Santiago de Cuba (Part 2)

By the time that Charlotte arrived at Santiago de Cuba airport on Tuesday 5 February, we had been in Cuba for 5 full days.  We’d stocked up on fresh food, explored the city, visited El Morro castle at the entrance to Santiago harbour and spent a day doing chores on board.  Whilst there are always more jobs to do on board (and the blog was by no means up to date) we felt we were as ready as we could be for 3 weeks of holidaying with Charlotte.  We had intended to take the bus up to the airport but a taxi on its way back to Santiago came past and drove us there instead.  We discovered that there is no arrivals waiting area inside the terminal building and so joined the huddle of people outside the doors, spilling onto the roadway.  To judge from the number of meeters and greeters meeting and greeting each other, let alone their respective travellers, waiting for an aircraft arrival is quite a social event.  Charlotte eventually completed all the formalities and was released onto an unsuspecting Cuban public……and then we had to find a taxi back to the marina. George had briefed us that the cost should be no more than 8CUC one way and we had paid significantly less to get to the airport, albeit by day and because the driver was keen to get a fare, any fare, on his return to the city.  But after some hunting round, and giving the government taxi organiser a stiff refusal for his ‘last and best’ offer of 15CUC, a driver sidled up to us and offered us a lift for 8CUC.  Better still, when the taxi turned up near the car park, out of sight of the government taxi organiser it was a somewhat battered but old American car.  Welcome to Cuba, Charlotte!

Santiago de Cuba’s cathedral – Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

The next day, Wednesday 6 February, we braved the 0900 bus into the city with the plan of getting the 1300 ferry back. Again the bus was mobbed with people, despite it being twice the size of the one we had ridden in the previous day, but we made it to the city centre and we all managed to get off together. Mission Stage 1 complete satis. We strolled around the city, stopping first at the market in the hope of buying the pineapples we had been unable to buy the day before.  Success there too and Nicky topped up on guava and fruita da bomba (papaya) as well after hearing how much Charlotte likes both.

After a whistle-stop tour of one of the ‘supermarkets’ to give Charlotte a taste of them, we did a circuit of the cathedral from the outside and peered in through the door.  We hadn’t really planned on going in and we weren’t really dressed for it, so we didn’t want to risk offending any worshippers or clergy. It certainly looks very impressive and would be worthy of a proper visit.  Maybe one for next time!

There are some nice views down across Plaza de Céspedes from the terrace in front of the cathedral

Musicians in Plaza de Céspedes

We took Charlotte down into Plaza de Céspedes to see the boards showing the 1956 vs 2016 photos of the rebels who fought in the revolution and found a band playing traditional Cuban music. They were very entertaining and the music was excellent.  I think Cuba must be one of the only countries in the world where you will quite frequently find buskers play the double bass.

Public bar of the Hotel Casa Grande. We tried to buy ETECSA
 wifi cards here to avoid the queues at the ETECSA shop 
but they had run out.  Not an unusual occurrence we understand

We needed to buy ETECSA wifi cards so that we had an appropriate stock as we travelled along the south coast. In the hope of circumventing the enormous queues at the ETECSA office, we stopped in at the Hotel Casa Grande, right on the edge of Plaza de Céspedes.  But to no avail; they were sold out.  So Nicky braved the crush outside the ETECSA office for a good 15mins and then spent about 20mins inside buying 20x 1hr wifi cards for the princely sum of 20CUC.  Oh the joys and efficiencies of the communist/socialist system!!  [Ed: but at least there is wifi/internet access in Cuba now].

Most of the cars in Santiago de Cuba are still ‘yank tanks’, 1950’s American cars and trucks, and old (but more modern) Russian Lada and Moskvitchs.  However, there are a good number of truly modern cars on the street here, mostly government taxis, and new lorries with the manufacturing label ‘Sinotruck’.  Guess where they’ve come from!

We all enjoyed our wander around the city, gently breaking Charlotte into holiday mode.  It’s quite a busy place, with plenty of traffic and even on our third visit Nicky and I still got a kick out of watching all the 1950s ‘yank tanks’ driving around.

Cigar production in the corner of a cafe

We stopped for a coffee in a small, dark, local café and were almost immediately befriended by a woman who spoke some, but not much, English (though better than our Spanish).  She asked us if we danced, despaired of our saying we had 2 left feet each, directed us to a dance school and gave Nicky a short, on the spot, salsa tutorial.  At the back of the café 2 men were making Cuban cigars: one filling and rolling them and grandpappy pressing them.  It’s another world…..

Left: Nicky gets an unexpected salsa lesson.  Right: Grandad presses the newly rolled cigars

El Holandés , known to us as ‘Music Street’

Coffee drunk and salsa intro complete we headed back towards the ferry via El Holandés, which we later dubbed ‘Music Street, on a recce of places to listen to live music in the evening.  We found plenty of promising looking places and it seemed that they opened early and very closed late.  Clearly, an afternoon snooze back at BV to prepare for a frenetic evening of toe-tapping and mojito drinking was in order.

Santiago de Cuba, Cuba