. The immigrant French made this the most fashionable area of town, and for a while its bars and music venues were the place for well-to-do Santiagueros to be seen. While the Casa de las Tradiciones is still a great, intimate venue, the area has definitely lost its former glory, though it is worth visiting the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina and climbing the Padre Pico Escalinata, a towering staircase of over fifty steps, built to accommodate the almost sheer hill that rises from the lower end of Calle Padre Pico.

Museo de la Lucha Clandestina

General Rabi 1 e/ Sta Rita y San Carlos • Tues–Sun 9am–5pm • $1CUC, photos $5CUC • English, Italian and Spanish guides available

Just west of Padre Pico, perched on the Loma del Intendente, the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina is a tribute to the pre-revolutionary struggle. Spread over two floors, it comprises a photographic and journalistic history of the final years of the Batista regime and is a must for anyone struggling to understand the intricacies of the events leading up to the Revolution.

  The immaculate building is a reproduction of an eighteenth-century house built on the site as the residence of the quartermaster general under Spanish rule. In the 1950s it served as the Santiago police headquarters until burnt to the ground during an assault orchestrated by schoolteacher-cum-underground leader Frank País on November 30, 1956. The three-pronged attack also took in the customs house and the harbour headquarters, in an attempt to divert the authorities’ attention from the arrival of Fidel Castro and other dissidents at Las Coloradas beach on the southwestern coast. The attack is well documented here, with part of the museum focusing on the lives of Frank País and his brother and co-collaborator Josue, both subsequently murdered by Batista’s henchmen in 1957.

  The best exhibits are those that give an idea of the turbulent climate of fear, unrest and excitement that existed in the 1950s in the lead-up to the Revolution. Most memorable is a clutch of Molotov cocktails made from old-fashioned Pepsi Cola bottles, a hysterical newspaper cutting announcing Fidel Castro’s death and another published by the rebels themselves refuting the claim.

Calle Heredia

A couple of blocks east of Parque Céspedes is the lively patch of Calle Heredia, where the catcalls of street vendors hawking hand-carved necklaces, wood sculptures and gimcrack souvenirs combine with the drums emanating from the Casa de la Trova music hall to create one of the liveliest areas in the city. Santiagueros often comment that you haven’t really been to the city until you’ve been to Calle Heredia, and you could spend hours checking out the sights here – namely the mildly interesting Casa Natal de José María Heredia and the excellent Museo del Carnaval – and just drinking in the atmosphere and enjoying idiosyncrasies like the Librería La Escalera secondhand bookshop.

Casa Natal de José María Heredia

Heredia no.260 • Tues–Sat 8am–8pm, Sun 8am–noon • $1CUC, photos $1CUC, guide $1CUC

The handsome colonial Casa Natal de José María Heredia is the birthplace of one of the greatest Latin American poets. His poetry combined romanticism and nationalism, and was forbidden in Cuba until the end of Spanish rule. While not the most dynamic museum in the world, it’s worth a quick breeze through the spartan rooms to see the luxurious French bateau bed, the family photos and the various first editions. A good time to visit is on Tuesdays at 7pm, when local poets meet for (free) discussions and recitals on the sunny patio at the back of the house.

Museo del Carnaval

Heredia no.301 • Tues–Fri 9am–5.15pm, Sat 9am–10pm, Sun 9am–1pm • $1CUC, photos $5CUC • Dance recitals Mon–Sat 4–5pm and Sat 7–10pm

A must if you can’t make it for the real thing in July, the Museo del Carnaval is a small but bright and colourful collection of psychedelic costumes, atmospheric photographs and carnival memorabilia. Beginning with scene-setting photographs of Santiago in the early twentieth century, showing roads laced with tram tracks and well-dressed people promenading through the parks, the exhibition moves on to newspaper cuttings and costumes belonging to the pre-revolutionary carnivals of the 1940s and 1950s. In a separate room are photographs of some of the musicians who have played at carnival accompanied by their instruments, displayed in glass cases. A final room shows off costumes made for post-Revolution carnivals, along with some of the immensely intricate prototypes of floats that are constructed in miniature months before the final models are made.

  The flamboyant carnival atmosphere is brought to life with a free, open-air, hour-long dance recital called the Tardes de Folklórico (folklore afternoon), showcasing the dances and music of various orishas (deities).

SANTIAGO’S CARNIVAL

The extravaganza that is Santiago’s carnival has its origins in the festival of Santiago (St James), which is held annually on July 25. While the Spanish colonists venerated the saint, patron of Spain and Santiago city, their African slaves celebrated their own religions, predominantly Yoruba. A religious procession would wend its way around the town towards the cathedral, with the Spanish taking the lead and slaves bringing up the rear. Once the Spanish had entered the cathedral, the slaves took their own celebration onto the streets, with dancers, singers and musicians creating a ritual that had little to do with the solemn religion of the Spanish – the frenzied gaiety of the festival even earned it the rather derisive name Los Mamarrachos (The Mad Ones).

  Music was a key element, and slaves of similar ethnic groups would form comparsas (carnival bands) to make music with home-made bells, drums and chants. Often accompanying the comparsas on the procession were diablitos (little devils), male dancers masked from head to toe in raffia costumes. This tradition is still upheld today and you can see the rather unnerving, jester-like figures running through the crowds and scaring children. Carnival’s popularity grew, and in the seventeenth century the festival was gradually extended to cover July 24, the festival of Santa Cristina, and July 26, Santa Ana’s day.

  The festival underwent its biggest change in 1902 with the birth of the new republic, when politics and advertising began to muscle in on the action. It was during this era that the festival’s name was changed to the more conventional carnaval, as the middle classes sought to distance the celebrations from their Afro-Cuban roots. With the introduction of the annually selected Reina de Carnaval (Carnival Queen) – usually a white, middle-class girl – and carnival floats sponsored by big-name companies like Hatuey beer and Bacardí, the celebration was transformed from marginal black community event to populist extravaganza. With sponsorship deals abundant, the carrozas (floats) flourished, using extravagant and grandiose designs.

  Perhaps the most distinctive element of modern-day carnival in Santiago is the conga parade that takes place in each neighbourhood on the first day of the celebrations. Led by the comparsas, almost everyone in the neighbourhood, many still dressed in hair curlers and house slippers, leaves their houses as the performers lead them around the streets in a vigorous parade. The week before carnival starts, you can see the Conga de los Hoyos practising around town and visiting the seven other city conga groups every day from 3pm to 8pm.

CARNAVAL PRACTICALITIES

Carnaval takes place every year from around July 18 to July 27. The main parade is on the first day, and is followed by smaller parades on the second, third and fourth days. On the 25th, there’s a general parade from 10pm in honour of the city’s patron saint; the 26th sees a grand parade, and there’s prize-giving on the 27th. The parades process down Ave. Garzón, where there are seats for viewing ($2CUP after 10pm); to buy a ticket, visit the temporary wooden booths near the seating stands earlier in the evening. Don’t be corralled into the foreigners’, section, where you’ll be charged $5CUC.

FROM TOP GIRL WITH CARNIVAL CROWN, SANTIAGO; CONGA PARADE DRUMMERS, SANTIAGO

Museo Emilio Bacardí Moreau

Aguilera esq. Pío Rosado • Mon 1–4.30pm, Tues–Sat 9am–4.30pm, Sun 9am–1pm • $2CUC including guide, photos $5CUC

Of all the museums in Santiago, by far the most essential is the stately Museo Emilio Bacardí Moreau. Its colonial antiquities, excellent collection of Cuban fine art and archeological curios make it one of the most comprehensive hoards in the country. Styled along the lines of a traditional European city museum, it was founded in 1899 by Emilio Bacardí Moreau, then mayor of Santiago and patriarch of the Bacardí rum dynasty, to house his vast private collection of artefacts amassed over the previous decades.

THE BACARDÍ DYNASTY

Don Facundo Bacardí Massó emigrated to Santiago de Cuba from Spanish Catalonia in 1829, and eventually established one of the largest spirits companies in the world. At the time, rum was a rasping drink favoured by pirates and slaves – hardly the type of tipple served to the Cuban aristocracy. However, Bacardí was swift to see the drink’s potential and set to work refining it. He discovered that filtering the rum through charcoal removed impurities, while ageing it in oak barrels provided a depth that made it eminently more drinkable.

  Buoyed by his successful discovery, Facundo and his brother Jos opened their first distillery on February 4, 1862. Company legend relates that when Don Facundo’s wife Dona Amalia glimpsed the colony of fruit bats living in the building’s rafters, she suggested they adopt the insignia of a bat, symbolizing good luck in Taíno folklore, as the company logo. This proved a shrewd marketing tool as many more illiterate Cubans could recognize the trademark bat than could read the name “Bacardí”.

  The company went from strength to strength, quickly becoming the major producer of quality rum, while the family’s involvement in Cuban politics grew in tandem with their business interests, and they became instrumental in the push for independence and subsequent alliance with the US. Emilio Bacardí, Don Facundo’s eldest son, was exiled from Cuba for anti-colonial activities but later returned as a Mambises liberation fighter in the rebel army during the Second War of Independence. The Bacardís’ loyalty to the cause was rewarded in 1899 when American General Leonard Wood appointed Emilio Bacardí mayor of Santiago de Cuba. While Facundito – Facundo senior’s younger son – ran the company and supervised research into further refining the rum, Emilio Bacardí concentrated on public life. The Emilio Bacardí Moreau Municipal Museum opened the year he became mayor. The old Santiago HQ, with the bat motifs imprinted in the columns, still stands two blocks west of Parque Céspedes at Aguilera 55–59. Testimony to the family bounty stands in the fabulous 1930 Art Deco Edifico Bacardí on Havana’s San Juan de Dios, which combined a company headquarters with an elegant bar. During World War II, the company was led by Schueg’s son-in-law José Pepin Bosch, who also founded Bacardí Imports in New York City. Also a political mover and shaker, he was appointed Cuba’s Minister of the Treasury in 1949 during Carlos Prío’s government.

  The Revolution, with its core aim of redistributing the country’s wealth to the benefit of the underprivileged peasant classes, completely altered the course of the Bacardí family’s history. Enraged by the 1960 nationalization of its main distillery in Santiago, and later, of all its Cuban assets, the company shipped out of Cuba, relocating their headquarters to the Bahamas where sugar cane – and cheap labour – were in plentiful supply. Though no longer based in Cuba, the Bacardí family did not relinquish its desire to shape the country’s destiny. Author Hernando Calvo Ospina, in his 2002 book Bacardí, The Hidden War, claims that Bacardí financed 1960s counter-revolutionary groups (including the attack on the Bay of Pigs), and helped found the ultra-right-wing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). The Bacardís have denied most of these allegations but have made no secret of the fact that there is no love lost between them and the Cuban government.

The ground floor

The exhibits are arranged over three floors. The ground floor is devoted to the Sala de Conquista y Colonización, full of elaborate weaponry like sixteenth-century helmets, cannons and spurs, although copper cooking pots and the like add a suggestion of social history. Much more sinister here are the whips, heavy iron chains and the Palo Mata Negro (or Kill-the-Black stick), all used to whip and beat slaves. A separate room at the back houses the Sala de Arqueología, where a substantial selection of Egyptian artefacts includes some fine jade and bluestone eagle-head idols, as well an Egyptian mummy, thought to be a young woman from the Thebes dynasty and brought over from Luxor by Bacardí himself; her well-preserved casket is on display nearby, covered in hieroglyphs and pictures.

The first floor

Centred on the history of the fight for independence, the first floor’s exhibits include the printing press where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes’s independence manifesto newspaper El Cubano Libre was produced. Representing the actual fighting is an assortment of the Mambises’ ingenious bullet belts, cups, sandals and trousers, all handmade from natural products while on the warpath.

The second floor

The museum really comes into its own on the second floor, with an excellent display of paintings and sculpture, including some fascinating nineteenth-century portraits of colonial Cubans. A surprise is the delicately executed series of watercolours – including a rather camp cavalryman and an enigmatic picador – by the multitalented Emilio Bacardí himself.

  The second floor also features a strong collection of contemporary painting and sculpture, with several of the country’s most prominent artists represented. Highlights include the iridescent Paisaje by Víctor Manuel García, who died in the late 1960s, and the simple but powerful Maternidad, by Pedro Arrate, a perfect composition with a young mother kneeling on a bare wooden floor nursing her newborn child.

Museo del Ron

San Basilio no.358 esq. Carnicería • Mon–Sat 9am–5pm • $2CUC, includes Spanish-, English- or German-speaking guide

One block south of Calle Heredia, the restored Museo del Ron explores the history and production of Cuba’s most popular liquor. The collection includes a number of antique machines used in the various stages of rum production, from the extraction of molasses from sugar cane to the ageing and bottling of the rum. Occupying the fine nineteenth-century home of Mariano Gómez, who was in charge of managing the Bacardí family’s enormous wealth, the museum is replete with Carrara marble floors, glittering chandeliers and red-and-green vitrales. There is an on-site bar, but you get a free shot with admission.

Plaza Marte

Ten minutes’ walk beyond the east end of Enramada is the lively Plaza Marte, where gaggles of game-playing schoolchildren, loudspeakers transmitting radio broadcasts, occasional live bands and plenty of benches make for an enjoyable place to spend some time – though it’s pretty shadeless since Hurricane Sandy wiped out all but two of its palms. The tall column, a monument to local veterans of the Wars of Independence, has a particular significance – the plaza was formerly the execution ground for prisoners held by the Spanish. The Smurf-like cap at its summit is the gorro frigio, given to slaves in ancient Rome when they were granted their freedom, and a traditional symbol of Cuban independence.

