A visit to Cuba's most venerated basilica and a stroll around the fortress of Santiago de Cuba

Allie's version of DAY 104: Monday, 28^th of May

Santiago's main attraction: the old fort overlooking the sea

Some disappointments, a look around Santiago, a fortress and a holy basilica

A nice bright sunny morning and I have the chance to indulge in a huge pool on my own. Great. We have an early breakfast because the plan for today is, to drive out to Guantanamo and visit the Mirador – the lookout towards the US naval base and the famous prison. But luck strikes hard, especially on Phil, when we are told by the tourist lady that the mirador has been shut since September last year due to an incident with an American women. According to the story her son was imprisoned and she booked a tour to go out as a tourist but then started some kind of protest or whatever. Anyway this happening must have been so upsetting that the Cuban military decided not to allow any more tourists near that border. What a great shame! Phil was really keen to see it and he was in a quite sour mood for the rest of the day – which I can understand. I for my part wasn’t all that keen and in a way even glad that we didn’t have to face another long and tedious road journey without proper signs.

downtown Santiago

So our plan to end up at the equivalent to the DMZ in North Korea has failed! What a great pity. Quite often during this trip I compared in my mind the two last strongholds of communism. In many ways there are totally similar: the complete lack of any form of public transportation, empty shops, grey micro brigade housings, empty highways in quite good condition but everything else that calls itself a road in total shambles. Then the huge hand painted propaganda posters and some modernist and patriotic statues and monuments (here I think would Castro loose out against Kim’s monstrous creations).

More propaganda linking Bush to Hitler

The ‘revolucion’ is praised everywhere and so are Castro and Raul. America is condemned openly as the ‘aggressor’, the ‘imperialist’ and the ‘murderer’. These are just some of the distinct similarities between the two countries. The differences are that in North Korea you feel totally safe (well, you can’t walk much on your own anyway, but I am sure there would be zero crime against foreigners) whereas here in Cuba, I felt as insecure and unsafe as I did in Africa. 

not many smiling Cubans, not even the statues

And the other thing I miss here, is a smile! People hardly give you a friendly welcoming smile and when they do, it’s because in the next minute they hold out their hands and ask you for money. 

We really got fed up with this mentality of people doing absolutely nothing but still expecting money for it (like the car-watching practise and the toilet women). All in all: Communism, whether it be in North Korea or here in Cuba, doesn’t seem to do anything good for anything or anybody! 

Now you call this a materialists view, but then you must ask yourself why people can’t travel because there are no cars, why all the houses are in a total derelict state and why there isn’t anything to buy? Is that egalitarian paradise? Well, it’s definitely not for me.

The famous Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Cobre

So now that we found we that we couldn’t go to Guantanamo we had to come up with other plans. We decided to drive downtown (more hands open for the parking guys and boys trying to wash you car which you don’t want!) and finally check our emails at the Etexa place.

Whilst Phil is at the computer I have a quick wander around the streets only to find it polluted, crumbling and absolutely dodgy with grim looking faces. The shops have the usual display of baby milk combined with light bulbs and plastic shoes. The cathedral is a refuge but in the front of it beggars just wait for you to come out. We had enough and want to get out of town.

So we drive 20km westwards to look at the famous Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Cobre. This church is Cubas most sacred pilgrimage site mainly for its little black Madonna that is supposed to do miracles for the faithful.

