Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine July 2018 | Page 240

Comandancia de la Plata
Fidel Castro’s Secret Headquarters during the revolution
It will be well worth the four hour climb through the woods
to witness what was once Fidel Castro’s headquarters while
fighting the Batista Government in 1958. Located in the
mountains of Sierra Maestra, it is still the same as it was when
Castro left there. His house will be seen to have no less than
seven escape routes. There are also the huts occupied by the
rebels and a hospital which was founded by Che Guevara.
Buildings are preserved as a museum.
A Traveller shares
his experience...
We did the full one day trip leaving at 5:00 am
but there is an overnight trip available as well.
Our guides picked us up by jeep and travelled
the 3 hours north of the Sierra Maestra to
Bayamo then pack down south again into the
mountains to the village at the base of the
mountains called Santo Domingo.
There is a beautiful hotel there at the gate of
Tourquino National park. Many people stay over
night since travelling from Santiago or Holguin
is roughly 3 hours each way. The hotel looked
very nice. Rustic but clean with beautiful views
and a small river running beside it. There is a
nice little restaurant there as well where we had
lunch. Our guides drove us from Santo Domingo
up a steep road to the beginning of the trail to
the camp. There is a parking lot there where
taxis and guides wait with their cars. From there
you can either take a trail to Pico Tourquino or
La Comandancia. We went to Fidel's camp with a
park guide. The trail is 3 km long each way and is
worth the trip by itself with this stunning views.
The camp itself is spread out and made up of
about 7 or 8 small buildings including Fidel’s
private Casa.
I can't recommend this tour enough. The only
thing I would recommend is to make sure you
are prepared for the trip. The trail itself isn't a
super hard hike but it is uphill and the terrain
is rocky or muddy at times. If you have hiking
boots great but we just used our running shoes
and were fine. The trail is somewhat cooler too
because of the tree cover and altitude but we
did build up a good sweat with it.
Excerpt taken from TripAdvisor,
submitted by Canadian traveller, Lyndon.
©TripAdvisor