Cuba - Lonely Planet [304]
One year later the still teenage Castro penned a letter to US president FD Roosevelt congratulating him on his re-election and asking the American leader for a US$10 bill ‘because I have not seen a US$10 bill and I would like to have one of them.’ Rather ominously for future US-Cuban relations, the request was politely turned down.
Undeterred, Fidel marched on. On the completion of his high school certificate in 1945, his teacher and mentor Father Francisco Barbeito predicted sagely that his bullish star pupil would ‘fill with brilliant pages the book of his life.’ With the benefit of hindsight, he wasn’t far wrong.Armed with tremendous personal charisma, a wrought-iron will and a natural ability to pontificate interminably for hours on end, Fidel made tracks for Havana University where his forthright and unyielding personality quickly ensured he excelled at everything he did.
Training ostensibly as a lawyer, Castro spent the next three years embroiled in political activity amid an academic forum that was riddled with gang violence and petty corruption. ‘My impetuosity, my desire to excel, fed and inspired the character of my struggle,’ he recalled candidly years later.
Blessed with more lives than a cat, Castro has survived a failed putsch, 15 months in prison, exile in Mexico, a two-year guerrilla war in the mountains and a reported 617 attempts on his life. His sense of optimism in the face of defeat is nothing short of astounding. With his rebel army reduced to a ragged band of 12 men after the Granma landing (Click here), he astonished his beleaguered colleagues with a fiery victory speech. ‘We will win this war,’ he trumpeted confidently, ‘We are just beginning the fight!’
As an international personality who has outlasted 11 American presidents, the 21st-century incarnation of Fidel Castro that emerged following the Special Period was no less enigmatic than the revolutionary leader of yore. Fostering his own peculiar brand of Caribbean socialism with an unflinching desire to ‘defend the Revolution at all costs,’ the ever-changing ideology that Castro so famously preached is perhaps best summarized by biographer Volker Skierka as ‘a pragmatic mixture of a little Marx, Engels and Lenin, slightly more of Che Guevara, a lot of José Martí, and a great deal indeed of Fidel Castro.’
Castro stepped out of public life in July 2006 after a serious bout of diverticulitis and handed the reins of power to his younger brother Raúl. Despite penning regular articles for national newspaper Granma and making the odd jarring public statement on world affairs, he looks destined to see out his final years like a Caribbean Napoleon wistfully pondering his historical legacy from his lonely island prison. Whether history will absolve him is still anybody’s guess.
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Villa Cayo Saetía (Gaviota; 42-53-20; s/d CUC$58/70; ) This wonderfully rustic but comfortable resort on a 42-sq-km island at the entrance to the Bahía de Nipe is small, remote and more upmarket than the price suggests. The 12 rooms are split into rustic and standard cabañas with a minimal price differential, while the in-house restaurant La Güira – decked out Hemingway-style with hunting trophies mounted on the wall like gory art – serves exotic meats such as antelope. You’ll feel as if you’re a thousand miles from anywhere.
Getting There & Around
There are three ways to explore Cayo Saetía aside from the obvious two-legged sorties from the villa itself. A one-hour jeep safari costs CUC$9, while excursions by horse and boat are CUC$6 and CUC$5 respectively. Though isolated you can secure passage on a twice-weekly Gaviota helicopter from Guardalavaca (CUC$124, Saturday and Monday) or a bus-boat combo from the town of Antilles. If arriving by car, the control post is 15km off the main road. Then it’s another 8km along a rough, unpaved road to the resort. A hire car will make it – with care.
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