This is a slightly strange hotel, it could be really good but somehow it lacks something, after a slightly uninspired breakfast we set off to discover Camagüey. Our first attempt at following the Barnes Tours route was a bit of a mishap, it started quite well, we worked out which way south west and walked through the pedestrian area where there was piped music which rather reminded us of Big Brother or the prisoner TV programme! It went a bit wrong at the end of the road, somehow we ended up at the final point of the walk rather than the start! This meant that we walked round the Parque Ignacio Argamont square first. This is dominated by the statue of Argamonte, who was a Cuban Independence hero and features quite a lot around Camagüey. Because the square was built in recognition of the war of independence but the Spanish still ruled Cuba they planted four Royal Palms, the national plant of Cuba to represent the fallen during the revolution, these are symbolic as the Spanish would never allow monuments to be built, the square is also famous for the local clay pots called Tinajones as there are a number around the square. We probably won’t make it back later but apparently at 6pm one of the local youths will lower the flag accompanied by the national anthem! From here we turned round and headed back to do the walk in the correct order. Our first stop was Casino Campestre (Campestre Park) it is on the other side of the bridge that crosses the River Hatibonico which was quite dry to be honest. The park was designed in 1860 and has both a zoo and baseball stadium as well as a number of sculptures, it is the site of the monument to Mariano Barberan and Joaquin Collar who were the first people to fly non-stop between Spain and Cuba setting off from Seville and landing in Camagüey in 1933, tragically a week later the plane and both men disappeared on the way to Mexico. Our next square was slightly harder to find as it was in the middle of the old town, this was Plaza San Juan de Dios which had the original layout of buildings and the complex dates from the 18th century. The square gets its name from the Convent — Hospital San Juan de Dios which previously occupied the square. The museum of San Jan de Dios is on one side, it was previously a hospital but the museum was closed as it is a Monday. The coaster dates from 1728, closed in 1902 it became a teachers’ college and a refuge during the 1932 cyclone. From here we walked to Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje, a chapel was built in 1723 but the current structure dates from 1840. During the Ten year war it was used as a military barracks by Spanish troops, this is the only church in Cuba with a cemetery attached. In the cemetery is the final resting place of Ignacio Agramonte who had a blue painted tomb. We walked round the cemetery for a while looking at some of the tombs which seem to be more like mini-churches than graves then we continued our walk. We found the Church of our Lady of Carmen with the help of a local woman who overheard me trying to pronounce the street it is in and pointed the way for us. This is now the office of the City Historian but was a convent and also a place of shelter during the hurricane of 1932. The plaza in front of the former convent has a number of bronze statues some of which are really good and the artist has a gallery in the corner of the square. Finally we walked back to the Parque Ignacio where we had started and had a look at the Cathedral which is called our Lady of Candelaria, she is the patron saint of the city, this cathedral is built on the site of a chapel dating from 1530. Pope John Paul II visited here to look at the church which was built in 1735 and bell tower which was built in 1777 but it collapsed a year later! The church was updated in 1864 and the most significant thing about the church is the statue of Christ on the Bell tower which you can climb but we didn’t bother. We walked back to the hotel to start our second walk of the day. This one was a lot shorter and just took us up and down the main shopping street in Camagüey. This starts with the Iglesia Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, this church was built in 1776 and is where Ignacio was baptised in 1841 and later married, we walked all the way down the road, stopping for a really nice ice cream before passing the railway station where there is also a museum but we didn’t bother going in as having read about it in the UK it contains some ‘mocked up’ steam trains and not a lot else. We walked all the way down to the Museum Casa National de Iganicio Agramonte which was his former home, unfortunately he died in battle in 1873 at the age of 31 but the house dates form 1750, it is not open today but for a fee we could probably have gone in as there was a lady who seemed to be willing to let us have a closer look at the inner courtyard which did seem really nice but we didn’t bother so started walking back towards the hotel. We have seen both sides of Camagüey today, the really nice houses that when you look in are very well furnished and the opposite end of the scale where there is basically a very impressive facade but when you look in there is nothing more than a single room in a shell of a building. It is a very strange country where loads of people seem to have mobile phones but in large parts of the city you still have to buy water from a peddler and every other house seems to be trying to sell something through their windows. Having said that Camagüey seems to be one of the more affluent towns we have been in, the supermarket was probably the best stocked we have seen in any of the towns, if we need anything this is probably the place to buy it! After walking round we decided we didn’t really fancy any lunch so we went back to the pool, got changed and went for a swim which was really refreshing. Unfortunately there was a rather large Spanish family who took over a bit but nowhere near as bad as yesterday so we had a really nice swim, a couple of drinks and a snack before heading up to the room for a shower before going out for something to eat tonight. I am not sure but I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up where we were last night as the food was really nice.