Cuartel Moncada

Calle Trinidad esq. Moncada

Several blocks north from Plaza Marte and just off the Avenida de los Libertadores is the Cuartel Moncada. Scene of a bungled attack by Fidel Castro and his band of revolutionaries on July 26, 1953, the fort is a must-see, if only for the place it has in Cuban history. With a commanding view over the mountains, the ochre-and-white building, topped with a row of castellations, is still peppered with bullet holes from the attack. These were plastered over on Fulgencio Batista’s orders, only to be hollowed out again rather obsessively by Fidel Castro when he came to power, with photographs used to make sure the positions were as authentic as possible.

  Castro closed the barracks altogether in 1960, turning part of the building into a school, while the one-time parade grounds outside are now occasionally used for state speeches and music concerts.

THE ATTACK ON CUARTEL MONCADA

Summing up his goals with the words “a small engine is needed to help start the big engine”, Fidel Castro decided in 1953 to lead an attack to capture the weapons his guerrilla organization needed and hopefully also spark a national uprising against the Batista regime. Santiago’s Cuartel Moncada seemed perfect: not only was it the second largest in the country, but it was also based in Oriente, where support for the clandestine movement against the government was already strongest.

  A three-pronged assault was planned, with the main body of men, led by Fidel Castro, attacking the barracks themselves, while Raúl Castro would attack the nearby Palace of Justice, overlooking the barracks, with ten men to form a covering crossfire. At the same time, Abel Santamaría, Castro’s second-in-command, was to take the civil hospital opposite the Palace of Justice with 22 men; the two women, his sister Haydee Santamaría and his girlfriend Melba Hernández, were to treat the wounded.

  The attack was an unqualified fiasco. At 5.30am on July 26, the rebels’ motorcade of 26 cars set off for Santiago from the farm they had rented in Siboney. Somewhere between the farm and the city limits, several cars headed off in the wrong direction and never made it to the Cuartel Moncada. The remaining cars reached the barracks, calling on the sentries to make way for the general, a ruse which allowed the attackers to seize the sentries’ weapons and force their way into the barracks.

  Outside, things were going less well. Castro, who was in the second car, stopped after an unexpected encounter with patrolling soldiers and the subsequent gunfire alerted the troops throughout the barracks. Following their previous orders, once they saw that Castro’s car had stopped, the men in the other cars streamed out to attack other buildings in the barracks before Castro had a chance to re-evaluate the situation. The rebels inside the first building found themselves cut off amid the general confusion, and as free-for-all gunfire ensued, the attackers were reduced to fleeing and cowering behind cars. Castro gave the order to withdraw, leaving behind two dead and one wounded.

  By contrast, the unprotected Palace of Justice and hospital had been attacked successfully, but both groups were forced to withdraw or hide once their role was rendered useless.

THE AFTERMATH

The real bloodshed was yet to come, however, as within 48 hours of the attack somewhere between 55 and 70 of the original rebels had been captured, tortured and executed by Batista’s officers after an extensive operation in which thousands were detained. The casualties included Abel Santamaría, whose eyes were gouged out, while his sister, Haydee, was forced to watch. The soldiers then attempted to pass the bodies off as casualties of the attack two days before. Thirty-two rebels survived to be brought to trial, including Fidel Castro himself. Others managed to escape altogether and returned to Havana. Although a disaster in military terms, the attack was a political triumph: the army’s brutality towards the rebels sent many previously indifferent people into the arms of the clandestine movement and elevated Fidel Castro – previously seen as just a maverick young lawyer – to hero status throughout Cuba.

  The rebels were tried in October, and despite efforts to prevent Castro appearing in court – an attempt was apparently made to poison him – he gave an erudite and impassioned speech in his own defence. A reprise of the speech was later published as a manifesto for revolution, known as “History will absolve me” (the last words of the speech). Although the declamation did little to help Castro at the time – he was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment – the whole episode set him on the path to leadership of the Revolution.

Museo 26 de Julio

Mon 9am–12.30pm, Tues–Sat 9am–4.30pm, Sun 9am–12.30pm • $2CUC, photos $5CUC

Inside Cuartel Moncada, the Museo 26 de Julio boasts flashes of brilliance when it comes to telling the story of the attack, but is otherwise rather dry. Bypassing the pedantic history of the garrison, the museum gets properly under way with its coverage of the 1953 attack. A meticulous scale model details the barracks, the now-demolished hospital and the Palacio de Justicia, and gives the events a welcome clarity – the model is even marked with the positions where rebel bullets landed. The museum pulls no punches on the subject of the atrocities visited upon the captured rebels by the Regimental Intelligence Service, Batista’s henchmen: a huge collage, blotted with crimson paint, has been created from photographs of the dead rebels lying in their own gore. Gruesome bloodstained uniforms and some sobering sketches of the type of weapons used are also on display.

  Thankfully, the last room has a less oppressive theme, with photographs of the surviving rebels leaving the Isla de Pinos (now Isla de la Juventud), where they had been imprisoned following the attack, and in exile in Mexico. There’s also a scale model of the celebrated yacht Granma that carried them back to Cuba. Have a look at the guns used in the war, in particular the one in the final display cabinet, carved with the national flag and the inscription “Vale más morir de pies a vivir de rodillas” (“It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”).

Parque Histórico Abel Santamaría

A couple of blocks west of the Cuartel Moncada, on the site of the Civil Hospital which Santamaría captured during the Moncada attack, Parque Histórico Abel Santamaría is less of a park and more like a small field of concrete centred on a monument to Abel Santamaría. Set above a onetime gushing fountain, a gigantic cube of concrete is carved with the faces of Santamaría and fellow martyr José Martí and the epigram “Morir por la patria es vivir” (“To die for your country is to live”). The giant grey monument is rather impressive and worth a look while you’re in the area.

Monumento Antonio Maceo

Plaza de la Revolución • Museum Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–1pm • $1CUC

Two kilometres north of the centre, on Avenida de los Américas, by the busy junction with Avenida de los Libertadores, is the Plaza de la Revolución, an empty space backed by a park in which stands the gargantuan Monumento Antonio Maceo. The 16m steel effigy, on a wide plateau at the top of a jade marble staircase, shows Maceo, the “Bronze Titan” – so named because he was of mixed race – on his rearing horse, backed by a forest of gigantic steel machetes representing his rebellion and courage. On the other side of the marble plateau, wide steps lead down behind an eternal flame dedicated to the general, to the entirely missable Museo Antonio Maceo, housed in the plateau basement.

Cementerio Santa Ifigenia

Calzada Crombet • Daily 7am–6pm • $1CUC • A private taxi from the centre will cost $3–5CUC

Most visitors who trek out to the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia, about 3km northwest of Parque Céspedes, do so to visit José Martí’s mausoleum, a grandiose affair of heavy white stone with the inevitable statue located near the cemetery entrance at the end of a private walkway where, every half an hour, there’s a five-minute changing of the guard ceremony.

  A relatively recent arrival at the cemetery is Compay Segundo, a native Santiaguero, legendary singer and guitarist, member of the Buena Vista Social Club and composer of the ubiquitous Chan Chan. Segundo, who died in 2003 at the age of 95, was buried with full military honours in recognition of his achievements during the Revolution, long before he became famous as a musician.

  The burial site of Frank and Josue País is flanked by the flags of Cuba and the M-26–7 movement. A former schoolteacher and much-loved revolutionary, Frank País led the movement in the Oriente until his assassination, on Batista’s orders, at the age of 22. Among other luminaries buried here are Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Antonio Maceo’s widow. Guides are available to show you around in return for a small tip.

Reparto Vista Alegre

East of town is the residential suburb of Reparto Vista Alegre, established at the beginning of the twentieth century as an exclusive neighbourhood for Santiago’s middle classes. Today, its lingering air of wealth is confined to a few restaurants dotted around wide and regal Avenida Manduley, which are most people’s reason for visiting, although a clutch of interesting museums also makes a trip up here worthwhile. Some of the handsome Neoclassical buildings lining the main road – best seen in springtime under a cloud of pink blossoms – are still private residences, while others are government offices and new government hostels. Although most of the buildings are a bit worn around the edges, they make for pleasant sightseeing, especially the madly ornate peach-coloured palace – one-time Bacardí family residence – that’s now the headquarters of the children’s youth movement Pionero.

Museo de la Imagen

Calle 8 no.106 • Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 2–10pm • $1CUC, photos $5CUC

The small and quirky Museo de la Imagen presents a brief history of photography told through antique Leicas, Polaroids and Kodaks, and some brilliant (and odd) one-off photographs, such as the one showing Fidel Castro, in Native American feathered headdress, accepting a peace pipe from the leader of the White Bird tribe.

Casa de las Religiones Populares

Calle 13 no.206 esq. 10 • Mon–Sat 9am–6pm • $2CUC including guide

Anyone interested in Cuba’s idiosyncratic home-grown religions should head four blocks east of the Museo de la Imagen to the fascinating Casa de las Religiones Populares. The collection spans the different belief systems, including Santería and voodoo, which developed in different parts of the country, each local variation shaped by the traditions of the homelands of the African slaves and all influenced by the Catholicism of the Spanish settlers. It’s striking to see how Christian iconography has been fused with some of the African culture-based paraphernalia, with the animal bones, dried leaves and rag dolls presented alongside church candles, crucifixes and images of the Virgin and Child.

Loma de San Juan

The Loma de San Juan, the hill where Teddy Roosevelt rode his army to victory against the Spanish, is about 250m south from Avenida Manduley, which runs through the centre of Reparto Vista Alegre. The neatly mowed lawns framing a bijou fountain, the dainty flowerbeds and the sweeping vista of mountain peaks beyond the city make it all look more suited to a tea party than a battle, but the numerous plaques and monuments erected by the North Americans to honour their soldiers are evidence enough. The sole monument to the Cuban sacrifice is squeezed into a corner; erected in 1934 by Emilio Bacardí to the unknown Mambí soldier, it’s a tribute to all liberation soldiers whose deaths went unrecorded. The park would be a peaceful retreat were it not for the persistent attentions of the attendant crowd of hustlers.

El Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca

Carretera del Morro Km 7.5 • Daily 8am–7pm • $4CUC, photos $5CUC • Taxis from Santiago cost $10–12CUC; a less reliable but much cheaper option are buses #11 and #12, which leave from Plaza de la Revolución

Just 8km south of the city is one of Santiago’s most dramatic and popular sights, El Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca, a fortress poised on the high cliffs that flank the entrance to the Bahía de Santiago de Cuba. Designed by the Italian military engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli (also responsible for the similar fortification in Havana) and named after Santiago’s then-governor, it was built between 1633 and 1639 to ward off pirates. However, despite an indomitable appearance – including a heavy drawbridge spanning a deep moat, thick stone walls angled sharply to one another and, inside, expansive parade grounds stippled with cannons trained out to sea – it turned out to be nothing of the sort. In 1662 the English pirate Christopher Myngs captured El Morro after discovering, to his surprise, that it had been left unguarded. Ramps and steps cut precise angles through the heart of the fortress, which is spread over three levels, and it’s only as you wander deeper into the labyrinth of rooms that you get a sense of how huge it is. Now home to the Museo de la Piratería, El Morro is also notable for its daily cannon firing ceremony, which takes place at dusk, but the real splendour here is the structure’s magnificent scale, the sheer cliff-edge drop and its superb views out to sea.

Museo de Piratería

Daily 8am–7pm • Entry is included in the El Morro ticket

Inside El Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca, the Museo de Piratería details the pirate raids on Santiago during the sixteenth century by the infamous Frenchman Jacques de Sores and Englishman Henry Morgan. Detailed explanations in Spanish are complemented by weapons used in the era, now rusted by the passing years.

Cayo Granma

Carretera al Castillo del Morro • Ferries to the island depart at half past each hour from 5am to 1am; the fare is $1CUC and journey time is about 15min

A half-day trip out to El Morro can easily take in the diminutive Cayo Granma, 2km offshore, where a peaceful rural village offers an excellent spot for a meal. You can work up an appetite by walking round the tiny island, which is home to 2000 people and takes just twenty minutes to circumnavigate. The village boasts some attractive wooden buildings trimmed with ornamental fretwork, the tiny hilltop church of San Rafael and a couple of restaurants.

  There’s no sign for the actual ferry point, but it’s roughly opposite the cay and there are usually a few people queuing; take the road to El Morro and look for the steps down to the ferry jetty.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: SANTIAGO DE CUBA

BY PLANE

Essentials International and domestic flights arrive at the Aeropuerto Internacional Antonio Maceo ( 22 69 1052), near the southern coast, 8km from the city. There are regular flights to Havana (2hr 15min). Metered and unmetered taxis wait outside and charge $7–15CUC to take you to the centre, though there’s sometimes a bus that meets flights from Havana, charging around $5CUP for the same journey. You can arrange car rental at the Transtur desk at the airport ( 22 68 6161) or Rex ( 22 68 6444), or at travel agencies in town.

Airlines Cubana, Enramada esq. San Pedro (Mon–Fri 8.15am–1pm;  22 65 1577); Aerocaribbean, San Pedro 601A e/ Heredia y San Basilio (Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 1–4.30pm, Sat 9am–noon;  22 68 7255,  aerocaribbeanscu@enet.cu).

BY BUS

Víazul buses Taxi drivers and touts descend on tourists arriving at the Víazul bus terminal ( 22 62 8484) on Avenida de los Libertadores, 2km north of the town centre, like locusts on ears of corn; the journey to the centre is around $3CUC. You can book Víazul tickets to Holguín, Havana and Baracoa (subject to limited availability), and domestic plane tickets, at the Infotur office, as well as at the Hotel Santiago de Cuba.

