I managed to book a ticket for early tomorrow morning to get to a town in the very eastern tip of Cuba called Baracoa. locals and travellers alike have been raving about how beautiful it is so I made it my mission to get there for few days.
The bus station is a bit out of town so by the time I walked there I was already craving a rum/beer/mojito at 10am. There is a monument to the Revolution nearby so I went to check it our before making my way back Via the July 26 Museum which is in the army barracks where Fidel and his men tried to steal weapons during the revolution. Thanks to my very infant spanish I managed to score a guided tour by a lovely English speaking woman. The top priority after the cuban revolution was education, so the army barracks was swiftly converted into one of the biggest schools in Cuba.
It turns out that November 30th is one of the biggest celebrations in Santiago De Cuba, so after visiting the museum there was a lot going on around the streets. As per usual I was greeted by many Rastas and went out for my first mojito and was then showed all of the local music venues by one dude. Then I bumped into a guy I had met the day before who was having a drink with his family. I offered to buy a refill on their 3 litre beer thingy and joined them for a couple of hours to practice my spanish.
Afterwards I walked down an interesting street I had been passing several times a day. A cuban dude named Dany Font recognised me and asked why I was passing so often and when I explained I was working on a photo project he took me up to his massive house where he had an art studio full of some awesome paintings. His english was basic, as is my spanish, but we exchanged contact details so he could send me some photos of his paintings to post on Facebook which I will do once he sends them.
The cute dreaded kid on the right is Danny’s kid and the dude teaching him to play checkers is his uncle.
