Walking Cuba: Camino del Cimarron

Day 10: Ciego Montero — One Feels Good Here

A smooth terraplén connects Cruces to Ciego Montero. It is one huge trail, a guardarraya. between walls of cane, broken only by brightly colored wooden houses and their simple yards. Garlic grows in this region as well, and dozens of houses are overrun by battalions of the brown tufts.

In Ciego, I put the pack down on a bench in the shade of a huge ceiba tree in the park at the entrance of town. I did not have to stop to empty my bowels once from Lajas. Now it feels like that particular timer is running out.

In the center of the park stands clean statue, a bust, of Jose Marti. The bushes are well trimmed. Not a scrap of lose trash anywhere. This parks has the look of being an important part of town.

I walk half a block to a wooden house with a sign flat on the wall next to the door announcing it as La Casona, a private home that served as the town art gallery and community center.

Ciego Montero’s claim to fame is in lending its name to the most popular bottled water and soft drinks on the island, the Ciego Montero brand. This is the only reason…