Destinations Baracoa (1 daily; 4hr 20min); Bayamo (5 daily; 2hr 5min); Camagüey (7 daily; 5hr 15min); Ciego de Ávila (6 daily; 7hr 15min); Guantánamo (1 daily; 1hr 25min); Havana (5 daily; 15hr 30min); Holguín (5 daily; 3hr 25min); Las Tunas (5 daily; 4hr 40min); Sancti Spíritus (5 daily; 8hr 40min); Santa Clara (3 daily; 12hr).

Local buses Provincial buses pull in at the Intermunicipal bus terminal ( 22 62 4325), next door to the Astro terminal on Avenida de los Libertadores.

Tourist buses The Conectando Cuba tourist bus to Havana ($51CUC), stopping at a number of provincial cities, leaves from Hotel Santiago at 7am daily.

BY TRAIN

Essentials Trains arrive at the modern station ( 22 62 2836) near the port, on Paseo de Martí esq. Jesús Menéndez. From here, horse-drawn buggies and bicitaxis can take you to the centre for $2–3CUC, while a taxi will cost about $3CUC.

Destinations Bayamo (1 daily; 4hr 15min); Havana (1 daily; 12–14hr); Manzanillo (1 daily; 6hr).

GETTING AROUND

On foot Although a large city, Santiago is easy to negotiate on foot, as much of what you’ll want to see is compactly fitted into the historic core around Parque Céspedes.

By taxi Taxis are the best way to reach outlying sights as the buses are overcrowded and irregular. State-registered metered taxis and coco taxis wait on the cathedral side of Parque Céspedes or around Plaza Marte, and charge $0.50CUC per km with a $1CUC surcharge. The unmetered taxis parked on San Pedro negotiate a rate for the whole journey – expect to pay about $3CUC to cross town. Touts skulk around the main streets but you’ll strike a slightly cheaper deal if you negotiate with the drivers themselves. To call a state-registered taxi try Cubataxi ( 22 65 1038). For a private taxi, try the professional and reliable Tomas Rodríguez ( 22 64 1765,  5 293 6655 (mobile).

By car or moped Renting a car can be handy for out-of-the-way places, and the city itself is easy to drive around in. There are Transtur car rental offices at the airport ( 22 68 6161), at Hotel Las Américas ( 22 68 7160), and in the basement of Hotel Casa Granda ( 22 62 3884). Rex has an office in the car park behind Hotel Santiago de Cuba ( 22 68 7141), from where Transtur ( 22 64 4181) also rents out mopeds, starting at $14CUC for two hours.

INFORMATION

Tourist information The helpful staff at Infotur, Heredia no.701 esq. San Pedro (daily 8am–6pm;  22 68 6068), can book Víazul tickets to Holguín, Havana and Baracoa (subject to limited availability) and domestic plane tickets.

Maps Try the Librería Internacional (Mon–Sat 9am–5pm;  22 68 7147) on Parque Céspedes.

Cultural information Infotur usually has a weekly cultural calendar, while the Casa de la Cultura posts one at the Librería Renacimiento (Centro Información Cultural), Enramadas 350 e/ Carnicería y San Felix (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm;  22 65 5708); look out also for its copy of elusive cultural mag, Espectro.

Listings information Santiago’s weekly newspaper, the Sierra Maestra ( sierramaestra.cu), is available from street vendors and occasionally from the bigger hotels, and has a brief listings section detailing cinema, theatre and other cultural activities.

TOURS FROM SANTIAGO

City tours and excursions throughout the province are available from Viajes Cubanacán, which has an office in the basement of the Casa Granda hotel (Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–noon;  22 68 7482), and from Havanatur and Cubatur, which share offices in Hotel Santiago de Cuba (daily 8am–12.30pm & 1.30–5pm;  22 68 7040) and at Infotur on Parque Céspedes (daily 8am–6pm;  22 68 6068). All three charge similar prices, and reduce them slightly according to the number of people participating; the rates quoted here are based on the minimum number of people required.

  Tour options include a leisurely excursion to the Gran Piedra (5hr; $31CUC with lunch; minimum 8 people), and a Santiago city tour covering El Castillo del Morro San Pedro de la Roca, Cayo Granma and El Cobre (6hr; $39CUC with lunch; minimum 8 people); the same excursion but with a longer city tour included is $62CUC with lunch, and lasts eight hours (this latter tour is good value and excellent for those short on time).

ACCOMMODATION

Accommodation in Santiago is plentiful and varied. Except during carnival and the Fiesta del Caribe in July, when rooms are snapped up well in advance, you can usually turn up on spec, though making a reservation will save you having to trudge around looking, especially as the city’s accommodation is spread over a wide area. There are a handful of state hotels, while casa particulares are abundant, many conveniently central and most offering reduced rates for stays longer than a couple of nights; those outside the centre are more likely to negotiate a lower price. Touts for casas are everywhere; avoid them and their $5CUC-a-night surcharge by booking directly.

HOTELS AND HOSTELS

Las Américas Ave. de Las Américas y General Cebreco  22 64 2011,  jcarpeta@hamerica.scu.tur.cu. While not the ritziest in town, this pleasantly low-key hotel combines a comfortable, friendly atmosphere and good facilities – including a taxi rank, car rental office and pool – with clean, bright and functional rooms equipped with cable TV and refrigerator. A short taxi ride from the main sights. Breakfast included. $70 CUC

Casa Granda Heredia no.201 e/ San Pedro y San Félix  22 65 3021,  reserva@cubanacan.tur.cu. An attraction in itself on account of its beauty, the regal Casa Granda is a 1920s hotel overlooking Parque Céspedes. From the elegant, airy lobby to its two atmospheric bars, it has a stately, colonial air – it’s a shame that the rooms are in such a shoddy state. $112CUC

La Confronta Ave. Manduley no.301 e/ 11 y 13  22 64 9600. One of a number of new state-run hostels run by Compay Tiago, offering five basic, lacklustre rooms and a dining room and sitting room in houses that lack beauty or soul. Nonetheless, it’s a good option for long stays, large groups or during high season and carnival if the city’s casas sell out. Rates include breakfast. $17CUC

Gran Hotel Enramada esq. San Félix  22 65 3020,  carpeta@granhotelsc.tur.cu. While this central and friendly hotel no longer merits the “grand” of its title, the vaguely colonial exterior and faded charm of the rooms are very appealing. Singles, doubles and triples all come with a/c, and many have a tiny balcony overlooking the busy shopping street. The huge triples are particularly good value. $42CUC

Islazul San Juan Carretera de Siboney, Km 1  22 68 7200,  islazul.cu. Close to historic Loma de San Juan, and boasting the most congenial location of all Santiago’s hotels, set amid tropical trees and lush plants. The hotel itself is tasteful though a bit bland, with smart, attractive rooms and clean communal areas. An inviting pool area and friendly staff complete the pleasant atmosphere. $70CUC

Libertad Aguilera no.658 e/ Serafin Sánchez y Pérez Carbo  22 62 7710. This cosy, mid-range hotel offers unexciting but decent a/c rooms with cable TV; rooms at the back are quieter. $38CUC

Meliã Santiago de Cuba Ave. de las Américas y Calle M  22 68 7070,  meliacuba.com. Santiago’s biggest, brashest hotel caters for business types and seekers of luxury. The blocky red, white and blue exterior is ultramodern and fits well with the shiny green marble interior, while facilities include a beauty parlour, boutiques, a gym, conference rooms and the best pool in town, as well as bars and restaurants galore. The rooms are tastefully decorated, some with original paintings by local artists, and fully equipped with all mod cons. $140CUC

San Basilio San Basilio 403 e/ Calvario y Carnicería  22 65 1702,  comercial@hsanbasilio.tur.cu. This gorgeous little hotel has eight tastefully furnished rooms, arranged around a bright, plant-filled patio, each with cable TV, fridge and a/c. Breakfast is included. $90CUC

CASAS PARTICULARES

 Casa Colonial Maruchi San Félix no.357 e/ San Germán y Trinidad  22 62 0767,  maruchib@yahoo.es. Three rooms (one with its own terrace) in a magnificent colonial house. Vintage brass beds, exposed brickwork and wooden beams add romance, while a well-tended patio filled with lush plants and a menagerie of birds and other pets is the perfect spot for the alfresco breakfast, included in the price. $25CUC

Casa de Jorge Juan Manchon Calle 6 no.204 e/ 7 y 9, Vista Alegre  22 67 4827,  amalia@fco.uo.edu.cu. A smart, airy and friendly Vista Alegre house offering two en-suite rooms featuring TVs, DVD players, wardrobes and fridges. $30CUC

Casa de Leonardo y Rosa Clarín no.9 e/ Aguilera y Heredia  22 62 3574,  rosa-renta@yahoo.es. A mini-apartment with two beds, a bathroom, a fridge and a small patio in a wonderful eighteenth-century house featuring period ironwork, wooden walls, high ceilings and stained-glass windows. There are also two further rooms downstairs; one is much larger than the other with two double beds. $25CUC

Casa de Marcos y Victoria Calle G no.109 (altos) e/ 3ra y Avenida, Reparto Sueño,  22 66 3676,  salomonantonio70@yahoo.es. For families or those seeking solitude or independence, this smart new two-bedroom apartment is the ticket. There’s a balcony, sun terrace and fully equipped kitchen. $30CUC

 Casa de Mary San Germán no.165 e/ Rastro y Gallo  22 65 3720,  elsacu10@gmail.com. Three nicely furnished, comfortable a/c rooms in an exceptionally friendly household, also known as Casa Jardín. An enchanting lantern-lit garden out back and a roof terrace decorated in potted plants with swings are a real bonus. A fourth room is being planned. $25CUC

Casa de Nolvis Rivaflecha Martínez San Basilio no.122 e/ Padre Pico y Teniente Rey  22 62 2972. Two clean, a/c rooms (with independent entrance) each with two beds and its own hot-water bathroom, in a sociable house with a lively communal area. Close to the Padre Pico steps, in a quiet area of town with off-road parking, it’s a good option for those with a car. $25CUC

Casa de Noris y Pedro Pío Rosado no.413 e/ San Gerónimo y San Francisco  22 65 6716. This lovely colonial house set back from the road has two quiet a/c rooms each with its own bathroom and fridge, plus a patio and roof terrace to share. The friendly owners cook great meals and speak a little Italian. $25CUC

Casa de Ylia Deas Díaz San Félix no.362 e/ San Germán y Trinidad  22 65 4138. A pleasant house owned by a big welcoming family offering two spacious, high-ceilinged, comfortable rooms with a/c and large bathroom. $30CUC

Casa Yisel y Martin Santa Rita no.177 e/ Mariano Corona y General Feria  22 62 0522,  martingisel78@gmail.com. A top-notch house a few blocks south of the cathedral with a lovely, plant-filled dining terrace and two spacious en-suite rooms. $25CUC

EATING

You won’t be stuck for places to eat in Santiago, with plenty of restaurants and cafés around the centre serving meals at affordable prices, and several new paladars in and around the centre and in Vista Alegre. On Saturday and Sunday nights, Avenida Garcón is also worth checking out, with food stalls offering – among other things – a whole roasted pig, with bands livening up the atmosphere.

Avoid drinking unsterilized or unboiled water in Santiago (remember that this includes ice cubes in drinks), especially during the summer months, when reports of parasites in the water supply are common.

STATE RESTAURANTS AND CAFÉS

La Arboleda Coppelia Ave. de los Libertadores esq. Garzón  22 66 1435. Freshly made ice cream at unbeatable $CUP prices in an outdoor café that looks like a mini-golf course. Very popular with locals, so arrive early before the best flavours of the day sell out; expect a long queue. Daily 9am–11.40pm.

Cafetería La Isabelica Calvario esq. Aguilera (no phone). Atmospheric little coffee shop with wooden fittings and whirling ceiling fans offering a variety of coffees; the most popular come with a shot of rum. Daily 7am–10.45pm.

La Casona Meliã Santiago de Cuba, Ave. de las Américas y Calle M  22 68 7070. If you can’t stomach another piece of fried pork, head to Hotel Santiago, where thin-crust pizza, fresh salads and overcooked broccoli are part of an all-you-can-eat buffet ($20CUC a head, excluding drinks). Daily 7–10pm.

La Corona Félix Pena no.807 esq. San Carlos (no phone). Excellent bakery with an indoor café serving up a wide variety of breads and sweets, as well as pastries filled with custard or smothered in super-sticky meringue. Mon–Sat 9am–8pm.

La Fontana Meliã Santiago de Cuba, Ave. de las Américas y Calle M  22 68 7070. Although slightly expensive, the pasta and pizzas ($6–15CUC) at this open-air restaurant are authentic and carefully prepared, and portions are a decent size. Daily 7–10pm.

 El Morro Castillo El Morro  22 69 1576. Perched next to the fortress in a lovely, breezy spot overlooking the bay, this relatively pricey restaurant boasts a generous array of choices and serves good-quality cuisine including soups, fish, seafood, chicken and pork dishes. Main combination menus start at $12CUC, though lobster will set you back $25CUC. Daily noon–4.30pm.

Pan.Com Aguilera e/ San Félix y San Pedro (no phone). Hamburgers, sandwiches, rolls and other half-decent snacks for $1–4CUC. Daily 9am–8pm.

