We had to be up early for our bus which left at 08.00 ... not the best plan after having spent too good an evening with ron the night before! The road took us across to Guantanamo, close to the Bay and controversial US military prison and Naval Base. Quite why tourists want to make a 25km detour to get a glimpse of a base another 20km away across the bay with binoculars is beyond us, so we will not be making a stop here! We then went along the rocky southern coast for a while, before turning inland and up over the mountains, travelling quite a long way round steep switchbacks.
We are staying at Casa Adrian, and have a first floor room with a balcony and chairs at the front overlooking the street as well as a rear terrace interestingly decorated with a mural where we've enjoyed some lovely meals. The windows have louvred shutters and no glass and with two doors as well, there is a good breeze. The family are so friendly and while we are managing with a bit of Spanish and a bit of English, it would be nice to be able to chat properly. They too have been able to charge the iPad during our stay and the wifi in the plaza works well.
Baracoa was the first town to be established in Cuba, founded by Diego Velazquez in 1511 on the spot christened Port Santo by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and where legend says he planted a cross called La Cruz de la Parra, an antique cross brought from Spain and the most important religious relic in Latin America, which is on display in the cathedral.
In October last year, Baracoa was hit by Hurricane Matthew, with winds of 140mph and 16ft waves. A rigorous evacuation scheme meant no lives were lost here, but most of the buildings were damaged, many losing their roofs, and plantations and fields were damaged, only adding to damage from a previous hurricane in 2008.
The centre of town is pretty recovered, and freshly painted with references to the Taino, the indigenous people, who came originally from South America, including a bust of the chief Hatuey, billed as The First Cuban Rebel, who fought against the Spanish conquistadors and was killed by them!
Encircled by mountains and so far from Havana, Baracoa is a sleepy place, where the inhabitants pace themselves slowly in the heat. The town is quite flat so there is far more pedal power rather than motorised transport.
Chris was delighted to see several places offering pizza, the size of your hand, with cheese and tomato sold in a fold of paper from a kiosk, for which he really needed local currency, but having paid 1CUC$, he received 18CUP$ back, so his pizza was less than 25p!
The houses are close together, and with freely ventilated homes, noise travels easily ... voices, music, cats, dogs and chickens and people starting their chores early. nonetheless, the sound was generally soothing and constant. In the evenings, the main draw is the Casa de Trova for music and the Plaza generally for gathering. The more we wandered down side streets, the more devastated homes we discovered.
Onwards is the Playa Boca de Miel, a stretch of dark but clean sand extending towards the headland. We followed some people down a path at the back of the beach to a small inlet where a man in a rowboat was ferrying people to the other side. Intrepid as ever, we took the boat and then paid to visit the mirador above, but halfway up we reckoned we had a good enough view, with El Yunque, the symbol of Baracoa, a huge slab of a mountain rising up behind the town. Even Columbus noted it 'a high square mountain which seemed to be an island'. Later we walked up to another mirador with a view the other way, across to the headland.
We had another amazing American car, this time a 1953 Cadillac, to take us to Playa Maguana for the day. The road was pretty rough, and took us over several bridges over inlets and we continued to see more broken palms and debris in the fields. The bridge over the Toa was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew and a temporary one has been constructed until the bridge is rebuilt. The beach was beautiful. There was a small cafe providing sunbeds and drinks and they took our lunch order for later on! We wandered along the beach and were sold a couple of local delicacies, one a coconut and chocolate bar made from local cocoa which was very nice and cucurucho, a mixture of orange, coconut, guava and lots of sugar which was horrid but sold in a very cute palm wrapper! Our lunch and a table was brought to the beach and we had huge prawns with salad and a perfect sea view.
Plans for our last day were changed slightly by the weather, which up until now has pretty much been sunny with a little cloud and warm everyday. It is certainly more humid here in Baracoa and a tropical downpour during the night and this morning was hardly a surprise. It looked like there might be more rain and in any case, the ground was very wet, so we decided not to go hiking round El Yunque. Instead we photographed rain and drank hot chocolate made from local cocoa beans then once it stopped, went into town to photograph puddles! We visited the chocolate shop, where we bought some cubes of chocolate in a twist of paper ... very good chocolate flavour, but not really packaged for souvenirs ... obviously missing a trick there!
Just shows, sometimes you need a little time on our hands to notice things ... a little like the variety of painted concrete balustrades I found in town on the way back!
We confirmed our flight back to Havana tomorrow, which is leaving a bit later than we expected, but that just gives us a lie in rather than an early start so that's nice. Between now and then maybe a visit to the Casa de Trova and a mojito, dinner at the Casa ... another mojito ... !
Baracoa - Christopher Landed Here
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Baracoa, Cuba
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2025-02-15