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April 27, 2016,

Bob’s Birthday! How many people can say they celebrated their birthday in Baracoa Cuba?!

We started our Baracoa tour with Mr. Hartman who is like the godfather of Baracoa. Everyone knows him, everyone says hi and when you’re with him you are treated like royalty. We visited the first Catholic church in Cuba.

Mr. Hartman

The Baracoa Catholic Church

This is a very special church. They have the cross that was planted by Christopher Columbus in November 1492 on the beach in Baracoa where he landed. It started at approximately 9 ft. tall, but now is about 2 feet tall. This is due to important people being given “a piece of the cross” when they visited over the centuries. It has now been secured behind glass.

We met a man who had written to Pope John Paul asking the Pope to bless the cross during the Pope’s Cuba trip in 1997. The townspeople sent two men, one of which was the gentleman speaking to us, to Santiago de Cuba to meet with the Pope and the Pope blessed the cross. This was a very special place to be. A group of Catholic churches in the United States paid to refurbish and have a splendid stained glass window made for the church. The man who was speaking to us is pictured in the stained glass window speaking to the Pope while the cross was blessed.

The Cross that Christopher Columbus planted in Baracoa in November 1492

After church we found it was hot, humid, and time for ice cream! We went to a local chocolate shop where they serve, hot chocolate, cold chocolate drinks and ice cream, yes, chocolate. We had ice cream to celebrate Bob’s birthday and it was delicious. Alfredo our tour leader paid for all 23 of us to have ice cream. He later told us the bill was approximately 86 cent US. Yikes, that’s the same as free. Alfredo paid them 10 cucs, about $13 US and they were overwhelmed. Yes, it’s just a redistribution of wealth but for a good humanitarian, people-to-people relationship cause.

The city of Baracoa was very nice. It was small shops, cobblestone streets and lots of happy people walking around. A couple of our tour mates got haircuts and shaves at the local barber shop.

Gotta love the artist's take on capitalism!

Taxi Stand

Street Vendor

We continued our tour through Baracoa finally ending up at Matachin Fort a colonial fort in Baracoa. Now this wasn’t your typical fort. It looked more like an early Western US fort with lower walls. It was primarily a gun emplacement to guard the harbor.

It is very tropical in Baracoa so it was hot, humid and sticky. We opted to wander outside to the Christopher Columbus statue near the oceanside and enjoy the cool breezes; the beaches are amazing.

We had a fantastic lunch at Rancho Toa. This was a beautiful place in the tropical forest on the Toa River. They gave Bob the first “special bottomless rum drink” since it was his birthday. He survived. Lunch included soup in foot long bamboo bowls, and roasted pig, mmm. There was lots of merriment and a wonderful band to play great music for us.

We met a man who has 6 toes and fingers on both feet and hands. I wanted to ask him about his family genetics but didn’t get the chance. It’s very rare to find someone with 6 toes/fingers and especially rare to have both in both feet and hands. He climbed a coconut tree for us.

Then we boarded rowboats for a leisurely tour up the river.

What’s next, of course, a horse drawn cart ride to a coconut business to see the 94 year old proprietor and his wife. Rafael the husband was, a coconut tree climber for most of his life, his feet are even curved from so much climbing. His family says he can’t climb anymore but he just couldn’t resist one more climb; which might be his performance for all tour groups. His wife is 82 and is a spiritualist which is a type of voodoo religion. They live in what we would consider a “shanty” on a most beautiful beach. They showed us through their “homey” home.

Kitchen

That's a 1930's quilt

Bathroom

And the beach right outside their abode. Amazingly beautiful

Back to the donkey carts, back to the bus and off to the hotel for a cool dip in the pool. Found a nice happy birthday note for Bob on the bed and a bottle of wine. Donned swim suits, took the wine to the pool to share and cool off. Bob and Doug, a tour mate, smoked cigars, drank rum and we all enjoyed “birthday celebratory activities”.

I love this picture of Bob!

The never ending job of charging our devices!

Quickly dressing we got to the bus to head downtown for dinner at a fabulous waterfront restaurant. Again, Bob was the guest of honor for his birthday. He was getting a little embarrassed at all the attention but the rum was working. We had some wonderful shrimp followed by a birthday cake that said “Happy Birthday Carroll”, with a little last minute squiggled Bob on top that had kind of melted. It was a great party. He won’t forget this birthday!