Che chewed train
Trip Start
Apr 23, 2008
1
2
9
Trip End
Oct 15, 2008
Santa Clara, Cuba
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Seems like a good crew - only one with a blackberry which of course is useless ( not for want of trying - well he does work for McKinseys!
We have a Chinese bus driven at break neck speed by an Angolan war vet who had a neck wider than Mike Tyson's - so no risk to him then.
And so to Santa Clara where we learn what this man Che was all about. Basically he seems to have been the mover and shaker of the revolution. Fidel had attacked a military barracks in 1956 and got caught and beaten up and put on trial. With the gift of the gab (history will absolve me) and his lawyer's wit he was only deported. Meets up with Che and back he comes from Mexico on a 50s gin palace - the Granma - with his bruv (now El Presidente Raoul), El Commandante Che and some 90 others - sets up camp in the mountains and reads Che's book on the art of guerrilla warfare. Off goes Che and with 18 students derails an armaments train at Santa Clara with 400 soldiers on board and grabs enough guns to fight a revolution. Batista takes three days to realise that the game is up and flees to the Dominican Republic with the contents of the central bank in his pocket.
Game set and match - Revolution complete. Fighting complete - what do you do with Che - simple make him governor of the central bank, education minister and get him to build a few chocolate factories.
Che obviously gets bored - sets off to Bolivia for a bit of action - gets killed and has is body recovered recently and reburied under his Hasta La Victoria Siempre statue.
After the two of us being collected from the main casa, we stay for the first time at a "homestay" with our Cuban "mum". Up a spiral staircase made of tin to an airy room with fan, hot water ( if you risk flicking the 220 volt circuit breaker whilst standing in the shower) and toilet paper. So much for the lonely planet advice about having to bring toilet paper and peanut butter. Actually, a nice marmite sandwich wouldn't go adrift.
We ate with our mum which meant tons of food all brought at once with the decorated fridge freezer taking pride of place in the lounge and the telly blaring out either Fidel 1 or Fidel 2. Definitely, no complaints providing the tin staircase would cope with the extra stuffing we had politely tucked away.
