Walking Cuba: El Camino del Cimarrón

Mataguá (Part 2)

“How are we getting out of town tomorrow morning?” I ask Samuel.

I have a long-standing habit, developed during the years of walking the Camino de Santiago, when exiting a town efficiently could make or break a morning’s walk, of running some reconnaissance the night before on the possible exits from town.

“Ok. There are two ways out. Let’s go up to the Coupet gas station. A left turn there will put you on a guardarrayaout of town to Jorabada, where we’re going.”

“Then there’s this way,” he leads the way to the right after showing me the gas station a block away. At a large plaza with an open-air stage on one end, elevated on a half shell back drop, he says, “This turns into a discotheque on the weekends.”

There is always a place for music and dancing in Cuban towns. In that regard, things have changed little since Esteban watched the criollos and the mill workers dance the night away in the nearest town.

“Over there behind the stage is the old railroad line. That’s a shady walk most of the way to Jorobada.”