Cuba - Lonely Planet [317]
Casa de la Trova ( 57-54-23; Merchán No 213; admission 1 peso) In the spiritual home of nueva trova, this is not the hallowed musical shrine it ought to be. In fact, it was being renovated at the time of writing.
Uneac (cnr Merchán & Concession) For traditional music you’re better off heading for this more dependable option, which has Saturday and Sunday night peñas (musical performances) and painting expos.
Cabaret Salón Rojo ( 57-51-17; 8pm-midnight Tue-Sat, 8pm-1am Sun) This place on the north side of Parque Céspedes has an upstairs terrace overlooking the square, for drinks (pay in pesos) and dancing.
Cine Popular (Av 1 de Mayo; Tue-Sun) This is the town’s top movie house.
Getting There & Away
AIR
Manzanillo’s Sierra Maestra Airport (airport code MZO; 57-75-20) is on the road to Cayo Espino, 8km south of the Servi-Cupet gas station in Manzanillo. Cubana ( 57-49-84) has a nonstop flight from Havana once a week on Saturday (CUC$103, two hours). Skyservice (www.skyserviceairlines.com) flies directly from Toronto in winter and transfers people directly to Marea del Portillo.
A taxi between the airport and the center of town should cost approximately CUC$6.
BUS & TRUCK
The bus station ( 57-34-04) is northeast of the city center. There are no Víazul services to or from Manzanillo. This narrows your options down to local Cuban guaguas or trucks (no reliable schedules and long queues). Services run several times a day to Yara and Bayamo in the east and Pilón and Niquero in the south. For the latter destinations you can also board at the crossroads near the Servi-Cupet gas station and the hospital (which is also where you’ll find the amarillos).
* * *
TRAIN TIMETABLE
* * *
TRAIN
All services from the train station on the north side of town are via Yara and Bayamo. Trains go to several destinations but they are painfully slow.
Getting Around
Cubacar ( 57-77-36) has an office at the Hotel Guacanayabo. There’s a sturdy road running through Corralito up into Holguín, making this the quickest exit from Manzanillo toward points north and east.
Horse carts (one peso) to the bus station leave from Doctor Codina between Plácido and Luz Caballero. Horse carts along the Malecón to the shipyard leave from the bottom of Saco.
Return to beginning of chapter
MEDIA LUNA
pop 15,493
One of a handful of small towns that punctuate the swaying sugar fields between Manzanillo and Cabo Cruz, Media Luna is worth a pit stop on the basis of its Celia Sánchez connections (see boxed text, opposite). The Revolution’s ‘first lady’ was born here in 1920 in a small clapboard house that is now the Celia Sánchez Museum (Paúl Podio No 111; admission CUC$1; 9am-noon & 2-5pm Tue-Sat, 9am-1pm Sun).
If you have time, take a stroll around this quintessential Cuban sugar town dominated by a tall soot-stained mill and characteristic clapboard houses decorated with gingerbread embellishments. Aside from the Sánchez museum, Media Luna showcases a lovely glorieta, almost as outlandish as the one in Manzanillo. The main park is the place to get a take on the local street theater while supping on peso fruit shakes and quick-melting ice cream.
Return to beginning of chapter
NIQUERO
pop 20,273
Niquero, a small fishing port and sugar town in the isolated southwest corner of Granma, is dominated by the local Roberto Ramírez Delgado sugar mill, built in 1905 and nationalized in 1960 (you’ll smell it before you see it). Like many Granma settlements, it is characterized by its distinctive clapboard houses and has a lively noche de Cubanilla, when the streets are closed off and dining is at sidewalk tables. Live bands replete with organ grinders entertain the locals.
* * *
CELIA SÁNCHEZ – FLOWER OF THE REVOLUTION
Much is made of Castro’s 1955 meeting with Che Guevara in Mexico City and its importance in the subsequent success