With a little bit of advice on direction from the landlady of this Casa we set off in our car and found the fort – with ease!
El Castillo del Morro San Pedro 
de la Roca is about 6 miles from the city and was Built in the 17th century to defend the city from pirates; named after the then governor of the city, is now more generally know simply as El Morro. Designed in 1637 by Giovan Battista Antonelli, construction commenced in 1638 and took 42 years to complete. The fortification was constructed on a series of terraces with four main levels; has thick stone walls, deep moat and heavy wooden doors; however these were no match for the English pirate Christopher Mings in 1662 when he seized the fort after finding it unguarded!
In more recent times the fortress was used to imprison some of the more important figures involved in the first Cuban revolution and there is an exhibition showing the shipping manoeuvres of both the Spanish and the American fleets together with photographs and munitions used in the 1898 battle for the harbour.
We spent a couple of hours mooching around, translating the information and just enjoying the structure and the magnificent views from the structure.
On the way out we stopped off for refreshments but the place was busy serving lunch to a coach load of richer tourists and so, with no one noticing that we had even arrived, decided to move on.
Arriving back at the car, we continued on in the direction that we were parked and very quickly came across a small, almost deserted, beach with a cafeteria; it was a hot and sunny day and so we stopped. We were heading for the café when we were accosted by a young salesman telling us that his father is a fisherman and that he can offer a very good meal that would be much cheaper than the expensive café – and I found myself following him. We didn’t really want a big meal so purchased a drink, which we both really needed, from him instead. Going on the price of the beverage I would guess that his prices are not a lot different from the café, but I didn’t really mind, as long as it didn’t cost more and very soon after sitting down along came another sales pitch; this time for cigars. We listened politely while trying to get our message across that we had no intention of buying. Once he had admitted defeat, packed up and left us in peace we wandered back to the beach. Although it was still very hot the wind started to get up and we could actually see the sand being blown across the beach and could certainly feel it being blown into our faces so we decided to move on and take a look at the church.
Inglesia de la Caridad del Corbe
Apparently, three sailors on the verge of ship-wreck in the Bahi de Nipe off Cuba’s northern coast in 1606, found a statue floating and inscribed with the words ‘I am the Virgin of Charity’ although this was probably in Spanish! When the statue, a woman holding a child was taken out of the water it was completely dry and the sea instantly calmed; the 'Virgen de la Caridad' became the most important icon in Cuban Catholicism and the Patron Saint of Cuba in 1916; the church was built in 1927.
de la Roca is about 6 miles from the city and was Built in the 17th century to defend the city from pirates; named after the then governor of the city, is now more generally know simply as El Morro. Designed in 1637 by Giovan Battista Antonelli, construction commenced in 1638 and took 42 years to complete. The fortification was constructed on a series of terraces with four main levels; has thick stone walls, deep moat and heavy wooden doors; however these were no match for the English pirate Christopher Mings in 1662 when he seized the fort after finding it unguarded!
In more recent times the fortress was used to imprison some of the more important figures involved in the first Cuban revolution and there is an exhibition showing the shipping manoeuvres of both the Spanish and the American fleets together with photographs and munitions used in the 1898 battle for the harbour.
We spent a couple of hours mooching around, translating the information and just enjoying the structure and the magnificent views from the structure.
On the way out we stopped off for refreshments but the place was busy serving lunch to a coach load of richer tourists and so, with no one noticing that we had even arrived, decided to move on.
Arriving back at the car, we continued on in the direction that we were parked and very quickly came across a small, almost deserted, beach with a cafeteria; it was a hot and sunny day and so we stopped. We were heading for the café when we were accosted by a young salesman telling us that his father is a fisherman and that he can offer a very good meal that would be much cheaper than the expensive café – and I found myself following him. We didn’t really want a big meal so purchased a drink, which we both really needed, from him instead. Going on the price of the beverage I would guess that his prices are not a lot different from the café, but I didn’t really mind, as long as it didn’t cost more and very soon after sitting down along came another sales pitch; this time for cigars. We listened politely while trying to get our message across that we had no intention of buying. Once he had admitted defeat, packed up and left us in peace we wandered back to the beach. Although it was still very hot the wind started to get up and we could actually see the sand being blown across the beach and could certainly feel it being blown into our faces so we decided to move on and take a look at the church.
