Trip to Santiago - Part 3
Students continue at their service assignments in Cárdenas. We'll post a few leftover pictures from the trip to Santiago that we did not have time to put up earlier.
The Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre
One
of the last sites we visited near Santiago was the shrine to Cuba's
patron saint, our Lady of Charity of el Cobre.
The story goes that three fishermen found this image of the virgin while
in trouble at sea. It is now enshrined in a chapel
near a copper (cobre) mine just outside of Santiago. Many gifts
to the virgin are also displayed. We're not sure what the story
on the fan is in these offerings,
but the bag contains dirt brought back from Angola by a Cuban soldier
glad to return alive to Cuba.
Santa Clara
After
three days in Santiago in early June we headed west once again. We spent
a night at the Presbyterian camp close to Santa Clara. The hospitatlity
of our hosts was great. But we are ashamed to say that probably what
made the most lasting impression were the large, furry and completely
harmless spiders (with Diego for
scale).
Santa
Clara was the site of the decisive battle of the Cuban revolution. Che
Guevara was in charge of the revolutionary attack, and he is
now buried in a large mausoleum in Santa Clara. We stopped by on what
was coincidentally the 75th anniversary of Che's birth, as well as Kyle's
21st birthday. More images: Jamin
in the crowd | child | men
with flags.
Trinidad
We
headed briefly to the southern coast. Trinidad is a wonderfully preserved
colonial town. The town together with the nearby valley
of sugar mills have been declared UNESCO world heritage sites.
- The cathedral is the largest in Cuba, and contains an altar made of tropical woods.
- Group picture next to the cathedral.
- Brandon and Pete in the
Parque Central.
It
was a wonderful, but intense trip. We ended up at Cárdenas, where
students remain until the 25th of July.