The Off the Beaten Track Tour of Eastern Cuba

Holguin is filled with wonder and captivating ambiance. On May 3rd, an annual procession of pilgrims walks to the hilltop of Loma de la Cruz, climbing 458 steps to reach the peak at 984 feet above sea level. Enthusiastic cries from the large baseball stadium spill into the streets. Columbus landed on the coast in the 15th century and admired the white sand beaches. The city opens itself up to visitors without reservations, welcoming newcomers as if they were family. Your flight descends into Holguin Airport HOG.

Lush grass surrounds the edges of the runway. Your private transfer meets you at baggage claim and escorts you into the city. The tropical climate adds to Cuba’s luster. Palm fronds wave in the coastal breeze. The Church of Loma de la Cruz was erected in the 1950s and provides unfettered panoramic views of the city. The Spanish raised a cross on the hilltop in the late 18th century in the hopes of relieving a drought. The authentic Cuban city allows you to settle into its borders and experience the everyday life of the locals.

In the morning, you meet with a local historian to learn about the treasured history of the region and its surroundings. The Catedral de San Isidoro has a pearled façade with twin-domed towers flanking the entryway. The Spanish erected the cathedral in the 18th century. A realistic statue of Pope Jean-Paul II adorns the entrance to the right of the main doors. The edifice is one of the original buildings constructed during the city’s settlement. After breakfast, your guide leads you into the hills to the hamlet of Biran, where Fidel and Raul Castro were raised.

The Castro brothers' father was a Spanish immigrant who owned 25,000 acres of pine forests and sugar plantations. Their father built a village for the workers. You can roam through the small thatched huts erected mainly for Haitian laborers. Your guide points out the cockfighting ring where many of the laborers spent their free time. The Castro family lived in several large yellow wooden houses beneath the cedar trees. The spiced aroma of the spindly cedar branches fills the air. The homes now contain a museum depicting the childhood of Fidel Castro, from the original furnishings to family photos decorating the walls.

The sunlight peels across the crumbling facades of Plaza de la Marqueta. The original square was built in 1848 and renovated in 1918. A number of music and cigar stores line the plaza from north to south. Your private transfer meets you in the hotel lobby and leads you away from the bustling city of Holguin to Bayamo, the capital of Granma province. The Spanish founded the city in 1513, and it acted as the capital of the First Republic in Arms during the war of the 19th-century war of independence. Horse-drawn carriages emphasize the slow pace and colonial atmosphere of the city.

On Saturday nights, the sounds of organs fill the streets, casting an upbeat, jovial glow across the city. The Casa Natal de Cespedes is the birthplace of the father of Cuban Independence, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. The museum showcases memorabilia, along with a collection of 19th-century fortune. The home was one of two colonial buildings that survived the 1869 fire. Your guide introduces you to the School of Arts where students learn to express themselves through music, dance, and drama classes. The government ensures that students throughout Cuba maintain a strong connection to their identity and the country. The students are eager to perform for you, highlighting their combination of personal identity with Cuban pride.

In a small town outside of Bayamo, an organization with the sole purpose of improving the lives of children and teenagers in the area continues to work with the community in all facets of everyday life. You hear the clopping hooves of horses trotting down the streets of the city. Children sit in small red wagons pulled by goats and enjoy their morning free time. Cuba’s only wax museum delights visitors with images of national, international, and local personalities, including Ernest Hemingway.

Two brothers who grew up in the rural area outside of Bayamo constructed the 12 sculptures out of polychrome wax. Outside the city, you meet with the instructors who help children in the community by teaching workshops of all types. The students get involved with art, dancing, baseball, and music. They have an escape from their surroundings for hours at a time, using the workshops to better their skills and express themselves. The sound of horse hooves trotting through the street carries over into the town, but the music of Bayamo is absent.

Old men sit in the main square and play chess beneath the shade of the surrounding trees. When you return to the city, the day is yours to explore the quiet charms of one of Cuba’s oldest cities. The Iglesia Parroquial Mayor de San Salvador stands on church foundations dating back to the 16th century. The only section that survived the great fire is the Capilla de la Dolorosa and its gilded wooden altar.

