Walking Cuba: El Camino del Cimarron

Mataguá (Part 1)

The town reminds me of an old-west settlement. Flat faced buildings with verandas facing wide dusty streets.[1] The Casa Cultural is a grandiose, early 20th Century mansion with majestic, sculpted columns holding up the ceiling of spacious main room leading to a central courtyard through the rear. One small card table with three folding chairs around it near the front door furnishes the entire cavernous room. Two cultura workers, a young woman whose name I miss, and Samuel, the man who will be my host for the evening, elegant in a white striped shirt and dark green jeans.

“You must be hungry and tired,” says the young woman. “You can go eat with Samuel at the restaurant. The Manicaragua leaders will be here in a little while. They were waiting for you.”

I quickly recount our day of waiting and she listens as if she cares but the weariness of her eyes betray disinterest. “They’ll explain. Go eat.”

Towns this size in Cuba are not benefiting from the boom in private restaurants exploding in big cities. Paladaresare sprouting like mushrooms in most large cities and along the narrow, well-trod tourist routes. The only game in most small towns are the established state funded watering holes.