SANTIAGO DE CUBA
Well, we hit the Viazul bus line again, for the next leg of out trip to Santiago de Cuba, at the far western tip of the island. Sorry to use the same picture, but it's the only bus picture I have. [It's a good one, though] Anyhow, little did we know that the trip was going to be over 12 hours long. We were pretty hungry when we got there. Especially Jim. It was a good way to see the Cuban countryside, though. We arrived on the evening of December 9th, 2004.
We stayed at the Hotel San Juan, which was on San Juan Hill, where USA, Cuban and Spanish troops faced off in battle on July 1st, 1898. You know ... the battle where Teddy Roosevelt charged up the hill. The hotel was very shaded and leafy. It was spread out in a number of buildings - we were in the big one at the top of the diagram.
Lobby of the San Juan - complete with Christmas tree.
The pool at the San Juan.
Strolling musicians at the poolside every afternoon. We should have bought their CD ... but didn't. 
The Russian-made Selmer sax played by one of the band members, It was rusted and falling apart, but he sounded great.
Towel sculptures by the maids were pretty much standard in Santiago as well. This one appears to be a dying elephant with REALLY long ears.
This blurry pic shows Jim in the local Servimed outlet, a private chain of health clinics set up for gringos. The two young fellas 'befriended' us and took us there. You see Jim proudly holding up the calamine lotion for his recently aquired mosquito [or maybe sand flea?] bites in Trinidad.
At a square in downtown Santiago called the Balcon de Velazquez, the site of an ancient fort, looking west. 
Ditto, looking east.
Another self-proclaimed compadre who took us on a tour of the city.
The yellow building with the four windows in the dead centre of the picture is the boyhood home of Fidel Castro.
Diego de Velazquez [1460–1524] was a Spanish conquistador who became the first governor of Cuba.
Moving on, we happened on a nightclub where an afternoon rehearsal was happening. We went in and watched for a while.  A statue in the centre of Parque Cespedes, in the centre of the city. 
This was some sort of a municipal government building. Beautiful.
The Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardi Moreau. It was originally the house of one of Santiago's early mayors - and yes he was one of THOSE Bacardis.
We weren't supposed to take any pictures in the museum, but a nice attendant let me sneak this one shot of an old torpedo - made of wood. The top 'hood' is open - you can see the separate chambers for the motor and explosives. Note the little props on the left, and the spike on the right, presumably the detonator. Very cool.
Stopping for a cerveza Buccanaro on the terrace of the Hotel Casa Grande, overlooking the park. Jim's on the right.
A nice shot of the park from the terrace. 
Here's Jim in front of the Hotel Liberdad, where we almost ended up staying. Glad we wound up at the San Juan, though.
Shot of a nice building, taken from the window of the Rex Hotel, where Fidel and his troops stayed before their attack on the Moncada Barracks. [More on that below] 
Jim at the entrance of the Moncada Barracks, which Fidel and his guerrillas attacked Batista's men in July of 1953. It was one of the early efforts of Castro's takeover, and was so unsuccessful that things were put on hold for 3 1/2 years. The bullet holes are faked, although supposedly fairly representational. The building is now a museum and a school. 
Many weapons of destruction were on display inside.
Molotov cocktails, too.
We went to the Casa de la Trova in Santiago. Here's an impressionistic interpretation of how it would look if you were on acid. 
The band was Los Jubilados, one of those multi-generational Buena-Vista-Social-Club-like outfits, playing very traditional son music..
They were very good. I later found out they are featured performers on Jane Bunnett's 'Alma de Santiago album. [Blue Note 2001] 
I took this picture when the band was on a break, and the old guys were sitting down. After I took it, the one on the right said I had to give him a peso. So I did. A cathedral on the outskirts of Santiago that Jim visited. It was a stop on the Pope's 1998 visit to Cuba.  Another cathedral picture. 
One of our favorite memories of Santiago was Marcial, our Haitian driver and his [semi] faithful 1950 Pontiac. It was an illegal cab, which meant he couldn't come on the hotel grounds, but was waiting right here just at the end of the parking lot every day when we ventured out. He drove us all around town for mere pesos. We thought he was a great guy, and he seemed to genuinely like us too. 
The back-seat-passenger view. The chain you see hanging from the window was his horn button. He would just touch it and it would make contact and beep the horn. You REALLY need a horn in Santiago, with all the cars and cococabs and pedicabs and bicycles and horse-drawn carriages and predestrians all going everywhere whenever they felt like it. Marcial always had his tape deck blasting out merengue music when we were roaring around. I commented on one that I particularly liked, and he made a copy for me. 
When we were on our way to Morro Castle, the car ground to a halt. Marcial got out his tools, took the carburetor apart, blew a bunch of junk out of it and the fuel filter, put everything back together, and we were on our way in five minutes. 
Your average Cuban taxi trunk - tools, water, gas, oil and a spare tire at least as bald as all the others on the car. 
Well, Jim got to pose with Marcial. So it's only fair I got to as well. Note the Montreal Canadiens baseball cap he's wearing. 
Here we are exploring San Juan Hill. It is now a park with many statues and monuments and other phallic symbols.
Paul climbs up on a cannon. Just because it was there ... A bronze statue of a 'Rough Rider' in the centre of the park.  A curious feature of the park was a carnival that had been built by the Japanese in the mid-1980s. It was either shut down or just open on weekends. We couldn't figure out which. Here we see Jim 'flying the friendly skies' of Cubana Airlines. 
This mural was part of a restaurant in the carnival. It was open - just didn't have any customers. Or maybe we had drifted into the twilight zone. It seemed like it.
A view of our hotel from San Juan Hill - the part that we stayed in. I think. Here's Paul with a typical Cuban meal - some kind of meat, rice and beans pilaf, fried bananas, and a wee bit of veggies. And a Buccanero. 
On our last day, we went on on a tour of the neighbourhood near our hotel. One of the things we wanted to see was the Museo de la Imogen [The Museum of Images]. I took this picture of the outside, but failed to notice that Marcial was wiping his nose with his shirt at the time. Ah, well.
Inside the museum. There was a huge display of still, video and movie cameras, tape decks, radios, televisions and so on. Our guide Carmen is standing in front of a display of pretty darned near every Eastman-Kodak still camera ever made [up to 1961 of course]. She was very nice, and we thought she looked kinda like Natalie Wood. A photo of Big Chief Fidel in the Museo. What was the deal there, we wondered? 
Jim's obviously pretty excited about this vintage Wulitzer juke box. And who wouldn't be?
As we neared the end of our last day in Santiago, Marcial climbed up on the fender of his car and asked me if I would take his picture and send it to him. I said I would. We all hugged when it was time to part. |
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