Friday April 19th and Saturday April 20th, 2019 - Baracoa

We had the pleasure of staying put for three nights in Baracoa, giving us two full days there. Its location near the north east tip of Cuba places it in the midst of the mountains and close to Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, another UNESCO World Heritage designation I wanted to see. It is also on the coast.

Hatuey - Taino Chief

There were a number ways that Baracoa was different from other places we visited in Cuba. As we were driving in Thursday we noticed church services being held along the road. The only signs of religiosity we saw elsewhere was in the cathedrals, which did not seem to be vibrant. 

It was also the only city we saw that acknowledged the indigenous peoples, the Taino. Their Chief, Hatuey sits squarely and defiantly in the city's Parque Central. Hatuey led his people to fight against the Spanish, thus gaining admiration for being one of the first revolutionaries in the nation's history. He was  due to be executed and a priest asked him if he wanted to go to heaven or to hell. After thinking a moment, Hatuey asked if the Spaniards would also be in heaven. When the priest said yes, he replied he would sooner go to hell, to get away from their cruelty.

Many houses had porches

Finding space to store building materials is clearly a problem!

One of the other things I noticed was that many houses had a porch. They did not have the vertical frontage we had seen elsewhere. I was also intrigued to see that there were times that the porch was used for storage of construction materials. On another occasion I saw a front room filled with gravel! When one has no yard and mortgages are not possible, one must do something withe construction materials while you're saving up for the next item needed.

The town also claims to be the site on which Christopher Columbus first landed on October 28th, 1492. There are disputes as to where exactly Columbus landed, but they do have the only remaining wooden cross of the 29 that Christopher Columbus planted in the New World.

The metal was put on it to protect the wood from being worn away.

The Parque Central in Baracoa

I am not doing justice in sharing all there is to see here, but the mind does get jumbled up seeing so many similar images in many different places, so I will just try to show you those things that distinguish it from the many other town we've seen. It was clean and was generally in good repair. I didn't look at buildings with that suspect sense of wondering how the current occupant ended up there. There were signs of repair and building going on, but generally things were in good shape. There was a vibrant, energetic feel and I didn't notice quite as much horse traffic in town.

I also saw more cell phone use here.

After a brief orientation in town, we went to an organic cacao farm - in other words, chocolate! Our local guide told us a great deal about the way companion plantings are used to control pests and protect the trees.

The cacao bush is grown between rows of bananas, which put nitrogen and potassium in the soil

The flowers grow right out of the trunk, and are fertilized by a tiny fly....

....so the cocao pods develop on the trunk, too and take six months to develop

The used pods are thrown back on the ground to break down into fertilizer. I liked their colors. The yellow ones were ripe.

The little casa was nestled in the woods, just like the cacao trees.

We were shown the natural process of making chocolate by one of the workers on the farm. She said cacao was given to humans by the god Quetzalcoatl to take away people's tiredness. There is a supporting legend that says Quetzalcoatl stole some of the plants and gave them to the people. This caused wrath among the gods, as it was a drink that was supposed to be reserved for them. Our 'teacher' then took a machete to one of the cacao pods, and as she whacked it open, declared that they use the machete to keep their men under control! We laughed when her very precise action revealed the pulpy contents of the pod rather resembled a penis!

Our teacher's demonstration of the pod's content was dramatic!

It is then left in the shade in banana leaves for six days to ferment

After four days in the sun, then roasting, it looks like this. Next it is smashed in a pilon - the same that is used for grinding coffee

50% of the ground product is oil, so the result looks like this.

They roll it up into a ball like this - 100% cacao

Our local guide told us an amusing story of a friend getting conked in the head by one of the cocoa balls by his wife when she caught him dancing salsa with another woman! He said his friend was out cold for 10 minutes! One can use it to grate for cooking and on top of drinks. They were selling some chocolate that they had made by adding honey, so I came home with a bundle of goodies, including the pure cacao balls. We were told the chocolate would not melt, as it had so little milk added, but the back of a hot parked car proved them wrong. Some of our sweet gifts did not look quite so presentable in the end!

Next stop was the Yumuri Canyon - a mixed bag of goodies. First we were told we would see the most beautiful snails in the world here.

By the way, our local guide was a biologist, so he knew a lot about the local plants and animals. He said he earns $10 per month working for the government as a biologist. I tried to get a sense of his work obligations for this pittance, but did not get a clear answer. I found myself really hoping that he worked as a consultant and could see why he would want to run tours in his 'spare time'. One joke several guides told us was that 'The Government pretends to pay the Cuban people and the Cuban people pretend to work!' It makes sense that the tourist industry has the most sought after and highly paid jobs.

Enough of that - back to the snails. Well I don't know about you, but I can be hard to impress.

