Hotel Islazul Hanabanilla Santa Clara

... Fue trabajoso porque ellos fueron excelente jugadores! Luego como a las cuatro de la tarde fuimos a la playa para nadar y hacer castillos en la arena. Después manejamos a la granjita hotel era mi hotel favorita estaba en el bosque. Nos dormimos muy temprano.

... him and I personally do not like the man for what he did during the campaign to his own men. I believe Cienfuegos to be a better man, in fact, even Fidel rated him higher. But this is my opinion and I am going in with my eyes wide open to discover a different meaning.

The Drive

We had a 70ish K drive from Cienfuegos and we were going through both factories and fields. All around, there were more and more political signs, plus Che was ...

... Guevara was erected in 1987 to mark the 20th anniversary of Guevara's murder in Bolivia. The statue is in a big square with a mausoleum below which contains 38 stone-carved niches dedicated to the other guerillas killed in that revolutionary attempt. There is also a museum dedicated to Che Guevara's life which displays his uniforms, guns, photos and documents, so we had a look through that. We couldn't seem to get a horse and cart back into town even though empty ...

... acting as if Cuba were just another country in the Caribbean. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I guess I should be some bright-eyed little wannabe socialist or a fat-bellied tourist, one or the other, just for the sake of clean neat categories. Then the Customs guy started looking at my notes, as if notes imply plans imply covert activity, or so I imagine, and still do. The big surprise here is that it seems no ...

... a pool at our disposal. On arrival however, we were told that is was fully booked. Well, our driver told us that the other guys said it was fully booked, so whether it really was or wasn't is debatable. How are we to know? Either way, we found ourselves heading back into Santa Clara in search of accommodation. Michel was sooo insistent that we stay at his mother's house... The more we said no, the more he insisted. However, we didn't want to stay at the place that Mercedes ...

... revolucionari de les amèriques pobres en termes de PIB. Al final, encara que jo preferís la camiseta de Salvador Allende a la seva, és una de les icones de moltes cultures diametralment oposades arreu del món. A més, conèixer el personatge en mitjana profunditat em fa plantejar el tema de la lluita armada a certes parts del planeta...qui li treu o li posa legitimitat és el resultat: triomf o derrota. Visca euskal herria!!! Visca Catalunya!!! Patria o muerte!!!

... with 4 out of 5 taxis being horses and carts. The town of Santa Clara is most famous for being the site of the last great battle of the revolution, when Che Guevara and co. liberated it on New Year's Eve, 1958. On the following day back in Havana, President Batista quickly handed over power to whoever was standing next to him at the time, jumped on a plane and demanded to be taken away ...

... than could be found elsewhere.

Internet access had seemed incredibly difficult to come by so far and so our first stop of the morning was at a state telecommunications company office with a couple of computer terminals we had spied while exploring Santa Clara the previous afternoon. Since leaving Grenada on the eve of the Semi-Finals of the Cricket World Cup we had been completely unaware of the results for both them and the Final, and someone was able to verify that there ...

... also with an unpronounceable name, tipped nicely to boot.

Though it was still relatively early in the morning when we left, there was a definite kick to the sun and the day promised to be a scorcher. Back in the car we re-traced our way back towards Pinar del Rio and through a series of educated guesses managed to get around the town and back onto the autopista towards Havana.

Over the previous couple of weeks we had oft reflected on the good, the bad and the ugly ...

... I found Casa right around the corner. Richard and Norma. What can I say, the names were just so American... Santa Clara is a small town, with the biggest University in Cuba, lots of cultural events every day and the most important thing - Memorial of Ernesto Che Guevara, the reason I came here... Have you heard the story of Che's hand? When he was killed in Bolivia (FYI: on 9/10/1967) the Bolivian soldiers cut his right (I think) hand off, so that CIA ...