Today we had our last trip with our guide and the driver from Trinidad. They have both been a lot of fun and we’ve really enjoyed their laid back style. The road to Santa Clara we took was up through the mountains, which is very scenic, but the road itself was in poor repair, so it did take a while for the driver to navigate all the potholes and the horse drawn carts.
We stopped at a farm house in the mountains to look at how they live. They had cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys and grew their own vegetables and coffee. They can solely survive on their own produce. The house has a cooking room separate to the house because many things get boiled for a long time and can be quite pungent.
Che Guevara is highly regarded in these parts as many of these farmers were blockaded by the Bautista government and the guerrilla forces under Guevara’s command worked with these famers to ensure everyone had food. Following the revolution they were also provided the land that they lived on without having to pay rent to the wealthy landowners. The blockade was a tactical mistake by Bautista. His next mistake was to send a munitions train from Havana to Santiago de Cuba. Guevara organised this train to be derailed in Santa Clara, therefore providing the revolutionaries with arms. There were 18 revolutionaries at the derailment and they defeated a government force of over 300 men. The scene has been reconstructed complete with the bulldozer that wrecked the train tracks.
Following the derailment the battle of Santa Clara took place which was the last decisive battle of the war. You can still see some of the bullet holes in the buildings around the city square. The city square is smaller than the one in Cienfuegos, but still has some colonial buildings like the theatre and town hall around it.
After we had some lunch and said our final goodbyes to the tour team we got in another cab which drove us back to Havana. it’s pretty flat drive on the 6 lane motorway with no traffic, but lots of zig-zagging the potholes. The driver also had quite the collection of eighties ballads, Richard Marx and Goerge Michael, so it was on with the headphones for me!
With nothing more on the agenda for the day, we went out for a walk looking to take in the Havana atmosphere when a girl from the hotel rushed up and wished us a happy holiday and then asked us what we were doing and offered us all sorts of suggestions of things to do. Then she and her husband / partner (not sure) took us to a place that does the ‘best mohitos in all Havana’, so we had Mohito’s and cigars. People in Cuba are so friendly and accomodating and proud of the good things about Cuba.
After we left our new found friends we found ourselves a place for dinner that had far more staff than patrons. As always there was a live band… music and food are always found together in Cuba.
Until tomorrow!
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