Few places in Cuba matter as much to ordinary people as the little town of El Cobre, high on a hill about thirteen kilometres west of Santiago de Cuba. Its basilica, a yellow-and-white church with three domes standing against the green of the Sierra Maestra, holds the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba, a small statue of the Virgin dressed in gold. Believers and non-believers alike treat her as a symbol of the nation, and the pilgrimage on her feast day, the eighth of September, draws crowds from across the island.
The story goes that three men out in a boat in the Bay of Nipe, in the early seventeenth century, found the statue floating on a plank on the water, and she was brought to the copper mines at El Cobre, from which the town takes its name. The mines were among the earliest in the Americas, and they were worked by enslaved Africans, some of whom escaped and fought for their freedom. A monument to the cimarrón, the runaway slave, stands on a hilltop outside the town, reached by steps and giving a wide view over the hills. Ernest Hemingway gave his Nobel medal to the shrine in 1954, and visitors leave offerings of every kind in the chapel, from candles to small copper models of limbs.
The ride from Santiago is short but characterful. The road climbs from the coastal plain into the foothills with some curves, with potholes and loose patches, and animals and bicycles on the road. Always keep an eye out for horse carts, cyclists and unlit vehicles at dusk. The best time to travel is the dry season, from November to April, and it is better to come early in the morning before the heat builds and the pilgrim crowds arrive. The sea is within easy reach, and the fort at San Pedro de la Roca, on the cliffs at the mouth of Santiago Bay, is a good addition to the same day.
Fuel in Cuba is a changeable matter, and you should not count on it. Santiago, with more than half a million people, is the place to look, and it is wise to ask locally before you set out. El Cobre has small shops and stalls and a few places for coffee and sandwiches, and Santiago has the livelier, smoky bars and music that the east of Cuba is known for.