Cuba - June 6, 2015

Saturday, June 6, 2015: Santa Clara, Cuba

Full of expectation I looked out of the window after waking: no, still no sun; all was gray and it rained, and rained and kept raining. Great. Just what one imagines Cuba and the Caribean to be like.  Anyway, breakfast was very nice and we nevertheless ventured out into the town. There are 3 main sights to visit in Santa Clara it appears, so we fulfilled our obligations. We looked at the wrecked Batista government trains that Che Guevera and his fellow revolutionaries ambushed, derailed and captured (both the ammunition it carried and more than a couple of hundred government soldiers). In between in passing we stopped at some music street festival for children, perused some book stores (nothing of interest, just the usual books on Fidel, Che and similar) and continued braving the rain by walking (!) to the national monument to Chez Guevra that was a couple of miles outside the city center.  We didn't quite realize how far it was, didn't quite understand the lack of street signs and frequently totally misunderstood the directions a number of well-meaning locals gave us. It occurred to us that taking a taxi might have been a good idea.

We passed some very picturesque but also quite poor neighborhoods and eventually we arrived at the Plazza de Revolutions. By this time it had begun raining like crazy, it really was lashing down and we fled to the Che museum and mausoleum. We arrived just in time. Normally they close at 4pm on a Saturday but as it was raining so heavily and very few visitors could be expected the 'workoholic' employees decided to shut at 2pm.  We arrived shortly before which must have pleased them. Still we managed to view the Che exhibition which was very well done and very informative. A kind lady also took us to the mausoleum with an eternal flame (lit by Fidel in 1997 I think it was) were Che and some fellow revolutionaries were resting. This also was tastefully built and arranged. I even understood most of the explanations the lady gave us about the mausoleium and Chez - perhaps because she slowed down a lot for my sake. To understand even a couple of words among the normal Cuban machinegun fast language that also often seems to come out in a highly mumbled way is near impossible. It just leaves you buffled when they questioningly look at you in the expectation that you have a clue what they just told you. A repetitiion in the same fast pace usually helps very little.

The Che memorial across from the museum and mausoleum is also very impressive in a sort of Stalinist-kind grand architecture. North Korea would also favour such a design. Poor Che stands high up on a large concret pillar looking both down on you and far into the distance. His stature is huge; of course I took the obligatory photos.  A few soldiers lingered but seemed to be quite bored. They like everyone else was hiding from the lashing rain. We found shelter in a little souvenir kiosk (the bookstore was closed of course), got thoroughly drenched and then managed to hop on a horse-drawn taxi cart to take us into town.

The driver was not slow to discover a business opportunity and insisted on taking us to the train museum we had already visited earlier in the day. He also took us to the regional Communist party headquarters - but not in order to make us join the party or hand us our membership cards. He only wanted to show us a (smaller, now man-size) stature of Che holding a baby in his arms.  This is a very famous stature and of course we admired it and I did not hesitate to take some more photos. Eventually the driver relented to take us back to the main town square (needless to say it was still lashing down like crazy). We felt sorry for the poor and very obliging horse which the driver whipped more frequently than we thought was necesary. He overcharged us too but we didn't protest hoping that he would get the horse some good food.

Then we rushed to an internet shop where after some waiting we managed to get online to check emails and book a hotel in Havana. We booked the quite inexpensive Riviera - apparently a hotel from the 1950s and very much kept in 1950s style where the American mafia used to assemble before the revolution. Apparently it was also built with mafia money.

But first things first: Saturday night out in Santa Clara. The town was really lively and there was music and people everywhere. We met an Irish guy, Paul (at our casa), a guy from Manchester, Matthew, and an Australian girl (Emily) and the evening was good fun. First sat for ages in a bar, the Europa, and discussed some serious matters, then went to a music bar, sat outside and had a good time. Eventually we ended up in a disco, which was totally packed and frequented only by Cubans. Was good fun too. The music was no different than anywhere else in the world (meaning lots of really loud noise, lol) and people were very friendly. A good night were had by all. At the end even George did some dancing. Matthew and Emily are traveling the world, all alone, and Paul will return to Ireland soon.