Martin um die Welt: 6) Santa Clara - the Che Guevara city

Freitag, 25. April 2014

6) Santa Clara - the Che Guevara city

From Remedios we drove to Santa Clara - the famous Che Guevara city. We parked our car near Iglesia del Carmen and walked to the city center. We first tried Hostal Florida that has best recommendations in Lonely Planet and Tripadvisor. The hostel was full, but they we could park our car in front of their place and advised us another hostel one which was good. We then went for a sightseeing tour through Santa Clara. We started with the memorial for the Battle of Santa Clara. In this battle about 300 rebels led by Che Guevara managed to conquer Santa Clara which was defended by several thousand of Batista's gunmen. The rebels captured an armored trained filled with weapons and ammunition what diminished the faith of Batista's army. This battle was a crucial step for the Rebels in winning against Batista's army in Cuba gaining Che Guevara a lot of fame. However, we learned at the museum that Che Guevara was not even part of the 300 Rebels but was waiting outside the city until his friends captured the city... so far for him being a such a great hero.... on the way back from the museum we escaped the heat into a bar where we enjoyed some cold mojitos :) the bar was great as big bikes and rocker-like people were visiting it next to us^^ Refreshed we made our way to the Che Guevara memorial. On the way we saw a lot of great street art, while the memorial itself was not spectacular. The ad for Chavez was rather funny^^ After all the sightseeing we went for dinner at Hostal Florida, where I tried grilled lobster and Franzi some fish... both was delicious if pricey. For nightlife we tried the Club Mejunje. A true Cuban experience! Filled with locals youths the club offered cheap drinks and live music. We liked it a lot :)
The next day (25.04.) we visited a cigar factory which was very informative. Cubans earn in avarage about 25 USD a month! Afterwards we left Santa Clara for Varadero.