This is probably our last day focusing on the revolution, we originally had a slightly longer walk planned but as we did the cemetery yesterday we revised today’s visit to only focus on the sites of the rebel attacks in Santiago de Cuba which pretty much kick started the rebellion agains the American powers. We started by walking up the pedestrian road to the Plaza de Marti, on the way we saw the florist that is supplied by the botanical gardens we went to yesterday, the shop is called Bird of Paradise which is the same as the gardens and is the name I couldn’t remember yesterday. Marti square looked quite different to Saturday when it was closed off for the markets, today it is a roundabout with what feels like traffic heading in all directions. The plaza is actually Santiagos third largest square laid out in the 19th century. It is of historical importance because capital punishment was meted out here both in Colonial times and also under General Machado before the revolution. The column in the centre is 65 foot high and was built in 1902 to celebrate Cuba’s independence, if only they had known how short lived this would be. Just the other side of the square you enter the Historic district which is where on the 26th July 1953 a series of coordinated attacks took place. Castro led about 100 rebels in an attack on the Moncada barracks, they captured the second largest garrison in Cuba, a building from the 19th century, the aim was to secure a large stock of weapons and trigger a general revolt. The Hospital building was to be taken by Abel Santamaria Cuadrado and Castro aimed to take the law courts, I am not sure who was scheduled to lead the attack on the barracks but Santamarie was captured and killed by police after the attempt failed. Eight revolutionaries died during the attack and 55 were taken prisoner, some were tortured and executed and these are the ones who’s names are on the monuments on the way up to the Sierra Maestra Mountain range. We walked round the barracks which since January 1959 has been a school but didn’t bother going into the museum which has a number of pictures on the guerrilla war of the 1950s. After this we went back to the main road to walk up to the hospital where we stopped and had a relax and some water before heading off to look at the Statue which is a little strange, it has an image of Able Santamaria but nothing to explain who the other face on the monument belongs to. The old hospital building seems to have been reopened as a maternity hospital as there were quite a few pregnant women walking round. Castro was held for a few days after the attack and defended himself in court, the manuscript of which was later published under the title ‘History will Absolve Me’ from here we decided to walk down to the sea, we were obviously at a high point of the town as the roads leading to the sea were all very steep, some more than others but all had at least one very steep part. We walked down a selection of the roads, there were a lot of street traders out mostly selling Avocados and the sweet potato type veg they have with everything. We made a couple of diversions, one to look at a church which definitely hasn’t received any money from the Vatican and is in a sorry state of repair and another to look at a very strange building which turned out to be the registrars office. Some of the houses on the way down to the port looked like they were once very spectacular they have impressive decorations which are now faded and quite spectacular floor tiles which reflect a bygone age. We finally reached the road that runs alongside the port and again there were signs of grandeur. The old Customs house is quite spectacular and opposite is a hotel that was built in 1912 which was obviously built for the expected tourist trade but now houses what seems to be a series of small businesses, one of which if we worked it out correctly seemed to sell plumbing bits! We decided to head back up to the square to look for somewhere to have lunch and ended up in the Casa Grande again, this time we sat on the first floor rather than the roof as you get a better view of what is going on! After lunch we decided to go for a walk round the streets near the hotel as one of the roads seemed to be full of stalls selling local crafts, we didn’t stop to buy any but at the end of this road we came out at a square where there were a number of people playing dominos. I thought for a moment Chris was going to join in but as they seemed to be keeping score I am not sure he wanted to affect any betting that may have been going on! From here we decided to walk back up to the central square but on the way we found a music bar that had a group playing Cuban music and some people dancing. It was 1 CUC to get in so we decided to go and watch for a while, it was great, we sat with a beer looking at what looked like locals dancing the afternoon away. One of the women came up and got me to have a go, Chris wouldn’t but it is not as easy as you might think so I gave up after a little while. After a couple of drinks we decided to head back to the hotel to have a relax as the rain seemed to be coming in for the afternoon, we had already decided that we would probably have something to eat in the hotel this evening as we only need a snack and Chris is fighting off a cold so a more relaxed afternoon and evening will hopefully cure him.
