19 December 2024, Baracoa
Casa Yoco & Mima $25 (R458)

When Columbus "discovered" Cuba in 1492, the island was occupied by approximately 1 million people from south/central America and other Caribbean islands, one group being the Taino.
In 1511, Velazquez began to conquer the island for Spain. In Baracoa, he met with resistance from a local Taino named Hatuey, who was burned at the stake for his rebelliousness.
Hatuey's bust stands in a park in Baracoa, facing in forever defiance the doors of the Catholic cathedral in the centre of the old town.
There has been a church on this spot since the 1500s, but the current iteration dates from the 1800s and was renovated in 2012 with Italian funding.
Columbus erected 29 crosses in the new world. The only remaining cross, crafted from Cuban wood, was offered as gift to Pope John Paul II on his 1998 visit, but he declined to remove it from the island. Apparently it remains enshrined in Baracoa, though we did not see it in the cathedral.
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A fort dating from the 1500s guards the entrance to town. In its grounds is a mustard museum we were too tired to visit.
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Baracoa is an odd mixture of renovated and dilapidated buildings, with many falling in the uncertain space between. The charming and depressing live cheek by jowl. There is obvious wealth and obvious poverty.
We saw yesterday evening what looked like a small supermarket. It did not look particularly interesting through its plate-glass windows, but we thought to take a closer look today. When we passed it, it was closed with a gaggle of people peering from the outside through the windows, hoping for... something...
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Baracoa is a tourist destination, though far from anywhere. We saw two lone tourists and a small tour group obviously on their way out to dinner somewhere, walking the dark streets.
We saw several tour buses in Santiago.
The regular blackouts, as I mentioned before, have caused tour groups to cancel this season. Assume we are "seeing" the impact of that.