This morning we departed for Santiago de Cuba
shortly after 8:00. Distance and road
conditions equated to an estimated five hour drive excluding stops on route.
After two hours, we stopped at Las Tunas for a brief coffee and restroom break that became protracted when it was determined
that the bus had an engine problem.
After a while I started eying other modes of everyday transportation in Cuba:
- WALKING, represented by the man with his foot on the bench
- HORSE-DRAWN CARTS of every description
- BICYCLES, many from China
- a TRAIN so old I have seen newer ones in museums
- TRUCK, and no, those windows in the back are not for livestock. This is a common configuration for what frequently serves as a BUS. Truck or bus, when loaded, people are packed in tightly without apparent complaint. I will be looking for an opportunity to get a good photograph of a full one.
- TRACTOR, sometimes with a trailer full of people. The exhaust from this one was representative of engine emissions all over the country. As a reference point, catalytic converters were first installed in US cars in 1975.
- About the only common ground transportation that did not pass by was an OXCART. Again, I will be looking for an opportunity to photograph one.
After being warned that the scheduled fifteen minute stop had elongated to
forty-five (or more), we were back
on our way in about forty minutes.
About thirty minutes later, we entered
Granma Province named after a boat - the yacht GRANMA - that brought Castro and 81 other
"rebels" from Mexico to Cuba for what would be a twenty-five month
revolution ending with Castro taking power as Batista fled the country.
We stopped in Bayamo to hear the Coro Professional de Bayamo. They were excellent, a review I am sure they would appreciate since they practice four hours a day, five days a week.
We walked to the Plaza de la Revolucion. One of the individuals honored there was Perucho Figueredo, the composer
of El Himno de Bayamo, the Cuban national anthem. The other statue honored Carlos Manuel de Céspedes del Castillo, a nineteen century leader in the Ten Years War for Cuba independence.
We continued on to the Hotel Royalton
for lunch. Good catfish; great french
fries.
After lunch it was back on the bus for the ride to our next stop. Along the way we occasionally saw what looked like wisps of smoke on the hillsides. (You can see one of these clouds between the main tree limbs in the picture below and a closer shot of other in the following picture.) Our guide told us these were small wildfires that occurred during the dry season. He said that they happened with such frequency and over such a large area that the government did not have the resources to control them. Fortunately, these fires usually self-extinguished.
After about a ninety-minute trip, we arrived in Cobre at Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre (National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Charity) the church in which was the shrine of the Patroness of Cuba - Nuestra Senora de la Virgen de la Caridad.
After a long bus ride, it was good to arrive in Santiago de Cuba as night fell. On the way to our hotel - Meliá Santiago de Cuba - we passed by Revolution Square. We were told we would be visiting it during our stay here, so I will wait until then to write more about it.
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The roads today have been bumpy, as
in 'vibrate one of the side mirror covers off the bus' bumpy. We were passing through a town when it
happened. Some pedestrians flagged the bus
driver down while others fetched it for him.
This kindest was balanced out in the very next town. A passerby gave
the driver a one-finger salute for some unknown slight, the first time that I have seen the gesture
since we arrived in Cuba. The driver demonstrated restraint, not saluting back.
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