Santiago de Cuba

Santiago sits in a bowl of hills at the head of a deep bay in the far east of the island, closer to Haiti than to Havana and different from it in almost every respect: hotter, hillier, more Caribbean and with much deeper Afro-Cuban and Haitian-descended roots. It is where son developed and where the trova tradition is still strongest, and the July carnival is the largest and least tourist-shaped in the country. The Castillo San Pedro de la Roca guards the bay mouth and carries the city's World Heritage listing.

History

Santiago was the seventh town founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, on 25 July 1515; it burned in 1516 and was rebuilt at once. It was the starting point of Juan de Grijalva's and Hernán Cortés's voyages to Mexico in 1518 and of Hernando de Soto's expedition to Florida in 1538, its first cathedral was built in 1528, and from 1522 until 1589 it was the capital of the Spanish colony. The French plundered it in 1553 and the English in 1603, and Christopher Myngs raided it again in 1662. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries many French settlers arrived - about eighteen thousand people from Saint-Domingue landed in the summer of 1803 alone, white French and free people of colour, adding their culture to the city's Spanish and African mix; in 1809, after Napoleon invaded Spain, the French were ordered out of Cuba, and thousands went on to New Orleans (Wikipedia, Santiago de Cuba).

The main sights

• Parque Cespedes - the central square with the cathedral and the oldest house in Cuba on it.
• The Tumba Francesa - a Haitian-descended music and dance tradition maintained by a society in the city.
• Casa de la Trova - the venue where the city's song tradition is played nightly.
• The July carnival - drums, congas and street parades, the biggest in the country.

When to go

November to April is the dry season and the most bearable; the east is hotter and more humid than Havana. The carnival falls in the last week of July, in the worst of the heat, and is worth timing for anyway. Hurricane season runs from June to November.

What to expect

It is a long way from Havana, meaning a flight or the best part of a day on the road, which is why short trips skip it. The city is steep, hot and harder work than the western towns. Practical shortages and persistent hustlers are the same as elsewhere in the country.

Nearby

El Cobre is half an hour northwest, La Gran Piedra and Baconao are east, and the Sierra Maestra rises west.

Key facts