Cuba Libre

For a taste of old Cuba, Lydia Bell heads east. The Oriente and its stridently Afro-Cuban capital, Santiago de Cuba, remain largely untouched by the wave of change sweeping the island.

- Lydia Bell

There are times when it feels as though the entire city of Santiago de Cuba has congregated in Parque Céspedes. It’s a square hemmed in by faded colonial-era piles, and tonight, as a humid dusk falls, it’s full of folk promenading and gossiping and flirting. Even more are huddled over their phones hoping to log in to the overloaded public WiFi. From the rooftop of the Casa Grande, the most emblematic hotel in the city, I watch the pageant below: children playing football, hustlers staking territory, lovers circling slowly beneath the bronze bust of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who freed his slaves and declared war on the Spanish in 1868. Up here on the terrace a salsa party is in full swing, fuelled by Mojitos and led by Grammy-winning local heroes Septeto Santiaguero singing old-style son Cubano beneath a full moon.