When it comes to parties, Cuba is Queen. She plies you with rum, lures you to the dance floor and steals your wholesome bedtime hours right from under you. So imagine the epic levels of party you’d experience at Cuba’s biggest, oldest and most FANTABULOUS fiesta?
Brazil’s Carnival may hog the spotlight with her hectic parades and overpriced Rio de Janeiro stadium shows, but the Santiago de Cuba Carnival is less commercialised, less touristy and just as dazzling.
While Rio’s playing mainstage, Santiago’s getting down with the cool kids off to the side, where there’s rum to drink, locals to meet and more room to shake what yo mama gave you – all noche long.
Un Poco de History
Santiago de Cuba’s Carnival is pretty old – like, 400 years old. In most Roman Catholic societies, Carnival is celebrated in February or March before Lent, but Cuba’s Carnival evolved from los mamarrachos – midsummer revelries that took place in June and July across various saints’ days, including St James Day (St James is the Patron Saint of Santiago).
The mamarrachos were practiced under the guise of Christianity to keep the Spanish colonialists happy, but were mostly a chance for sugar cane workers and African and mulatto slaves to let loose and celebrate their own religions and cultures. By the 19th century, the carnival was more like it is today – a rum-soaked street fiesta exploding with costumed performers, feasts, dances and parades (although the food throwing tradition has since died out).
Santiago? I thought that was in Chile…
Well yeah it is, but there’s also one in Cuba. Plonked between the Caribbean Sea and the Sierra Maestra mountains, Santiago de Cuba is the island’s second biggest city and a hub of culture, music and, whattaya call that elusive thing? Soul. Seriously though – this place has played an epic role in Cuba’s history, politics and identity. Fidel launched his Revolucion here. Don Facundo Bacardí built his first rum factory here. Most forms of Cuban music – son, trova, bolero, guaracha, conga – were born in the dance halls and backstreets of old school Santiago.
That last part has a lot to do with the city’s Afro-Caribbean roots; when the Spanish brought slaves over from West Africa, a lot of them landed here. In fact, Santiago is a melting pot of loads of different cultures and ethnicities – from African and Chinese to Spanish and French Haitian (the city is closer to Haiti and the Dominican Republic than Havana). Oh, one last thing – you may also feel like you’re in a literal melting pot; the weather here is muy caliente.
Enough Background. More Party.
Hear that horn? Feel those drums? Of course you don’t (because duh, you’re reading this on a screen). But on day one of Carnival you will. The festivities kick off with a riotous opening parade down Avenida Jesus Menendez. Jugglers, musicians, hip-swingin’ dancers, pimped out floats, munecones (huge papier mache figures) and enmascarados (masked performers) converge in the street, basking in the raucous cheers of bystanders. Carnival is a time for locals to gather with family and friends, remember history (the festival coincides with Cuba’s National Holiday) and to celebrate what makes them Santiagueran. Whether you’re one or five beers deep, you’re sure to be feeling good vibes all around you.
The highlight of the festival are the congas and comparsas – massive ensembles of singers, drummers, musicians and dancers from barrios across the city who storm the Santiago streets, collecting locals as they go. These guys work on their choreography for months leading up to Carnaval. It’s serious business. The most famous of the congas are the gang from Los Hoyos; every year, they head up an event called the invasion, dancing through the neighbourhoods of rival congas to commemorate the War of Independence and prove they can shake it better than everyone else.
This really is one of the best Carnivals to experience in the world.
Sounds Muy Bueno! Sign Me Up?
Of course, I wouldn’t rant on about the year’s hottest party without inviting you along (that would be rude). Come July, travel companies offer trips the Cuba-way on a tail-shakin’, history-makin’ adventure, just in time for Santiago’s Carnival. Think nights of debaucherous dancing under a Caribbean moon. Think live music and smoky street food. Think sharing stories, body sweat and nips of fiery aguardiente with locals at neighbourhood comparsas.
If you book a tour you won’t just be dropped into the crowd and left there – you’ll have a local leader with you the whole time. They’ll help you navigate the city, show you where to get the best congri and even hook you up with some salsa lessons and espanol basico (“quieres bailar on migo?”). With more nights in Santiago, you’ll have loads of time to experience the Carnival in all its sequinned, glittery glory.
This trip doesn’t have be all congos and confetti, though. You’ll also get the chance to to hang out in Old Havana, pay respects to Che in Santa Clara, go in search of the best beaches in Cuba, chill in Camaguey and soak up the colonial charms of Trinidad, to enjoy plenty of time to explore, relax and recover.
So more over Rio, if your thinking about enjoin Carnival, forget Brazil and travel to Central America instead. For more advice view my Cuba travel tips.