Restaurant El Cayo Cayo Granma  22 69 0109. An attractive blue-and-white wooden restaurant building perched on the edge of Cayo Granma. It mostly serves tour groups, and offers fancy seafood, including lobster, paella and shrimp, with prices starting at $6CUC. Daily noon–4pm

La Taberna de Dolores Aguilera no.468 esq. Reloj  22 62 3913. A lively restaurant, popular with older Cuban men who while away the afternoon with a bottle of rum on the sunny patio, and serving reasonable comida criolla for $5–8CUC. Musicians play in the evenings. Book to reserve a seat on the balcony overlooking the patio or street. Daily noon–4pm & 6–11pm.

El Zunzún Ave. Manduley no.159 esq. Calle 7  22 64 1528. One of the classiest restaurants in town, with a series of private dining rooms perfect for an intimate dinner. Choose from an imaginative menu including pork in citrus sauce or seafood stir-fried in garlic butter and flaming rum. Main courses are $4–15CUC; there’s an international wine list and injudicious use of reggaeton music. Daily noon–10pm.

PALADARS

Casa Mícaela San Felix no.260 e/ Habana y Maceo  22 62 0970. A small and friendly paladar just north of the downtown area, offering up hearty comida criolla, barbecued platters and shellfish. Mains $2.40–4.80CUC. Daily noon–11pm.

 El Madrileño Calle 8 no.105 e/ 3 y 5  22 64 4138. This is the best new paladar on the Santiago dining block. The pretty plant-filled patio provides a pleasant setting, and the menu includes lobster and tasty shellfish dishes such as large flamed shrimps in a whisky sauce. Try its signature Turquino Madrileño, an indulgent chocolate cake with ice cream. Mains $4–15CUC. Daily noon–11pm.

El Marino Cayo Granma  22 69 0181. The only paladar on Cayo Granma, serving up simple comida criolla dishes on an upstairs terrace overlooking the sea. Mains from $2CUC. Daily noon–10pm.

El Palenquito Ave. del Río no.28 e/ 6 y Carretera del Caney, Reparto Pastorita  22 64 5220. Smart tables in a garden filled with hummingbirds and hibiscus are one of the highlights of this out-of-town paladar, but the well-prepared comida criolla, shellfish and pasta (mains $2.50–16CUC) merit the trek out here too. Daily noon–midnight.

Salon Tropical Fernando Markane Reparto Santa Barbara e/ 9 y 11  22 64 1161. A long-standing paladar with a pleasant terrace for pre-dinner drinks. Tasty though salty chicken fricassee, shish kebabs and grilled fish served with tamales are good choices here ($4–6CUC). Round the meal off with crème caramel and coffee. As this is really on the outskirts of town, you’ll want to arrange a taxi there and back. Reservations are advised. Daily noon–midnight.

DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE

As much of the action in Santiago revolves around music, there are few places that cater specifically for drinkers, although the Hotel Casa Granda has two convivial bars. Music played in discos tends to be as loud as the sound system will permit – sometimes louder – and anything goes, from Cuban and imported salsa, through reggaeton and rock to very cheesy house. They tend to draw a young, sometimes edgy and high-spirited crowd, including many of the jinetero and jinetera types who hang out in Parque Céspedes trying to win your attention. Taken in the right vein it can be amusing and even make you some friends, but if you’re not interested in new friends, just be firm in saying you want to hang out alone.

BARS

El Baturro Aguilera esq. San Félix (no phone). This pub-style bar, decorated with Spanish bullfighting memorabilia, hosts live bands playing Santana covers and other crowd-pleasers (from 8/9pm) until 11.45pm. Serving cocktails and beers, this is a rough-and-ready venue which on some nights can feel a bit edgy. Daily 11am–midnight.

 Hotel Casa Granda Heredia no.201 e/ San Pedro y San Félix  22 65 3021. Benefiting from a cool breeze, the hotel’s balcony bar is the best central spot to soak up the local atmosphere by day, with comfortable seating that invites you to linger. Later on, you can retire to the open-air rooftop bar, which has views over the bay and the surrounding countryside and is the best place from which to watch the sun slide down behind the mountains. There’s a $2CUC entry fee to the rooftop bar in the evenings. Balcony bar daily 11am–midnight; roof garden Mon–Thurs 9am–11pm, Fri 9am–1am.

La Maqueta de Santiago Corona no.704 e/ San Basilio y Santa Lucia (no phone). The little bar at the back of the maqueta (city model) is a tranquil retreat with cheap drinks – beer $1CUC – and wonderful views over the mountains and rooftops leading down to the bay. Mon 5–7pm, Tues–Sun 9am–9pm.

FIESTA DEL CARIBE

Taking place annually between July 3–9, the Fiesta del Caribe, or Fiesta del Fuego, brings academics, foreign participants and dance, music and cultural groups from across the Caribbean and Latin America to celebrate the culture and music of a designated Caribbean country or region each year. Organized by the city’s Casa del Caribe, it’s a highlight of Santiago’s cultural calendar, with a finale celebrated via a city-wide conga and the burning of an effigy of the devil.

LIVE MUSIC VENUES AND CABARET

Artex Heredia no.304 e/ Calvario y Carnicería  22 65 4814. Bypass the inside bar (which smells of fried chicken) and head to the outside patio for live bolero, rumba, son and lively salsa. There’s music at 11am, 1pm, 2–4pm and after 8pm. It’s a good place to warm up before heading on to Casa de la Trova, further down the same road. Entry fee varies. Daily 9am–midnight.

 Casa del Caribe Calle 13 no.154 esq. 8, Reparto Vista Alegre  22 64 3609. This Afro-Cuban cultural and study centre hosts free traditional music performances and a Sunday rumba peña. Performances are either here on the patio, or at the patio of the nearby Casa de las Religiones just up the road. An informal atmosphere and enthusiastic performances make this worthy of the trip to the town outskirts. Performances Mon–Thurs & Sat 6pm, Fri 4pm, 6pm & 7pm, Sun 4pm.

Casa de la Música Corona no.564 e/ Aguilera y Enramadas  22 65 2227. Santiago’s glitziest music venue, with the country’s most popular bands regularly headlining. There’s live music every night, with dancing and high-spirited jineteras much in evidence. Entry $3CUC, or $5CUC Wed & Sun. Daily 10pm–2.30am.

 Casa de las Tradiciones Rabí no.154 e/ Princesa y San Fernando (no phone). A different trova band plays into the small hours every night in this tiny, atmospheric house where the walls have photographs and album sleeves. Entry $2CUC. Mon–Thurs 8pm–midnight, Fri–Sat 8pm–2am.

Casa de los Estudiantes Heredia e/ San Pedro y San Félix  226 2780. This appealing building with a long balcony hosts traditional music rehearsals. Bands play to a lively crowd – usually an even mix of Cubans and visitors – and there’s a bar as well. It’s an excellent place to drink, dance and socialize. Mon, Wed & Fri 7–10pm.

 Casa de la Trova Heredia no.208 e/ San Pedro y San Félix  22 65 2689. A visit to the famous, pocket-sized Casa de la Trova is the highlight of a trip to Santiago, with musicians playing day and night to an audience packed into the tiny downstairs room or hanging in through the window. Upstairs is more expansive but just as atmospheric, and excellent bands play every evening. Although this venue attracts much tourist attention, it is still the top choice in town. Entry $1–10CUC depending on who’s playing. Performances, 10am, 6pm & 10pm.

Coro Madrigalista Carnicería no.555 e/ Aguilera y Heredia  22 65 9439. This homely venue, which feels much like a village hall, is home to Santiago’s oldest choir, whose repertoire includes classical, sacred and traditional Cuban music. You’re welcome to pop in and listen to the free daily practice session, while the peña ($1CUC) features an assortment of local son and trova bands. Daily: rehearsals 9am–noon; peña from 8.30pm.

Los Dos Abuelos Pérez Carbó 5, Plaza Marte  22 62 3302. A variety of local groups play son and guaracha on this bar’s pretty patio, shaded by fruit trees, at 10pm every night. There’s an extensive range of rums and snacks available. Daily 9am–2am.

Irís Jazz Club Paraíso s/n e/ Enramadas y Aguilera no.617, Plaza Marte  22 62 7312. One of the city’s newest hangouts, complete with bouncer at the door, this bar is a suitably moody venue for live jazz bands. Entrance $3CUC. Daily 9pm–2am.

Sala de Conciertos Esteban Salas Plaza Dolores  22 62 6167. Take a break from the salsa and son drums and refresh your soul with a choral or classical concert in a former church on the corner of Plaza Dolores. Performances are staged daily both evenings and daytimes; ask inside for performance details. The Coro Madrigalista sometimes perform here.

 Santiago Tropicana Autopista Nacional Km 1.5  22 64 2579. Not quite the Tropicana of the east, but a fun night out if you’re with friends watching the costumed dancers perform a show. Tickets are $25CUC, with one drink included, or $37CUC with transport from central Santiago hotels included. You can make reservations at Infotur or tour agencies. Fri & Sat 10pm–1.30am.

UNEAC Heredia no.266 e/ San Felix y Carnecería  22 65 3465. Traditional and contemporary music peñas play here most nights. Check the door for the weekly programme. Boleros are sung at 6pm on Sat, and there’s jazz at 6pm on Sun. Tues–Sat 6pm–midnight.

LIVE MUSIC AND DANCE IN SANTIAGO

Musical entertainment in Santiago is hard to beat, with several excellent live trova venues – all a giddy whirl of rum and high spirits, with soulful boleros, son and salsa banged out by wizened old men who share the tunes and the talent of the likes of Ibrahim Ferrer and Compay Segundo, if not their fame. You don’t have to exert too much effort to enjoy the best of the town’s music scene; the music often spills onto the streets at weekends and around carnival time, when bands set up just about everywhere. Sometimes the best way to organize your night out is to follow the beat you like the most. The best nights are often the cheapest, and it’s rare to find a venue charging more than $5CUC.

  Santiago has some fantastic dance and folkloric groups, too, offering mesmerizing performances. Ballet Folklórico Cutumba is an outstandingly brilliant folklórico group that practises and performs at the former Cine Galaxia, Calle Trocha esq. Santa Ursula (Tues–Fri 9am–1pm;  22 65 5173). Accompanied by some passionate percussive rhythms, Haitian folkloric group Tumba Francesa practise at Carnicería 268 on Tues and Thurs at 9pm.

CLUBS

Club 300 Aguilera no.300 e/ San Pedro y San Félix  22 65 3532. A café by day, transformed into a disco by night, this slick and sultry little hideaway with leather seats serves cheap cocktails, quality rum and single malt whiskies. Entry is from $2CUC. Daily 11am–8pm & 10pm–3am.

Pista Bailable Teatro Heredia, Ave. de las Américas s/n  22 64 3190. Pumped-up salsa, son, bolero and merengue tunes get the crowd dancing at this unpretentious local club, with live music some nights. Entry $3CUC (includes drink).

THEATRES AND CINEMAS

Cine Rialto San Tomás 654  22 62 3035. Near the cathedral, this is Santiago’s most central cinema, with daily showings at 3pm, 5pm and 8pm.

Teatro Heredia Plaza de la Revolución  22 64 3190. The city’s only large venue for plays, musicals and children’s drama.

SHOPPING

Although Santiago is no shoppers’ paradise, there are still several places to sniff out an authentic bargain or curiosity, while the town’s art galleries occasionally have some worthy paintings and sculptures. Also good for a browse is Heredia’s thriving street market (daily 9am–6pm), selling bone and shell jewellery, bootleg tapes, maracas and drums, as well as general souvenirs. The national-peso shops in Enramada, one street north of Parque Céspedes – still bedecked with original, though non-functioning, neon signs – hold some surprising treasures if you’re prepared to trawl.

Barrita Ron Caney Ave. Jesús Menéndez s/n San Ricardo y San Antonio  22 62 5576. Rum aficionados will adore this shop/bar at the side of the eponymous factory which has friendly staff and a huge selection, including a wicked, silky-smooth fifteen-year-old Havana Club ($85CUC). There are tables and chairs where you can indulge in your purchases straight away. Mon–Sat 10am–4pm.

Galería Oriente San Pedro no.163  22 65 7501. Some excellent revolutionary and carnival screen-printed posters for around $20CUC, and a few colourful surrealist oil paintings by local artists. Tues–Sun 9am–9pm.

Librería Internacional Parque Céspedes  22 68 7147. A bookshop in the former crypt of the cathedral, with a decent but expensive selection of novels, history and natural history books, some in English. Mon–Sat 9am–5pm.

Librería La Escalera Heredia no.265 e/ San Félix y Carnicería (no phone). An extraordinary little den filled with all manner of secondhand books, as well as the eccentric owner’s display of business cards and liquor bottles from around the world; there’s also a small selection of foreign-language titles available on an exchange basis ($1CUC). Daily 10am–10pm.

Quitrín 477 San Geronimo e/Calvario y Carnicería  22 62 2528. Although somewhat off the beaten track, it’s worth the walk as all the exquisitely made cotton dresses, skirts and shirts, for men and women, are fashioned on site in this eighteenth-century house. If you can’t find your size, ask about their bespoke service; the seamstresses can make up clothes within five or six days. The highlights include traditional guayabera shirts, dresses and sun tops with hand-worked lace insets and contemporary crochet work. Mon–Sat 9am–5pm.

DIRECTORY

Banks and exchange There are several banks near Parque Céspedes, including the Banco de Crédito y Comercio & ATM at Aguilera esq. San Pedro (Mon–Fri 8am–3pm, Sat 8–11am) and the Banco Popular de Ahorro at Aguilera no.458 e/ Reloj y Calvario (Mon–Sat 8am–7pm); you can change travellers’ cheques and get an advance on a credit card at both, while the latter also has an ATM. The CADECA is at Aguilera 508 e/ Reloj y Rabí (Mon–Fri 8.15am–4pm, Sat 8.15am–noon).

