Journey to the Student City of Santa Clara

We have some doubts about our next destination, but in the end we stick to our original plan: visiting Santa Clara, a city of about 250,000 people and home to one of Cuba’s largest universities.

Our hesitation comes from the fact that, apart from monuments connected to Che Guevara, there isn’t a huge amount to see there. Still, we’ve heard that the city has a youthful atmosphere thanks to its large student population — something a bit like the vibe in Tartu back home in Estonia. In Santa Clara this is visible especially in the evenings, when groups of young people gather and sit on the steps around the central park.

The morning starts noisily. In our previously booked casa particular (a private homestay), the early street sounds flood into the room because the window opening is literally covered with a piece of cardboard instead of proper glass.

The owner chats with us and mentions that not long ago a large Estonian family stayed there and had been very satisfied with the place. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law proudly demonstrates a few words of Russian he learned while studying in Leningrad during the Soviet era.

Later we head toward the bus station and continue our journey across the Cuban countryside.

Along the way we pass small rural settlements and wide sugarcane fields glowing in the evening sunset — a reminder of how deeply sugar production has shaped Cuba’s history and landscape.

Eventually we arrive in Santa Clara, where the first thing greeting newly arrived bus passengers is a group of locals offering accommodation and various services to tourists stepping off the bus.