Santiago de Cuba

Cuba'S Second City And Its Afro Caribbean And Musical Capital, With The UNESCO Listed Castillo San Pedro De La Roca Of 1997 Guarding Its Bay · Santiago de Cuba, Santiago de Cuba

Santiago is Cuba's second city and its other half: hotter, hillier, blacker and more Caribbean than Havana, closer to Haiti and Jamaica than to Florida, and the source of most of the music the country is known for - son, trova, conga, and the carnival that fills the streets every July. It is also where the revolution started and finished. Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada barracks here in 1953 and the bullet holes have been put back in the wall; he declared victory from the balcony on the main square in 1959; and he is buried in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery under a single boulder, a few steps from the mausoleum of Jose Marti with its hourly changing guard. Above the bay stands the Castillo San Pedro de la Roca, a Spanish fortress UNESCO listed in 1997, and behind the city rise the Sierra Maestra, where the guerrilla war was fought. It is hotter than Havana, hillier, and a different country in almost every way.

Parque Cespedes, Santiago de Cuba, Santiago de Cuba, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

The city is open at all hours. The Castillo San Pedro de la Roca, the Moncada barracks museum and the Santa Ifigenia cemetery keep daytime hours; the cemetery's guard change happens through the day on the half hour. Casa de la Trova and the music venues start in the late afternoon. Power cuts close things without notice. Carnival is in the second half of July.

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