Immigration You can renew visas at the immigration office, at Calle 13 no.6 e/ 4 y Carretera del Caney, Reparto Vista Alegre (Mon, Wed, Fri 8am–noon & 2–5pm;  22 64 1983).

Internet Try Hotel Casa Granda (open 24hr; $3CUC per 30min) or the ETECSA Centro de Multiservicios de Comunicaciones (daily 8.30am–7pm; $6CUC/hr) at Heredia esq. Félix Pena on Parque Céspedes.

Medical Call  185 for a public ambulance or, for a private ambulance, the Clínica Internacional ( 22 64 2589) at Ave. Raúl Pujol esq. Calle 10, which also offers general medical services to foreigners. The most central state hospital is the Hospital Provincial Clínico Quirúgico Docente, at Ave. de los Libertadores ( 22 62 6571 to 9). Policlínico Camilio Torres is a 24hr doctors’ surgery at Heredia no.358 e/ Reloj y Calvario. There are pharmacies at Enramada no.402, Hotel Santiago and the Clínica Internacional. The latter also has a dental surgery.

Police The main station is at Corona y San Gerónimo. In an emergency call  106. The tourist support group Asistur offers 24hr assistance in emergency situations ( 78 67 1315); the local headquarters (Mon–Fri 8.30am–5pm;  22 68 6128) is in the offices beneath Hotel Casa Granda.

Post office The main post office is at Aguilera y Clarín. Stamps can also be bought from Hotel Casa Granda and Hotel Santiago de Cuba. The most central agent for DHL is at Aguilera no.310, esq. San Félix (Mon–Fri 8am–noon, 1–4pm, Sat 8am–11am).

Sports Baseball games are played at the Estadio Guillermon Moncada ( 22 64 2640) on Ave. las Américas from Dec to April.

Telephones The ETECSA Centro de Multiservicios de Comunicaciones (daily 8.30am–7pm) at Heredia esq. Félix Pena on Parque Céspedes sells phone cards and allows international calls. Phone cards are also available from Hotel Casa Granda and Hotel Santiago de Cuba, which both have international pay phones.

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East of Santiago

Many of the attractions surrounding Santiago are east of the city, and you’ll need at least a couple of days to do them justice. Cool and fresh, the mountains of the Sierra de la Gran Piedra make an excellent break from the harsh Santiago heat, and the giant Gran Piedra is an extraordinary lookout point. Nearby, there’s the atmospheric, little-visited Museo Isabelica, set on one of several colonial coffee plantations in the mountains; and the formerly lovely Jardín Botánico, totally wrecked by Hurricane Sandy and closed to the public for the foreseeable future. Spanning the east coast is the Gran Parque Natural Baconao, not so much a park as a vast (and currently hurricane-raddled) collection of beaches and other tourist attractions, among them a vintage car collection and the Comunidad Artística Verraco – home, gallery and workplace for several local artists.

GETTING AROUND: EAST OF SANTIAGO

By car If you’ve got your own transport, head east out of the city towards the Loma de San Juan, then take the road south down Avenida Raúl Pujol, from where it runs straight towards the coast and the turn-off for the Sierra de la Gran Piedra.

Parque Nacional de la Gran Piedra

There’s no public transport on the mountain road, but an unmetered taxi from Parque Céspedes in Santiago will charge $15–18CUC to take you to the foot of the Gran Piedra staircase

Just east of Santiago, the mountains of the Parque Nacional de la Gran Piedra are some of the most easily accessible peaks in the country. Eleven kilometres along the coastal road from town, a turn-off inland leads you up a steep, curving mountain road. As the route ascends, temperate vegetation such as fir and pine trees gradually replace the more tropical palms and vines of the lower levels.

La Gran Piedra

Daily 8am–5pm • $1CUC

Around 15km along the road into the Parque Nacional de la Gran Piedra, a purpose-built staircase leads up from the visitors’ centre to La Gran Piedra, or “The Big Rock”, sculpted by ancient geological movement from surrounding bedrock and now forming a convenient viewing plateau 1234m above Santiago de Cuba. It’s an easy though still invigorating climb to the top, through woodland rich in animal and plant-life, including over two hundred species of fern, and is best made before noon, when you’ve a better chance of clear views. When the thick cloud that often hangs over the area melts away there’s a panoramic view over the province and beyond to the sea.

Museo Isabelica

Daily 8am–4pm • $1CUC

Around 1km or so along the mountain road from La Gran Piedra, a left turn leads to the Museo Isabelica, set in the grounds of the Cafetal Isabelica, a coffee plantation established by an immigrant French grower who fled the Haitian slave revolution of 1791. Housed in a restored, small, two-storey estate house covered in red lichen and surrounded by ferns, the museum’s collection contains original furniture. The main reason to come here, though, is the atmosphere, with the mountains’ mist-shrouded hush broken only by birdsong and the tapping of sheep crossing the stone area used to dry coffee beans. You can explore the overgrown paths leading off round the house into the derelict plantation and inspect what is left of the disused mill – now just a stone wheel and a few wooden poles.

Gran Parque Natural Baconao

There’s no public transport here; a taxi from Santiago will cost upwards of $60CUC for the trip out to Laguna Baconao

A mountainous stretch of countryside interspersed with several tourist attractions, the Gran Parque Natural Baconao, 25km southeast of Santiago, took a real beating from Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, and currently offers few incentives for travellers. Full recovery is likely to take some years, so do bear this in mind if you decide to visit, as private taxi transport here isn’t cheap and you may be disappointed by what Sandy left behind.

Granjita Siboney

Carretera Siboney s/n km 13.5 • Daily 9am–5pm • $1CUC

Some 2km along the park road past the La Gran Piedra turn-off is the Granjita Siboney, the farm that Fidel Castro and his rebel group used as their base for the Moncada attack. The pretty little red-and-white house, pockmarked by bullet holes (perhaps from target practice, as no fighting actually took place here), now holds a museum that largely reproduces information found in bigger collections in the city, with newspaper cuttings, guns and bloodstained uniforms presented in glass cabinets.

Playa Siboney

Just beyond the Granjita Siboney is Playa Siboney, 19km from Santiago and the closest beach to the city. Overlooked by a towering cliff, this brown-sand beach was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, with all its shade-giving palm trees uprooted and its beachside shacks and cabins blown away. Tourism is recovering here, though the scene is considerably less lively than it was, and some casas particulares and restaurants have survived the storm.

ACCOMMODATION AND EATING: PLAYA SIBONEY

Casa de Ovidio González Sabaldo Avenida Serrano Alto de Farmacia  22 39 9340. A casa particular with a sea view right in the village centre offering four rooms, just two minutes from the beach. Rooms are comfortable with fridges and a/c. $25CUC

Finca el Porvenir  22 62 9064. Five kilometres east of Playa Siboney on the coastal road, a signposted turn left (north) down a potholed track leads to this rustic countryside spot, which makes a pleasant stop for lunch. A stone staircase descends the hillside to the bar-restaurant, where tables are shaded by mango and palm trees, and sun loungers surround a swimming pool. The menu includes reasonably priced grilled fish, shrimp, pork and fried chicken ($3.50–15CUC). Daily 9am–7pm.

La Rueda  22 39 9325. Just behind the beach, this state restaurant offers inexpensive fried chicken, tasty fish and good lobster, as well as sandwiches and pizza (mains $4.90–7.30CUC). There’s a pleasant top-terrace on which to eat, while the bar below is less appealing. Order ahead if you want to eat after 5pm. Restaurant daily 9am–5pm, bar daily 9am–late.

Valle de la Prehistoria

Carretera Baconao km 6.5 • Daily 8am–6pm • $1CUC

Five kilometres east from Playa Siboney along the coastal road, you’ll come across one of the area’s more unusual attractions, the Valle de la Prehistoria, populated by practically life-sized stone models of dinosaurs and Stone Age men. While essentially a bit kitsch, it’s worth a look for those with kids.

Museo Nacional del Transporte

Carretera Baconao km 8.5 • Daily 8am–5pm • $1CUC, photos $1CUC, video $2CUC

About 4km east of the Valle de Prehistorica, the Museo Nacional del Transporte is one of Baconao’s biggest attractions (though it’s under repair following hurricane damage), with an excellent collection of vintage cars and a formidable display of 2500 toy cars. Outside in the car park sits a 1929 Ford Roadster belonging to Alina Ruz, Fidel Castro’s mother; Benny Moré’s ostentatious golden Cadillac; and the 1951 Chevrolet that Raúl Castro drove to the attack on the Moncada barracks.

Playa Daiquirí

Close to the Museo Nacional del Transporte is the turning for Playa Daiquirí, the beach where the US army landed when they intervened in the War of Independence in 1898 and which gave its name to the famous cocktail. Home to a holiday camp for military personnel, the beach is closed to foreign visitors.

Comunidad Artística Verraco

Playa Verraco

Ten kilometres east from the Museo Nacional del Transporte on the main coast road, in an attractive clearing beneath tall trees next to the local Playa Verraco, the unique Comunidad Artística Verraco is a highlight of a trip out to Baconao. A small artists’ community that’s home to nine sculptors, painters and potters, you can tour the individual home-studios, and there’s a small communal gallery where their work is on sale.

ACCOMMODATION: COMUNIDAD ARTÍSTICA VERRACO

Casa de Rosa y Enrique (Galería Aguilar) Carretera de Baconao Km 17.5, Comunidad Artística  58 22 7529 or  53 40 4465 (mobile). A spacious, quiet room within the Comunidad Artística Verraco, in the lovely house of ceramic artists Oscar and Yordanka. It’s the perfect getaway and you might even learn how to throw a few pots. $25CUC

Acuario Baconao

Carretera Baconao km 27.5 • Tues–Sun 9am–5pm • Dolphin shows 10.30am & 3pm • $7CUC, swimming with dolphins $39CUC

Some 8km east of the Comunidad Artística Verraco on the coast road, the Acuario Baconao suffered terribly from the ravages of Hurricane Sandy; damage to its hydraulic system led to the death of the entire marine collection, which included seven sharks. It may well take years for the aquarium to fully recover, but it was open to visitors at the time of writing. The dolphins and two sea lions survived, and still perform shows twice a day in a reasonably sized pool; there’s also the chance to hop into the water with them.

Playa Cazonal

Club Amigo Carisol-Los Corales day-pass $25CUC; includes buffet meal and drinks • Diving $25CUC per dive • A bus runs to Santiago once a week on Sundays for hotel guests

Playa Cazonal, just under 1km east of Acuario Baconao, is the most appealing beach east of Santiago, though it’s no secluded paradise despite being a long way from the city. Backed by a huge, congenial all-inclusive hotel, the small stretches of off-white sand compete with vast blankets of tiny shells and broken coral dotted by randomly spaced palms. Most people come for the snorkelling and diving on the nearby coral reef.

ACCOMMODATION: PLAYA CAZONAL

Club Amigo Carisol-Los Corales Carretera Baconao, Km 54  22 35 6115,  hotelescubanacan.com. All-inclusive hotel spread across a large swathe of beach in two separate buildings. The most pleasant section of beach fronts the Los Corales building, which also houses the complex’s only junior suites. Staff are pleasant and friendly and the dining area of the Carisol, in particular, is very attractive. A day pass costs $25CUC. $130CUC

Laguna Baconao

Tues–Sun 9am–4.30pm • Boat hire $2CUC; minimum five people • Sendero el Cimarron $2CUC

Roughly 3km from Playa Cazonal, Laguna Baconao is a serene spot from which to enjoy the unaffected beauty of the surrounding mountains. There are sad caged crocs and flamingos but you can take in a more natural scene by hiring a boat to row on the lake and a guide to walk the area’s trails, such as the Sendero el Cimarron. Bizarrely, there are three dolphins living in the semi salt-water lake and lagoon’s managers are waiting to see if they’ll reproduce in this environment. Laguna Baconao marks the end of the line for travelling easy; a checkpoint here prevents cars travelling into Guantánamo province due to the US Naval Base.

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West of Santiago

Although there are few sights to see west of Santiago, those that exist are interesting enough to warrant a visit if you have a spare day. The Basilica de la Caridad del Cobre, presiding over the town of El Cobre in the hills to the northwest, is one of the most important – and most visited – churches in the country. The beaches west of the city are mostly smaller than those on the eastern side, and correspondingly less developed and more intimate, the playgrounds of Cubans rather than foreign visitors. In contrast, the resort of Chivirico is dedicated to international tourism, with two large hotels dominating its fine-sand beach.

  There is no reliable public transport west of the city, so you’ll need to hire a taxi or take your own transport.

Basilica de la Caridad del Cobre

El Cobre • Daily 6.30am–6pm; Mass Tues–Sat 8am, Thurs 8pm, Sun 10am & 4.30pm

A lovely structure nestling in palm-studded forest 18km northwest of Santiago, the imposing cream-coloured, copper-domed Basilica de la Caridad del Cobre houses the icon of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, Cuba’s patron saint, and is one of the holiest sanctuaries in the country. Pleasingly symmetrical, with three towers capped in red domes, the present basilica was constructed in 1927, on the site of a previous shrine. Inside, the icon has pride of place high up in the altar, and during Mass looks down over the congregation; at other times she is rotated to face into an inner sanctum reached by stairs at the back of the church, where another altar is always garlanded with floral tributes left by worshippers.

