Things to do in Eastern Cuba
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Cubatur
Baracoa’s rite of passage is the 8km (up and down) hike to El Yunque. At 575m it’s not Kilimanjaro, but the views from the summit and the flora and birdlife along the way are stupendous. Cubatur offers this tour almost daily (CUC$18 per person, minimum two people). The fee covers admission, guide, transport and a sandwich. The hike is hot (bring sufficient water) and usually muddy. It starts from a campismo 3km past the Finca Duaba (4km from the Baracoa–Moa road). Bank on seeing tocororo (Cuba’s national bird), zunzún (the world’s smallest bird), butterflies and polymitas.
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Paladar Salón Tropical
The city’s best paladar is a few blocks south of Hotel Las Américas on a pleasant rooftop terrace with fairy lights and decent views. The food is plentiful and tasty with a varying menu of succulent smoked pork, chicken and sometimes lamb, served with congrí (rice flecked with black beans), salad and plantains (green bananas) and delicious yuca con mojo (starchy root vegetable with garlic lime sauce). Reservations are a good idea as this is a favorite spot for young Cuban women who come here with their 50-plus-year-old foreign sugar daddies.
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Casa de la Trova
Nearly 40 years after its initial incarnation, Santiago’s shrine to the power of traditional music is still going strong and continuing to attract big names such as Buena Vista Social Club singer, Eliades Ochoa. Warming up on the ground floor in the late afternoon, the action slowly gravitates upstairs where, come 10-ish, everything starts to get a shade more caliente. Arrive with a good pair of shoes and prepare to be – quite literally – whisked off your feet.
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Estadio de Béisbol Guillermón Moncada
This stadium is on the northeastern side of town within walking distance of the main hotels. During the baseball season, from October to April, there are games at 7:30pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, and 1:30pm Sunday (one peso). The Avispas (Wasps) have had the edge on Havana’s Industriales of late with National Series victories in 2005, 2007 and 2008.
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Casa de las Tradiciones
The most discovered ‘undiscovered’ spot in Santiago still retains its smoke-filled, foot-stomping, front-room feel. Hidden in the gentile Tivolí district, some of Santiago de Cuba’s most exciting ensembles, singers and soloists take turns improvising. Friday nights are reserved for straight-up, classic trova, à la Ñico Saquito and the like.
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El Barracón
El Barracón opened its doors to reignite the roots of Afro-Cuban culture and cuisine. The restaurant’s interior, a mix of atmospheric Santería shrine and cimarrón (runaway slave), is intriguing and the creative food is even better. Try the delicious tostones (fried plantain patties) filled with chorizo and cheese.
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Iglesia de Santo Tomás
North of the historic center, Santiago de Cuba turns residential. Tracking up Calle Felix Peña, you can orientate yourself by the baroque bell tower of Iglesia de Santo Tomás, one in a trio of notable, if dilapidated, 18th-century churches in this neighborhood.
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Museo de la Lucha Clandestina
This gorgeous colonial-style building houses the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina, detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It’s a fascinating, if macabre, story enhanced by far-reaching views from the balcony.
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Patio ARTex
Art lines the walls of this shop-and-club combo that hosts live music both day and night in a quaint inner courtyard; a good bet if the Casa de la Trova is full, or too frenetic.
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Casa de la Música
Similar to the venues in Havana, this Casa de la Música features a mix of live salsa and taped disco and is usually a cracking night out.
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El Morro
From El Morro you also get a good look at the hamlets of La Socapa and Cayo Granma across the bay, both accessible by ferry from Punta Gorda or Ciudamar. In La Socapa you can hike uphill to the ruins of an old Spanish battery where five cannons, designed to create crossfire with the castle, still stand guard. The only shooting nowadays is by photographers taking in the excellent castle views; for some private beach time, you can explore west along the deserted coast.
