Walking Cuba: El Camino del Cimarron

Day 3: Remedios

Remedios has quite a reputation to uphold as I walk into town. I know that now, in 2016, after many years of presenting its case, the city is officially recognized to be among the eight oldest settlements on the island. That is a victory, of sorts, but many historians consider it to be the second or third settlement established by the Spaniards as they felt their way around the coast looking for adequate harbors.

There is sound evidence to suggest that by 1578 the town of San Juan de los Remedios already existed, and that as a port of call it had been around since 1514, before Trinidad, the official third oldest settlement in Cuba, on the southern coast of the island. Only Baracoa and Bayamo have earlier pedigrees. But the settlement cycled through a series of names before arriving at San Juan de los Remedios and this fuels the debate about its longevity.

I walk into the Casa de Cultura where a dance group practices an Afro-Cuban number. I watch, swaying to the drum beat with my backpack still on me, while someone calls the attendant. She arrives smiling and short. I pull off my backpack saying something along the lines of being expected by the promotora. She looks puzzled, knowing nothing of my arrival.