Che Guevara Mausoleum — Attraction in Santa Clara

The mausoleum is very impressive! What is absolutely not acceptable is what happened to our rental car if you don't park it in the little parking of the orange building (we think it MIGHT be safer), but use the great parking spots all around the statue/mausoleum. After our visit, we came back to our rental car and saw a car parked weirdly at the back of ours. We were the only ones walking up and the only car there, before we could check anything they drove away. We were going on to Havana on the autopista, and arrived at the big crossroad, a berline with 4 people blocked us and 2 got out, the left one started yelling and gesticulating, talking absolute gibberish about not being allowed to take the lane to the autopista. The one on the right escaped to our attention, which was clearly the aim. Our right tire at the back was suddenly very badly punctured and completely flat, the guy on the left did not have enough time, because I drove away as soon as I had room to do so. We were immediately accosted by a guy on a bike trying to make us drive further up to a place where police was present, seemingly. But no, they were no policemen. I refused to budge, told him we would not go to that garage but that we'd solve it on our own. 2 completely flat tires would have been an entirely different story of course. We put our spare wheel on the right, the left back tire was deflating slowly. We drove carefully onto the autopista until the next gas station, no air, all broken. Then the next, same story. Luckily a yellow taxi driver signalled us to come over and pumped up our tire with his own tire inflator. But clearly, we would not get to Havana. And finding inflators in tank stations is near impossible, except in Jagüey. Where we also found a Cubacar office and they very promptly and professionally replaced our tires. But strangely enough, no Cuban we told reacted in any way. And our Cuban friends keep saying: there is no criminality in Cuba. Well, be...

After a week in Cuba the seemingly universal cult of personality around Che Guevara (much more so than Fidel Castro who we were told is generally less fondly regarded than Guevara ) and the Cuban Revolution was wearing a bit thin.

Yes, both men are very important figures in Cuba's history and yes, the revolution they led ultimately overthrew the brutal Bastida dictatorship, but what did they really achieve for normal Cubans? The roads are almost unusable because of huge potholes, people use the horse (mule?) and cart as their main mode of transport, public transport barely exists, poverty and unemployment are rife and even their renowned medical workers may be excellent but they have no machines or medication with which to treat patients and yet Che Guevara in particular is lauded as a national hero despite being Argentinian.

His mausoleum area is quite impressive all the same. There is a small museum to the right full of random items - a pistol Che once fired, a pai of binoculars Che once used to spot the enemy n the jungle etc. - but quite interesting, especially the work that went into creating it with everything that could be associated with Che deemed worthy of display. To the left is the mausoleum itself which is made up of several 'drawers' in the wall, containing the ashes of each named revolutionary

The enormous statues standing guard over the entire complex are also impressive in size, but once seen, there's not really anything else to see or do at the site which overall isn't wheelchair friendly - no adaptation even leading up to the entrance where a flight of concrete...

Where: Che Guevara Mausoleum - Santa Clara, Cuba What: A monument and kind of museum for Che How was it: We wanted to visit this place because we only hear great things of Che but rarely have the opportunity to visit a historical site. Especially when you are on the Cayo, which is approx 1h30 from Santa Clara. We did that trip 2x, once when we were heading to the resort (luckily we were the first off the bus) and the other time to visit the city. It was raining one day and we decided to take a taxi. The problem is that we took it too late in the day and we arrived at this location with 15-20 minutes to spare. They are very protective (understandably) so they don't allow you to bring cameras or bags. It was free to enter but we barely got to visit as they rushed us out of the museum. We spent more time on the memorial part, which is kind of a inside cemetery with small waterfall. It felt very zen there. Then we spent some time taking pictures of the statue outside. Check us out on Facebook, we have more pictures there. Grade: Eli = 2, Serge = 4 Recommend: Well, it's a nice thing to do, just expensive and lengthy drive from the Cayo. We recommend you go with a plan, get a taxi and spend the day around. That's what we would do, should we...