Cayo Granma is a little fantasy island of red-roofed dwellings tucked in a crook of the Bahía de Santiago de Cuba. A short uphill hike to its highest point brings you to the Iglesia de San Rafael. Alternative…
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Cementerio Santa Ifigenia
Nestled peacefully on the western edge of the city, the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia is second only to Havana’s Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón in its importance and grandiosity. Created in 1868 to accommodate the victims of the War of Independence and a simultaneous yellow-fever outbreak, the Santa Ifigenia includes many great historical figures among its 8000-plus tombs. Names to look out for include Tomás Estrada Palma (1835–1908), Cuba’s now disgraced first president; Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (1844–1922) of the famous rum dynasty; María Grajales, the widow of independence hero Antonio Maceo, and Mariana Grajales, Maceo’s mother; 11 of the 31 generals of the independence strugg…
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Cueva del Aguas
Cueva del Aguas is a cave with a sparkling, freshwater swimming hole inside. To get there, head past the Fuerte Matachín, hike southeast past the baseball stadium and along the beach for about 20 minutes to a rickety wooden bridge over the Río Miel.
From April to June, you'll have to take a skiff across the flooded river mouth before reaching the bridge, which costs a peso to cross and is open from sunrise to sunset. After the bridge, turn left until you come to a Gaviota hut, where you have to pay around to proceed further. Going right at the Gaviota hut and following the dirt road through coconut groves and past clapboard houses for 45 minutes, you'll come to the blue…
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Bacardí Rum Factory
While it’s not as swanky as its modern Bahamas HQ, the original Bacardí Rum Factory, opened in 1868, oozes history. Spanish-born founder Don Facundo dreamt up the world-famous Bacardí bat symbol after finding a colony of the winged mammals living in the factory’s rafters. Although the family fled the island after the Revolution, the Cuban government has continued to make traditional rum here – the signature Ron Caney brand coupled with smaller amounts of Ron Santiago and Ron Varadero. In total, the factory knocks out nine million liters a year, 70% of which is exported. There are currently no factory tours, but the Barrita de Ron Caney, a tourist bar attached to t…
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Cuartel Moncada
With a trapezoid footprint from General Portuondo to Paseo de Martí and Av de los Libertadores to Av Moncada, is named for Guillermón Moncada, a prisoner here in 1874 who later fought for independence from Spain during the 'Little War' of 1879. The first barracks on this site were constructed by the Spanish in 1859, and in 1938 the present buildings were completed.
On the morning of July 26, 1953, more than 100 revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro attacked Batista's troops here at what was at the time Cuba's second most important military garrison. The revolutionaries had hoped the assault would spark a general uprising throughout Cuba, but things went awry when the driv…
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Loma de San Juan
Future American president Teddy Roosevelt forged his reputation on Loma de San Juan where, flanked by the immortal rough-riders, he supposedly led a fearless cavalry charge against the Spanish to seal a famous US victory. In reality, it is doubtful that Roosevelt even mounted his horse in Santiago, while the purportedly clueless Spanish garrison – outnumbered 10 to one – managed to hold off more than 6000 American troops for 24 hours. Protected on pleasantly manicured grounds adjacent to the modern-day Motel San Juan, the Loma deSan Juan marks the spot of the Spanish-Cuban-American War’s only land battle, which took place on July 1, 1898. Cannons, trenches and numerou…
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Museo–Casa Natal de Antonio Maceo
Two long blocks northwest of the church, Iglesia de Santo Tomás, is the important but little visited Museo–Casa Natal de Antonio Maceo where the mulato general and hero of both Wars of Independence was born on June 14, 1845. Known as the Bronze Titan in Cuba for his bravery in battle, Maceo was the definitive ‘man of action’ to Martí’s ‘man of ideas.’ In his 1878 Protest of Baraguá, he rejected any compromise with the colonial authorities and went into exile rather than sell out to the Spanish. Landing at Playa Duaba in 1895, he marched his army as far west as Pinar del Río before being killed in action near Havana in 1896. This simple museum exhibits highl…
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Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
It might not be particularly old, but Santiago’s most important church, the imposing, five-nave Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city’s inception in the 1520s, though a series of pirate raids, earthquakes and dodgy architects put paid to at least three previous incarnations. The present cathedral, characterized by its two neoclassical towers and open-winged trumpeting archangel, was completed in 1922 and it is believed that the remains of first colonial governor, Diego Velázquez, are still buried underneath. Meticulously restored, the cathedral’s interior is a magnificent mélan…
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Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano
In the Parque Céspedes's northwestern corner lies the Casa de Diego Velázquez. Dating from 1522, this is the oldest house still standing in Cuba. Restored in the late 1960s, the Andalusian-style facade (you'll know it by its enclosed balcony with the fine, Moorish-style woodwork) was restored in the late 1960s, and opened in 1970 as the Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano.
