Category: Granma

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SIERRA MAESTRA – Granma, CUB

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.

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BAYAMO – Granma, CUB

As much of a pain in the arse spending 9½ hours on the road is, it is apparently a far better option that trying to catch any of the domestic air services. The trip was broken up with a pretty decent lunch at Le Compana de Toleda in the town of Camaguey.

While in Camaguey I had to use an ATM which cost me $9 USD for the privilege, fuck you very much! I did however fare much better than those who used the banks teller services to change Euro’s to Cuban Pesos. They paid only $5 USD for the transaction and got a pretty rubbish rate i.e. a third of the Euro’s current trading value AND had to spend an hour waiting for one of the two tellers to service the three customer before them.

We got in to our accommodations at the Hotel Royalton where after getting squared away, we dined in their restaurant and then headed out to the local square, where there was a street concert taking place.

Here we are standing in the street, sipping on $1.25 USD Crystal creveza’s when it was my round in the shout. I grab a ½ dozen beers and ask about the cost of a Cuba Libre (rum & coke) for one of the group and was informed that it was $3 USD. Being the ½ smartarse that I am, I asked as to the cost of the entire bottle – $5 USD was the barmen’s response. I grabbed a full bottle and a can of Cuban Coke for an extra 50 cents and wandered back out to the town square – job sorted.

In the interests’ full disclosure and impartial testing, I felt a shot or three of the Cuban “Vitamin R” was in order and found it to be a rather smooth tipple, that you could get to know on an immediate & intimate level quite easily. It’s a whole lot better than that Queensland cane cutters cordial – Bundaberg Rum.