Steven’s Cuba Blog

Cuba Chronicles, Chapter Five

December 1, 2005 at 11:21 am | In Trip Report |

UPRISING

Carretera Central from Colòn to Santa Clara city, Tuesday September 6th, 2005, 5:30am
With the aforementioned farm animals urging me to wake up, I literally rolled out of the hard bed onto the floor, took a cold shower - there was no hot water in this little guest room in the backyard - and got dressed. The funny thing about cold showers is how great they feel after a hot day at the beach or on the bicycle, but how awful they are in the morning before the sun comes up. I was literally talking to myself out loud into putting each body part under the low-pressure stream of water, soaping it up, then rinsing it off: “Ok, and here comes the left arm! The left arm is getting cleaned… time to rinse it off Steve. And it’s rinsed! Followed by the right arm…”

Once again, the pre-dawn road to Santa Clara was beautiful, flat and straight. However, unlike the short 80km of the previous day, this trip would be 50% longer - 120km. Despite this, I was in high spirits. The strong tailwind I had and the many motivational billboards along the way - Venceremos! - kept me going strong until about a quarter to 1pm, when I reached Santa Clara.


A big, clean, attractive city with few tourists, the first thing you see upon entering the city from the North-West (after the billboards about quitting smoking, teen help hotlines and reminding you to always use a condom) is the huge Che Guevara mausoleum and memorial complex, which I visited the next day.

Biking into the city from this direction also lets you enjoy an awesome downhill from the outskirts into the heart of city. Flying past crowded horse-drawn carriages filled with smiling girls and old taxis honking at the car in front of them is especially rewarding after a long, straight, somewhat monotonous ride on the highway. I easily found my casa just a couple of blocks away from the city’s beautiful main square, settled in, and enjoyed a well-deserved shower - lukewarm.

This casa was one of my favorite ones throughout my entire trip. The owner, Yadin, was really, really, cool. We hit it off from the start, and got along very well the whole time I was there. A former computer programmer, she left IT to rent out a room in her beautiful 2nd floor flat. She’s also got two adorable and very bright kids.

/** (Plug)
Casa de Yadin
Bonifacio Martinez 60, between Sindico (E.P Morales) and Caridad (gral. Roloff)
Santa Clara, Villa Clara
Cuba
Tel: (053) (42) 206754
Tel2: (053)(42)274760
*/

Disclaimer - I will occasionally post the addresses of my favorite casas here. This is not an endorsement nor a service I provide, and I receive no commission or compensation for references. Nevertheless, if you do decide to stay at one of them, I’d appreciate if you mentioned that you heard about them from me, “Steve, el muchacho con la bicicleta naranja.”

After I unpacked and settled into my very comfortable, air conditioned room, and took my shower, I got dressed, and walked back to the beautiful town square / park that I flew by at 40km/h just an hour ago. It’s amazing how different the experience of visiting a city can be based on your method of transportation. No matter where you are, whether you’re walking, bicycling, on a bus or driving through the city, you’ll see a totally different side of it. Biking through the city on my in, I was struck by the symmetry of the streets and buildings, and the thought that this city was probably the most “modern-looking” city overall I’ve been to in Cuba so far.

Leaving my casa on foot along the same route led me to a similar impression, albeit from a different angle. People here seem to be, at first glance, somewhat more well-off in general than the other places I’ve been to. The pedestrian-only town square - center of most activity - is bustling at any hour of day or night, with people young and old sitting on the benches, laughing, just talking about everything and nothing. It was mid-afternoon, so all the uniformed students had just left class and were converging on the town square to hang out.

The boys in their white dress shirts - and I mean white; I’ve never ever seen anyone manage to get a piece of clothing so bright white - and the gorgeous girls in their also-white dress shirts and decidedly-too-high-for-their-age brown suede skirts were meeting, playing pranks on each other, talking about the teachers they love and hate. All of a sudden, I felt really, really relaxed, and comfortable. I lied down on an empty bench (it was in the sun, and everyone usually chooses the benches in the shade - and move along with the shadow when the sun starts hitting them again), took out my moleskine notebook, and started to write - about everything and nothing.

Right about then, two students, both spanish-looking classic beauties, walked by me, looked me up and down, and smiled. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be older than 17, so all I could do was smile back.

Yeah, I think I’ll hang in Santa Clara for a few more days.