Walking Cuba: El Camino del Cimarrón

Day 4: La Casa del Cimarron

We follow the asphalt road for about a kilometer to the dirt road leading up to the caves. The terrain is flat as we make the turn, but we see that the abrupt hills will have their way with us in about two hundred meters in.

“Up there,” says Alexis. “Can’t see them from here but up there are the caves.”

From the road I see two green hills; one has been flattened as a result of gravel mining.

“Las Tetas de Guajabana,” says Alexis. The tits of Guajabana. “That’s what we call them. Before they flattened one with the mining. It’s almost gone. Now it’s a teta y media.” A tit and a half.

A subtle, easy climb winds up the intact teta to the Casa del Cimarrón. Some industrial materials — cement, rebar — litter the flat land leading to a path that disappears into the trees. My excitement bubbles at the chance of seeing this cave which a 1988 Bohemia article dubbed “La Casa del Cimarrón.” The House of the Cimarron.

Miguel has never seen the cave; he didn’t even know where it was. Esteban talked about living in a cave for a year and a half. He tried to describe the location of the cave to Miguel, (“near Remedios”), the environment of the cave (“full of snakes”) and some details on how he survived using it as shelter…