An early morning rain shower greeted the new day and I ‘d have to say the smell just after rain, is one of the best you can experience. It has a freshness all off its own.
The morning was spent at the Museo 26 de Julio – Moncada Barracks where Fidel Castro first launched his revolution in 1953 – an unmitigated failure in which he barely escaped with his life. Next stop was the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia (Santa Ifigenia Cemetery) which holds the remains of most of Cuba’s founding fiqures and significant people in its history – José Martí , María Magdalena Cabrales Fernández the mother of the nation and just recently Fidel himself.
A quick stop at the original Bacardi Rum Distillery to procure some $80 USD bottles of Santiago de Cuba Metucelen rum for $15 USD on the “Grey Market” at the distillery door and then out to the adjacent Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, which protected the town from pirates, buccaneers and corsairs like Sir Francis Drake and Captain Henry Morgan.
After a late lunch at the only empanada place in the county – The Melia Hotel, we hit the road for a 3-hour bus ride to our drop off point, where we would take smaller vehicles into our mountain accommodations at Villa Islazul Santo Domingo for the night. The premise being to take a 4-hour roundtrip hike in the morning to Fidel Castro’s mountain Headquarters.
Dinner was a very local affair at a farmers’ place where we were treated to whole roasted pig with rice and vegetables.
With no water at all in our room and an air conditioner that had no controls, other than tripping the main circuit breaker, killing the room lights as well. As the AC was running flat chat in Arctic windstorm mode and as it was colder than a mother in-laws kiss – we turned it off, opened the windows and doors to allow some natural airflow in and to signal the start of the all night mozzie buffet.
