Before the Invasion

By Maxine Bates

My fellow Travel SIG member Helen and I visited Cuba some months ago, but it seems fitting that I finally find time to write about our trip as Fidel Castro dies. We had wanted to see more than the capital and a beach resort so opted for an eight day tour staying in four places and using casas as accommodation. These are rather like English B&Bs so we stayed with local families rather than in hotels. Some were better than others!  Upon arrival in Havana – via Madrid - we were picked up from the airport late at night and taken to Casa Dalia. Let’s just say we would never have found it on our own as located on a small street through a narrow door and up several flights of steep stairs. The owners only spoke Spanish, so there was a lot of pantomiming at breakfast the following morning!

Our first day was at leisure before meeting up with the rest of the tour group for dinner so we opted to do the hop on/off bus tour which covered most of the city. We alighted in Republic Square where two large buildings displayed the faces of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. We also spent time in the Christopher Columbus cemetery which is the third largest cemetery in the world and largest in South/Central America. We were offered a tour but declined and wandered around on our own having enquired about the highlights. They included a monument to firefighters and one for infertile women. We also saw a funeral cortege arrive during our visit. The US embassy was pointed out on the bus tour, but you probably wouldn’t know it was there otherwise. The Capitol building is based on the one in Washington DC and is surrounded by bright coloured old American cars ready to transport tourists around the capital. We found the Bacardi building where you pay a small free to ride in the elevator for views over the city. Taking a break from the heat we found Sloppy Joe’s. The bar was founded in 1917 and became our favourite as a great place to sip the Cuban cocktails of mojitos and Cuba libres.

Having met the rest of our small tour group, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, the following morning we set off for Playa Girón, otherwise known as Bay Of Pigs. This was the site of the infamous failed invasion of Cuba and now home to a museum. Then onward to the city of Cienfuegos where the architecture is heavily influenced by the French migrants who settled there in the 19th century with many buildings having been given UNESCO world heritage status. “Cienfuegos is the city I like the best,” wrote Beni More, one of Cuba’s most important musicians in the first half of the 20th century and who now has a statue on the Prado, one of the wide avenues. I had wanted to visit the Palacio De Valle and was delighted when our tour guide took us there for a free cocktail on their roof terrace accompanied by live music. Our accommodation in Cienfuegos was the lovely Ines Maria where breakfast included cereal, fruit, sausages, omelettes, cucumber, cheese and bread with coffee taken on the roof terrace. A new cruise terminal is being constructed in the city so it may not remain quite as sleepy for much longer.

En route to Trinidad, we stopped in Santa Clara which is the final resting place of Che Guevara, even though he actually spent the end of his life in Bolivia. It was in Santa Clara that Che Guevara and his rebels successfully derailed a military train carrying weapons and ammunition to be used against Fidel Castro, an act  credited with winning the revolution. The city of Trinidad was founded in 1514 and is filled with cobbled streets – do not attempt to walk in anything other than the flattest shoes! – and colourful houses. The shops were quirky, selling such items as handbags made from ring pulls - a case of waste not, want not! Although very pretty it is decidedly third world as we lost both water and electricity supply at some points during our two night stay at Hostal Rosita. Not good in sweltering temperatures when you need cold showers and air con! The evening entertainment was a traditional buffet dinner followed by group salsa dancing lesson with the option to visit The Music House for live music later. This venue turned out to be outdoor seating on concrete steps surrounding a stage.  As we started getting bitten by insects, we didn’t stay long!   

The area around Trinidad was once the heart of Cuba’s sugar industry and a lot of sugar cane is still processed here. We visited an old mill and sugar plantation and hiked through Parque El Cubano to a lovely waterfall. Unfortunately by the time we reached Playa Ancon, said to be one of Cuba’s best beaches, it started raining so it was a very quick dip before a cocktail in a coconut shell. La canchanchara is the famous local drink from Trinidad made with rum, honey and lemon. More like a dessert than a drink!  Our final destination was Vinales where we stayed at Casa Alvy Y Ada.  After a boat ride through the Cuevas Del Indio and a walk through the Slave Cave we visited a tobacco plantation including a demonstration of cigar rolling. The afternoon was at leisure so we found a tapas bar for lunch washed down with pina colada, where we were presented with a full size bottle of rum to add our own alcohol. I can’t ever imagine that happening in the UK! We then visited Vinales botanical gardens where, for a small donation, we were given a guide who explained the fruits and flowers and trees.  We said goodbye to our driver and guide and boarded the equivalent of a National Express coach back to Havana for my personal highlight of the tour, a ride in one of the old American cars around the capital. As our group had three cars it became somewhat of a race with horns tooting and all of us waving our arms in the air. Great fun! On our final day in Havana we visited Plaza Vieja’s camera obscura, saw the room where Ernest Hemingway stayed for six years in Hotel Ambos Mundos and took a tour of the Havana Club rum factory, rounded off with a strong Cuba libre in their bar. Too many of those and we could have been refused boarding!

I’m glad I visited Cuba before the Americans descend en masse because the island is going to change. Whether that makes things better or worse remains to be seen. And I’m glad I saw more of the island than just Havana and a beach. But would I return? Probably not as it was a bit ‘rough and ready’ and very strange having no internet access or phone signal and not seeing any Western branded products. If you’re thinking of visiting the real Cuba… go now before it changes forever.

First published in VISA 132 (April 2017)