  Soon after her discovery, local mythology endowed the Virgin with the power to grant wishes and heal the sick, and a steady flow of believers visits the church to solicit her help. A downstairs chamber holds an eclectic display of the many relics left by grateful recipients of the Virgin’s benevolence, including a rosette and team shirt from Olympic 800m gold medallist Ana Fidelia Quirot Moret, as well as college diplomas, countless photographs and, most bizarrely, an asthmatic’s ventilator.

NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA CARIDAD

Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, also known as La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (the Virgin of Charity), and just “Cachita”, is so much more than just Cuba’s patron saint: source of succour, icon and artists’ muse, her presence is embedded in the cultural, religious and social life of Cubans of all colour and creed.

  Legend relates that in 1612, a statue of the virgin was found floating in the Bahía de Nipe, off Cuba’s northern coast, by three sailors (or salt workers depending on which storyline you adhere to) from El Cobre town on the verge of being shipwrecked. They claimed not only that the icon – a mother and child figurine – was completely dry when drawn from the water but also that the sea was instantly becalmed. Inscribed with the words Yo soy la Virgen de la Caridad (“I am the Virgin of Charity”), the icon became the most important image in Cuban Roman Catholicism, gaining significance by becoming the alter ego of Ochún, the Santería goddess of love, whose colour, yellow, mirrors the Virgin’s golden robe. In 1916 the Virgen de la Caridad became the patron saint of Cuba, following a decree by Pope Benedict XV. Her saint’s day is September 8, when an annual pilgrimage is held.

The western beaches

The drive along the coast west towards Chivirico and beyond, with the seemingly endless curve of vivid mountains on one side and a ribbon of sparkling shallow sea on the other, is one of the most fantastic in the country, though potholes and hurricane damage make it somewhat treacherous after dark. About 15km from the city, don’t be put off by Playa Mar Verde, a small, rather grubby hoop of roadside shingle-sand with a café and restaurant; instead, carry on along the coastal road for another couple of kilometres to Playa Bueycabón. Here, an orderly lawn dotted with short palms stretches almost to the sea, and with its calm, shallow waters and narrow belt of sand it is altogether an excellent little spot to pass the day. There is a café here, but no other facilities.

Chivirico

Nearly 70km from Santiago, CHIVIRICO is a quiet coastal village and an interchange point for buses and trucks running between Pilón and Santiago. Other than that, the main action, such as it is, centres on a micro-resort of three hotels capitalizing on good brown-sand beaches and impressive mountain views. This is a better place to stay rather than visit on a day-trip, as the most appealing beach is now the domain of an all-inclusive resort which charges non-guests for the privilege of using it.

  Access to Playa Sevilla (daily 9.30am–6pm; day pass $27CUC, inclusive of meals and drinks), the easternmost beach of the three, is controlled by the beachfront Brisas Sierra Mar hotel. Location of the Motel Guáma, the central Playa Virginia is narrower but free to enter. Tiny mangrove-coated cays lie not far offshore, though there can be dangerous undertow currents. Finally, Playa Chivirico is the private preserve of the attractive hilltop Hotel Los Galeones, the secondary outpost of Brisas Sierra del Mar.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: CHIVIRICO

By taxi A private taxi from Santiago to Chivirico will cost $70CUC.

ACCOMMODATION

Brisas Sierra Mar Carretera a Chivirico km 60, Playa Sevilla  22 32 9110,  hotelescubanacan.com. A large, attractive all-inclusive hotel offering spacious, comfortable rooms and a full complement of watersports, including diving, plus five bars and several restaurants. Parts of the hotel sustain hurricane damage but repairs were well under way by early 2013. $144CUC

Motel Guáma Playa Sevilla Reservations through Villa Trópico, Santiago  22 64 6557. The strip’s sole budget accommodation option with just eight rooms and a small bar and restaurant. $25CUC

< Back to Santiago de Cuba and Granma

Bayamo

On the northern edge of the Sierra Maestra mountains in the centre of Granma, provincial capital BAYAMO is one of the most peaceful towns in Cuba. Its spotless centre is based around a pleasant park; there are near-zero levels of hassle on the streets; and, with the streets pedestrianized, even the cars are silenced.

  Although a fire destroyed most of Bayamo’s colonial buildings in 1869, it left the heart of town untouched, and the splendid Iglesia de Santísimo Salvador still presides over the cobbled Plaza del Himno. Elsewhere, neat rows of modern houses, dotted with pretty tree-lined parks, stand testament to a well-maintained town. Bayamo is smaller than you’d expect a provincial capital to be, and you could cram its few sights into one day, but if you’ve no agenda, it’s better to do some gentle sightseeing, eat well and match the town’s unhurried pace.

Brief history

The second of the original seven Cuban towns or villas founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in November 1513, Bayamo flourished during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when, along with its neighbour Manzanillo, it was heavily involved in dealing in contraband goods. Bayamo became one of the most prosperous towns in the country and by the nineteenth century had capitalized on the fertile plains to the west of the city, becoming an important sugar-growing and cattle-rearing area.

  Influential figures like wealthy landowner Francisco Vicente Aguilera and composer Pedro Figueredo established a revolutionary cell here in 1868 to promote their call for independence from the Spanish. They were joined by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, another wealthy local plantation owner, who freed his slaves and set off to war. By the end of October 1868, Céspedes’s modest army of 147 had swelled to 12,000 and he had captured Bayamo and Holguín. Rather than relinquish the town, after three months of fighting, the rebels set fire to it on January 12, 1869, and watched the elegant buildings burn to the ground. Bayamo’s glory days were over.

  Bayamo moved into the twentieth century without fanfare, continuing to support itself by producing sugar and farming cattle. The town’s last memorable moment was the unsuccessful attack on the army barracks on July 26, 1953, timed to coincide with Castro’s attack in Santiago – though this happened over half a century ago, it still keeps several old-timers gossiping today.

Parque Céspedes

Most of the sights in Bayamo are within view or easy walking distance of the central Parque Céspedes – also known as Plaza de la Revolución – a shiny expanse of marble fringed with palm trees, where children play and queue for rides in the goat-pulled pony cart. At the northern end is a small three-panel tribute to Perucho Figueredo, a local independence fighter principally remembered for writing the patriotic poem La Bayamesa in 1868, which later became the Cuban national anthem, still sung today. The monument to Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, at the southern end of the plaza, is rather more grandiose: a statue of the man himself, dignified and sombre in tailcoat, on top of a podium with four bas-relief panels.

CARLOS MANUEL DE CÉSPEDES

A key figure in the fight for independence, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes is much lauded in Cuba as a liberator. A wealthy plantation owner, he freed his slaves on October 10, 1868, and called for the abolition of slavery – albeit in terms least likely to alienate the wealthy landowners upon whose support he depended. Giving forth his battle cry, the Grito de Yara, which summoned Cubans, whether slaves or Creoles, to take arms and fight for a future free of Spain, he marched in support of the independence movement. Céspedes summed up the dissatisfaction that many Cubans felt in a long declaration which became known as the October 10th manifesto, nationally credited as the inception of Cuban independence because it was the first time that Cubans had been talked about in terms of a nation of people.

  The newly formed army set out with the intention of capturing the nearby town of Yara, but were overtaken by a column of the Spanish army and utterly trounced, reduced to a fragment of the original 150–strong force. Undefeated, Céspedes proclaimed, “There are still twelve of us left, we are enough to achieve the independence of Cuba.”

  Céspedes is most remembered for the death of his son, Oscar, captured by the Spanish and subsequently shot when Céspedes refused to negotiate for peace under Spanish conditions. This act earned him the title “Padre de la Patria” (Father of the Homeland): as he famously replied to the letter requesting his surrender, “Oscar is not my only son. I am father to all the Cubans who have died to liberate their homeland.”

Iglesia de Santísimo Salvador

Plaza del Himno • Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 3–5pm • Free

The showpiece of Bayamo architecture, the sixteenth-century La Iglesia de Santísimo Salvador, which dominates the small Plaza del Himno, was one of the few buildings to survive the great fire of 1869. Inside, apple-shaped portraits of the Stations of the Cross line the walls. The impressive mural over the main altar depicts an incident on November 8, 1868, when Diego José Baptista, the parish priest, blessed the rebel army’s newly created flag before a mixed congregation of Cuban rebels. This piece is unique in Latin America as an ecclesiastical painting with political content – the imagery indicates that the new republic received the approbation of the Church.

Casa Natal de Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

North side of Parque Céspedes • Tues–Fri 9am–5.30pm, Sat 9am–1pm & 8–10pm, Sun 10am–1pm • $1CUC

The Casa Natal de Carlos Manuel de Céspedes is another survivor of the fire of 1869, and contains a hotchpotch of exhibits relating to the nineteenth century in general and to the life of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, born here in 1819. Céspedes’s ceremonial sword is displayed on the ground floor, while upstairs is the pièce de résistance: a magnificent bronze bed with ornate oval panels, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and depicting a fantastic coastline at the foot of the bedhead panel.

Museo de Cera

Calle Calixto García no.254 e/ Masó y Manuel del Socorro • Tues–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 10am–1pm, 7–10pm, Sun 9am–noon • $1CUC

General García, the main shopping street, is a pleasant place to stroll and catch the flavour of the town; its muted pedestrianized marble walkway makes a good foil for the fun sculptures of giant tubes of paint and the sinuous benches. Halfway down is the Museo de Cera, a waxworks gallery, featuring models, which include indigenous birds and animals as well as personalities like Compay Segundo, Benny Moré and Ernest Hemingway, made by a local man and his sons.

Parque Ñico López

Tues–Sat 9am–noon & 1.30pm–5pm, Sun 9am–1pm • $1CUC

Bayamo’s spacious walled garden, Parque Ñico López, landscaped with swaying palms and intersected with layers of marble steps, was arranged in the grounds of the Bayamo barracks as a tribute to Ñico López, one of the 28 men who tried to storm and capture the building on July 26, 1953.

  The attack was synchronized with the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago, partly to secure weapons for the rebel cause but primarily to prevent more of General Batista’s troops being drafted in from Bayamo to Santiago. The attempt failed when the whinnying of the cavalry horses, alarmed at the sound of the rebels scrambling over the wall, aroused the sleeping soldiers, and though López escaped, later meeting up with fellow rebels in exile in Mexico, several other men died in the attack. López returned to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma in 1958, only to be killed a few days later in an early skirmish. The garden honours both his contribution to the cause, and, probably more crucially, his status as the man who introduced Che Guevara to Fidel Castro in 1955. López himself is commemorated by a sculpture in the grounds.

  Inside the barracks is a rather poor museum giving a scant account of events accompanied by photographs of the men involved and a cutting from the following day’s newspaper. You’d be better off giving it a miss and instead striking up a conversation with the old men who sometimes sit in the park, several of whom remember the attack.

ARRIVAL AND GETTING AROUND: BAYAMO

By plane Domestic flights arrive from Havana (2 weekly; 2hr) at the Aeropuerto Carlos M. de Céspedes, 10km northeast of the centre on the Holguín road, where unmetered taxis wait to bring you into town for $6–8CUC.

Airline Cubana, Martí no.52 esq. Parada (Tues & Thurs 2–4pm;  23 42 7514).

By bus and colectivo Bayamo is well served by three main roads from Las Tunas, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba; interprovincial buses pull in at the Astro terminal ( 23 42 7482) in the eastern outskirts of town, on the Carretera Central towards Santiago de Cuba. From here, bicitaxis will take you into the centre for $10–20CUP. Colectivos also use the Astro terminal as their unofficial base.

Destinations Camagüey (5 daily; 4hr 10min); Ciego de Ávila (3 daily; 5hr 10min); Havana (3 daily; 14hr); Holguín (4 daily; 1hr 15min); Las Tunas (5 daily; 2hr 35min); Sancti Spíritus (5 daily; 6hr 20min); Santa Clara (3 daily; 9hr 30 min); Santiago de Cuba (5 daily; 2hr 45min).

By train The train station is about 1km east of the centre on Calle Línea esq. Calle José Antonio Saco ( 23 42 3056); you can catch a bicitaxi into the centre for around $10CUP.

Destinations Camagüey (4 weekly; 5hr 30min); Havana (4 weekly; 13hr); Manzanillo (2 daily; 3hr); Santiago de Cuba (1 daily; 4hr 15min).

By taxi Cubataxi is at Martí no.480 esq. Armando Estévez ( 23 42 4313).

By car Cubacar is based at Hotel Sierra Maestra ( 23 48 2990).

INFORMATION AND TOURS

Tourist information Infotur on Plaza del Himno e/ José Joaquín Palma y Padre Batista (Mon–Fri 8am–5pm;  23 42 3468) are the best bet for general information and maps.

Tours Anley Rosales Benitez at Bayamo Travel, opposite the Víazul bus station at Carretera Central 478 ( 05 29 22209,  bayamotravelagent.com), organizes drivers and accommodation in and around the Sierra Maestra and beyond, and offers tours, including trips to La Comandancia (from $100CUC for two people including horseriding) to La Otilia (from $50CUC for two people). Ecotur and Flora y Fauna provide details on excursions into the Sierra Maestra.

Festivals From Jan 6, Bayamo celebrates its Semana de Cultura which culminates on Jan 12 with a commemoration and a re-enactment of the day the locals set fire to the town in 1869. The Fiesta de la Cubanía takes place between October 13–20 with fiestas, music, dancing and other cultural events.