People come from all over the country to donate flowers and little ‘thank you’ notes or curiosities like baseballs, T-shirts, a TV, a stethoscope or badges of all kind. Since Pope John Paul II’s visit to here in 1998 religion has become more free and popular with roughly 400.000 Catholics and 300.000 Protestants.

religious memorabilia

Next to the basilica we climb up a hill with a monument commemorating the 17^th century copper mine slave revolt. Of course we have to pay again somebody to look after our car and when we get to the top, another guy wants to be our guide. From the top it’s nice view across to the Basilica and over the copper mines with it’s deep blue lake. 

view to the Copper mine lake

But the next annoyance just waits because when we get back to the car there are at least 3 more black guys holding out their hands and pointing to the car. I get really angry and that somehow seems to work, but you never know. Next thing is they pull a knife or try to throw something at the car.

canons on the fortress

Back to the city we decide to finish our sightseeing by going to the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Castillo de San Pedro del Morro near the coast. El Morro was designed in 1587 by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Bautista Antonelli to protect the town from pirates. It’s a impressive structure with lovely views across the steep coastline and the harbour. But not even here after having paid your 4 Dollars entrance fee you are free from people hustling you. Nearly at each corner is somebody who tries to tell you something and then wants money for it.

We are really exhausted and retreat to the Restaurant del Morro. Situated at this fantastic location overlooking the sea this was our choice to come for dinner tonight. But we are told they don’t do dinners and they don’t have a menu. We can only have the package group lunch which we don’t want. What a shame again. All the really nice places, hotels, restaurants that were mentioned in the Lonely Planet as to be good places only four years ago, seem to have gone bust. We despair over the though of having to put up with another expensive and boring hotel dinner since we clearly don’t want to drive into town at night.

Back at the hotel, it’s time for the pool and a cool off. We spend the rest of the day planning our time in Habana and with reading and writing. It’s really time to go home and get back in touch with the world again. If there was a plane straight back to London from here tonight, we both definitely would be on it.

 Of all places that we have been, I find Cuba the most disappointing and stressful. It’s a shame that a quite beautiful country has been ruined by it’s government and made the people miserable, corrupt and lazy.

 

Phil's version of Day 104/28 May

This is the day which should have been, for me at least, the climax of our long eastward journey through Cuba - the 100km trip past Guantanamo city to the viewpoint overlooking the controversial US base of Guantanamo Bay. I had read details of how to organise it all in Lonely Planet, but what I had failed to discover was that, as a result of an American tourist  using this facility to make some kind of political protest in October 2006 the Cuban Army was now forbidding further civilian access to the border area. I feel particularly bad as my main argument to persuade Allie to put up with the interminable driving through mostly uninteresting country (to say nothing of major additional costs) was to peer over the Guantanamo fence as we had done at Panmunjom in Korea.

Our consolation prize is a very brief tour of Santiago’s historic centre, overshadowed by concerns about car safety and the generally threatening attitude of many locals. Castro’s Communism (like other brands before it) seems to have taught the population to expect others to feed and clothe them whilst doing very little for themselves. Tips for little or no service, ‘protection’ money to look after your car, and a profusion of disabled beggars suggests that it may be an egalitarian regime but at the lowest and most envious level.

 

view to the Basilica

Outside the city the miraculous monastery at El Cobre, a copper mine until 2000, is also surrounded by youths trying to sell posies and candles for the Virgin, whilst within is the most amazing collection of unconsidered trifles from signed baseball balls to Army uniform insignia left to bring blessings upon the donors. 

more bizarre religious donations including baseballs!

At the nearby monument to martyred slave-miners we are dogged by more touts wanting money for ‘guide’, watching the car, lumps of copper pyrites. We have had our fill of it and at this point decide, perhaps a little vengefully, that Cuba deserves to wallow in its present tourist decline caused by high prices, poor service, and general avarice.

 

Santiago's old lighthouse

The Castillo el Moro at the harbour entrance is another pretty location on the tourist trail but the sole restaurant there now closes at 4 p.m. and offers only two courses with no ‘extras’. Names such as Henry Morgan, Frances Drake and even Alexander Selkirk (of Robinson Crusoe fame) laid at anchor here but it would be interesting to know if the reception they got from the Spanish was any less hostile than today’s Cubans. We are the only guests in the soulless hotel dining room to which there is no nearby alternative. The staff offer beef or pork. There is nothing else available. Our views are jaundiced and we are ready to go home.