You get to decide for yourself. I ended up thinking they were very cool and were certainly the prettiest snails I've ever seen!

The sad side of this location is the derivation of the name 'Yumuri'. At the time of the Spanish conquest, they attempted to enslave the native Taino indians. Spanish techniques were cruel, including mistreatment, torture and death.  Some of the free-spirited Taino's rebelled, like their leader Hatuey. Others chose death, which they accomplished by jumping off cliffs such as these in the canyon. As they jumped, they would cry out 'Ya mori', which means 'I have died'. Hence, the modern name for it - Boca de Yumuri. Sadly, when the Spanish found they could not enslave the locals, they turned to Africa for their labor.......therein lies another sad chapter in history.

I'm always a bit conflicted when I'm enjoying myself in a space that has a dark history. I do my best to hold that distant knowledge in mind, as I go about the appreciating the present safe reality. So now it was onto fun and games - a boat ride up to a sand bar where we had a delightful swim.

I just hoped the young man who was rowing enjoyed the trip as much as we did - it least it was only a short distance.
 (Photo courtesy of Frances Peters)

The swimming spot was very lovely and even though others were there, it was not crowded. By the time we finished, it was time for lunch. But, oops, here was the only time we faced mechanical challenges. When we arrived at the rendezvous with our driver, we learned that the car wouldn't start! So, what is one to do? First just have a nice cool drink at the tourist cafe nearby. Then, the next obvious thing - jump into an already full jeep that is headed in the same direction. Third, there was much conferring of minds more knowledgeable than ours. The solution - flag down a passing vehicle and get a jump.

But it really couldn't have happened in a nicer spot!

The solution is unfolding as we watch (Photo Courtesy of Frances Peters)

You know we were terribly sad to find out the restaurant our guides had selected was on the beach! This was a nice change of pace for us.

Our table was set up on the beach

It was called Restaurant Tato

So we enjoyed a slow, relaxing, more Cuban-paced meal, before calling the day 'done'.

Fran enjoyed another Spanish 'lesson'......

I also swam and enjoyed the scenery

But once lunch was served, we were not the only ones able to relax. It was later than we had planned, so our afternoon of free time was some true 'down' time in this lovely spot. Ambitions of museums, or seeing more of the town became lost in the luxury of just 'Ahhh.....'!

Others just chilled in the cooling air

The men set up a table in the shade for dominoes

Our second Baracoa day was to be more active. We were planning a 3km walk to a waterfall near El Yunque, a flat-topped mountain in the Humboldt National Park. The name means 'the anvil' and the Baracoans claim it to be the mountain that Columbus wrote of at his first Cuban landing spot.

El Yunque can be seen in the distance - photo courtesy of Frances Peters

El Yunque at closer quarters

The scenery was tropical lushness. 

Our biology lesson on the way entailed cashews.

The nut is connected to a rather large fruit - you can see the nut below

Fran did not like the cashew apple - funny texture/mouth feel and tart

Here was the interesting part - it's not really a fruit. The nut grows first, as you see here, then the fleshy part develops between it and the branch.
 It's called an 'accessory fruit' according to Wikipedia

The waterfall was modest - three tiers of torrent up a side creek.

But the swim was quite luscious!

There was a government run camp at the start of the walk. I loved the soft colors of the mules, which must be used for treks.

The cloth bag hanging in front of the cart catches the horses poop

He is just adorable!

Finally, we end our day's adventure with a very interesting lunch. I don't want to be tedious in sharing our every move - much has been left out already, but this one was notable in several ways. First, it was actually a government run restaurant, called Rancho Toa, as it is on the Toa River! Many times the government sites were in prime real estate, and you can see that this was quite well positioned. By rights, we would not normally eat here, as it is government, but it was included as part of the day tour we had, so what choice was there? Get up and run?

Rancho Toa was right on the river

The excellent thing about it was that these folks were doing a great job of sharing the type of traditional food eaten by local campesinos, served in organic, sustainable utensils. Our local guide said his parents eat this type of food. They live a two hour drive out of town, followed by a three hour walk. They are off the 'grid', for sure, but everything here can be grown on their property. When he visits, he will take in supplies like rice, sugar and flour.

This was a vegetable dish in coconut sauce. Note the gourd. You can see the salads behind and beside it in bamboo trays.

Achiote seeds

We learned that the coloring in the very delicious coconut sauce  comes from this seed. My internet digging says it is called achiote. It appears to be similar to saffron in that it is more of a coloring agent than an actual flavoring.









Sadly, our delightful interlude in this area was coming to and end. We had come to see the UNESCO designated World Heritage Humbolt Park, and its diverse species. Our small taste of  Yumuri and El Yunque had given us a snippet. The following day will see us moving on the Gibara, but on the way, we anticipate another adventure in this diverse