Bob, I think Malena and Alejandro would adore Campismo La Mula. And Yordanka would probably like it too. (I always have.) Only problem, food is not great. Could have improved some, but last time I was there it was pretty poor, even for campismo fare. However, we had no problem getting one of the camp employees to bring in good chicken dinners from a village within walking distance, which they served to us on a little table set up in the shade behind our cottage. Or, given your interest in non-tourist-visited places in Cuba, you could walk to the village yourself and probably find the same dinner even less expensively (and it wasn't as I recall very expensive when brought to us.)
What's "educational" on that road between Santiago and Campismo La Mula? Well, just as you're leaving Santiago there's the cemetery with Fidel's tomb, but I presume you've seen that. For sure the kids should, best at 8 AM when few if any tourists have arrived and it's not so bloody hot, so you won't mind waiting around for the changing of the guard (every 30 minutes, takes 10 minutes or so).
About 20 km on (heading out of Santiago toward La Mula),I'm supposing you remember that tiny bay with the prow of a Spanish warship, the Almirante Oquendo, sticking up, no more than 50 yards offshore? Lovely place to infuse the kids with a bit of history while they swim!
About 50 km past the shipwreck is Motel Guama; do you know it? It's a pleasant very Cuban place where I have stayed in the past and liked, although that was several years ago and I can't vouch for it now. It's just a hundred meters or so off the highway and as I recall on a hill, many many steps down to the water. Might be worth a lunch stop, or longer if it still has a nice atmosphere.
About 3 km before Chivrico you may recall an island called Las Damas that might interest the kids since it's only a 5-minute trip by rowboat. There's a bat cave there too, but I didn't go into it.
In Chivrico there are a few casas now. One I know, Casa Eva, is about a block off the highway on the road leading to Los Galleones, and right on the beach. One queen bed, one single, air-con, ensuite bathroom. 25CUC per night for 2 people which includes breakfast, or 30CUC for three. I think you, Yordanka, and the kids would be very comfortable there but you might have to call ahead if you want to stay there because I think they only have the one room. 53 5 832 6436. It's 40 km from there on to Campismo La Mula.
I assume you visited the Celia Sanchez museum when you were in Pilon (unless you were there when it was under repairs after a hurricane. The kids might not get much out of it, but maybe if you pointed out that newspaper clipping about the young girl who was shot (not killed) when a (CIA-sponsored, of course) terrorist group attacked and set fire to the sugar mill back in 1964. Also, in the side yard of the museum is a tree house where Celia used to keep her pet monkey (this surely an important detail if you want kids to relate to the heroine of the revolution!)