ACCOMMODATION

HOTELS

Hotel Encanto Royalton Calle Maceo 53 e/ J Palma y D Mármol  23 42 2290,  islazul.cu. This lurid lemon yellow hotel has been restored and now offers 33 smart but expensive rooms, arrayed around a central courtyard and fitted out in custard cream and chocolate shades, TVs, fridges, a/c and a minibar. The choice rooms are the four at the front, with balconies overlooking Parque Céspedes. Rates include breakfast. $70CUC

CASA PARTICULARES

Casa de Arturo & Esmeralda Zenea no.56A e/ William Soler y Capote  23 42 4051,  casa-bayamo.com. A top choice in Bayamo thanks to charming hosts Arturo and Esmeralda, who couldn’t be more helpful in making arrangements for their guests. Great food, too, and four comfortable rooms, the best of which is at the top of the house, with its own terrace. $25CUC

Casa de Juan Valdés (La Casa Azul) Pio Rosado no.64 e/ Ramírez y N López  23 42 3324. One well-appointed a/c room with fancy bedspread, pink marble floor and a large bathroom. There’s a large living room, small kitchen area and roof terrace for guests to use, too. $25CUC

Casa de Olga & José Parada no.16 (altos) e/ Martí y Mármol  23 42 3859,  yaimara.grm@infomed.sld.cu. Olga and José run a first-class B&B with two comfortable rooms off the living room of the main house. They have a great balcony from where to people-watch or drink the night away. Olga is very helpful with excursions. $20CUC

Villa Alina Ave. Francisco Vicente Aguilera no.240 e/ Martires y Milanés  23 42 4861,  alvaro.grm@infomed.sld.cu. Pleasant upper-level apartment, with front-facing terrace for breakfast. The two a/c rooms have a private bathroom and television apiece, plus there’s a free wake-up call from the neighbour’s trio of roosters – perfect for those setting off to the mountains. A third bedroom was in the making at the time of writing. $25CUC

EATING

Surprisingly, for such a small town, Bayamo boasts several new paladars. Around the park end of General García are several stalls selling snacks – some of them, like the corn pretzel-style cracker, are unique to Bayamo.

Bayamo Social Club Maceo no.12, Plaza del Himno  23 42 2271. A new paladar run by Darien Sanchez who graduated from the local tourism school as a chef and was student of the year in 2008. The setting is basic but the Creole food is hearty. There’s no fixed menu but expect tasty beef, grilled chicken and pork steaks. The menu is in moneda nacional, with mains at $3–6CUC. Daily 11am–midnight.

Don Quijote Ave. Antonio Maceo no.116 e/ Segunda y Mendive  23 48 2781. A pleasant new paladar serving up a huge spread of comida criolla, pastas, and seafood and shellfish. Try the house cocktail – it’s a lurid blue colour but it goes down a treat. To get there, take the turning opposite the Hotel Sierra Maestra and then the third turning on the left; the house is immediately on the left. Daily 11am–2am.

San Salvador de Bayamo Calle Maceo no.107 e/ Martí y Mármol  23 42 6942. A welcome addition to the Bayamo dining scene, this colonial-style paladar with dusty pink Moorish arches serves up a good honest spread of shellfish, kebabs, pork chops in rum, a tasty fish fillet in sweet and sour sauce, and lamb chops with raisins and ginger. Pizzas and lasagne also feature on the extensive menu, which lists prices in moneda nacional (mains $3–8CUC). The coconut ice cream served in a coconut is a treat. Daily 10am–11pm.

 Tropicrema Figueredo e/ Libertad y Céspedes. Pleasant, open-air ice-cream parlour, sometimes serving up cake as well. Tables are shared with the next person in the queue and everyone waits for everyone else to finish before leaving the table. Oddly, if they run out of ice cream, they’ll occasionally substitute Spam rolls. Daily 10am–10pm.

DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE

La Bodega Plaza del Himno (no phone). An eternally popular spot behind the church, where there’s beer and dancing until 2am in an intimate courtyard overlooking the Río Bayamo. Mon–Fri & Sun 9pm–1am, Sat 10pm–2am.

Casa de la Cultura General García  23 42 5917. Occasional evening theatre and dance performances (check the board outside for weekly listings).

Casa de la Trova Maceo no.111 (no phone). This is easily Bayamo’s best live music venue. The daily programme of traditional Cuban sounds is posted inside. Tues–Sun 10am–1am.

Centro Cultural Los Beatles Calle Zenea s/n e/ Figuero y Saco  23 42 1799. Named for the life-size statues of the fab four outside; live music is followed by a disco at weekends from 8pm to midnight. Tues–Sun 7pm–midnight.

Cine Céspedes Parque Céspedes. This cinema next to the post office on shows a mix of Cuban and international films.

DIRECTORY

Banks and exchange The Banco de Crédito y Comercio at General García 101 esq. Saco (Mon–Fri 8am–3pm, Sat 8am–11am) and the CADECA at Saco no.109 e/ General García y Mármol (Mon–Sat 8.30am–4pm) change travellers’ cheques and give cash advances on Visa and MasterCard.

Internet and telephones Telepunto de ETECSA, at General García no.109 (daily 8.30am–7pm), sells international and local phone cards and provides internet access for $6CUC/hr.

Medical Call  185 for a public ambulance. Bayamo’s general hospital is Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, at Carretera Central (vía Santiago) y 3ra,  23 42 5012. The most central 24hr policlínico doctors’ surgery is on Pío Rosado, and there’s a 24hr pharmacy, Piloto, at General García no.53 as well as an International Pharmacy at General García s/n e/ Figueredo y Lora (Mon–Fri 8am–noon, 1–5pm, Sat 8am–noon;  23 42 9596).

Police In an emergency call  116.

Post office The post office on Parque Céspedes (Mon–Sat 8am–8pm) has a DHL service and sells phone cards.

< Back to Santiago de Cuba and Granma

The Sierra Maestra

Cuba’s highest and most extensive mountain range, the Sierra Maestra stretches along the southern coast of the island, running the length of both Santiago and Granma provinces. The unruly beauty of the landscape – a vision of churning seas, undulating green-gold mountains and remote sugar fields – will take your breath away.

  Access to the mountains is restricted, but there are some excellent trails, most notably through the stunning cloudforest of the Parque Nacional Turquino to the island’s highest point, Pico Turquino, at 1974m. Although a considerable part of the Sierra Maestra falls in Santiago province, Parque Nacional Turquino included, the best chance you have to do any trekking is to base yourself in Bayamo, where you can arrange a guide and suitable transport (see Exploring the Sierra Maestra).

  The main trails begin at the lookout point of Alto del Naranjo, 5km southeast of Villa Santo Domingo, which marks the start of the mountains proper. When the mountains are off limits this is as far as many people get, but at 950m above sea level, the panoramic views are awe-inspiring. Most people, especially those planning to trek further into the mountains, make the journey up the immensely steep ascent road to Alto del Naranjo in a sturdy jeep provided by Cubataxi or Ecotur.

EXPLORING THE SIERRA MAESTRA

Visitors are not permitted to go trekking in the Sierra Maestra without a guide – if you head into the mountains on your own, you risk landing yourself in serious trouble with the authorities. Having a guide will not always guarantee entrance, however, as the routes are sometimes closed for various reasons – from reports of epidemics in the coffee plantations to visiting dignitaries.

INFORMATION, ACCESS AND ORGANIZED TOURS

The only places to get guaranteed information on access to the Sierra Maestra, including the areas in Santiago province, are the Ecotur office, in Hotel Sierra Maestra in Bayamo (Mon–Fri 8am–noon & 1–5pm, plus every other Sat 8am–noon;  23 48 7006, ext. 639,  agencia@ecotur.grm.tur.cu), and by calling the Centro de Visitantes (run by Flora y Fauna) in Santo Domingo, the village from where excursions begin ( 53 56 5349) or Hotel Villa Santo Domingo.

  Permission to access the high mountains from the Bayamo side is available from the Parque Nacional Turquino Centro de Visitantes (daily 7.30–8.30am; no phone), run by Flora y Fauna and located at the foothills of the mountains next door to Villa Santo Domingo; and through the more expensive Ecotur, which also runs an office at the Villa Santo Domingo. Permits from Flora y Fauna cost $20CUC to reach Comandancia de La Plata and include guide, entrance fee and water. The jeep to Alto de Naranjo, from where the Commandancia de La Plata walk begins, is paid separately at $5CUC return if you book a Flora y Fauna tour. Flora y Fauna charges $55CUC to scale Pico Turquino in one night including transport, food, accommodation, guide and park’s entrance, with the return to Santo Domingo. A two-night Turquino trek crossing the mountain finishing at Las Cuevas on the Carretera del Sur costs $70CUC including transport, food, accommodation, guide and park’s entrance.

  Ecotur also runs excursions into the mountains. The trip to La Plata from Santo Domingo starts at $33CUC including the jeep to Alto de Naranjo, guide, entrance fee, box lunch and water. Adding transport from Bayamo to the package costs $73CUC per person (minimum two people). One-night trips to Pico Turquino cost $68CUC including transport, guide, accommodation, park entrance and food. Ecotur also offers packages that include nights in the Villa Santo Domingo. Based in Bayamo, new private tour company Bayamo Travel also offer excursions in the mountains.

HIKING PRACTICALITIES

You must arrive between 7.30 and 10.30am on the day that you want to visit or else you may be turned back (guides arrive early to be allocated to their visitors for the day but leave swiftly if there is no one waiting). The last daily departure to the Comandancia is at 1pm (11am in the wet season). The last departure for Pico Turquino is at 9.30am year-round.

  There is no public transport from Bayamo to Santo Domingo. A one-way taxi fare costs around $35CUC. Note that the obligatory jeep transport from the Centro de Visitantes to Alto de Naranjo costs $5CUC through Flora y Fauna, but $14CUC through Ecotur if you have not bought its hiking packages. Trekkers must bring their own sleeping bag for the overnight trips and sugary snacks for this trip. Everything else is provided.

Pico Turquino trail

At 1974m above sea level, Pico Turquino stands proud as the highest point in Cuba. From Alto de Naranjo it’s approximately 12km to the summit, and while it’s possible to ascend and return in a day, you are better off arranging with your guide to stay overnight at the very rudimentary Campamento de Joaquín mountain hut and stretching the trek over a day and a half. This is not a trek for the faint-hearted: the final kilometre is a very steep slog, though not dangerous. Take something warm to wear, as temperatures plummet after nightfall and even the days are cool in the high cloudforest.

  The Pico Turquino is overhung with plants and ancient tree ferns, the forest air exuding an earthy dampness and the ground oozing with thick red mud. Through the breaks in the dense foliage you can occasionally see blue-green mountain peaks and birds circling lazily above the gullies. Just before the final ascent, a short ladder to the left of the path gives a panoramic view over the surrounding landscape; it’s worth grabbing the opportunity at this stage in your trek as the summit itself is often shrouded in thick clouds.

Comandancia de La Plata trail

A less taxing alternative to the Pico Turquino trail is the trek to the Comandancia de La Plata, 3km west of Alto de Naranjo, where Fidel Castro based his rebel headquarters during the Revolution. The trail is well marked and you can complete the reasonably strenuous climb in around four hours return. The headquarters are spread over two or three sites, the first of which is the very basic hospital (it’s little more than a wooden hut) that Che Guevara founded and ran. The second site comprises the guard post, a small but worthy museum and the grave of a rebel who fell in battle. Most evocative are the wooden huts where the rebels lived and ate, which were covered with branches to protect them from enemy air strikes. Castro’s small quarters consist of a rudimentary bedroom with a simple camp bed, a kitchen, a fridge, a study and a secret trap door to escape through if he was under attack. Those wanting to take pictures of the rebel camp will need to pay an extra $5CUC at the Casa Medina rest stop, halfway along the walk.

Buey Arriba and the Comandancia de Che

Excursions to Buey Arriba and the Mando de Puesto de Che are available from Bayamo Travel

Fifty-four kilometres southwest of Bayamo in the Sierra Maestra is the small town of BUEY ARRIBA, where the Comandancia de Che is the starting point for a 45-minute walk uphill to the hamlet of La Otilia, the last rebel command post (Mando de Puesto de Che) of Che Guevara before he was dispatched to Villa Clara during Fidel Castro’s 1956–59 rebel campaign. There are panoramic views of the Sierra Maestra all the way up, while the small command post is now the Casa Museo La Otilia (daily 7.30am–4.30; $1CUC), with displays of artefacts from Che’s short stay.

  In Buey Arriba itself, the Museo Municipal (Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–noon; $1CUC;  23 24 3516) exhibits a white stuffed mule used by Camilo Cienfuegos.

ACCOMMODATION: SIERRA MAESTRA

Campismo La Sierrita  23 56 5584. Beside the Río Yara, 50km southeast of Bayamo and 14km before Santo Domingo, this rural and idyllic spot has 27 cabins with self-contained bathrooms. Call in at the Agéncia de Reservaciónes de Campismo in Bayamo (General Garcíá no.112 e/ Saco y Figueredo, Mon–Fri 8–11am & 3–7pm;  23 42 2425) to book with the Cubamar rep and make sure the campsite is open. If the Cubamar rep is not there you will need to book through Cubamar in Havana ( 78 33 2523), as the Campismo office does not deal with bookings by foreigners. $36CUC

Casa Sierra Maestra  05 26 10846. Also known as Casa del Junco, this is the best casa particular for the mountains, a welcoming house on the opposite side of the river to the Villa Santa Domingo; to get there, cross the river on the large stones downhill behind the Flora & Fauna office. The five rooms currently share bathrooms, and owner Ulises Junco and his wife Esperanza offer delicious food ($5–10CUC); just 200m upriver, there’s a natural pool to soak away your cares. Horseriding excursions can be arranged ($5–10CUC), and if you’re in luck you’ll be there for the regular roasted pig gatherings. $20CUC

Villa Santo Domingo  23 56 5568. The best place to stay in the mountain area, in the foothills of the mountains (but not in a restricted area), about 68km southwest of Bayamo. Set on the banks of the Río Yara, the picturesque cabins (which now include twenty new Alpine-style villas, for which rates include breakfast) make an ideal spot to relax even if access to the mountains is denied. Cabins $45CUC, villas $70CUC

< Back to Santiago de Cuba and Granma

Manzanillo

Though run down and ramshackle, MANZANILLO, 64km west from Bayamo and 75km up the coast from Playa Las Coloradas, still possesses some charm. Now a fairly pedestrian coastal fishing village, it was established around its harbour at the end of the eighteenth century and for a time enjoyed a brisk trade in contraband goods. The sugar trade replaced smuggling as the primary business hereabouts in the nineteenth century, but the town’s heyday had passed and it never grew much bigger.

