Taking the wrong way also takes you to places…
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The locals said this was the way to Pico Turquíno, the highest
#mountain on
#Cuba. But why was I walking miles and miles on a concrete road and not on a cute pathway like I imagined? Suddenly a jeep with 2 military stopped next to me.
What was I doing here? Walking up the mountain.
Why would I do that? Because I love to hike.
Why would one hike here? Because I love nature.
The two looked at each other in disbelief but clearly saw I didn’t had any harmful intentions, so they let me continue. But, having seen my camera dangling from my shoulder asked to put it away.
No pictures! If you take any pictures we will have to confiscate your camera… There’s a military camp uphill.
They looked serious enough, so I put my camera away and continued my journey only to arrive at a gate a couple of hours later. I couldn’t proceed and some guard urged me to return where I came from. I could see
#picoturquino lying a little further, but there was no possibility to reach it from where I was.
#Deception.
Later I learned that I had reached La Comándancia de la Plata de Sierra Maestra, a mouthful to say the old headquarters where
#Castro led the revolution in ’58 against Batista and which were then (and probably still are) barracks to the Cuban military and which were standing in the way to reach Pico Turquíno. So I never got to reach the deep blue
#peak because I came from the West. Had I come from the North it wouldn’t have been a problem.
(but Iat least I have seen Castro’s headquarters!)
#throwbackthursday #throwback #thatwasthenthisisnow #fromthearchives #travel #travelphotography #traveltip #traveltipthursday #sierramaestra #laplata #parquenacional #nature #velvia #fujivelvia #olympusom2sp #olympusom2spotprogram #editedincaptureone
