• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

MONEY

Banco Financiero Internacional ( 20-74-50; Cuba No 6 cnr Rafael Tristá)

Cadeca ( 20-56-90; cnr Rafael Tristá & Cuba; 8:30am-6pm Mon-Sat, 8:30am-12:30pm Sun) On Parque Vidal.

POST

DHL ( 21-40-69; Cuba No 7 btwn Rafael Tristá & Eduardo Machado; 8am-6pm Mon-Sat, 8am-noon Sun)

Post office (Colón No 10; 8am-6pm Mon-Sat, 8am-noon Sun)

TRAVEL AGENCIES

Cubatur ( 20-89-80; Marta Abreu No 10; 9am-6pm) Near Máximo Gómez.

Havanatur ( 20-40-01; Máximo Gómez No 9B; 8:30am-noon & 1-5:30pm Mon-Fri, 8:30am-12:30pm Sat) Near Independencia.

Sights

MONUMENTO ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

The site of many a Che ‘pilgrimage,’ this monument, mausoleum & museum complex (Av de los Desfiles; admission free; 8am-9pm Tue-Sat, to 6pm Sun), 2km west of Parque Vidal via Rafael Tristá, is in a vast square guarded by a bronze statue of ‘El Che.’ The statue was erected in 1987 to mark the 20th anniversary of Guevara’s murder in Bolivia, and the sublime mausoleum below (entry from the rear) contains 38 stone-carved niches dedicated to the other guerillas killed in that failed revolutionary attempt. In 1997 the remains of 17 of them, including Guevara, were recovered from a secret mass grave in Bolivia and reburied in this memorial. Fidel Castro lit the eternal flame on October 17, 1997. The adjacent museum collects the details and ephemera of Che’s life and death.

The best way to get to the monument (aside from walking) is to hop on a horse carriage in Calle Marta Abreu outside the Catedral for a couple of pesos. The mausoleum and museum are shut on Mondays.

* * *

SANTA CLARA STREET NAMES

* * *

MONUMENTO A LA TOMA DEL TREN BLINDADO

History was made here on December 29, 1958, when Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and a band of 18 rifle-wielding revolutionaries barely out of their teens derailed an armored train using a borrowed bulldozer and some homemade Molotov cocktails. The battle lasted 90 minutes, and it effectively sealed the fate of the Batista dictatorship and ushered in 50 years of Fidel Castro. The event is remembered with a boxcar museum (admission CUC$1; 8am-6pm Tue-Fri) east on Independencia, just over the river, which marks the spot where the train derailed and ejected its 350 heavily armed government troops.

MUSEO PROVINCIAL ABEL SANTAMARíA

Not actually a memorial to Señor Santamaría (Fidel’s right-hand man at Moncada), but rather a small provincial museum ( 20-30-41; admission CUC$1; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, to 1pm Sat) quartered in a former military barracks where Batista’s troops surrendered to Che Guevara on January 1, 1959. It contains a room on natural history and a room dedicated to Cuban women throughout history. The museum is situated on a hilltop at the north end of Esquerra, just across the Río Bélico in Reparto Osvaldo Herrera.

FáBRICA DE TABACOS CONSTANTINO PéREZ CARRODEGUA

Santa Clara’s tobacco factory ( 20-22-11; Maceo No 181 btwn Julio Jover & Berenguer; admission CUC$4; 9-11am & 1-3pm) is one of the best in Cuba and makes a quality range of Montecristos, Partagás and Romeo y Julieta cigars. Tours here are lower key than in Havana and, as a result, the experience is a lot more interesting and less rushed. Rather than turn up you should book tickets through the Cubatur office Click here. Across the street you’ll find La Veguita ( 20-89-52; 8:30am-5:30pm), the factory’s diminutive sales outlet that is staffed by a friendly team of cigar experts. You can also buy cheap rum here and the bar out the back brews good coffee.

* * *

CHE COMANDANTE, AMIGO

Few 20th-century figures have successfully divided public opinion as deeply as Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known to his friends (and enemies) as ‘El Che.’ From enduring symbol of third-world freedom, to the celebrated hero of the Sierra Maestra, to the most wanted man on the CIA hit-list; the image of this handsome and often misunderstood Argentine physician-turned-guerrillero can still be seen all over Cuba, on everything from key rings to blow-up