Walking Cuba: El Camino del Cimarron

Mal Tiempo

Mal Tiempo was necessary to give courage to the Cubans and to give strength to the revolution. Anyone who fought there left convinced he could face the enemy….Maceo was certain of victory. He was tougher than a hardwood tree.

— Esteban Montejo

I awake to the sound of the town stirring as workers deal with the transportation headaches that are life’s rollcall for every Cuba. The buses and converted trucks that transport most of the population for as little as one Cuban peso fill up quickly. At around five thirty, the night watchman packs up as well.

“I’m heading to my day job now,” he says.

Aniel arrives a few minutes late. I finish the coffee and guayaba juice brought by the promotora and saddle the backpack.

Aniel and I work our way through the back roads in the direction of Los Baños de Bija, a venue of hot springs famous for attracting a vast number of tourists until the priorities of the Revolution devalued them. Regularly scheduled minibuses full of visitors left Cruces and Potrerillo to take the passengers to spend the day at the baths. This lasted into the 1960s, well…