Tuesday April 16th, 2019 - Comandancia de la Plata

I knew little about Fidel Castro's story until I watched a Netflix series prior to our trip to Cuba. It is a series of six episodes called Cuba Libre. From my place of ignorance, I thought it gave a pretty good synopsis of events that occurred during both revolutions that Cuba experienced - the first one against the Spanish and the second against the Batista government. It was good to have watched it as our travels today took us to the revolutionary headquarters in Sierra Maestra Mountains where Castro's forces found refuge and plotted their overthrow of the country. I experienced mixed feelings in going here, yet it is a compelling story, even if one is not thrilled at the outcome.  These same mountains were also the site of guerrilla forces dating from the Taino indians in the 1500's, slave uprisings, the Ten Years War and the Cuban War of Independence.

But first, as was so often the case on our journey, we had the pleasure of an early morning drive through beautiful country and a campesino encounter.

The mountains were beautiful looming over the lush fields. The Sierra Maestra range meets up with other mountain ranges that pretty much run the full width of the country at this eastern end of the island. I am always grateful to hear when the mountains of Cuba are breaking up the strength of the hurricanes headed our way, so I was keen to see their reality. The highest part of this range is just under 6,500 ft and it's highest peak Turquino is not very far from Comandancia.

People were busy trying to get to work. This looked like a very arduous task The truck you see here is most likely a bus - people standing in back. You see a horse cart off to the left and lots of people walking.The bike riders are fortunate in having a bit more certainty about their arrival time. It was common to see people standing by the side of the road waiting - no, praying - that they would get a ride. Often they were holding out money to show that they were willing to pay for a ride.

When a bus arrived, it seemed as if there was often not enough room for all.

I liked seeing the guy with the headphones - at least he had some entertainment, although there appeared to be a lot of meeting and greeting as people stood around and got on and off.

Houses were often made from natural materials. The roof on this one was made from the royal palm tree. It has a very attractive organic feel to it and after a hurricane can be replaced inexpensively - just hard work.

We pulled up to this lovely homestead - no lawnmowers here other than goats.

After admiring their beautiful views........

....we saw the coffee being ground in the pilon and the pot was boiling.....

.....and the result was a beautiful cup of coffee that had been grown and roasted on the property, served in a very lovely gourd, which had also been grown by the campesinos.

Now up to the mountains again. We started in a small community near the entrance to the national park, called Santo Domingo. There was a rather nice government-run eco-hotel there, where our guides got the permits we needed. We joined up with a pair of Danish siblings, Inga and Roy and off we went. Although the walk was only 3.7 mile return, the recommended time was 4 hours, so that's a clue that it was not just an easy pathway!


















In reality, it was rocky, sometimes slippery and wet, uphill and downhill both ways. It was challenging, so both Fran and our knees were glad we had our walking poles. Imagining the revolutionaries navigating their way around much poorer jungle paths with military kit and weapons did not sound like fun to me.

It was rare to see a view

Casa Medina

Casa Medina was the next stopping place where we were required to pay 5 CUC if we wanted to take photos. The Casa was the home of one of the many campesinos who were crucial to the success of the revolution, providing Fidel with food and supplies. They put their lives at risk, as the Batista troops did not hesitate to execute people they suspected of helping the revolutionaries.

Outpost # 1

Radio Hill

There were many structures around, but well hidden. the open space you see near radio hill is the result of clearing that took place later to allow helicopters to land. The hideout was never found. The structures were made of natural materials, so have been re-constructed to represent those that were there at the time.

A group of Cuban students and their teachers were visiting the site and when we arrived at Fidel's house, they were posing for a photo. I thought it was quite fitting to have them there.

Attitudes toward Fidel appeared to be mixed. One of our guides shared that their grandparent's generation saw him as a savior. People had to start work very young in those days (the grandparent being referenced had started to work at 12-years old). Fidel brought in health care, education and social security for all - even those in the most remote areas. The cost of that was the eradication of the upper and middle class along with elimination of  foreign corporate ownership. 10% of the population fled Cuba. Dissenters were imprisoned at higher rates than the Batista government and the executions overseen by Che Guevara killed innocents, many without even an attempt at trial. The Cuban government became the new corporate presence.

During the next generation - the Russian period - money was cheap. Many things, like weddings, were subsidized and times were good. That was followed with difficult times - know as the 'Special Period' - after Russia collapsed and could no longer provide aid. Food was scarce. Our guide's mother had to source food out in the countryside in exchange for clothing.

The young people today are aware of the ways of the outside world and want to have more opportunity to be part of it. There is concern that the next generation of Castro's may emerge from their hidden and ostensibly luxurious lives to claim the inheritance of 'their' country.The current struggles are related to the difficulties going on in Venezuela resulting in the loss of financial support and cheap gas that was coming from there. Yet there is still enormous affection for Fidel and the revolutionaries and their role in bringing the remaining populace to a condition that was better than before. 

The group was gone, but this girl wanted a picture of Fidel's casa with the flag.

Here is Fidel's casa - it had trap doors and seven escape routes

Inside was a kerosene refrigerator - notice the bullet hole on the side.

Fidel's bedroom had this uncomfortable-looking chair and shelves

The guide said the refrigerator got the bullet hole in it when it was being carried up to the site. It had been spotted by a plane. So they got a similar sized box and covered it with a sheet to act as a decoy.

Casa de los locutores

Fidel was known for making long speeches and the revolution was occurring at a time when mass media and the reach of radio and TV was able to impact the world. The Netflix series, Cuba Libre said that Fidel was masterful at using mass media. He had reporters visit the encampment and regular international broadcasts from radio hill were critical to the success of the movement. This casa is where the speeches were written.

Equipment Hut

I don't know why I was so pleased to see the actual hut where the radio transmissions took place - I even feel quite guilty to see the smile on my face. Perhaps it was because I had made it to the top of the hill and it was downhill from here. Perhaps because it was remarkable to be on a spot that changed recent history in a very significant way  - not only of Cuba, but of the USA. I think, too, that I am impressed with the simplicity of it all. Nothing grand. Just regular people taking a stand to change things against great odds and succeeding in spite of lots of bungling. I want to believe the early intentions were pure, but as so often happens there is now yet another intractable power structure in place of the previous one.

What better way is there to end a hike than to have a good feed, although Fran and I were both crestfallen when we saw that we had to walk up a long and steep drive to get to the casa! This is a typical spread - chicken, tomato and cucumber salad, plantains and beans and rice.

Sugar facory

More sophisticated farm machinery than any we'd seen before

We passed up the opportunity to get an ice cream.

Our destination for the night was Los Colorados, the site of Fidel's landing in the good boat Granma.  Internet research had not shown any casas in Los Colorados, so we knew we were launching ourselves off into unknown territory and were curious and a little fearful to see what the result might be.

When we pulled up opposite this, Fran muttered in desperation 'Oh, please, not this one!'. Indeed it was and it was the worst of our experiences in a material sense.

The first interesting aspect of it, was that we walked from the outside straight into the bathroom. Even though the tile was really very fancy, it was a bit shocking to enter the bathroom first. The next interesting thing was the curtain that separated the bathroom from the bedroom. In every other place we had been able to get separate rooms, but that was not possible here. The bedroom, as you see on the right, had the required air conditioner, but we joked that it might fly us to Miami overnight as it was as loud as a jet engine. It was also the only casa that did not have hot water. There were other imperfections, but not worth mentioning. Yet, the remarkable thing was that we both slept well and were no worse off from our less than ideal circumstances!

Perhaps our excellent sleep had something to do with a beautiful sunset followed by a decent meal.