The ground floor was originally a trading-house and gold foundry, while the upstairs was the personal residence of Velázquez himself.
Today, rooms display period furnishings and decoration from the 16th to 19th centuries. Visitors are also taken through an adjacent neoclassical house dating from the 1…
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Casa de Diego Velázquez
In the northwestern corner of Parque Céspedes lies the Casa de Diego Velázquez. The oldest house still standing in Cuba, this early colonial abode dating from 1522 was the official residence of the island’s first governor. Restored in the late 1960s, the Andalusian-style facade with fine, wooden lattice windows was inaugurated in 1970 as the Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano. The ground floor was originally a trading house and gold foundry, while the upstairs was where Velázquez lived. Today, rooms display period furnishings and decoration from the 16th to 19th centuries. Visitors are also taken through an adjacent 19th-century neoclassical house.
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Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
Crying out for a major renovation, the rapidly disintegrating Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción was built in 1833 on the site of a much older church. Its most famous artifact is the priceless Cruz de La Parra, a wooden cross said to have been erected by Columbus near Baracoa in 1492. Carbon dating has authenticated the cross’ age (it dates from the late 1400s), but has indicated that it was originally made out of indigenous Cuban wood, thus disproving the legend that Columbus brought the cross from Europe. The church was closed at the time of writing and the cross was being displayed in the last house on Calle Antonio Maceo, behind the church to the right.
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Casa del Chocolate
It’s enough to make even Willy Wonka wonder. You’re sitting next to a chocolate factory but, more often than not, there’s none to be had in this bizarre little casa just off the main square. The quickest way to check out Baracoa’s on-off supply situation is to stick your head around the door and utter the word ‘chocolate’ to one of the bored-looking waitresses. No hay equals ‘no, ’ a faint nod equals ‘yes.’ On a good day it sells chocolate ice cream and the hot stuff in mugs. For all its foibles, it’s a Baracoa rite of passage.
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Jardín de los Helechos
Two kilometers from downtown Santiago de Cuba on the road to El Caney, the peaceful Jardín de los Helechos is a lush haven of 350 types of ferns and 90 types of orchids that started life in 1976 as the private collection of Santiagüero Manuel Caluff. In 1984 Caluff donated his collection of 1000-plus plants to the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba (Cuban Academy of Science), which continues to keep the 3000-sq-meter garden in psychedelic bloom (the best time for orchids is November to January). The center of the garden has an inviting dense copse-cum-sanctuary dotted with benches.
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Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau
Narrow Pío Rosado links Calle Heredia to Calle Aguilera and the fabulous Grecian facade of the Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau. Founded in 1899 by the rum magnate/war hero/city mayor, Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (the palatial building was built to spec), the museum is one of Cuba’s oldest and most eclectic. Artifacts amassed from Bacardí’s travels include an extensive weapons collection, paintings from the Spanish costumbrismo (19th-century artistic movement that predated Romanticism) school and the only Egyptian mummy on the island.
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San Juan Hill
Next to the Parque Zoológico entrance is a fenced-in expanse surrounded by cannons. On this spot, Santiago de Cuba's Spanish garrison surrendered two weeks after the battle of San Juan Hill in 1898. Continue through the grounds of the adjacent Motel San Juan to San Juan Hill proper, where US, Cuban and Spanish troops faced off on July 1, 1898.
Some of the original cannons and trenches can still be seen, and there are numerous monuments (admission free), including a bronze figure of a 'Rough Rider' in the center of the park. There's a whopping view of La Gran Piedra from this hill.
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