Guantanamo, Santiago and Bayamo
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 15 May 2011 19:58
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Driving out of Baracoa, as throughout our travels so far,
meant running the gauntlet of local hitchhikers and road-side sellers. Lines of
people holding up fruit of all descriptions - pineapples, mangoes,
plantains, bananas, naming just a few, as well as Cuban chocolate (an acquired
taste -very unrefined) and small slabs of peanut brittle, in
fact anything else that may induce tourists to slam the
brakes on and buy something. Once out of town the opportunistic
sellers thinned out but re-appeared in the small villages, as did the
hitchhikers although at any time anywhere somebody would hurl themselves
out of the shade of a tree and almost into the path of oncoming vehicles.
Their frantic waving at whatever was coming was their only
chance of getting them a few miles further along the road.
The drive southwards was through beautiful mountain roads akin
to tropical rain forest, with glimpses of the coast when we were not forced
inland by the terrain. The roads were sheer luxury after the battering we had
given the car on the way to Baracoa with just the odd easily seen pothole
to negotiate. There was little other traffic to worry us. It's easy to see how
Castro and his revolutionaries managed to evade capture during
their campaign as you could hide huge armies in the mountains of
Cuba.
Travelling south the landscape became gradually more
arid, with rainfall obviously in short supply. The palms were replaced by scrub
as we finally viewed the turquoise Caribbean Sea on the coastal road to
Guantanamo Bay, where the USA retains an infamous presence with its foreign
detainees from lands to the east. It wasn't always this way, in fact the USA
used their 'leased' land at Guantanamo Bay to hold thousands of Cubans
that had illegally entered the USA some years ago when relations between
the two countries had hit rock bottom. The Cubans see this area as an
illegally occupied part of their country. But, there appears to be a status quo
and perhaps the future will produce better relations between the two
nations as Cuban history is so inextricably linked to the USA over hundreds
of years. There used to be a place to view the American part of the bay but this
is no longer open. No sign of their activities was apparent apart
from an increased military presence of Cuban forces and some large signs with
revolutionary slogans which would never be seen by the Americans in any case as
they never have access outside of their sector. And of the famous song
'Guantanamera' sung by many popular recording artists and heard just about every
night everywhere in towns and cities across Cuba and beyond - well it's
about a girl from the Guantanamo area of course.
We stopped briefly to look round before moving on to
Santiago da Cuba where we planned to stay for one night. Santiago is Cuba's
second largest city and situated on the south coast at the south-eastern end of
Cuba. Driving round Santiago proved challenging and again tension between
navigator and driver was heightened. We decided against staying at a Casa
Particular when we came upon an interesting Bijou hostel which was also
recommended in the guide book. Before we could even get out of the car to
enquire at reception a face appeared at the drivers window and a man named
Rudolph introduced himself. Firstly he knew of a Casa Particular we could
stay at (and which he was acting as an agent for) stating the hotel was full,
however as Phil exited the car to find out for himself Rudolph explained
that perhaps there might be a hostel room available after all!
There was indeed one room left complete with minibar and
satellite TV at 45 CUCs per night but with no window - thus the price, but it
did have a mini-bar. We took the room and agreed for Rudolph to guard
the Geeley for 2 CUCs per night which is the going rate for car guardianage in
Cuba. In the big cities cars can disappear never to be seen again so it pays to
have overnight supervision. Rudolph also asked Phil for a spare 't' shirt
as we unloaded the bags from the car. Phil pointed out that Rudolph's shirt
was in better condition than Phil's so 'No'! The next morning he asked for
Phil's Casio watch which allegedly have luxury status in Cuba. (We don't
actually have that many shirts and only two watches onboard with complete
straps!)
There being no restaurant in the hostel they kindly directed
us to a Paladar a few blocks away which had one elderly diner in evidence
but the tables were laid for a party of 26 due in one hour the
restaurant staff explained. We said if they could serve us quickly then we could
clear through easily in that time scale. So a fish dish for the 'Admiral' and a
rare treat of stewed lamb for Phil with a bottle of wine to wash it all
down was ordered. As the 26 guests arrived very early they were kept
at bay on the doorstep and given menus to read. At 8.20 the
staff could not stall them any longer and our plates were almost snatched
off the table (with a pleading smile from the waitress) and we duly finished our
wine standing outside the restaurant in the bustling side street!
Being Easter there was plenty going on in Santiago and we
wondered into the park to watch a jazz band perform watched by hundreds of
people. Many children were being pulled round between the crowds in hired
ancient toy cars and trucks. Elsewhere donkeys were pulling little carts with
children seated inside and the whole event was enveloped in a happy holiday
atmosphere except for the one little boy who remonstrated with Phil having
realised he had been photographed watching the band! (We erased that picture out
of respect). Later we retired to the Hostel (no sign of
Rudolph guarding the cars) and watched some baseball on TV whilst raiding the
contents of the mini-bar before falling asleep.
The next day after yet another trip to the bank (plastic is
just not used here) we paid the bill. The numerous empty miniatures from the
nights refreshments for addition being tossed onto the reception table
in an off hand way by the maid! We again refused Rudolph's
invitation to re-home Phil's Casio and we headed off to Bayamo via a garage to
refuel the car. We had another long drive ahead and running out of fuel didn't
seem sensible. The first garage wouldn't serve us for some reason we couldn't
understand so on to another close-by. That one was receiving a fuel delivery and
indicated a wait of 45 minutes so on to another where we were 'scammed' as we
had to state how much fuel we needed and pay upfront before being served.
That part was understandable probably due to the number of people
that would 'do a runner' after taking on their fuel. However in our case
Phil overestimated the amount we required and despite fuel sloshing out of the
filler we were still 10 litres light on estimate at which time the
attendant said he couldn't refund the difference. After protests some money was
returned but definitely not all.
We had decided to head back to the boat that day rather than
stay in Bayamo. We did stop and walked round the central area in the
midday sun where Phil bought a strange pizza-like bread from a street
seller which was deep fried. It was advertised as being with 'carne'
(meat) but after eating almost the whole piece there nestling in the corner
of the pastry was a tiny scrap of meat which would have easily escaped
detection by the taste-bud department if it had not been spotted
beforehand. Sitting in the main square we were accosted yet again by somebody
persistently asking for money. To escape his attentions we wondered off and
bought some interesting looking cake to take back with us. We also searched high
and low for locally made ice-cream which we eventually found by the
roadside some way out of town. Despite jamming on the brakes as we passed the
small stall we pulled up 50 metres further along the road.
By the time Phil had sprinted back to the car in the searing heat of the
afternoon the small cones had a river of strawberry and vanilla cream running
southwards - but they were very tasty if eaten rather quickly.
We arrived back at Marina da Vita tired from our travels but
pleased we had made the effort to drive over 1000 kms over the 6 days. We
returned a day early so that we could tour the local vegetable stalls to
buy provisions for our next voyage to Varadero.
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