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Walking Cuba
Tales of walking the length and width of the most intriguing island in the Caribbean.
Welcome to the journey! This series of posts will take you on paths that few people have explored. I’ll tell you tales of walking the length and width of the most intriguing island in the Caribbean (ok. I’m biased).
I’ve walked the back roads and sugar cane trails (guardarayas) of Cuba for over ten years now. In some trips I followed my nose through the small towns dotting the island. In others I tried to establish a walking route along historic paths described in books and myths.
I first tried to walk Cuba, back in 2011, from east to west, coast to coast. I had the grandiose hope of linking the first seven Spanish settlements of Cuba (Las Siete Villas) into a glorious trekking experience that the true trekking enthusiast would find physically and intellectually interesting.
I only made it about 300 miles. From Baracoa to Bayamo. Baracoa, the first European settlement on the island, is on the eastern tip. It’s where Columbus first set foot on the island in 1492. Bayamo, considered to be the second Spanish settlement, sits on the spine of Cuba above the Sierra Maestra mountains where the Cuban Revolution of 1959 started. It is also the town from which the first war of independence from Spain was launched in 1868. From Baracoa to Bayamo. I did go through Santiago de Cuba, the sixths of the first seven cities but poor planning was the reason I didn’t go further. The Cuban people in each town cheered me on.
The second trip was more successful…sort of. It was shorter. More doable. I followed the trails recorded by anthropologists and believers tracing the history of the Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady of Charity), the patron saint of Cuba. Her statue stands high behind the altar at the cathedral of El Cobre, a mining town near Santiago de Cuba. But the statue was found floating by three fishermen, so legend goes, after a storm in the tumultuous waters of the…
