Day 18 - 19 Santigo takes hold

Day 18-19  Thursday 17^th – Friday 18^th March  Santiago de Cuba

Well insult was added to injury. After enduring the bus ride yesterday all hell broke loose in Santiago both figurative and literal! I arrived with the worst case of gastro I can recall in my adult life, and to add further insult to injury, the toilet

won’t flush!

   We stay in a Casa that hasn’t left a positive impression on us other than the ladies have a beautiful puppy that kept us entertained, and that it is only a 5 minute walk from the city centre.  

First observations are that the centre has a long mall with many specialty shops including a Reebok and Nike store, go figure! To us it seems a more affluent city but we are later to learn that much of the redevelopment is as a consequence of the damage left by Cyclone Sandy a few years ago.

GT 's ride to the airport 

I had to leave Gina to cavort on her own today due to my fragile state. We decided after the bus trip that we were going to fly the next legs of the trip and that with limited flights, limited seats, and Cuban indifference, pushing to Baracoa was a bit of a time risk. After another lengthy effort, Gina made her way to the Santiago Airport to “try” to book flights. After some toing and froing it was decided that we could get seats on a flight to Havana, thus cutting short this leg of the trip. Nothing happens easily here!

casa - corridor with our room to left

 We ventured close to home and took refuge at the Hotel Granda, an opulent, restored Spanish Colonial Hotel built in the 1930’s and overlooking the Cespedes Park.

        

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domino's a fav pastime for the locals

 

      

One serious afro and very common here too

 

Some of the highlights here in our cavorting where a visit to the Bacardi Museum, built by the Bacardi Rum Barons, though they fled Cuba in the 1960’s. The Moncada Barracks, the scene of Fidel’s first attack against Battista’s Army in 1953 was really interesting with a museum dedicated to the attack and now converted to a primary school.   

That said a lot of soldiers died and of Fidel’s guerrilla army, 63 were tortured and killed. 

Next leg of the trip, back to Havana