Camaguey to Santiago de Cuba

Sunday 5 June

 

Today we covered a lot of kilometres through more lush tropical countryside. Saw a lot of beef cattle, sugar cane, bananas, rice and mangoes. Today at breakfast I finally got the mango I've been craving since we arrived in Cuba and saw mangoes dripping from the trees. We see lots of revolutionary slogans along the way but can't get photos because the bus is going too fast. Let's just say that the revolution can never be too far from people's consciousness.

 

We stopped for lunch and a little look around in Bayamo. Lots of people out and about in the squares. We saw children in a little goat cart and lots of tiny bicycles. It looked like the learn to ride zone. In another square, the usual young people at the wifi hotspot. Nobody has their own internet, it can only be accessed by purchasing a wifi card and going to one of the public wifi spots which usually seem to be in one of the squares.

 

After lunch it was back into our wonderfully air conditioned bus with our driver, Vladimir. No, he's not Russian, it's just a popular name, along with Alexei! We stopped at El Cobre Basilica, a very imposing building and quite light and beautiful. Pope John Paul blessed it in 1998 and that's how it got to be a basilica, which Anne tells me is the top of the range in Catholic churches - think St Peter's in Rome. Apparently some men had a vision that led them to the right spot for the church to be built, one of the requirements for a basilica.

 

From here it was a short trip to Santiago de Cuba, where we will be staying for two nights.

 

 

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