Things to do in Central Cuba
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Club Mejunje
Set in the ruins of a roofless building given over to sprouting greenery, Club Mejunje is Havana-hip and more. Among the plethora of nighttime attractions here is Cuba’s only official drag show every Saturday night – a must-see! Other items on an eclectic entertainment menu include regular trova, bolero and son (Cuba’s popular music) concerts, children’s theater and disco nights. If you’ve only got one night, this is the place.
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El Sabor Latino
Santa Clara’s only real paladar is easily trumped by many of the city’s casa particular chefs, but still lures plenty of clients into its well-maintained midst with its improbable Rolling Stones’ ‘Glimmer Twins’ logo. The menu offers complete pork or chicken meals with rice, salad, tostones (fried plantain patties) and bread for CUC$10 (or fish for CUC$12).
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Disco Ayala
It might not be the first time you’ve gone jiving in a cave, but this surreal place up by the Ermita Popa church beats all others for atmosphere and animation. While it’s mainly a place to let rip and dance J-Lo style in the semi-darkness with as many mojitos as you care to sink, this disco also puts on a decent cabaret show with a pre-Columbian Indian theme.
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Restaurante Plaza Mayor
The best bet courtesy of its on-off lunchtime buffet, which, for around CUC$10, ought to fill you up until dinnertime. Nighttime offerings aren’t bad either if you stick to the chicken and beef, though the atmosphere can be a little flat.
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Paladar Estela
You can choose the dining room or pretty rear garden to take your meals in this popular place located above the Plaza Mayor (the owner also rents rooms). Cordero (lamb) served shredded is the house specialty, and the portions are large.
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Monumento Ernesto Che Guevara
The site of many a Che ‘pilgrimage, ’ this monument, mausoleum & museum complex, 2km west of Parque Vidal via Rafael Tristá, is in a vast square guarded by a bronze statue of ‘El Che.’ The statue was erected in 1987 to mark the 20th anniversary of Guevara’s murder in Bolivia, and the sublime mausoleum below (entry from the rear) contains 38 stone-carved niches dedicated to the other guerillas killed in that failed revolutionary attempt. In 1997 the remains of 17 of them, including Guevara, were recovered from a secret mass grave in Bolivia and reburied in this memorial. Fidel Castro lit the eternal flame on October 17, 1997. The adjacent museum collects the details an…
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Museo Histórico Municipal
The showpiece museum here is the grandiose Museo Histórico Municipal, just off Plaza Mayor, housed in a mansion that belonged to the Borrell family from 1827 to 1830. Later the building passed to a German planter named Kanter or Cantero, and it’s still called Casa Cantero. Reputedly Dr Justo Cantero acquired vast sugar estates by poisoning an old slave trader and marrying his widow, who also suffered an untimely death. Cantero’s ill-gotten wealth is well displayed in the stylish neoclassical decoration of the rooms. The view of Trinidad from the top of the tower alone is worth the price of admission. Visit before 11am, when the tour buses start rolling in.
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Parroquia de San Juan Bautista de Remedios
The Parroquia de San Juan Bautista de Remedios is one of the island’s finest ecclesial buildings. Though a church was founded here in 1545, this building dates from the late 18th century; the campanile was erected between 1848 and 1858 and its famous gilded high altar and mahogany ceiling are thanks to a restoration project (1944–46) financed by millionaire philanthropist Eutimio Falla Bonet. The pregnant Inmaculada Concepción on the first side altar to the left of the entrance is said to be the only one of its kind in Cuba. If the front doors are closed, go around to the rear or attend 7:30pm mass.
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San Francisco de Asís
Perhaps the most recognizable building in Trinidad is the quaint yellow bell-tower of the former convent of San Francisco de Asís. Since 1986 the building has housed the Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos (tel:4121, open from 09:00 to 18:00 Tuesday to Sunday).
The displays are mostly photos, maps, weapons and other objects relating to the struggle against the various counterrevolutionary bands that operated in Sierra del Escambray between 1960 and 1965. The fuselage of a US U-2 spy plane shot down over Cuba is also on display. Here, too, you can climb the tower for good views. It's on the corner of Piro Guinart.
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Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos
Perhaps the most recognizable building in Trinidad is the withered pastel-yellow bell-tower of the former convent of San Francisco de Asís. Since 1986 the building has housed the Museo Nacional de la Lucha Contra Bandidos. The displays are mostly photos, maps, weapons and other objects relating to the struggle against the various counterrevolutionary bands that took a leaf out of Fidel’s book and operated illicitly out of the Sierra del Escambray between 1960 and 1965. The fuselage of a US U-2 spy plane shot down over Cuba is also on display. You can climb the tower for good views.
reviewed
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Fábrica de Tabacos Constantino Pérez Carrodegua
Santa Clara’s tobacco factory is one of the best in Cuba and makes a quality range of Montecristos, Partagás and Romeo y Julieta cigars. Tours here are lower key than in Havana and, as a result, the experience is a lot more interesting and less rushed. Rather than turn up you should book tickets through the Cubatur office. Across the street you’ll find La Veguita, the factory’s diminutive sales outlet that is staffed by a friendly team of cigar experts. You can also buy cheap rum here and the bar out the back brews good coffee.
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Boxcar Museum
History was made here on December 29, 1958, when Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and a band of 18 rifle-wielding revolutionaries barely out of their teens derailed an armored train using a borrowed bulldozer and some homemade Molotov cocktails. The battle lasted 90 minutes, and it effectively sealed the fate of the Batista dictatorship and ushered in 50 years of Fidel Castro. The event is remembered with a boxcar museum east on Independencia, just over the river, which marks the spot where the train derailed and ejected its 350 heavily armed government troops.