Inglesia de la Caridad del Corbe
Apparently, three sailors on the verge of ship-wreck in the Bahi de Nipe off Cuba’s northern coast in 1606, found a statue floating and inscribed with the words ‘I am the Virgin of Charity’ although this was probably in Spanish! When the statue, a woman holding a child was taken out of the water it was completely dry and the sea instantly calmed; the 'Virgen de la Caridad' became the most important icon in Cuban Catholicism and the Patron Saint of Cuba in 1916; the church was built in 1927.
Believed to be endowed with the ability to grant wishes and heal the sick, Fidel Castro’s’ mother offered 'the Virgin of Caridad' the stuffed gorilla toy belonging to her son praying for his safe return from his fight against Batista. Ernest Hemmingway also left an offering of the Nobel medal he received for his short story ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ written in 1954; once stolen but now recovered and presently under lock and key. As we got nearer to the town we could see the building on a hilltop and it soon became apparent that this statue is the town’s most important source of income with many, many stalls selling either associated souvenir iconography or floral offerings. At least two men actually stepped out into the road, with their hand outstretched, forcing me to stop although they did accept our refusal with grace and did not persist.
The church itself is, like many other buildings, beautiful but needing maintenance. We climbed the stairs to view the ‘lady’. The statue is about 18 to 24 inches high and is wearing a sort of golden yellow gown and carrying a child. On closer inspection with the monocular her ‘skin’ is a darkish brown, her lips are painted and she is also sporting a pair of dangling earrings. I’m not really sure if she was wearing this entire garb when she was found!
It took far longer to drive the 6kms back to the city followed by the 18kms east then it took to look around the church.
Although the car didn’t have to be returned until the next morning there was little
point keeping it for another night; we would only have to pay another $2cuc to have it watched. We had to go back to the Casa to pick up the agreement before they would accept the car back but when we finally got to talk to the very busy man he indicated that the agreement did not state that we would be leaving the car in Santiago and that there would be a $70 cuc charge. It was only at this point that we realised that Adrian had ‘done us’. We explained that we had paid $70 cuc a day, $55 cuc for the tank of gas and $21 cuc extra driver charge. ‘That’s not what it says here’ he said showing us that the 65 on the page was the amount that Adrian had written down as our daily charge and that 49.5 was the amount he had written down as the charge for gas. The guy in the Santiago office was incredibly patient and did his best to sort out the problems but asked us to come back in about 15-30 minutes as he couldn’t get through to the Camagüey office.Feeling really angry, more with ourselves for not have checked more carefully, we went upstairs to the Grand Hotel for a pizza, comfort food in an uncomfortable situation. Four were offered; Neapolitan, ham, tuna or house special. We both chose the special – which was, as it turned out, a Neapolitan with a bit of ham, a bit of tuna, some mixed (out of the freezer and now soggy) vegetables with a hard boiled egg cut into quarters and arranged in the centre. I have to say this was possibly the very worst pizza I have ever had the misfortune to order; and then they tried to overcharge for it. We asked for the bill and we were told $22.50 which we immediately queried and I asked her to write it down. While she was away talking to the other waiting staff I grabbed a menu and worked it out to be $15.50cuc. By this time she was back and now asking for $16.50 – she picked the wrong time to get it wrong! We told her how much it was, gave her the exact money saying ‘you won’t be expecting a tip will you’.
While we were eating we discussed the situation and decided that we had to get this sorted and the only way to get it sorted was to drive back to Camagüey leaving Santiago at 5.30 next morning to get the car back by the 11.30 deadline. We went back to the Cubacar office and after a little more discussion we thanked him for his help and advice and confirmed what we intended to do. The day had been well and truly ruined and we disliked both Cuba and all Cubans, well maybe not all; we put $20 cuc more gas in the tank and returned to the Casa, paid our bill and prepared to leave early in the morning.
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