  Manzanillo’s sole attraction these days is its fantastic Moorish architecture, dating from the 1910s and 1920s. The sensual buildings, all crescents, curves and brilliant tiles, are best seen in the town’s central Parque Céspedes. Most eye-catching is the richly decorated gazebo presiding over the park, giving an air of bohemian elegance well suited to the sphinx statues in each corner and the melee of benches, palm trees and faux-nineteenth-century streetlamps. Opposite the park, the pink Edificio Quirch is no less splendid, although its crescent arches and tight lattice design are rather wasted on the couple of convertible-peso shops it houses.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: MANZANILLO

By plane The Aeropuerto Internacional Sierra Maestra ( 23 57 7401) is 7km from Manzanillo on Carretera a Cayo Espino, and has flights to Havana (3 weekly; 2hr 30min). Unmetered taxis charge $4–5CUC to get into town.

By train The station is 1km east of the centre.

Destinations Bayamo (2 daily; 3hr); Havana (4 weekly; 15hr); Santiago de Cuba (1 daily; 6hr).

By colectivo There are no tourist buses from Bayamo and Pilón; if you’re coming from Bayamo you’ll have to catch one of the colectivo taxis ($15–30CUC).

By taxi A one-way taxi ride from Bayamo will cost $35CUC.

INFORMATION

Information Infotur is at the Hotel Guacanyabo, Ave. Camilo Cienfuegos s/n (Mon–Fri 8.15am–noon & 1–4.45pm, plus alternate Saturdays;  23 57 4412). There’s also an office in the Aeropuerto Internacional Sierra Maestra ( 23 57 4434). Both branches offer basic information.

Currency exchange Should you need to change money, head to the CADECA at Martí no.184 (Mon–Sat 8.30am–6pm, Sun 8am–1pm).

ACCOMMODATION

Casa Adrián and Tonia Mártires de Viet Nam no.49 esq. Caridad  23 57 3028. A good casa particular offering an independent apartment with a kitchen; tasty meals are available too. $25CUC

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Parque Nacional de Demajagua

Mon–Sat 8am–5pm, Sun 8am–noon • $1CUC, photos $5CUC, videos $5CUC • There is no public transport; a taxi from Manzanillo will cost $20CUC return

Twenty kilometres south of Manzanillo, the Parque Nacional de Demajagua is a pleasant place to while away an hour or two. It was from here that Carlos Manuel de Céspedes set out to win Cuban independence from Spain, and with splendid views over the bay and the cane fields, the one-time sugar plantation is a picture of serenity.

  The small building housing the museum was built in 1968 (the centenary of the uprising), the original plantation having been completely destroyed by shells from a Spanish gunboat on October 17, 1868. The museum itself is depressingly sparse, with a brief history of the plantation forming the main part. The highlight is the first Cuban flag ever made, hand-sewn by Céspedes’ mistress. The grounds, while not extensive, are a nice spot to relax – look out for the Demajagua bell, built into a dry-stone wall on the far side of the lawn, with which Céspedes summoned his slaves to freedom.

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Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma

South of Niquero on the coastal road, the province’s southwestern tip is commandeered by the Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma, which starts at Campismo Las Coloradas (open to Cubans only), and stretches some 20km south to the tiny fishing village of Cabo Cruz. The forested interior of the park is littered with trails, but its main claim to fame is that it was here, on the park’s western coastline just south of Playa Las Coloradas, that the Granma yacht deposited Fidel Castro on December 2, 1956.

THE GRANMA

Under constant surveillance and threat from the Batista regime following his release from prison, Fidel Castro left Havana for exile in Mexico in the summer of 1955. Along with other exiled Cubans sympathetic to his ideas, he formed the 26 July Movement in exile – the Cuban counterpart was run by Frank País – and began to gather weapons and funds to facilitate the return to Cuba.

  Castro was anxious to return as soon as possible. Leaks within the organization had already resulted in the confiscation of arms by the Mexican government and there was an ever-present threat of assassination by Batista’s contacts in Mexico. By October the following year Castro had gathered enough support and money and declared himself ready to return. He bought a 58ft yacht called Granma from a North American couple for $15,000, and hatched a plan to sail it from Tuxpan, on the east coast of Veracruz in Mexico, to Oriente, following the tracks of José Martí – who had made a similar journey sixty years before.

  At around 1.30am on November 25, 1956, with 82 men crammed into the eight-berth yacht, the Granma set off for Cuba. Because of the stormy weather all shipping was kept in port and the yacht had to slip past the Mexican coastguard to escape. Foul weather, cramped conditions and a malfunctioning engine meant that the journey that was supposed to take five days took eight. The plan had been to come ashore at Niquero, where Celia Sánchez, a key revolutionary, was waiting to ferry them to safety, but on December 2 they ran out of petrol just 35m from the coast, and at 6am the Granma capsized just south of Playa Las Coloradas. As Che later commented: “It wasn’t a landing, it was a shipwreck.”

  Exhausted, sick and hungry, the 82 young men waded ashore only to find themselves faced with a kilometre of virtually impenetrable mangroves and sharp saw grass. They eventually made camp at Alegría de Pío, a sugar-cane zone near the coast, with the intention of resting for a few hours. It was to be a baptism of fire as Batista’s troops, who had been tipped off about their arrival and had been strafing the area for several hours, came across the men and attacked. Completely unprepared, the rebels ran for their lives, scattering in all directions. Thanks to the efforts of Celia Sánchez, who had left messages at the houses of peasants sympathetic to the rebels’ cause, the rebels were able to regroup two weeks later. It was hardly a glorious beginning, but the opening shots of the Revolution had been fired.

Monumento Portada de la Libertad

Daily 7am–6pm • $2CUC including guide

South of Playa Las Coloradas, which is named after the murky red colour that the mangrove jungle gives to the water here, is the exact spot of the landing where Fidel Castro’s rebels waded ashore marked by the Monumento Portada de la Libertad. Flanked on either side by mangrove forest hedged with jagged saw grass, the kilometre-long path to the monument (which starts a short way from the museum) makes a pleasant walk even for those indifferent to the Revolution, although even the most jaded cynics will find it hard to resist the guides’ enthusiasm for the subject, their compelling narrative (in Spanish) bringing to life the rebels’ journey through murky undergrowth and razor-sharp thicket.

  The tour also takes in a life-size replica of the yacht, which guides can sometimes be persuaded to let you clamber aboard; and a rather spartan museum with photographs, maps and an emotive quotation from Castro on the eve of the crossing that neatly sums up his determination to succeed: “Si salimos, llegamos. Si llegamos, entramos, y si entramos, triumfamos” (If we leave, we’ll get there. If we get there we’ll get in, and if we get in we will win).

El Guafe

Mon–Fri 8.30am–5pm, Sat & Sun 8am–2pm • $5CUC including a guide

The interior of the Parque Nacional Desembarcoa is made up of idyllic woodland that skirts the western verge of the Sierra Maestra. From Las Coloradas you can walk to the start of El Guafe, one of the four trails in the park, celebrated for the intriguing stone petroglyphs found in the vicinity, the remnants of Indian culture. It’s an easy and reasonably well-signposted walk – roughly a 3km circuit – which you can do on your own, although the guides have extensive knowledge of both the history of the area and the cornucopia of birds and butterflies, trees and plants you’ll see along the way. Look out for the ancient cactus nicknamed “Viejo Testigo” (the Old Witness), thought to be five hundred years old and now so thick and twisted it has formed a robust, tree-like trunk.

  The small, human-form petroglyphs, sculpted with haunting, hollowed-out eyes, are in a low-roofed cave musty with the smell of bats, probably used as a crypt by the aboriginal Indians, who carved the idols as guardians. Fragments of ceramics and a large clay jar decorated with allegorical characters were also found, supporting the theory. A second cave close to the exit of the trail houses another petroglyph known as the Idolo del Agua (the water idol), thought to have been carved into the rock to bless and protect the sweet water of the cave – a rarity in the area. Along the walk, look out for the tiny, iridescent green, red and blue Cartacuba bird, which has a call a bit like a grunting pig.

Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma trails

Cubamar in Havana ( 78 31 2891) can arrange group excursions (minimum ten people)

Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma’s other trails run along the southern coastline 20–30km east of El Guafe. Highlights include the Agua Fina cave, roughly 20km from El Guafe, and, some 7km further east, the Morlotte and El Furstete caves as well as Las Terrazas, a natural coastline shelf sculpted by geographic formations to look like man-made terraces.

ACCOMMODATION: PARQUE DESEMBARCO DEL GRANMA

Campismo Las Coloradas  23 90 1126. Just outside the park, this campismo has simple and clean chalets with a/c and hot water, along with a restaurant and bar. Bookings are essential at weekends, when this is a favourite target for Cubans. Bookings can only be made through Cubamar in Havana or Bayamo. At the time of writing, the campsite was only open to Cubans, though this may well change.

Hotel Niquero Calle Martí no.100 esq. Céspedes, Niquero  23 59 2367. A basic, quiet and serviceable hotel 13km north of the park and the closest accommodation for visitors to the park. Rates include breakfast. $28CUC

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Pilón

Tiny sugar town PILÓN, 37 kilometres southeast of Niquero and 8km west of Marea del Portillo, is like a remnant of past times, with open-backed carts laden with sugar cane zigzagging across the roads and the smell of boiling molasses enveloping the town in its thick scent. The most useful establishment in town is the local service station on the Marea del Portillo road, which sells sweets, snacks and cold drinks. It’s also a good place to ask whether the Carretera del Sur to Santiago is passable.

DRIVING THE SOUTHERN COAST ROAD

Though it suffered damage from Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, which compounded the havoc wreaked by previous hurricanes, the lonely southern coast road between Pilón and Santiago de Cuba offers one of the most exhilarating drives in Cuba, with the Sierra Maestra rearing up directly from the roadside, and the ocean swirling from a Caribbean postcard-blue to an indigo black. The road undulates up and down the mountainside and, at one point, due to persistent damage, has fallen into the sea; it is sometimes passable by negotiating the track and the sea. Sometimes passing inches from the ocean, skirting rockfalls and crossing or diverting via broken bridges, this is a hair-raising route, and you should always seek out local advice before setting out to drive it, either in Niquero or Pilón in the west, or in Santiago. The journey from Pilón to Santiago (where the last petrol station is) takes 6–7 hours because of the state of the road.

Casa Museo Celia Sánchez Manduley

Tues–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9am–1pm • $1CUC

The small but engaging Casa Museo Celia Sánchez Manduley, erstwhile home of revolutionary Celia Sánchez, offers a ragbag of exhibits, including Taíno ceramics, shrapnel from the Wars of Independence and a photographic history of Pilón.

Pilón’s beaches

There’s little else to see in Pilón and even less to do, but the two beaches, Playa Media Luna, with beautiful views over the Sierra Maestra and a rocky coastline good for snorkelling, and the narrow white-sand Playa Punta, have an unruliness that’s refreshingly different from the smarter resort beaches.

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Marea del Portillo

Smack in the middle of Granma’s southern coast, backed by a sweeping wave of mountains, is the resort of Marea del Portillo. Accessible from Granma’s west coast and 150km southwest from Bayamo, the resort is set on a black-sand beach which looks impressive from a distance, but like a muddy field close up. It won’t be most people’s first choice for a beach holiday, although the white sands of tiny Cayo Blanco just offshore go some way to making up for this.

  Appealing largely to older Canadians and Germans, as well as a few families, Marea del Portillo doesn’t have the universal appeal of some resorts, especially as there is little infrastructure – just two hotels on the beach and another nearby, plus a dive shop. The surrounding countryside is beautiful, however, including the picturesque El Salto waterfall, and there are eighteen dive sites, including the El Real Spanish galleon.

ARRIVAL AND ACTIVITIES: MAREA DEL PORTILLO

By car Transport links to and from Marea del Portillo are diabolical – if you can rent a car before you arrive, do so, and make sure you have sufficient cash before you arrive, as the only banks in the province are in Bayamo.

Activities Club Amigo’s Albacora dive centre ( 23 59 7134) rents out equipment and offers dives from $30CUC, as well as deep-sea fishing and trips to Cayo Blanco. Land-based excursions from the resort, organized by the Cubatur outlet at the hotel, include a trip to the Desembarco del Granma national park ($45CUC per person).

ACCOMMODATION

Club Amigo Marea del Portillo Carretera Granma Km 12.5  23 59 7121. Marea del Portillo’s all-inclusive beach hotel has two restaurants, nine bars and a handsome pool area. There are double rooms and larger cabins, most of which have views over the beach. Rooms $60, cabins $92CUC

Villa Turística Punta Piedra Carretera de Pilón  23 59 7035. A further 2km along the same road from Club Amigo Marea del Portillo, this hotel has 13 basic rooms, including triples, and a restaurant, bar and pool, although it’s not right next to the beach. Rates include breakfast. $$40CUC

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