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Iglesia Parroquial de la Santísima Trinidad
Despite its rather unremarkable outer facade, the Iglesia Parroquial de la Santísima Trinidad, on the northeastern side of Plaza Mayor, graces countless Trinidad postcard views. Rebuilt in 1892 on the site of an earlier church destroyed in a storm, the church mixes 20th-century touch-ups with older artifacts from as far back as the 18th century, such as the venerated Christ of the True Cross (1713), which occupies the second altar from the front to the left. Your best chance of seeing it is during Mass at 8pm weekdays, 4pm Saturday, and 9am and 5pm Sunday.
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Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de la Popa
For a bird's-eye view of Trinidad, walk straight up Simón Bolívar, the street between the Iglesia Parroquial and the Museo Romántico, to the destroyed 18th-century Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de la Popa, part of a former Spanish military hospital. It's on a hill to the north of the old town, a favorite sunset-watching spot (use insect repellant).
From here it's a 30-minute hike up the hill to the radio transmitter atop 180m-high Cerro de la Vigía, which delivers broad vistas of Trinidad, Playa Ancón and the entire littoral.
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Casa Templo de Santería Yemayá
No Santería museum can replicate the ethereal spiritual experience of Regla de Ocha, though the Casa Templo de Santería Yemayá has a try. Containing a Santería altar to Yemayá, Goddess of the Sea with myriad offerings of fruit, water and stones, the house is presided over by santeros (priests of the Afro-Cuban religion Santería) who’ll emerge from the back patio and surprise you with some well-rehearsed tourist spiel. On the saint’s anniversary, March 19, ceremonies are performed day and night.
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El Louvre
Acting with a gravitational pull on Remedios’ small scattering of tourists, El Louvre has cleaned its act up in recent years to fulfill the expectations of its more demanding clientele. Locals will tell you it’s the oldest bar in the country in continuous service (since 1866) but, longevity awards aside, the fried-chicken-and-sandwiches menu still can’t quite match up to the quaint parkside location. If you’re looking for a room/paladar/taxi, park yourself here, have a drink and wait for the offers.
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La Casa de la Ciudad
The pulse of the city’s progressive cultural life is at La Casa de la Ciudad, northwest of Parque Vidal. If you want to see another side to Santa Clara aside from the obligatory Che memorabilia, get chatting to the young artists here. The historic building hosts art expositions (including an original Wilfredo Lam sketch), Noches del Danzón and a film museum; but the real buzz of this place is hanging out with the local culture vultures and finding out what makes this most unprepossessing of Cuban cities tick.
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Museo de las Parrandas Remedianas
Visiting the Museo de las Parrandas Remedianas, two blocks off Parque Martí, is probably a poor substitute for partying here on December 24, but what the hell? The downstairs photo gallery usually recaps the previous year’s shenanigans, while the upstairs rooms outline the history of this tradition, including scale models of floats and detailed depictions of how the fireworks are made. Another room is jammed with feathers, headdresses and tassels from celebrations past.
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Museo Provincial Abel Santamaría
Not actually a memorial to Señor Santamaría (Fidel’s right-hand man at Moncada), but rather a small provincial museum quartered in a former military barracks where Batista’s troops surrendered to Che Guevara on January 1, 1959. It contains a room on natural history and a room dedicated to Cuban women throughout history. The museum is situated on a hilltop at the north end of Esquerra, just across the Río Bélico in Reparto Osvaldo Herrera.
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Parque Vidal
Named for Colonel Leoncio Vidal y Caro, who was killed here on March 23, 1896, Parque Vidal was encircled by twin sidewalks during the colonial era, with a fence separating Blacks and Whites. Today it is one of Cuba's busiest and most vibrant parks with old men gossiping on the shaded benches and young kids getting pulled around in carriages led by goats. Since 1902, the municipal orchestra has played in the park bandstand at 20:00 every Thursday and Sunday.
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Ranchón El Cubano
A pleasant spot 5km from Trinidad with a ranchón- style restaurant that specializes in pez gato (catfish), a fish farm, and a 2km trail to a refreshing waterfall. There are also stables here and opportunities to partake in horseback riding. If you hike to El Cubano from Trinidad, you’ll clock up a total of approximately 16km. With a stop for lunch in the ranchón, it can make an excellent day trip.
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Museo Romántico
The Museo Romántico is in the glittering Palacio Brunet. The ground floor was built in 1740, and the upstairs was added in 1808. In 1974 the mansion was converted into a museum with 19th-century furnishings, a fine collection of china and various other period pieces. Pushy museum staff will materialize out of the shadows for a tip. The shop adjacent has a good selection of photos and books in English.
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Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen
The city’s oldest and most interesting church, the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, four blocks north of Parque Vidal, was built in 1748, with a tower added in 1846. During the First War of Independence it was used as a jail for Cuban patriots. A modern cylindrical monument facing the church commemorates the spot where Santa Clara was founded in 1689 by 13 refugee families from Remedios.
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Monumento a la Toma del Tren Blindado
This boxcar museum, east on Independencia just over the river, marks the spot where 18 men under the command of Che Guevara, equipped with rifles and grenades, captured a 22-car armored train containing 350 heavily armed Batista troops. Amazingly, this battle, which took place on December 29, 1958, only lasted 90 minutes. The bulldozer that the guerrillas used to cut the railway line is on a pedestal nearby.
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Casa de la Música
One of Trinidad’s and Cuba’s classic venues, this casa is an alfresco affair that congregates on the sweeping staircase beside the Iglesia Parroquial off Plaza Mayor. A good mix of tourists and locals take in the 10pm salsa/dance show here. Alternatively, full-on salsa concerts are held in the casa’s rear courtyard (also accessible from Juan Manuel Márquez; cover CUC$2).
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