Che Guevara's memorial in Santa Clara

Photo: Wikipedia

Peaceful, dignified Santa Clara is a world away from the tourist traps and disco clothes of Havana.

Even in the main square, things are relatively quiet, the jineteros thinner on the ground, and the women's clothes more sober.

Apparently, the citizens of Santa Clara cried for joy when they heard they would be getting the human remains of Che Guevara and his slain comrades, finally brought back from Bolivia in 1997, 30 years after their deaths.

It would be particularly appropriate here to stay at the Soviet-style Hotel Santa Clara. In a moment of Western decadence, you could take a taxi out to the Guevara memorial.

There, you'll see a large but rather ugly concrete edifice decorated in cheap, communist-era relief murals showing the life and times of the world's most celebrated revolutionary. The memorial was built in the darkest days of the "special period" of economic disaster that came in aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it shows. However, it is still a strangely moving experience to be in the presence of one of the great historical characters of the 20th century.

Here, you can read a giant version of Che's goodbye letter to Fidel (in English and Spanish), written as he departed to work on revolutions elsewhere.