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| Town centre at night, Santiago de Cuba |
Trinidad–Santiago was the first of our two
legs on the Viazul buses. It was fine, apart from starting too early, and lasting
15 hours. The buses are a bit worn, but comfortable and quiet, and they have
toilets. There’s not much reason to stay awake – the Cuban landscape is pretty
uninteresting. I read that once it consisted mainly of sugar plantations (coffee
and tobacco are also traditional crops in some areas). But the sugar industry’s
in decline, and a lot of the land seemed under-populated or unexploited. There
are some ranges of hills or low mountains, but most of it’s flat, as far as the
horizon. We went through small towns and villages, obviously poor, and past
derelict industrial plants and small farms where horses are still important.
All a bit depressing. There’s one major highway, a dual carriageway running
east-west along much of the island. The traffic on it moves fast, but the
surface is terrible, and drivers perform chicanes at speed around the potholes.
You overtake on either side, according to your whim. Fortunately, the traffic’s
sparse.
Santiago was the most easterly point on the
trip. When we arrived at the Casa Particular, we got chatting to a couple. One
of them was a German architect interested in heritage. I asked him which place
in Cuba got his vote as a ‘must visit’ – and he said ‘Santiago’. So I had high
hopes.
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| View from the roof of the Casa Particular, Santiago de Cuba |
We were staying 15 minutes’ or so walk to
the north of the historic centre. As in many Cuban towns most of the streets
are built on a grid pattern, and walking to the central square, the Plaza de
Marte, was straightforward, although the streets are much narrower and less
grandiose than what we saw in Havana. And of course, among the buildings that
have been maintained, there are others on the verge of ruin or in urgent need
of attention. Quite a lot of the town is quite hilly, which is visually
interesting.
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| Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, Santiago de Cuba |
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| Refugees in the basement, during restoration of the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion |
The Plaza de Marte’s impressive, dominated
by the Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion. The cathedral’s being
restored. Peeking through a dirty window at street level I could see all the
moveable statuary, moved there for safe keeping, an eerie, inanimate community.
A number of the public buildings around the town centre have been done up and
look very impressive. The 16
th-century Casa de Velasquez, named after
a colonial governor, is said to be the oldest house in Cuba. It looked to my
(uneducated) eyes about as Spanish as you can get, which means there’s a dose
of Moorish influence in the architecture.
During the day several groups of street
musicians were keeping things lively, and after dark there was a band concert
in the square. Vibrant, as the Singapore Tourism Board say.
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| The Monumento Maceo, in the Plaza de la Revolution, Santiago de Cuba |
The more ‘political’ part of town was a
little way out. The Plaza de la Revolucion (there always has to be one) is
close to the bus station. The modern equestrian statue of Antonio Maceo says it
all – understated it’s not, although it’s arguably less gross than the
political statuary at intersections all over the more touristy bits of Bali,
say.
Santiago wasn’t the highlight of my trip,
but it was worth making the (considerable) effort to get there. I wish we had
had time to check out Guantanamo (yes, the US base is not far away), and
Manzanillo, both of which were important commercial centres in past years.
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Street scene, Santiago de Cuba
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| The message |
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