Maarten & Sonia's Cuban Roadtrip

The next morning we slept a bit longer to get rid of the hangover (thanks to excellent advice in the Lonely Planet, we got a room far away from the open air disco, which was very loud) and headed for Santiago de Cuba. This time we had even been able to talk to the hotel and make some reservations!

However, when we got to the Hotel San Juan the receptionist looked at us as if had come from another planet (we had, actually, from planet Amsterdam). She said that maybe we could stay for one day. We played it tough though and got a room for two days. The women working at the San Juan reception were an insult to receptionists world-wide. Rudeness and slowness. The other staff there (like the porter) was very friendly though, as if they were trying to make up for things. Also, the Hotel is really nice. We had a very nice big room.

We were tired from the long trip (we saw some incredible scenery again). We ate close by, in the Zumzun restaurant. I had some stomach problems (probably due to the food in Camaguey?) so I did not enjoy the food at all, but we had some excellent cocktails afterwards. The houses on the Avenida Mandobey are something special. Dating back to times of prosperity there are many large, beautiful mansions on this street. In the day it became clear that many of these are on the verge of falling apart, probably because the ground they are built on is slowly giving way. Many houses have big cracks along their walls.

The next day we walked into Santiago. Allthough it's described as being "Elegant and Colonial" we decided that whoever wrote that must have meant Avenida Mandobey. Saintiago is extremely busy, noisy, filled with gasoline vapour and an unhealthy place probably.

We acclimatised on the terrace of Hotel Casa Granda, a good spot to get out of the heat.

We visited the museo Bacardi, which was very nice. Strange mixture of 19th century "rarities" from Bacardi's personal collection and some recent adittions showing how the museum came to be. Later we had lunch in Don Antonio, I had one of the better meals in Cuba there: A rolled up bit of pork filled with chicken minced meat and vegetables and spices., dipped in a batter and deep fried. I had a strong suspicion there was a Chinese cook there, especially since the Chinese "la perla del Dragon"restaurant next door had been shut down and now only served ice-cream....

Santiago disappointed us a bit, but then we did not spend a lot of time there. In the afternoon we went to visit " el Castillo del Moro San Pedro de La Roca. This castle was built between 1633 and 1639 on a cliff overlooking the Santiago bay. It has witnessed some dramatic events in Cuban history. Inside there's an exhibition showing these. We enjoyed this visit very very much, the views from the castle are absolutely breathtaking.

As an extra reward for driving up, the local Military School Students performed a sunset ceremony, firing one of the old canons at 18:00 sharp. It was fun to watch, also because many of the local people came to look and shouted "Que Viva Cuba Libre!!" Many of them were old enough to have experienced the Cuban revolution, and I'm quite sure they meant what they were saying. Later that night we had dinner in the Hotel, which was quite okay, if not a little boring.

Also, In Santiago de Cuba we took the opportunity to complain about Horizontes Hoteles's service. We went to their office and asked that they would make reservations for the remainder of our trip, as we were getting tired of trying to do so in vain ourselves all the time. The guy in the office heard us out, was very helpful and apologized to us. He made those reservations (took him a good 40 minutes) and this made things a lot easier for us from then on.

Anyway. Next day we headed for Holguin.