Cuba - Lonely Planet [306]
The Flower of the Revolution Drop by Media Luna and learn about the life of Celia Sánchez, Castro’s longtime muse and confidante (see boxed text,)
The Roof of the Nation Stand atop Pico Turquino and admire the bust of José Martí (see boxed text,)
Street Party Make time for pork roast, street organs and a game of chess in Bayamo’s Fiesta de la Cubanía
TELEPHONE CODE: 023
POPULATION: 829,333
AREA: 8372 SQ KM
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History
Stone petroglyphs and remnants of Taíno pottery unearthed in the Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma suggest the existence of native cultures in the Granma region long before the arrival of the Spanish.
Columbus, during his second voyage, was the first European to explore the area, tracking past the Cabo Cruz Peninsula in 1494, before taking shelter from a storm in the Golfo de Guanacayabo. All other early development schemes came to nothing and by the 17th century Granma’s untamed and largely unsettled coast had become the preserve of pirates and corsairs.
Granma’s real nemesis didn’t come until October 10, 1868, when sugar-plantation owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes called for the abolition of slavery from his Demajagua sugar mill near Manzanillo and freed his own slaves by example, thus inciting the First War of Independence.
Drama unfolded again in 1895 when the founder of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, José Martí, was killed in Dos Ríos just a month and a half after landing with Máximo Gómez off the coast of Guantánamo to ignite the Spanish-Cuban-American War.
Sixty-one years later, on December 2, 1956, Fidel Castro and 81 rebel soldiers disembarked from the yacht Granma off the coast of Granma province at Playa Las Coloradas. Routed by Batista’s troops while resting in a sugarcane field at Alegría del Pío, 12 or so survivors managed to escape into the Sierra Maestra, establishing headquarters at Comandancia La Plata. From there they fought and coordinated the armed struggle, broadcasting their progress from Radio Rebelde and consolidating their support among sympathizers nationwide. After two years of harsh conditions and unprecedented beard growth, the forces of the M-26-7 Movement triumphed in 1959.
Parks & Reserves
Granma has two expansive national parks: Gran Parque Nacional Sierra Maestra (sometimes called Parque Nacional Turquino) and Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma. The latter is also a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Getting There & Around
You might have to resort to your first truck, guagua (local bus) or amarillo-inspired hitchhiking experience in Granma (see boxed text,). Bayamo is on the main Havana–Santiago Víazul bus and coche motor (cross-island) train routes, and a further train (but no Víazul bus) links Bayamo with Manzanillo. Outside this, you’re up against some of the poorest transport connections on the island, especially on the south coast. See individual towns for more details.
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BAYAMO
pop 143,844
Predating both Havana and Santiago, and cast for time immemorial as the city that kick-started Cuban independence, Bayamo has every right to feel self-important. Yet somehow it doesn’t. Instead, bucking standard categorization, Granma’s easygoing and understated provincial capital is one of the most peaceful and hassle-free places on the island.
That’s not to say that Bayameses aren’t aware of their history. Como España quemó a Sagunto, así Cuba quemó a Bayamo (meaning ‘as the Spanish burnt Sagunto, the Cubans burnt Bayamo’), wrote José Martí in the 1890s, highlighting the sacrificial role that Bayamo has played in Cuba’s convoluted historical development. But, while the self-inflicted 1869 fire might have destroyed most of the city’s classic colonial buildings (see below), it didn’t destroy its underlying spirit or its long-standing traditions.
Today, Bayamo is known for its cerebral chess players (Céspedes was the Kasparov of his day), tasty street snacks and quirky old-fashioned street organs (imported via Manzanillo). All three are on show at the weekly Fiesta de la Cubanía, one of the island’s most