Cuba - Lonely Planet [361]
Orientation
Gustavo Rizo Airport (airport code BCA) is 1km off the road to Moa beside Hotel Puerto Santo, 4km from central Baracoa. Baracoa’s two bus stations are on opposite sides of town. There are three good hotels in or near the old town and another one next to the airport. Most of Baracoa can be explored on foot, but a bicycle is useful for visiting nearby beaches and rural pockets.
Information
INTERNET ACCESS & TELEPHONE
Etecsa Telepunto (cnr Antonio Maceo & Rafael Trejo; per hr CUC$6; 8:30am-7:30pm) Internet and international calls.
LIBRARIES
Biblioteca Raúl Gómez García (José Martí No 130; 8am-noon & 2-9pm Mon-Fri, 8am-4pm Sat)
MEDIA
Radio CMDX ‘La Voz del Toa’ Broadcasts over 650AM.
MEDICAL SERVICES
Clínica Internacional ( 64-10-37; cnr José Martí & Roberto Reyes; 24hr) A new place that treats foreigners; there’s also a hospital 2km out of town on the road to Guantánamo.
Farmacia Principal Municipal (Antonio Maceo No 132; 24hr)
MONEY
Banco de Crédito y Comercio ( 64-27-71; Antonio Maceo No 99; 8am-2:30pm Mon-Fri)
Banco Popular de Ahorro (José Martí No 166; 8-11:30am & 2-4:30pm Mon-Fri) Cashes traveler’s checks.
Cadeca ( 64-33-04; José Martí No 241)
POST
Post office (Antonio Maceo No 136; 8am-8pm)
TRAVEL AGENCIES
Cubatur ( 64-53-06; Antonio Maceo; 8am-noon & 2-5pm Mon-Fri) Helpful office that organizes tours to El Yunque and Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt.
Ecotur ( 64-36-65; Coronel Cardoso No 24; 9am-5pm) Organizes nature tours to Duaba, Toa and Yumurí Rivers.
Sights & Activities
IN TOWN
Crying out for a major renovation, the rapidly disintegrating Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Antonio Maceo No 152) was built in 1833 on the site of a much older church. Its most famous artifact is the priceless Cruz de La Parra, a wooden cross said to have been erected by Columbus near Baracoa in 1492. Carbon dating has authenticated the cross’ age (it dates from the late 1400s), but has indicated that it was originally made out of indigenous Cuban wood, thus disproving the legend that Columbus brought the cross from Europe. The church was closed at the time of writing and the cross was being displayed in the last house on Calle Antonio Maceo, behind the church to the right.
Facing the cathedral is the Bust of Hatuey, a rebellious Indian cacique (chief) who fell out with the Spanish and was burned at the stake near Baracoa in 1512 after refusing to convert to Catholicism. Also on triangular Plaza Independencia (this being Baracoa, they couldn’t have a square plaza) is the neoclassical Poder Popular (Antonio Maceo No 137), a municipal government building which you can admire from the outside.
The Centro de Veteranos (José Martí No 216; admission free) displays photos of those who perished in the 1959 Revolution and in the barely talked-about conflict in Angola.
Baracoa is protected by a trio of muscular Spanish forts. The Fuerte Matachín (1802) at the southern entrance to town, now houses the Museo Municipal (cnr José Martí & Malecón; admission CUC$1; 8am-noon & 2-6pm). Though small, this museum showcases an engaging chronology of Cuba’s oldest settlement including polymita snail shells, the story of Che Guevara and the chocolate factory, and exhibits relating to pouty Magdalena Menasse (née Rovieskuya, ‘La Rusa’) after whom Alejo Carpentier based his famous book, La Consagración de la Primavera (The Rite of Spring).
A second Spanish fort, the Fuerte de la Punta, has watched over the harbor entrance at the other end of town since 1803. Today it’s a Gaviota restaurant that was temporarily closed after 2008’s Hurricane Ike.
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THE TAÍNO MYTH
Historical consensus maintains that Cuba’s pre-Columbian people, the Taínos, were all but eradicated within 50 years of Velázquez’ colonization, wiped out by a mix of Spanish brutality and European disease. But in more recent times, this long-standing myth has come under increasing scrutiny.
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