El Morro Fort Santiago de Cuba

On Sunday 3 February we decided to visit El Morro, the fort that dominates the entrance to Santiago de Cuba’s harbour.  We hadn’t anticipated that getting a taxi would be difficult but we had no joy, even with the help of the doorman of the hotel next to the marina.  He tried several options but apparently all of his usual taxi contacts were busy or enjoying a Sunday off.  The solution was motorbikes!  A couple of lads from the village were roped into giving us a lift up to the fort, wait for us to walk around it and then to run us back again.

El Morro with surrounding glacis and moat and remodelled drawbridge

El Morro is clearly in the cruise ship circuit of attractions because there were several large coaches at the car park where our taxi-motorbikes dropped us off.  We ran the gauntlet of souvenir stalls, declined the furtive offers of ‘the best cigars in Cuba’ and wandered up to the fort.  It isn’t nearly as impressive from the land side as it is from the sea.  Built between 1540 and 1550 it was needed to protect the important natural harbour, used for the valuable sugar and tobacco trades, from the attentions of buccaneers, pirates and French Corsairs.

The land approaches were defended across a wide dry moat and the thick walls bristled with cannon of various sizes to ensure that any unwelcome ships trying to enter the narrow entrance to the harbour would quickly see the error of their ways.  Santiago de Cuba was not the only part of Cuba subject to attack and El Morro was built as part of a 16^thcentury bolstering of defences across Cuba in response to repeated raids.

Top left: Looking inland over the harbour.  Top right: El Morro lighthouse. Bottom: Santiago de Cuba International Airport (indicated by the red arrow)

Looking inland over the harbour. The marina is visible
in the centre of both photos

The ramparts give an excellent vantage point.  From here we could see the El Morro lighthouse and the small Coastguard station we had talked to on our way into the port.  We could also see the Santiago de Cuba International Airport, into which Charlotte would shortly be flying.  It couldn’t be more conveniently close to where we had anchored BV at Punta Gorda.

We also had great views down over the first part of the harbour.  The main port area and city is out of sight around the corner but we could clearly see the marina and the approaches where we had sailed BV.

The fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has been very carefully excavated and restored.  Despite this and all the coaches in the car park, as you can see from the photos, it was not busy and for most of the time we seemed to have the place largely to ourselves.

The roller ramp used to move the heavy cannon
 balls up to the ramparts

Stepped down the hillside, each of the fort’s terraces has commanding views of the harbour approaches and adjacent coastlines.  The angles of the fortifications gave overlapping arcs of fire for the cannon and inside one of the rooms a mock-up of a clever roller ramp had been built to show how the heavy cannon balls were moved up to the firing positions to keep the cannon supplied with ammunition.

Also inside the rooms were various displays.  One showed the history of the pirates from which the fort was protecting Santiago de Cuba. Infamous Caribbean pirates such as Henry Morgan, Piet Heyn and Francis Nau, and even Sir Francis Drake, all threatened the lucrative trading port.  Piet Heyn was particularly successful leading a Dutch fleet right into Havana harbour and plundering the Spanish ships anchored there.

Back outside, looking down from the upper batteries of cannon, it was absolutely clear that this fort was all about protecting the approaches to the port.  We wanted to go down to see the lower terraces but there was no-one on them and no obvious route down.  However, remembering some advice we had been given, we asked one of the staff members if we could explore those parts of the fort.  A young guide was duly tasked with opening up the doorways to various passages so the we could walk right down to the lowest terraces just above sea level. Apparently it’s normal for large areas of Cuban museums and tourist attractions to be closed up to save on staff to watch over them.  However, for the most part they will be opened up if you ask.

But, whilst the fort was built to protect against a 16^thcentury threat, this area of Cuba has seen military action much more recently.  On 3 July 1898, the Battle of Santiago was fought here, the largest naval engagement in the Spanish-American-Cuban war and a defining moment in the conflict. Paintings in one of the fort’s rooms show the American ships destroying the Spanish Caribbean Squadron and maps show where the wrecks now lie.

The view back up to El Morro from the marina at Punta Gorda

We spent much longer walking around the castle than I think our motorcycle riders had expected.  As we made our way back across the drawbridge over the dry moat we bumped into one of them who had come to look for us, much relieved that he hadn’t lost us.  Back at the carpark, both riders were clearly more than ready to transport us back to Punta Gorda and to get on with enjoying the rest of their Sunday afternoon and spending the proceeds from their impromptu motorbike taxi service.

BV at anchor in the harbour

Impromptu it might have been but it had worked very well for us.  We had enjoyed an excellent afternoon out and without the motorbike taxi service we wouldn’t have had time to visit El Morro before Charlotte arrived.

El Morro Fort, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba