Day 4 April 1 – Arriving Santiago de Cuba

 As the ship sailed into Santiago we saw the Morro Castle. (Morro comes from the word promontory meaning a structure built on the steep sides of land that jut out into the water.) This magnificent fortress was initially built in 1589 to prevent raids on Havana harbor.  It was then enhanced by Battista to defend against raiding pirates. The well preserved fortress is still home to the current harbor master and houses a small underwater archeology exhibition.  While on shore we saw the Plaza de las Revolution, one of the largest city squares in the world. Famous for hosting political rallies, the square also houses a 358-foot tall memorial. This is a memorial to Cespedes who released his salves to fight in the revolution free Cuba from Spain.

    Continuing our study of Cuban history we started with Jose Marti who the Cubans today still consider their national hero. He was a poet. Interesting, I always taught the kids about the power of the pen and here it is again. This is one of his many quotes that I found interesting.

   “Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand.” Jose Marti

    Our other guest speaker who believes learning geography is the key to learning history also gave an interesting talk. We had hit some pretty rough water during the night and into the morning because the north side of Cuba has only a very narrow channel in which to sail. On one side of the ship there was only about ten feet of water.  Ships under sail coming from Spain had to sail south to Africa and then straight across the Atlantic. Then most ships sailed between Haiti and Cuba to go to Mexico. Returning to Spain, one could sail up the east side of Florida and ride the Gulf Stream back to Spain. So Cuba became a very important island to replenish supplies. Hence the reason most cities in Cuba are on the south side of the island. Originally Havana was also on the south side of Cuba. So Santiago was the home base to many famous Spanish conquerors.  Hernando Cortez, who conquered the Aztec was one such person. More about Santiago de Cuba tomorrow.

“Some experiences simply do not translate. You have to go to know.” -  Kobi Yamada

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Tom and Holly