Today, you leave Bayamo behind and make your way to Santiago de Cuba, the country’s second-largest city. En route, you stop at El Cobra, Cuba’s only basilica. The structure stands perched on a hill between the rolling peaks of the surrounding Sierra Maestra Mountains. The church was erected in the 1920s and has three domes rising above the green forest below. The cream-colored building stands out from the framing emerald greenery. The Black Madonna, Virgin of Charity, acts as the protector of Cuba. A glittering gilded robe drapes over the statue.

A jeweled crown and dangling earrings add to the virgin’s illustrious portrait. The floral aroma surrounding the church fades to the herbaceous aroma of frankincense inside the nave. The statue sits on the second floor encased in glass. During mass, the priest pushes a button, which turns the statue around to face the congregation. After your visit, you continue to Santiago de Cuba. The city has an eclectic assortment of architectural and cultural influences. The colonial fortress of El Morro stands high on a cliff overlooking the harbor where legendary battles took place during the Spanish-American War.

Santiago de Cuba is a city filled with enthusiastic people, vivacious music, and a wealth of history. It was once the first of seven settlements the Spanish founded on the island early in the 16th century. Architectural styles run from baroque to neoclassical, each adding another layer of beauty and history to the image of the city. Locals cling to music to express the soul and essence of the city, culturally, spiritually, and personally. Your guide meets you in the morning, keen on showing you the endless charm of the large city. The peaks of the Sierra Maestra Mountains edge the streets.

Coffee plantations fill the Baconao Biosphere Reserve. The Caribbean Sea splashes against the rugged shores. Your tour begins at Casa de Diego Valazquez, the oldest house still standing in Cuba. The colonial home dates back to 1552 and served as the official residence of the island’s first governor. The Andalusian-style façade has wooden lattice windows and an interior containing the Museo de Ambiente Historico Cubano. Rooms exhibit vintage furniture and decoration spanning the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Flowers hang over balconies along the narrow winding streets of Santiago de Cuba. Theodore Roosevelt once led troops up the beach at the San Juan Hill Historic Military Park. After breakfast, your private transfer leads you out of the city on a scenic drive to the coastal town of Baracoa. Horses pull carriages along the road outside of Santiago. Palm trees rise over oak and fern trees.  Pastel-colored tenements rise along the roadside before fading behind blossoming flowers and verdant bushes.

Stop in the city of Guantanamo, a 19th-century settlement with Catalan and French founders. The baroque architecture of the Salcines Palace stands out in your mind from the image of the city of which you were originally unaware separate from the US Naval Base. The path turns rugged along the La Farola Highway. Travel along the switchbacks, offering splendid views to the jungle landscape climbing up and down the mountainside. The rides of the River Toa rise above the whitewater below. The southern region hosts the Cuban semi-desert.

Once over the mountains, you travel along the coastline. Civilization seems far away. Whitewashed boulders shine along the beach against the sparkling turquoise water. People riding bicycles appear traveling along the side of the road. You arrive in the secluded town of Baracoa after traversing the Farola Highway. The majestic city seems surreal, pressed against the foothills of the Toa Mountains. You settle into your hotel and relax in the sweeping sound of the sea lapping at the coastline.

Baracoa is a city of charm and mythology. Locals continue to tell tales of troubadours and wistful women dating back to the original settlement of the shores. The table-topped mountain known as El Yunque watches over the city and the coast. One-story buildings with peeling pastel paint line the cobblestone streets, adding to the vintage allure of Baracoa. Your guide escorts you into the lush countryside for the day to a region known as Duaba Park.

The summit of El Yunque stands at a height of 1,886 above sea level and casts a shadow over the national park. Painted snails leave trails along the leaves. Cuban trogons twitter in the canopy. Your guide introduces you to a family growing cocoa on their small plantations. The farmer gives you a tour of his land, pointing out the various fruits growing along the quiet banks of the lazy river. Mangoes and coconut provide a seductive aroma to the day.

You even find achiote seeds. A nearby small coconut processing factory produces cans of fruit preserves. A sweet scent surrounds the small plant. Pulping machines and a conveyer belt carry the cans through hot steam until sealed. You can see the cascading water of the 1,000-foot high Salto Fino, the 20th highest waterfall in the world. In the evening, you return to the farm to relish a traditional pig roast. The succulent aroma emanates from the open flame. The farmer showcases the different dishes made with the chocolate and coconut from his farm. Your feast provides you with fun and insight into the traditions of the region.

