Home » Cuba Chile » From Santiago de Cuba to Havana In Only Three Weeks

Cadillac Ranch, Saturday, 11. March 2000:- At the first step out of the Santiago de Cuba airport on Saturday, 12. February we salsa-ed through a receiving line of costumed dancers moving to the beat of Cuban music. And the beat went on and on throughout our trip from east to west in Cuba.

From Santiago de Cuba to Havana In Only Three Weeks

LindaThalm
2005-12-02 17:08:48

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Ruinas offered more wonderful music. We bought the Grupo Cohimbre's cassette too.

Cobblestones, buildings painted in green, blue, yellow or red, a daily street market for local crafts and clothing, friendly people, music - for me, the most beautiful city we visited.
The Tropicana! Olé! The colors, the music, the rum!

Then a couple days at the beach near Trinidad - but we went back into Trinidad for music each night. We squeezed in a day trip through Cienfuegos, and to Santa Clara: the home of Che. The memorial and museum to Ernesto 'Che' Commandante Guevara were well worth the trip for me as a '68 high school graduate.

Taking the 'autopista' into La Habana at 130 kilometers per hour on a three-lane speedway was quite racy. Not a car in sight most of the time. In fact, once you're outside any Cuban city, the roads are empty - other than a few other 'tourista' rental cars and the usual carts, horses, tractors and pedestrians in the far right lane going the 'wrong' way!

The cities are filled with pickups, taxis, folks on foot, horse-drawn carts, buses, cars, bicycles and scooters, and it was only in La Habana that we noticed traffic lights - most other towns didn't have any.

We arrived in La Habana on my 50th birthday and stayed three days in the Hotel Isabel. This hotel was originally a 17th-century palace, now beautifully restored.

It is centrally located in the La Habana Vieja by the Plaza de Armas. This section of Havana is also a UNESCO National Heritage site. Literally hundreds of buildings have scaffolding in La Habana Vieja. It will be an exceptional jewel once all the restoration is completed.

The 'Trío Femenino Ocasión' at the bar next to the hotel was a treat. They sang 'La Mulata' at my request. We bought our fifth cassette. Prices range from five to 10 dollars for these cassettes and the CDs were always 15 dollars.

La Habana Vieja is full of music - in the bars and restaurants but also afternoon concerts by municipal orchestras.

And, of course, the famous Tropicana. What a show! What costumes! What rhythm and music. It is for tourists, but it was artistic, superbly choreographed with all of it being fantastico without being kitsch or crass. Sixty bucks a head for the show and a whole bottle of rum! No darn music cassette available though. Caramba!

After three weeks of almost no TV - CNN and even France-2 television are available at the big hotels - no newspapers - onlyphoto: shopping in trinidad the Spanish-language national daily Granma, and no Internet - no Internet cafe anywhere, es bueno! - we actually didn't miss any news. It is possible to totally disconnect - what a fiesta!

Here I am, with one of my trusty 'helpers,' shopping for... souvenirs - not rum.

Not a hitch, glitch or faux-pas in our trip until arriving at the super-modern terminal three to hear: "Flight CU440 to Paris does not exist." I'll spare you the tense anguish.

We did have professional assistance at the airport to get us and six other French travellers on a flight to Paris via Madrid two hours later than planned.

But, in Madrid we got the regular runaround saying flights were full for the next two days, until an Iberia supervisor sorted things out and got us on a flight six hours later. The duty free rum came in handy while waiting.

We certainly came back to France with music, music and more music - five cassettes and two CDs - Cohiba cigars, three bottles of Havana Club - motto: 'El Ron de Cuba' - sand in our shoes and wonderful memories.