The grandeur of Baracoa emanates from the unique character of the streets and the people. When Christopher Columbus first arrived in Cuba, he landed in Baracoa first, declaring it the most beautiful place he had ever seen. The Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion was erected in the 16th century, but its current incarnation dates back to the 19th century. Of 29 wooden crosses erected by Columbus for his journey across the Atlantic, only one survived. The cross, known as the Cruz de la Parra, resides inside the cathedral.

In the triangular Plaza Independencia, the neoclassical Poder Popular adds to the visual appeal of the uniquely shaped square. On the edge of the city, in the foothills near the Spanish fortress turned luxury hotel, you find the Archeological Museum of the Cave of Paradise. The cave was once the burial chamber for Taino tribes, the aboriginal people of Cuba. Over 2,000 authentic Taino pieces were unearthed, ranging from ceramics to skeletons, along with a 3,000-year-old petroglyph. An enthusiastic guide leads you through the exhibit, up the wooden spiral staircase, and beneath the dangling stalactites. Locals believe that one of the skeletons was Guama, a rebel leader at the time of the Spanish invasion, the first in a long line of Cuban guerillas. In the afternoon, you can travel along the Rio Toa on a boat, enjoying the relaxed pace of the lazy water carrying you downstream.

In the morning, you grab one last look of the indigo water lapping at the shores of Baracoa. Your private transfer meets you in the hotel after breakfast, ready to take you back to the city of Holguin for your flight to Havana. En route to Holguin, you stop on the island of Cayo Saetia. During the good relations between the USSR and Cuba, Raul Castro imported exotic animals, turning the small island into a hunting ground for the Soviet and Cuban elite. Hunting for sport is no longer allowed, but the animals continue to roam free along the tropical landscape.

Dense vegetation provides perfect grounds for the animals to roam. Step into an open-air jeep and travel along the dirt tracks on a unique Cuban Safari. Ostriches stand in the open fields. You can get close enough to see how tall the elegant bird can stretch, averaging more than seven and a half feet. Zebras graze in herds near the edges of the forest canopy. Antelopes spring away from the jeep as you venture closer. The expedition combines two unique worlds in the familiar climate. You continue to Holguin, where you board your flight to Havana and settle in a hotel located in the contemporary Vedado district.

In the morning, school children dressed in their uniforms walking to school. Men and women venture into the market to buy local goods. Ration cards hang on the walls of stores near farmers' markets, a sign of the continued socialist economics in Cuba, slowly allowing free-market tactics into the mix. After breakfast, your guide leads you on a brief ride into the Old City. You pass the Malecón, the beautiful seaside boulevard where waves crash against the seawall. Fishermen cast their lines into the water below. Pass the crumbling colonial facades of Central Havana, the neighborhood next door to the old city. The renovated buildings in Old Havana have a striking effect.

Colorful facades overlook classic American cars rolling down the street. The intimate ambiance of the Plaza de la Catedral emanates from the surrounding colonial buildings crowned by the Havana Cathedral on the northern edge. Blue hues outline the door and window frames of the buildings, adding an Andalusian accent to the architecture. If you look closely at the façade of the cathedral, you can see marine fossils. The architects used coral blocks from the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico to construct the 18th-century baroque edifice. In the evening, you can take part in an introduction to the celebrated Cuban jazz scene by visiting one of the famous jazz clubs in the city. Standout musicians play Privé often, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and small space.

In Baracoa, you could watch the sun touch the edges of the island first thing in the morning. From Havana, you could see the sunset casting shadows over the historic architecture across the city. In sunlight or streetlight, Havana has captivated you with insight into Spanish history and the endless vibrancy of the capital city. The Necropolis Cristobal Colon contains national monuments draped in marble and prestigious family crypts, highlighting the distinct difference between modern Havana and contemporary history. A statue of legendary Beatle John Lennon graces Parque John Lennon, which was formerly Parque Menocal. Used-book merchants sell their goods in the open-air market, where visitors and locals search for new material to read and discuss. When you are ready, your private transfer meets you in the lobby of your hotel in Vedado. You make your way to Jose Marti International Airport in time to check-in to your flight home.